ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: DAYTONA NOTES
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
With 63 Busch Grand National cars battling for starting positions in Saturday's Goody's 300 at Daytona International Speedway, it would seem unlikely an unsponsored car would win the top starting spot. The unlikely happened Tuesday.
But what made Jeff Purvis' run for the pole particularly impressive was it was even than the speed Dale Earnhardt reached Saturday to win the pole for the Daytona 500 Winston Cup race.
Purvis, who took the trophy in Saturday's ARCA 200, won the top starting spot in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a speed of 189.733 mph.
Earnhardt is on the 500 pole at 189.510 mph.
``I wish they'd let me run this car in Winston Cup,'' Purvis said. ``Our Cup car was real fast, and we came back and knew our Busch car was going to be faster than our Cup car, but we didn't know it was going to be faster than everybody's Cup car.''
The probable reason is the engines in the best Busch cars have only about 15 horsepower less than the Cup cars, and the Busch cars are 100 pounds lighter.
The Chevrolets crushed the Fords and Pontiacs in the first Busch qualifying session, winning the top 10 starting spots and 14 of the top 15.
Joe Nemechek won the outside pole at 189.370 mph, followed by Mike McLaughlin at 188.941, Steve Grissom at 188.344, Tracy Leslie at 187.469, Rodney Combs at 187.188, Kevin Lepage at 187.169, Randy LaJoie at 187.110, Larry Pearson at 187.040 and Pete Orr at 187.021.
The top Ford driver, Hut Stricklin, qualified 11th at 186.982 mph. The fastest Pontiac, driven by Curtis Markham, was 19th fastest at 186.027.
Purvis' car carries the decal of Phoenix Construction, but that's the company owned by car owner James Finch.
``Our team is unsponsored, and we keep working like we've got $10 million,'' Purvis said. ``We've got a very limited crew, but we don't have a lot of people in the way.''
GREEN'S TIME DISALLOWED: Jeff Green qualified fifth for Saturday's Goody's 300 - until NASCAR inspectors checked the spoiler on his Earnhardt-owned Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
NASCAR spokesman Andy Hall said Green's spoiler was found to be at a 40-degree angle, five degrees below the minimum required angle of 45.
``We got caught,'' said a smiling Tony Eury, Green's crew chief. ``They don't put a weight on the spoiler [in pre-qualifying inspection] like they do in Winston Cup, so you make it as flimsy as possible.
``We made ours too flimsy. Ours laid down [in the wind], and it didn't come back up.''
As to whether Eury or the team would be fined, Hall said, ``That's being reviewed right now. We won't have anything on that today.''
DALLENBACH CRASHES: It could have been a multicar disaster, but Wally Dallenbach's blown tire in the morning Winston Cup practice session ended in a crash that caused only minimal damage.
``Other than sheet-metal damage, I think it bent the ball joint, that's about all,'' Dallenbach said. ``It's unfortunate, but I could have been down on the low side in the middle of the pack and taken out 25 cars.
``I was in a pack, and I felt the tire going down on the backstretch. I just waved everybody by, but there was still traffic going into turn 3, so I kind of let it slap the outside wall and got it slowed down.''
Dallenbach said late Tuesday the car already had been repaired and was ready to go again.
THIRD-ROUND CUP QUALIFYING: Only two cars ran in the third round of Winston Cup qualifying Tuesday, with Brett Bodine reaching 185.835 mph in his Ford and Phil Barkdoll at 185.759 mph in a Chevy.
With Cup qualifying over, the fields have been set for Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying sessions. Earnhardt will lead a 26-car field in the first race, and Ernie Irvan is on the pole in a 25-car field for the second race.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Jeff Purvis' Goody's 300 qualifying time is fasterby CNBthan Dale Earnhardt's Daytona 500 time. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING