Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990 TAG: 9005250054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Randy King
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
"Nobody seemed to have an idea who was in the car, so I hope we can get a little recognition now," Trickle said after winning the pole for Saturday's Champion 300 NASCAR Busch Grand National race.
"In practice, Ken Schrader popped out in front of me and went around. Then, I dived back under him in [turn] one.
"After we came back in, he came over and asked, `Who's in that car?' He figured it was some unknown. He knows now," Trickle said, laughing.
Trickle, 48, drove a lap on the 1.5-mile layout at 168.219 mph to gain his second pole in three career Grand National starts; he won his first in May 1984 at Milwaukee.
Harry Gant, 50, the oldest driver in the field, was second at 167.400 mph in an Oldsmobile. Three more Winston Cup interlopers - Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin and Davey Allison - qualified third through fifth, respectively.
Winston Cup drivers took 10 of the 20 spots filled Thursday.
Virginians Chuck Bown and Jimmy Hensley, who rank 1-2 in the Grand National points race, were off the pace. Hensley qualified 14th. Bown failed to make the top 20 and will try again today in second-round time trials.
\ Jarrett, who two months ago was craving a Winston Cup ride, suddenly has become a hot property.
Jarrett, who has replaced injured Neil Bonnett in the Wood Brothers Ford for the rest of the season, is weighing an offer to drive in 1991 for a new team being formed by Sam McMahon, a Charlotte businessman who owns an interest in a chain of Days Inn motels.
Jarrett and Barry Dodson, current crew chief for Rusty Wallace's Blue Max team, have entered into letters of agreement with McMahon, but no contracts have been signed.
Jarrett's deal stipulates that the new team must have a sponsor by Aug. 1 for him to become driver. Dodson's arrangement with McMahon begins July 1, but he said he will remain with Blue Max through the 1990 season.
Lou LaRosa, now the engine builder for Brett Bodine's team, also may move to the new McMahon team.
Wood Brothers spokesman Eddie Wood hinted the team would like to keep Jarrett in a multiyear arrangement.
"But he does have this other deal," Wood said. "He joined us after he began negotiating for it, so we'll have to wait for the outcome. We'll look around and see, but we would like to keep Dale if we could."
\ When Tommy Ellis arrived Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he immediately fielded the hot rumor of the day in the NASCAR Grand National garage.
"I walked into the place and three or four people asked me if I was going to get fired," Ellis said.
"Well, if I'm going to get fired, I hope the man [car owner John Jackson] will tell me so I can make some future plans."
Jackson, when first asked about Ellis' status, said, "No comment. I know better than to get my foot in that. It's better left alone."
Although neither party would confirm it, sources in the Grand National garage said the team's sponsor (Goo Goo Clusters) would like Jackson to unload the fiery driver from Richmond, Va.
Ellis was involved in a heated postrace exchange with L.D. Ottinger on Saturday at Hickory, N.C.
"He [Ottinger] just flat spun me out on purpose. And when a man deliberately spins you out, that's a problem," Ellis said. "It [the postrace exchange] was no big deal. There were no blows passed.
"I haven't wrecked anybody on purpose for years. I've been wrecked by so many guys this year that's it just unbelievable."
Ellis, who figured to be a prime contender for the 1990 Grand National title, is languishing in seventh place, 273 points behind Bown.
"The whole team has not been working together," Ellis said. "The effort is not 100 percent. The performance shows it. We're not this bad."
Jackson said the team's "communication" lines need to be improved, but said no changes are in the works "unless somebody quits."
Ellis has no such plans.
"I ain't quitting," he said.
\ Ken Ragan was the only driver to make the Coca-Cola 600 starting field in Thursday's second-round time trials.
Ragan turned a lap of 169.316 mph in his Ford to bump New Yorker Jerry O'Neil from the field by a one-thousandth of a second.
The biggest name failing to make the grid was Phil Parsons. Kyle Petty and Terry Labonte were forced to take provisional starts and will begin 41st and 42nd, respectively.
by CNB