Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 22, 1993 TAG: 9305220208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER It means next to nothing, but pole position qualifying
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
They were as excited as if Irvan had won the race itself.
Irvan's speed, a record for this qualifying format, consisted of his average speed for three laps around the 1.5-mile track, plus a two-tire pit stop.
It appeared that the 10.73-second pit stop engineered by Irvan's crew was the key.
Rusty Wallace won the outside pole at 137.706 in his Pontiac Grand Prix. On the stopwatch, Wallace's total time was .11 seconds slower than Irvan's. Wallace's pit stop of 10.84 seconds also happened to be exactly .11 seconds slower than Irvan's.
"It was just a combination of the way the car handled and the way the guys did the pit stop," Irvan said.
Dale Earnhardt took third at 136.207, followed by Bill Elliott (136.201), Davey Allison (136.013). Kyle Petty, who was sixth at 135.662, had the fastest pit stop - 10.27 seconds.
The jubilation of Irvan's crew was due in part to the fact that it gets to split $30,000 for winning the top starting spot.
"For a race team like ours, based in Abingdon, Va., they don't make a lot of the same money like the guys do in Charlotte," Irvan said. "For them to be able to split up $30,000 is a tremendous amount of money."
But once The Winston starts tonight at 8:58 p.m., the pole will be irrelevant because the field will probably be flip-flopped in the middle of the event.
The 70-lap race is divided into two 30-lap segments and a 10-lap shootout. And after the first 30 laps, the fans decide whether to invert the field for the second 30 laps, with the slowest cars starting up front. The fans are expected to vote to invert the field, as they did last year.
But even though the pole means next to nothing, the battle for that honor Friday was exciting.
The usual pit-road speed limit for races was not in effect for this time trial, and the drivers flew into the pits at top speed, and then burned rubber as they left.
"When you come in there like that you are pretty much out of control," said Irvan. "I may have made up a little time going down pit road. If Rusty did it any faster, I don't know how. And I may have won the burn-out contest. I think I left the longest patch on pit road.
"We didn't think we had a shot at [the pole] this time," he said. "Rusty was faster than we'd run in practice. So we kinda went at this really nonchalant."
NASCAR has instituted a new experimental rule limiting each team to three sets of tires during practice and qualifying. There will be no limit during races.
"I think the pit stop deal makes it more interesting," Irvan said. "Usually the driver gets all the glory. But this way, it gets more people involved. And with Rusty [and his team's fast pit stops], you've seen what pit stops can do all year."
by CNB