THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510070380
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
He's fighting to keep a winning streak alive. And he's been feuding with NASCAR.
This may have been just enough motivation to boost Ricky Rudd to his second pole of the 1995 season for Sunday's UAW-GM 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But a fast Ford, a smooth lap and the luck of the draw were the real essentials to Rudd's pole-winning speed of 180.578 mph.
``We came over here a week or two ago and worked on our race set-up since a race win means the most to us,'' Rudd said. ``We really didn't put much thought into winning a pole over here. This was a nice little surprise.''
Rookie Ricky Craven won the outside pole in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a speed of 179.850 mph. It was his best qualifying effort.
Jeff Gordon was third fastest at 179.635 mph in another Chevy, followed by Michael Waltrip in a Pontiac Grand Prix at 179.426 and Mark Martin in a Ford at 179.336.
It may be a coincidence, but Rudd seems to excel when he's angry. For instance, he won the pole at Rockingham last fall after a Charlotte race in which he was fined by NASCAR for crashing Gordon.
This week, Rudd is still miffed about NASCAR's decision to force him to make a second pit stop while he was running second - and challenging eventual winner Mark Martin - near the end of last weekend's race at North Wilkesboro because his crew didn't get the fifth lug nut on one wheel.
``That's the story of my life, I think,'' he said. ``It seems to go on and on through my career that way. I don't know, maybe they got me mad and I drove a little harder this week. I'm not really sure.
``I really in my mind feel like we won North Wilkesboro last week. We just didn't quite get to Victory Lane first.''
Rudd is fighting to keep alive a streak of at least one race victory for 12 consecutive years. Among active drivers, only Dale Earnhardt, who has won at least once in each of the past 13 years, has a longer streak.
But Rudd was not so mad that he couldn't make light of it.
He said that when he got in his car for the first practice earlier this week, ``there was a lug nut sitting right up there in the middle of the dashboard and it had (written on it) ``North Wilkesboro - 1995 First Place trophy.' ''
It had been put there by Dan Ford, a crewman with Terry Labonte's team.
Rudd had one of the fastest cars in practice, but his biggest advantage Friday was that he ran fairly early (21st) in the qualifying session, when the track was cooler.
``The luck of the draw worked for us,'' he said. ``It would have gone against us if we qualified under the lights at night. But it worked for us today.'' (The pole qualifying session was to have been on Wednesday night but was postponed by Hurricane Opal.)
As for the lap itself, Rudd said, ``The lap that we ran was pretty uneventful, really. Usually, you come over and you scare yourself to death and you look up and you've qualified 15th or 16th. This lap was pretty - I wouldn't call it boring - but it was pretty uneventful.''
Morgan Shepherd was sixth-fastest in a Ford at 179.331 mph, followed by Todd Bodine in a Ford at 179.194, Terry Labonte in a Chevy at 179.146, Bobby Hamilton in a Pontiac at 179.122 and Ward Burton in a Pontiac at 178.915.
Among the drivers at the other end of the lineup were Dale Earnhardt, who was 37th fastest, Bill Elliott (42nd), Dale Jarrett (43rd), and Rick Mast, who spun in turn four and failed to complete his lap. They'll get another chance during the second round of time trials at 10 a.m. today.
In other qualifying, Bobby Dotter won the pole for today's All Pro 300 with a speed of 172.051 mph. Tim Fedewa starts on the outside pole in a 44-car field.
The 300-mile race starts at 1:10 p.m. and will be televised live (except for a local blackout) by WTBS. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Ricky Rudd, still steaming over a call that he thinks cost him last
Sunday's race, turned a fast lap Friday of 180.578 mph.
by CNB