DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110495

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA.                   LENGTH:   62 lines

THIS TIME, IRVAN'S POLE ISN'T AS COSTLY THE DYNO DISASTER OF APRIL '96 HAS JUST MADE YATES' ENGINE PROGRAM STRONGER.

Last year, when Ernie Irvan won the pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR took his car - and destroyed his engine.

There was no such drama Friday when Irvan took a spin around the 2.66-mile superspeedway in his Ford Thunderbird at 193.271 mph to win the pole for Sunday's DieHard 500.

But Irvan said Friday that the NASCAR engine fiasco of April 1996 probably paid off in the long run.

After pole qualifying for that race, NASCAR impounded Irvan's car and used it as the first guinea pig on a new, portable chassis dynamometer it had bought to compare horsepower and other things between the makes of cars. But Winston Cup director Gary Nelson broke the engine while testing the car on the dyno.

``It was bad, at the time,'' Irvan said. ``But it was probably a blessing in disguise. We now have our own chassis dyno, and that (car) has been on it all week long. Now they eat and sleep this chassis dyno.''

Quipped car owner Robert Yates: ``We always pay for NASCAR's mistakes.''

As for Irvan's lap, there really wasn't much to say because Irvan did little more than hold the gas pedal to the floor and turn the wheel.

``Here at Talladega, it just seems like you basically go to the bottom of the racetrack when you get into the corner and you go out to the wall when you get on the straightaway,'' Irvan said. ``And the least amount you turn the wheel, the better, because that will scrub speed off.

``But I swear there's 40 other guys here and if every one of them got in that car, they would have won the pole, too.''

Talladega, however, has a way of confounding drivers from practice to qualifying. The transition Friday was no different.

Rusty Wallace was quickest in practice. In qualifying, he lost a half-second off his best practice time and qualified ninth-fastest, at 192.393 mph. Hut Stricklin, 26th-fastest in practice, lost almost a full second and was 46th-fastest in qualifications.

Most drivers lost two- to three-tenths of a second. Irvan, however, gained two-tenths of a second.

``I just had to hold it wide open,'' he said. ``I told (my team) I didn't hold it wide open in practice, so we picked up a little.''

John Andretti, consistently strong of late on the superspeedways, took the second starting spot in his Ford with a lap of 193.166 mph. Jimmy Spencer qualified third in a Ford at 192.777, followed by Jeff Burton in a Ford at 192.715 and Derrike Cope in a Pontiac Grand Prix at 192.711.

Terry Labonte qualified sixth in the fastest Chevrolet Monte Carlo at 192.614 mph, followed by brother Bobby Labonte in a Pontiac at 192.463 and Jeff Gordon in a Chevy at 192.401, Wallace was ninth-fastest and Bill Elliott 10th in a Ford at 192.355.

Other notables include Dale Earnhardt in 12th, Dale Jarrett in 18th and Mark Martin, winner of the spring race here, in the lowly position of 30th-fastest. Ricky Rudd, who also struggled here Friday, was 34th-fastest.

With 47 cars vying for no more than 43 starting spots, at least four doses of heartache will be dispensed today during the second round of time trials.

Jeff Green is currently on the bubble in 38th, followed by Kyle Petty, Ted Musgrave, Gary Bradberry, Jeremy Mayfield, Billy Standridge, Chad Little, David Green, Stricklin and Ed Berrier. If there is no change in the lineup, the provisional starting spots will go to Petty, Musgrave, Mayfield and Stricklin.

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