THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260674
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Qualifying a new Ford Thunderbird that he and his team members had finished building at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Richie Bickle improved on his best practice speeds by three miles per hour Thursday to win the pole for Saturday's Red Dog 300 Grand National race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Bickle won the top starting spot in the 42-car field, and his first Grand National pole, with a speed of 173.193 mph.
It was a gratifying day for Bickle and his team, which only has four full-time employees. Bickle has only started three Grand National races this year, six in his career.
Tracy Leslie won the outside pole with a speed of 173.010 mph in a Chevy. Also in the top five were Mark Martin at 172.800 in a Ford, Chesapeake's Elton Sawyer at 172.778 mph in a Ford and Dale Jarrett at 172.419 mph in a Ford. The final 10 spots in the field, not including the four provisionals, will be determined today in a 40-lap race starting at 2 p.m. On the front row when the green flag falls will be Ken Schrader and Jimmy Spencer, who crashed together in The Winston Select on Saturday night.
SECOND-DAY QUALIFYING: The second round of Winston Cup time trials was an exercise in futility for the 10 drivers who ran. None made the Coca-Cola 600 field on a hotter track than the day before.
Those who tried and failed were Greg Sacks, Bobby Hillin, Jimmy Hensley, Davy Jones, Johnny Chapman and Jeff Purvis.
Steve Grissom, Kyle Petty, Randy LaJoie and Jeremy Mayfield also weren't quick enough, but received the four provisionals at the back of Sunday's 42-car field.
NO DAVY DOUBLE: Jones' crashing his Ford ended his hopes to compete in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. He made the 500 field last Sunday at Indy, but was too slow to qualify for the 600 on Wednesday. After his practice crash Thursday, Jones' team did not attempt to qualify a backup car.
``The car just got loose on me,'' Jones said. ``I wanted to compete in the two biggest races in the country, and obviously I was just eliminated from one of them.''
INDY PRACTICE: Drivers practiced on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Thursday in the traditional two-hour ``Carburetion Day'' session, the only time the cars take the 2 1/2-mile oval from the close of qualifications until Sunday's 500.
Thirty-five cars made it onto the track Thursday, including all of the starters and both alternates. Scott Goodyear, who will start from the outside of row one, had the day's fast lap at 228.392, followed by rookie Andre Ribeiro at 227.439 and Michael Andretti at 227.342. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report. by CNB