Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
``I race better in debt,'' Earnhardt said after knocking Loy Allen Jr. out of the top starting spot on the last lap of the last qualifying run Thursday. ``A man races better when he owes money.''
Earnhardt wouldn't say how much he paid for the used twin-engine Lear 31, which carries eight passengers and two pilots, but it lists for about $3.5 million and travels considerably faster and higher than his black Chevrolet Lumina.
The jet cruises at 460 knots at an altitude up to 51,000 feet.
Earnhardt's car cruised to the pole at a speed of 191.339 mph on the second of his two timed laps.
He drew qualifying spot No.50, the last one in the session. And he said that probably helped him.
``The track probably cooled some, and that makes a difference,'' he said. ``I think it helped me. That little bit [of cooling] was probably good enough to beat him.''
It was only the second pole of the season for Chevrolet.
And although it is difficult to believe, it was Earnhardt's first pole in 33 Winston Cup points races at Daytona. His previous best was the outside pole for the 1984 Firecracker 400, the 1990 Daytona 500 and this year's 500.
Allen, of course, beat him for the 500 pole in February. But on Thursday, Earnhardt thwarted Allen's bid to close the gap between the number of poles Allen has won (three) and the number of races for which he has failed to qualify (six).
``I couldn't have got beat by anybody any better, I guess,'' Allen said after his lap of 190.868 mph in a Ford Thunderbird. ``He returned the favor for us knocking him off the pole here in February.''
Earnhardt also remembered their first pole duel.
``I tell you, we were really close in February down here, but we got beat by a little trickery there,'' Earnhardt said. ``So to come back here and turn that back around and be the last car to go out and do it is turnabout fair play, I think.''
The ``trickery'' to which Earnhardt referred was the fact Allen used Hoosier tires to win the February pole, then used Goodyears in the race. All the Hoosier drivers switched to Goodyear for the race, after NASCAR officials approved the move, when they began raising serious questions about the safety and reliability of the Hoosiers. Nonetheless, it still irritated the Goodyear drivers.
``It seemed pretty trickery, didn't it, to qualify with them and not race with them?'' Earnhardt said.
``We felt good about the car off the truck,'' Earnhardt said. ``We were practicing with a little more spoiler and we felt like knocking the spoiler down [for qualifying] would help a couple of tenths [of a second]. We only ran about six laps in practice.
``On the first lap [190.646 mph] I was a little low'' on the track. ``I hit a bump or two,'' Earnhardt said. ``When I came around, I saw I was second and said, `Man, if I just do the next one perfect, I'll do OK. So I stayed about five feet off the bottom and didn't hit those bumps as hard and I think the car was faster through the corners.''
Behind Earnhardt and Allen, Jimmy Spencer qualified third at 190.577 mph in a Ford, followed by Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin (189.665 mph) in a Chevy and Ernie Irvan (189.478) in a Ford. Completing the top 10 were Ken Schrader in a Chevy and Geoff Bodine in a Ford on Hoosier tires at the identical speed of 188.830 mph, Greg Sacks in a Ford on Hoosiers (188.758), Terry Labonte in a Chevy (188.719) and Jimmy Hensley of Ridgeway in a Ford (188.391).
At the other end of the lineup at 40th fastest or slower, and facing a tough day in second-round qualifying at 1 p.m. today are Bobby Hillin, Kyle Petty, Jeremy Mayfield, Joe Ruttman, Lake Speed, Bill Elliott, Rick Mast and Billy Standridge. Also in danger of not qualifying was Ward Burton, who did not make an attempt Thursday.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB