Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993 TAG: 9310220048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Mark Martin won the pole Thursday for the AC Delco 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway with the same Ford Thunderbird he drove to his first Winston Cup victory here in 1989.
It was not a matter of nostalgia. It was a matter of necessity.
"The car has been semi-retired, riding atop the trailer as a backup car," Martin said, after a lap of 148.353 mph gave him his fifth pole of 1993. "But we got in a major wrecking spree and tore up about three cars, so we had to pull it back down and give it a face lift.
"It's the oldest car that we race, by far. But we did all of our latest treatments to it and it works just as well as all the rest of them. It's just got some history to it."
Ken Schrader, who has a season-leading six poles, joined Martin on the front row for Sunday's race with a speed of 148.113 mph in a Chevrolet Lumina. Ernie Irvan, who has two poles and two victories in his last three Winston Cup races, was third fastest in another Ford at 148.083 mph. Bill Elliott will start fourth after a lap of 147.641 mph in his Ford. Chesapeake's Ricky Rudd was fifth fastest at 147.504 mph in his Chevy.
"We've been battling a motor problem," Rudd said. "We put two motors in today, and it just isn't going down the straightaway. It's not a major problem. We still had a fast lap."
Completing the top 10 were Kyle Petty in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix (146.847 mph), Jeff Gordon in a Chevy (146.836), Morgan Shepherd in a Ford (146.818), Harry Gant in a Chevy (146.712) and Dick Trickle in a Chevy (146.606).
Martin said he won the pole with "a sloppy lap." He was surprised that it cracked the top 10, much less led the field. Schrader wasn't particularly pleased with his trip around this 1.017-mile oval, either, but Irvan said his qualifying lap was the best he'd run all day.
Martin also won the pole for the race here in February and finished fifth.
"We believe we've got a better race car here today than we did in the spring," he said. It doesn't make much difference that the car is 4 years old, he added.
"This car has probably had about five bodies on it since 1989, but the chassis we're racing today is no different from the chassis we raced in 1989. It's just old and kind of tired - the metal is kind of tired. But it isn't that tired."
Although only the fastest 20 cars qualified Thursday, it is important to be among the fastest 26, because Rockingham's frontstretch pit row only has room for 26 cars. Any driver pitting on the backstretch almost always loses track position during yellow-flag stops.
Among those who did not make the top 26 on Thursday were Dale Earnhardt (27th), Lake Speed (30th), Dale Jarrett (32nd), Bobby Hillin (35th) and Ted Musgrave (41st).
"I don't know what to say," Earnhardt said after a qualifying lap of 144.654 mph. "That's about as fast as we'd been in practice. We're obviously not happy with it, but just because we didn't do well today doesn't mean we won't run well on Sunday."
"We won't make it" into a front-stretch pit, Jarrett said. "We're in deep trouble."
Rusty Wallace, who is 82 points behind Earnhardt in the battle for the Winston Cup championship, qualified 18th. "I slid up the track [in turns 3 and 4] and that hurt me real bad," Wallace said.
Any driver who was not among the top 20 will have the option to try to improve his position for the 40-car field during a second round of time trials today at 1 p.m.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB