DATE: Saturday, May 31, 1997                TAG: 9705310627

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER

LENGTH: 71 lines

NASCAR REPORT

Trickle wins pole

for today's 200-lap

Grand National race

DOVER - Dick Trickle put another notch in his belt as NASCAR's top senior driver Friday with a pole-winning run for today's GM Goodwrench 200 at Dover Downs International Speedway (1 p.m., TNN).

Trickle, 55, ran a lap of 148.926 mph in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo, edging Bobby Labonte by 3/1000ths of a second. Labonte, who later won the pole for Sunday's Miller 500 Winston Cup race, reached 148.908 mph in his Pontiac Grand Prix.

``When I rolled in, I said, `If that ain't a good lap, we're in trouble,' '' said Trickle, who won the Busch race at Hickory last month.

While Trickle sparkled, others had trouble hanging on. Three drivers crashed during their qualifying runs, and three more crashed in the practices that preceded time trials.

Hermie Sadler and Sterling Marlin crashed during their runs and failed to post a speed, while Ron Barfield lost control coming off turn 4 but slid across the finish line and qualified 16th-fastest. Sadler and Marlin will go to backup cars.

Jeff Fuller, Mark Krogh and Eddie Beahr crashed in practice. None was hurt.

Terry Labonte qualified third-fastest at 148.118 mph, followed by Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer at 147.529 mph and Stevie Reeves at 147.529.

Running low on dough

The Winston Cup series is still four races shy of the halfway mark in the 1997 season, and several teams already are struggling financially, hanging on from week to week.

The most notable is Geoff Bodine's No. 7 QVC Ford team. Bodine has been looking for an associate sponsor for more than a month now.

``We need an associate because the amount of money QVC is giving us isn't enough to race for an entire year,'' Bodine said. ``We've talked to a lot of people and there seems to be some good prospects, but we haven't signed anything yet.''

In the meantime, Bodine said, ``We keep stretching everything we've got. We're paying our bills and all that, but we're not doing a lot of things we'd like to be doing.''

There's no guarantee the team will be able to make all the races this season.

``It's a day-to-day thing,'' Bodine said. ``We're confident something is going to happen (with sponsorship), but it hasn't yet.''

Lake Speed and the No. 9 Ford, which has not had a regular sponsor all year, did not make it to Dover and probably won't be at Pocono either because of a lack of money, Ford's Jeff Owens said.

And the No. 1 Cruising America Ford, driven by Morgan Shepherd, also is stretched to the limit financially. It didn't help matters when Shepherd crashed during practice and had to go to his backup car.

``We've got a trucking company (R & L Carriers) helping us this weekend,'' Shepherd said. ``If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't be here. And then we ended up losing our best race car. . . . It's a week-to-week thing for us.''

81 team shuffles deck

Kenny Wallace and his No. 81 Square D Ford arrived in Dover without a team manager or crew chief.

Car owner Filbert Martocci fired crew chief Gil Martin and manager Eddie Jones on Thursday after deciding that ``the leadership and harmony in our team seemed to lacking,'' a team statement said.

``It's a bombshell for us,'' Wallace said Friday. ``I'd like to say we'll get over it right away and go on, but it's going to take some time.''

Wallace said veteran mechanic David Ifft is helping the team this weekend. Martocci said he would manage the team for the next several weeks.

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