THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130385
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
So where's Jeff Gordon been this week?
The Winston Cup champion qualified sixth for Sunday's Daytona 500, but he was never really a threat for the pole.
He finished ninth in the Busch Clash, and was never a threat to win that.
``Right now, we're just OK,'' crew chief Ray Evernham said Monday at Daytona International Speedway. ``We've got to get better.''
Evernham said the car doesn't have quite enough speed, and he thinks it may be how air is flowing through the cowl into the air cleaner and carburetor.
``I think aerodynamically we might be able to feed air to the motor better,'' he said. ``And I'm still working on handling. I think the new manifold combination (mandated by NASCAR) threw us off a little bit.''
Winston Cup teams had been using inserts in their manifolds to channel air to the engine more efficiently. In January, NASCAR ordered those removed.
Evernham said he's not sure how the 500 is going to shape up.
``This deal is going to be real weird,'' he said. ``Mark Martin, as slow as he was in qualifying (37th fastest), ran good in the Clash and ran good in practice this morning.''
Where else has Gordon been?
Monday, he flew to New York to take part in Monday night's ESPY Awards show, during which a 1995 Driver of the Year was named.
His competition was two-time defending Formula One champion Michael Schumacher of Germany and reigning PPG Indy Car World Series champion Jacques Villeneuve of Canada, who has moved on to Formula One.
The 24-year-old Gordon, who won eight poles and seven races last year on the way to his first series title, was the favorite to take the honor.
TOO MUCH DAMAGE: Brett Bodine said his primary Daytona 500 car, damaged in a fire that caused him to crash during practice Friday, was too badly damaged to fix in time for Sunday's race.
``We won't get it back in time,'' Bodine said. ``It bent the chassis.
``Our main concern right now is finding some speed. We lost ground on the field today.''
ROUND TWO: Lake Speed led the second round of Winston Cup qualifying Monday with a speed of 188.159 mph in his Ford Thunderbird, which was more than 2 mph quicker than his speed in Saturday's time trials.
Speed's Monday effort made him 10th-fastest from the first two rounds.
``We took out the engine we ran in Saturday's qualifying and put in our Daytona 500 engine,'' he said. ``We changed four things this morning and each one picked us up something.''
Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer was second-fastest in another Ford at 188.147, an improvement of almost 3 mph. That left him tied for 11th overall with Ken Schrader.
Bobby Labonte was third-fastest at 187.438 in his Chevy, an improvement of more than 3 mph. Nine other drivers also participated.
The result of this session, and the third round today, is to put these drivers in a better position to make the race on their qualifying speed should they fail to make it in Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying races.
Starting positions three through 30 will be set in the qualifying races, and positions 31-38 will be given to remaining drivers based on their qualifying times.
There are also four positions at the rear of the field reserved for provisional qualifiers, based on last year's top 40 in car-owner points, as well as one position for a former Winston Cup champion who fails to make the race any other way.
BUSCH PRACTICE: The Busch Grand National cars were on the track Monday for the first time during Speedweeks as they prepare for Saturday's Goody's 300.
A huge field of 65 cars took laps on the track. Joe Nemechek was fastest at 188.766 mph, followed by ARCA 200 winner Jeff Purvis at 187.445, Phil Parsons at 187.301, Jeff Green at 187.075 and Randy LaJoie at 186.904. All five drivers were in Chevrolets.
TODAY'S SCHEDULE: In addition to practice, today's activities on the track include the third round of Winston Cup qualifying at 1 p.m., followed by qualifying for the first 25 positions of the Busch race. by CNB