THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602090636
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Could it be an omen?
Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, first to draw Thursday for a starting position in Sunday's Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway, picked the last spot.
He'll start 17th in the first of the two 10-lap sprints that make up the season-opening race for last year's pole winners.
``I hope this isn't a sign of the way things will start for us at Daytona - in the back,'' he said. ``But there's only one way to go.''
Starting on the pole will be Rick Mast in his new Richard Jackson Pontiac Grand Prix. As usual, the starting spots were selected individually by drivers in a blind draw.
Mast announced Thursday that his team this week inked a sponsorship deal with Hooters. The deal has been in the works most of the offseason, but Mast did not elaborate, saving his comments for a press conference later in Speedweeks.
``It was finalized Monday night, but I can't really talk too much about it yet,'' he said.
The annual Busch Clash brunch, held this year at Pelican Bay Country Club, featured more real news.
Dave Marcis revealed a new sponsor - the Prodigy computer network, his best sponsor in years.
``They've been with us as an associate sponsor for years,'' Marcis said. ``This will allow us to put a couple of more people on full time, do more testing, update our engine programs and have a full-time show car.
``Our goal is to try to establish some type of consistency on a weekly basis.''
Prodigy vice president Chuck Fearer said the racing section ``has been one of the largest parts of our sports area. So we're building a Dave Marcis web page. Hopefully, we'll have it operating by the Atlanta race in March.''
Starting next to Mast on the front row of Sunday's non-points race will be Bobby Labonte. The rest of the field, in order, will be: Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Ted Musgrave, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, David Green, Marcis, Mark Martin, Terry Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Bill Elliott, Hut Stricklin, John Andretti, Dale Earnhardt and Gordon.
The race starts at noon Sunday. There was no Winston Cup activity on the track Thursday, but practice starts in earnest at 9 a.m. today for Saturday's Daytona 500 pole qualifying, which is at 2 p.m. by CNB