THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603240265
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
For the second consecutive Winston Cup race, the pole winner ran into trouble during the final prerace practice Saturday afternoon.
Ward Burton's Pontiac Grand Prix, which set a track record in qualifying Friday, sustained significant right-side body damage after he and Lake Speed tangled in turn 2.
``I was going into turn 1. I guess Lake Speed didn't see me,'' Burton said.
``The damage is pretty cosmetic,'' team manager Clyde Booth said. ``I doubt we'll have to go to a backup car.''
Not so for Speed.
``I've got to go to a backup car,'' he said. ``I'm not totally sure what happened out there. As I went into turn 1, (my spotter) said, `You've got somebody trying to pass you on the inside.' So I tried to go wide enough without going into the gray stuff. By that time, somebody hit me in the left quarter, and around we went.''
ROUND 2: Bobby Hillin led an uneventful second round of qualifying Saturday, improving from the 38th to the 26th starting spot with a lap of 170.602 mph in his Ford Thunderbird.
``We made a good comeback in the second round,'' he said. ``Our problem is, we're not unloading good enough and it's taking us all day to get things figured out.''
Chuck Bown was the most notable victim of the session. He stood on his Friday speed, which was 37th-fastest. But Hillin went faster, as did Dave Marcis. As a result Bown slipped to 39th and didn't make the race. Randy MacDonald and Robby Faggart also failed to make the field.
Provisional starting spots went to Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek and Kyle Petty, who was almost 2 mph slower on Saturday than on Friday.
POLE PROBLEMS: So far this season, Ford is 0 for 5 in pole-position qualifying.
Chevrolet Monte Carlos won the first three poles, and Pontiac's new Grand Prix has won two in a row.
In the races, Chevys have won three - two by Dale Earnhardt and one by Jeff Gordon - while Dale Jarrett has given the Ford Thunderbirds their only success thus far, winning the Daytona 500.
``No poles for a Ford yet,'' Thunderbird driver Rusty Wallace said. ``Just goes to show the rules are still lopsided. All you can do is keep telling everybody that and maybe someone will wake up and look at it. It's no surprise to me. I know all the wind tunnel data, and they (General Motors) still got that much better car.''
A NEW AVENUE: Ken Schrader, a regular on NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit, will try his hand at race promotion.
Schrader and business partner Ray Marler have leased the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Mo., about 25 miles from Schrader's hometown of Fenton, Mo., for a season of dirt-track racing, beginning April 6.
``The track is a ton of fun to race around,'' Schrader said. ``I've raced a lot of Saturday night dirt tracks, and I-55 ranks at the top of the list. It's wide, high-banked and fast.''
Sound like a promotor? Well, he's also a competitor. Schrader will race his own Late Model car on opening night, which is an off weekend for the Winston Cup series.
SETTING THINGS STRAIGHT: The last time Dale Earnhardt pitted on the backstretch was in 1993, not 1992 as reported here Saturday. Earnhardt started 19th at Bristol in August, 1993, which put him in the backstretch pits. He finished third. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report. by CNB