Daytona 500 2000 - Jarrett, Rudd make it a great day for Yates

Jarrett, Rudd make it a great day for Yates
Associated Press

Qualifying Speeds

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A new season, a nearly new car and the same old face up front.

Dale Jarrett, the defending Winston Cup champion, led a Robert Yates Racing sweep of the front row for the Feb. 20 Daytona 500, taking the pole Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

Saturday, Feb. 12
Pole day at the Daytona 500 is one of the more stressful days of speedweeks. Over the years, we have witnessed the breaking of the 200-mph barrier by Cale Yarborough in 1983 and rookies winning the pole. As you may remember, Yarborough also flipped coming off of Turn 4 on his second lap, creating even more drama that day in '83.

In between, great story lines seem to come out in droves on their own. The new millennium meant another Daytona twist. The "Tasmanian Devil" vs. "The Rockets." The battle lines were drawn Saturday between the 2000 Monte Carlo and 2000 Ford Taurus. And it was Robert Yates' rockets that broke a GM stranglehold on the Daytona 500's front row.

For the first time since 1992, the blue oval badge of Ford won the top two spots for the 42nd running of the Daytona 500. And Yates' day is big for several reasons.

The newly-shaped body of the Taurus showed off its early superspeedway prowess. The No. 88 team of Dale Jarrett didn't show any championship hangover. And DJ's new teammate Ricky Rudd proved the No. 28 car could return to its winning form.

Jarrett's blazing speed of 191.091 was more than four miles per hour faster than the best winter test times. It also opened the door for the great manufactures debate. Ford scored six of the top 10 spots, while GM's Pontiac brand chalked up three. Chevy's Lone Ranger Mike Skinner finished the day fourth.

In fact, Skinner was the only bow tie in the top 16. That means one thing over the next eight days -- politicking. Period. The bow-tie brigade's game plan, however, was hurt by Skinner's 189.781 mph lap, which was 1.2 mph faster than teammate Dale Earnhardt.

Good runs by Mark Martin, who has struggled in the past on the restrictor-plate tracks, and Rusty Wallace, who led practice times on Friday, boosted Ford's bragging rights. Bill Elliott, who owns the Daytona International Speedway track record with a pre-plate lap of 210.364 in 1987, is another contender in a Ford after posting the day's third-quickest time.

The early rookie battle was won by Scott Pruett -- in a Ford. Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Matt Kenseth, the front-runners of this year's rookie class, didn't crack the top 20 with speeds that came in at 22nd and 28th.

What does it all mean? Just another great week of speed in Daytona. There will be excitement for the fans, controversy with the new cars, and the possibility of a first-time Daytona 500 winner. Then again, DJ could take his third trip to Victory Lane. Stay tuned, the 2000 speedweeks show is just starting to heat up.

Ricky Rudd, who gave up operating his own team to take over the wheel of the other Yates Ford Taurus, came closest to keeping Jarrett from winning his second Daytona pole.

Jarrett stunned the rest of the competitors with a lap of 191.019 mph -- about 2 mph faster than anyone had turned in practice or winter testing on the 2½-mile oval.

Rudd was the only one of the other 54 drivers who made two-lap qualifying attempts Saturday to even come close. He went 190.384, coming up short by .175-seconds.

"Dale Jarrett was nothing," the two-time Daytona 500 winner said. "Anybody who doesn't mind going close to 200 miles an hour can get in that car. You have to know exactly the spots to hit on the racetrack, but I can go out there and show you. ... This is all the crew that did this."

Rudd was just a little disappointed that he wasn't able to come closer to his new teammate.

"When I cranked up the motor, the car filled up with smoke," Rudd said. "That shook me up a little because it hadn't happened before. I almost shut it off. Then, when we went out there, the car didn't feel quite as fast as I expected.

"But that's OK. I couldn't be happier just to have the opportunity to sit in this rocket ship."

As expected, Fords and Pontiacs dominated, and all the Chevrolet Monte Carlo drivers struggled except for former Daytona pole winner Mike Skinner, who was the last competitor in line and came up with a surprising 189.781, good for fourth.

"We got away with something," said Skinner, who had the only Chevy in the top 15. "The Monte Carlos are really struggling here. We're in trouble."

Skinner, Dale Earnhardt's teammate, said his crew took a chance by using a lighter weight oil than usual.

"We knew it was either going to blow up or we were going to run a hell of a lap," Skinner said. "That's about all the Monte Carlo is going to get."

Earnhardt, the 1998 Daytona winner, qualified his Monte Carlo 17th.

"I know the Chevys are still off from what the Fords can run," said last year's race runner-up. "A couple of years ago, we were side-by-side with Ernie Irvan (in a Yates Ford) and sat on the front row. It's disappointing to see Ford and Chevy so far apart right now."

Jeff Gordon, the defending and two-time Daytona 500 champion and another Chevrolet driver, was a disappointing 23rd.

"I'm not overly concerned yet," Gordon said. "I want to see how we do when we draft with those (Ford and Pontiac) guys."

Following the qualifying session, Mike Helton, NASCAR's senior vice president and chief operating officer, said it was too early for the sanctioning body to try and make any changes to even up the competition.

"We've got a Monte Carlo that's 100 percent different (from 1999) and a Taurus that's about 50 percent different," Helton said. "We don't think simply qualifying for the Daytona 500 is enough hard data for us to react to. But we're going to continue to monitor the results as they are played out."

Skinner's qualifying effort sandwiched him between Fords driven by two-time Daytona 500 winner Bill Elliott, who had a lap of 190.319, and Mark Martin at 189.721.

The rest of the top 10 included Ward Burton at 189.633 in the fastest of the Pontiacs; Rusty Wallace at 189.621, John Andretti at 189.605 and Scott Pruett at 189.470, all in Fords, and Dave Blaney at 189.310 in a Grand Prix.

Pruett and Blaney topped an elite rookie class that took six of the top 28 positions. Stacy Compton was 13th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 22nd, Mike Bliss 25th and Matt Kenseth 28th.

Since Elliott set the Daytona qualifying record of 210.364 in 1987, the cars have been slowed in the interest of safety with the use of carburetor restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR's two longest and fastest ovals.


	Dale Jarrett smiles and waves to the fans after his pole-winning lap Saturday.

NASCAR took a further step this year to slow them down more _ and eliminate another inequity _ by requiring standard shock absorbers. Many of the top teams had been using custom-built shocks that allowed the rear end of the cars to squat at speed.

The new shocks keep the rear end up in the air, causing drag and slowing them by about 4 mph. Gordon, who went on to win the race, took the pole a year ago at 195.067.

Jarrett and Rudd are the only drivers with guaranteed starting positions in the season-opening race. The rest of the 43-car field will be filled with a unique qualifying format including a pair of 125-mile qualifying races Thursday, speeds posted in the time trials Saturday and Monday and last year's team owner points.

The pole was the eighth of Jarrett's career and his first since 1998. Because he didn't win a pole last season, Jarrett will race in a 25-lap elimination event Sunday to try and earn the final position in the made-for-TV Bud Shootout, a 25-lap race for the previous season's pole winners.

"Now at least we don't have to worry about the Bud Shootout in 2001," Jarrett said. "If you're going to win a pole, this is definitely the one to do it. I just hope I do a little better. The last time I won the pole here (in 1995), I never led a lap."

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