Auto Racing: Elliott runs off with pole

NASCAR's youth takes backseat to veteran for The Winston

Saturday, May 20, 2000

By Chris Dolack , Post-Gazette Sports Writer

CONCORD, N.C. -- Much of the focus in NASCAR Winston Cup racing these days is on youth. Drivers such as Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are the future of the sport. But last night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, veteran Bill Elliott continued his resurgence by winning the pole for The Winston, NASCAR's all-star race worth $500,000 to the winner.

In qualifying unique to this event, 18 eligible drivers completed a two-tire pit stop and raced onto the 1 1/2-mile trioval for three laps. The fastest combined time won the pole, which was worth $50,000.

Elliott's crew completed the stop in 6.8 seconds, and his combined time of 105.928 seconds was more than a second faster than second-place qualifier Mark Martin, whose combined time was 106.954. Bobby Labonte was third at 107.002, followed by Rusty Wallace at 107.156, Earnhardt Jr. at 107.508 and Stewart at 107.713.

"It's the guys, they have really worked hard and put a lot of effort into trying to make sure the pit stop was just perfect," said Elliott, who won The Winston in 1986. "I look around in the garage, and if I had to pick a crew, I'd pick them to be on my team."

Defending Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett qualified seventh, and Dale Earnhardt, a three-time winner of The Winston, qualified 12th after having engine trouble.

"It felt like we were on seven cylinders," Earnhardt said. "The carburetor or something messed up. It started fluttering right off pit road. It sputtered and sputtered all three laps. We're lucky to run as fast as we did. I just felt like we had a shot at being up front. It's just a shame."

Darrell Waltrip, 53, will start 17th tonight, the last time he will compete in The Winston, which he won in 1985. A three-time Winston Cup champion, Waltrip, the winningest driver in NASCAR Winston Cup's modern era with 84 victories, is retiring after this season to join Fox television.

Waltrip, along with Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd, has competed in every running of The Winston but sees his career coming to an end.

"It's hard to really realize for me after all these years, it's hard for me to realize I'm not going to race this race again next year," said Waltrip, who will drive a chrome Ford Taurus tonight.

"I really don't think it'll bother me as much right now as it will when I come back here next year in a different capacity. With all the preparation and everything you've got going on, right now is exciting. We've got the chrome car, and we're doing a lot of neat things, so that's kind of a distraction from the fact that this is the last time I'm going to run The Winston.

"I've been in every one of them and I've had the thrill of winning them and the thrill of getting knocked out of them, so I don't know what it'll be like. I don't think I'll be able to really realize what all this has meant to me until it's really over."

Waltrip has finished no better than third in any of the past 14 runnings of The Winston, which consists of two 30-lap segments followed by a 10-lap dash and awards no points. He believes anything can happen in that final 10-lap segment of tonight's race.

"If I was leading on the last lap and somebody was behind me I'd be pretty nervous. And if I went into the third turn on the outside of Dale Earnhardt, I'd be pretty nervous," he said. "So just start those last 10 laps kind of with one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas. That's kind of how you have to run it."

NOTES -- Chip Ganassi, owner of the past four CART series championship teams and a Fox Chapel native, is expected to become majority owner of NASCAR Winston Cup's Team Sabco Racing, which fields Monte Carlos for Kenny Irwin and Sterling Marlin, as early as this week. The team would only say no personnel changes were expected. Irwin, an open-wheel star before switching to NASCAR, said, "I met with Chip for the first time this week. He told me he doesn't know a whole lot about NASCAR, but I guarantee he understands auto racing, and I don't think there's going to be that big a step to go from one to the other." Irwin said if Ganassi offered him a ride in CART, "I'd probably have to take that opportunity." ... After pole qualifying for The Winston last night, Jerry Nadeau and Jimmy Spencer won two 25-lap races that will determine the starting positions for tonight's Winston Open. Their victories were worth $26,046 apiece. ... Norm Benning of Pittsburgh, who finished sixth and eighth in his past two races, needed a provisional to qualify for the ARCA EasyCare 100, which will run before the Winston Open today.