Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 10, 1993 TAG: 9307100028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium
But Mark Martin couldn't make it work in testing at New Hampshire International Speedway two weeks ago, so his team scrambled to build him one.
With his new Ford Thunderbird, Martin won the pole position Friday for the inaugural Winston Cup race here, reaching 126.871 mph on the 1.058-mile oval.
"The crew built a brand new car for me in two weeks," Martin said. "And they probably thought I was crazy when I said it was no good all of a sudden for no reason. But a demon had jumped in it or something."
Sterling Marlin earned the outside pole in another Ford at 126.736 mph, followed by rookie Jeff Gordon in a Chevrolet Lumina at 126.677 mph. Ken Schrader, continuing his hot streak after winning his appeal Tuesday of a NASCAR suspension, was fourth fastest in another Chevy at 126.584 mph. Terry Labonte, also driving a Chevy, was fifth at 126.077 mph.
Sixth - at 126.061 mph - was Grand National driver Jeff Burton, who is making his Winston Cup debut here in a Ford leased from Jack Roush, Martin's car owner.
"Yeah, I'm real happy with that," Burton said. "We wanted to make first-round qualifying, and we would like to leave feeling like we were fairly competitive in our first race."
Completing the top 10 were Davey Allison in a Ford (126.023 mph) and Chevy drivers Ernie Irvan (125.985 mph), Dale Jarrett (125.977 mph) and Ricky Rudd (125.857 mph).
The first Winston Cup time trials in New Hampshire came on a blistering day for New England, with the temperature in the mid-90s.
Still, "my car stuck better than I expected it to," Martin said. "In this heat, they stick like glue. But that doesn't mean it's not possible to try just a little bit too hard."
That's exactly what Rusty Wallace did. Wallace nearly lost control when he got out of the groove during his qualifying run. He finished the lap, but was 33rd fastest.
For Martin and many of the other Winston Cup drivers, Sunday's race will be their first on this track, which opened in 1990.
Martin said when he tested here two weeks ago, he didn't learn a lot about how to drive the track, but "it certainly helped us sort our race car situation out."
"I couldn't make the car we had selected work well here. It ran second at Darlington and fourth at Dover, but I didn't like the car here. Had we been running that car, we would have finished considerably back from the pole.
"It just didn't go fast enough and wouldn't handle good enough. We worked on it a whole day, but it just didn't suit me. It doesn't take us a day to sort things out. Usually, it takes us a half-hour."
"Mark said it was feel," Roush said. And when he says that, "we've learned we should give up on it and go work on something else."
This was Martin's second pole of 1993. He has been fast all year, but has yet to win a race.
"We haven't won any races, that's a fact," Martin said. "But we have run good enough" to win. "All we need is to keep placing it in competition."
Said Roush, "I don't think we'd trade the years when we won early - and not run well - for right now."
A second round of time trials is set for 11 a.m. today to fill the bottom half of the 40-car field. Among those who may want to try again are Dale Earnhardt (24th), Rick Mast (26th), Geoff Bodine (27th), Harry Gant (29th) and Wallace.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB