ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9609030135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S. C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Dale Jarrett won the first battle of his Winston Million weekend Friday at Darlington Raceway, while Ward Burton was thankful to walk away from the most spectacular qualifying crash this year.
Jarrett will be the first to take the green flag in the Southern 500 on Sunday after winning the pole with a lap of 170.934 mph in his Robert Yates-owned Ford Thunderbird.
``Incredible,'' Jarrett said. ``Deep down inside, there's just something that tells me we are going to make a run at it on Sunday afternoon.''
This was only Jarrett's second career pole. His other came in the 1995 Daytona 500. But Yates gave Jarrett the best engine from his best-of-the-sport motor shop. And Jarrett had enough experience at this difficult 1.366-mile oval to not overdo it.
Jarrett said his crew chief, Todd Parrott, ``told me a lot of people were driving it in really hard in turn 1 and seemed to be washing up the race track. When you have an engine like I've got, the key is to be in the throttle as soon as you can in the turn. I let the car roll through the corner and I carried a lot of speed through there and picked the throttle up early.
``Turns 3 and 4 were pretty slick and we saw some cars have some trouble up there, so I probably left half a tenth [of a second] up there by barely squeezing out of the throttle. I wanted to make sure I completed the lap, and it turned out to be just enough.''
Whatever Jarrett did to make it through safely, Burton failed to do.
The South Boston, Va., native lost control of his Pontiac Grand Prix in the middle of turn 4 and smashed hard into the outside wall, back-end first. The car hopped into the air briefly and began spinning down the front straight as fuel poured from the fuel filler hose, which was split by the impact of the crash.
The gasoline burst into flames with the car still spinning. When it came to a stop, Burton scrambled out as Ricky Rudd hopped the wall and rushed to help him. Geoff Bodine and others arrived moments later with fire extinguishers. The crowd in the main grandstand erupted in a huge cheer of relief.
``I thought the crash might have knocked him out,'' Rudd said. ``I was the only one with a fire suit on who knew what was going on. I knew if he wasn't knocked out, he would be all right.''
``I just got a little loose,'' said Burton, who was uninjured. ``I was trying to tame the throttle, and I didn't make it around there. I star-gazed pretty good. One thing I don't want to do is burn, so I got out of that thing fast. I'll go one day, but I don't want to burn.''
Jeff Gordon, who made his run after Jarrett, tried his best for pole number six of 1996, but was 17/100ths of a second slower, posting a speed of 170.833 mph in his Chevrolet.
``Any time Robert Yates gets on TV and says that's the best motor he's ever put in a car, you know it's going to be a guided missile out there,'' Gordon said.
Geoff Bodine was third fastest in a Ford at 170.472 mph, followed by Ken Schrader in a Chevy at 170.218 mph and Sterling Marlin in a Chevy at 170.118 mph.
Also in the top 10 were Mark Martin in a Ford (169.983), Chad Little in a Chevy (169.977), Terry Labonte in a Chevy (169.918), Virginian Rick Mast in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix (169.713) and Hut Stricklin in a Ford (169.672).
At the other end of the lineup, Kyle Petty was 38th fastest and on the bubble for today's second round of time trials, which begins at 11:30 a.m. Petty was followed by Randy MacDonald, Jeff Burton, Jay Sauter, Robby Faggart, Ricky Craven, Ward Burton, Joe Nemechek (who also hit the wall during qualifying and failed to finish his lap), and Robert Pressley, who was unable to make a qualifying lap.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Dale Jarrett feels like a million bucks afterby CNBwinning the pole position for Sunday's Southern 500 in Darlington,
S.C. color KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING