Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
\ After going more than a year without winning a Winston Cup pole, Geoff Bodine snapped the streak at one of his favorite tracks.
Bodine set a track record at Martinsville Speedway on Friday to win the top starting spot for Sunday's Hanes 500.
Bodine's speed of 93.530 mph in Bud Moore's Ford Thunderbird broke the old record of 93.171 mph set by Mark Martin in September 1991. Five other drivers also beat Martin's record.
"I'm really surprised we went that fast," Bodine said. "We had run pretty good in practice, but we hadn't run even close to that. But you always try to save a little bit."
Bodine, who has won six other Winston Cup poles and four of his 13 Winston Cup race victories here, drove the same car he wrecked on the first lap at North Wilkesboro last weekend.
"I felt like it was a pretty good lap, but I'm looking at the folks in the grandstand and they're not smiling - what's new - so that didn't give me any clue. I was halfway down pit road before one of my friends said, `Hey, you're number one.' "
Hut Stricklin won the outside pole in another Ford with a speed of 93.530 mph. Jeff Gordon qualified third at 93.479 mph in his Chevrolet Lumina - the only Chevy to make the top 10.
The Pontiacs of Kyle Petty and red-hot Rusty Wallace rounded out the top five. Petty qualified at 93.322 mph. Wallace lapped this .526-mile track at 93.276 mph.
Also in the top 10 were Davey Allison at 93.184 mph, hometown driver and crowd favorite Jimmy Hensley at 92.951 mph, Mark Martin at 92.919 mph, Bobby Hamilton at 92.887 mph and Michael Waltrip at 92.842 mph.
The Hanes 500 pole was Bodine's 30th. But it was his first since the Phoenix race in the fall of 1991.
From 1983 through 1991, he won at least one pole - and as many as eight poles - each year.
But he was shut out in 1992.
"Missing the Busch Clash [a race for pole winners] this year really hurt," he said. "So today is a big step forward."
Tires were the key to Friday's quick speeds, Bodine said.
Although it was a sunny afternoon and sun usually means slower speeds, the new tires that Goodyear has for this race "need warm weather," Bodine said. "They have quite a bit stiffer sidewalls. They need sun. It gives them a little bite."
The top 20 starting positions were set in Friday's first round of time trials, but the real goal was to get in the top 17. There are only 17 pit stalls on the frontstretch, and those with backstretch pits invariably lose positions on the track during yellow flag pit stops.
So the biggest loser in qualifying Friday was last weekend's pole winner, Brett Bodine, who was 18th fastest. "We just missed it," he said. "We probably shot ourselves in the foot."
The biggest surprise was Dale Earnhardt, who had one of the quickest cars in practice and one of the slowest in qualifying.
Earnhardt's Chevy pushed badly in both corners during his run, washing out into the upper groove of each turn. He was 32nd fastest, beating only Jimmy Means, Dick Trickle, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and P.J. Jones.
"I'm not sure what happened," Earnhardt said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB