THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140551
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
With 63 Busch Grand National cars battling for starting positions in Saturday's Goody's 300 at Daytona International Speedway, it would seem unlikely that an unsponsored car would win the top starting spot.
But what made Jeff Purvis' run for the pole particularly impressive was that it was even faster than the speed Dale Earnhardt reached Saturday to win the pole for the Daytona 500.
Purvis, who took the trophy in Saturday's ARCA 200, won the top starting spot in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a speed of 189.733 mph. Earnhardt is on the 500 pole at 189.510 mph.
``I wish they'd let me run this car in Winston Cup,'' Purvis said. ``Our Cup car was real fast, and we came back and knew our Busch car was going to be faster than our Cup car. But we didn't know it was going to be faster than everybody's Cup car.''
The probable reason is that the engines in the best Busch cars have only about 15 horsepower less than the Winston Cup cars, and the Busch cars are 100 pounds lighter.
The Chevrolets crushed the Fords and Pontiacs in the first Busch qualifying session, winning the top 10 starting spots and 14 out of the top 15.
Joe Nemechek won the outside pole at 189.370 mph, followed by Mike McLaughlin at 188.941, Steve Grissom at 188.344, Tracy Leslie at 187.469, Rodney Combs at 187.188, Kevin Lepage at 187.169, Randy LaJoie at 187.110, Larry Pearson at 187.040 and Pete Orr at 187.021.
The top Ford driver, Hut Stricklin, qualified 11th-fastest at 186.982 mph. The fastest Pontiac, driven by Curtis Markham, was 19th-fastest at 186.027.
Purvis' car carries the decal of Phoenix Construction, but that's the company owned by car owner James Finch.
``Our team is unsponsored, and we keep working like we've got $10 million,'' Purvis said. ``We've got a very limited crew, but we don't have a lot of people in the way.''
GREEN'S TIME DISALLOWED: Jeff Green qualified fifth-fastest for the Goody's 300 - until NASCAR inspectors checked the spoiler on his Dale Earnhardt-owned Chevy.
NASCAR spokesman Andy Hall said Green's spoiler was found to be at a 40 degree angle, 5 degrees below the minimum required angle.
``We got caught,'' a smiling Tony Eury, Green's crew chief, told National Speed Sport News' Stan Creekmore. ``They don't put a weight on the spoiler (in pre-qualifying inspection) like they do in Winston Cup, so you make it as flimsy as possible.
``We made ours too flimsy. Ours laid down (in the wind) and it didn't come back up.''
As to whether Eury or the team will be fined, Hall said, ``That's being reviewed right now. We won't have anything on that today.''
DALLENBACH CRASHES: It could have been a multicar disaster, but Wally Dallenbach's blown tire in the morning Winston Cup practice session ended in a crash that caused only minimal damage.
``Other than sheet-metal damage, I think it bent the ball joint, that's about all,'' Dallenbach said. ``It's unfortunate, but I could have been down on the low side in the middle of the pack and taken out 25 cars.
``I was in a pack and I felt the tire going down on the backstretch. I just waved everybody by, but there was still traffic going into turn 3, so I kind of let it slap the outside wall and got it slowed down.''
Dallenbach said late Tuesday that the car already had been repaired and was ready to go again.
ROUND 3: Only two cars ran in the third round of Winston Cup qualifying Tuesday, with Brett Bodine reaching 185.835 mph in his Ford and Phil Barkdoll 185.759 in a Chevy.
With Winston Cup time trials over, the fields have been set for Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying sessions. Dale Earnhardt will lead a 26-car field in the first race, while Ernie Irvan is on the pole in a 25-car field for the second race.
SWAIM ON DASH POLE: Nineteen-year-old Mike Swaim Jr., in his first effort at Daytona, won the pole for Friday's Florida 200 Goody's Dash race with a speed of 165.065 mph.
``It was a really good lap,'' Swaim said. ``But I've learned what wind is all about here. Especially being a rookie down here, it's pretty intimidating when the car is jumping around on the track like that.'' by CNB