ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140073
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
The doom and gloom predicted for Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway did not come to pass, but there was little action at the front as Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt swept to easy victories.
For Earnhardt, it was his eighth consecutive victory in a 125. He has not lost a Daytona 500 qualifier in this decade.
``If you can get a streak going like this, it's history, and it's history I don't know if anybody else can match or will match,'' said Earnhardt, who powered past John Andretti on the 19th lap of the second race and led the rest of the way.
Jeff Gordon finished second, about two car-lengths behind Earnhardt. Bill Elliott was third, followed by Ken Schrader and Michael Waltrip.
For Jarrett, a two-time 500 winner, Thursday's victory was his first in a 125-miler. He was trailed by 500 pole-winner Mike Skinner, Ernie Irvan, Jimmy Spencer and Sterling Marlin.
``There's a lot of horsepower there and it makes it hard for anybody to pass me,'' Jarrett said. After Jarrett took the lead from Skinner on the first lap, the only passes for the lead came when Irvan went by on lap 41 and Jarrett passed him again on lap 46.
``Ernie and I are about the only ones who can pass the Yates cars, it seems,'' Jarrett said. ``We don't have to be dictated by what other people are doing. I think you will see Ernie and I helping each other and racing each other a lot'' in Sunday's Daytona 500.
There was one wreck in each race - a two-car incident in the first event and a four-car tangle in the second. And there were five lead changes in 250 miles of racing.
Kyle Petty, sweating, exhausted and thrilled with the 14th-place finish that earned him the last transfer spot in the second race, nonetheless was not thrilled with the action he saw behind the windshield of his Pontiac.
``I won't say it's difficult to pass, I'll go ahead and say it's impossible,'' he said. ``I guess I've been coming to Daytona for nine years and these are positively the worst races I've ever been a part of.''
Countered NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett: ``Last year, Ernie Irvan led his 125 from flag to flag. And there were 32 lead changes in the 500.''
There was plenty of interesting passing and maneuvering in both 125s. But nearly all of it occurred behind the leaders.
In the first race, the most interesting challenge came from Marlin and Ricky Rudd, who hooked up together as a drafting duo and clawed their way through the pack toward the front.
On lap 30, Marlin and Rudd moved past Mark Martin into fourth and fifth, respectively. But that's as far as they went. Both were having problems with front-end push, and by lap 35, Martin and Skinner had moved back past Marlin and Rudd.
In the second race, Gordon made a spectacular charge from 11th to third on the first two laps. By lap 22, he was in second. But in the final half of the race, he never was a threat to Earnhardt - nor was anyone a threat to him.
``Every time I'd pass, it seemed like we were three-wide,'' Gordon said of his hell-bent-for-leather charge to the front. ``That's not exactly the way you want to do it, but that's what works here right now the way the drafting is.
``We can do a lot of passing, we just can't catch the leader. You can pass other guys, but it's hard to pass the leader.''
The difficulty of passing led to the usual assortment of close calls, but only two mistakes led to crashes.
In the first race, Delma Cowart lost it as the lead pack lapped him, and Cowart clipped Geoff Bodine, who was running third. Cowart hit the wall. Bodine saved his spinning car and managed to recover to finish 13th.
``They shouldn't let him ride around there like that. It's ridiculous,'' Bodine said of Cowart.
In the second race, ``I screwed up,'' said Ricky Craven. He tried to move into a hole that already was filled and collided with Chad Little's car.
Craven then clipped Lake Speed, who pounded the wall. Loy Allen and Petty also were involved.
With the running of the Twin 125s, the field is set for Sunday's Daytona 500.
After the top 14 finishers in both races earned their starting spots, and after eight more drivers were added on the strength of their qualifying speeds and even after four more drivers were given provisional starting spots, five drivers in each race failed to make the field.
In the first race, Rick Mast of Rockbridge Baths, Va., and Joe Nemechek didn't make it, as well as Mike Wallace, Billy Standridge and Cowart. In the second race, Larry Pearson failed to make it in Bud Moore's Ford, along with Little, rookie David Green, Gary Bradberry and Norm Benning.
Immediately after the races, Mast's car owner, Butch Mock, and Nemechek's car owner, Felix Sabates, began working on securing Phil Barkdoll's car for Sunday's race. Barkdoll was the last qualifier on his speed.
Sabates won the contest.
``Phil has been a friend of mine for a long time and he's always said, `If you've ever in a jam, anything I have is yours,''' Sabates said. ``Well, Joe didn't qualify for the Daytona 500 and I was in a jam.''
Said Barkdoll, ``I told him, `My car is yours.' I hit a home run today, and Joe Nemechek is going to run the bases.''
Later, Mock made an arrangement to have Allen, who crashed Thursday but qualified 33rd on his speed, run his No.75 Ford Thunderbird with the colors of Mock's sponsor, Remington Arms.
``Rick Mast will be with us in the pits to assist us with the best possible finish,'' Mock said.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB