Earnhardt's streak appears to be nearing an end
Associated Press
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt suspects his streak is
done.
He has 10 straight victories in the Gatorade 125-mile qualifying
races for the Daytona 500 and is sure that string will end
Thursday.
"Jarrett has a lock on the show right now," he said.
Is Dale Earnhardt sandbagging? Or does he really believe he can't beat Dale Jarrett in the first Twin 125.
But as certain as the seven-time Winston Cup champion is that
Dale Jarrett is the guy to beat, Earnhardt is also certain his No.
3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo can be competitive in Sunday's main event.
"We're working on our car and getting it better," he said.
"If you can stay out of trouble, you can have a pretty good day."
A couple of drivers were unable to stay out of trouble on
Wednesday in the final practice before the qualifying races.
Tony Stewart, last year's top rookie, got into a scuffle with
Robby Gordon after the two had a fender-bender on the track.
Stewart nudged the rear of Gordon's car while Gordon was trying to
make a pass, spinning him off the track.
The two former Indy-car drivers got into a shoving match in the
garage area after arguing about the accident. In trying to break up
the confrontation, a Stewart crew member left a bloody cut near
Gordon's mouth.
Rookie Dave Blaney also crashed during the practice session.
None of the cars were badly damaged.
Since the stock car portion of Daytona Speed Weeks began last
Friday, Jarrett's No. 88 Ford Taurus has been overpowering. He
easily won the pole for Sunday's 500-mile race, then won a
qualifying race and the main event in the Bud Shootout, a
made-for-TV race for the previous year's top qualifiers.
Virtually everyone expects the two-time Daytona 500 winner to
dominate on Thursday.
"All I can say is I'm going to try to win, try to keep
Earnhardt from winning 11 in a row," Jarrett said.
His new Robert Yates Racing teammate, Ricky Rudd, has been
almost as good. Rudd took the outside spot on the front row for the
500 and ran nose-to-tail with Jarrett in the Shootout before
getting caught up in a crash and ending up on his roof on the last
lap.
Those two are the class of the partially redesigned Fords, which
the General Motors teams insist have an aerodynamic advantage over
both their virtually unchanged Pontiacs and their totally
redesigned Chevy Monte Carlos.
With the cars divided between the qualifying races, the luck of
the draw has placed most of the best cars in the opener.
Starting right behind Jarrett will be the Tauruses of Bill
Elliott, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and NASCAR rookie Scott Pruett.
Scattered behind them are the Grand Prixs of Ken Schrader,
Stewart and Bobby Labonte, as well as the Chevys of Earnhardt,
defending Daytona 500 champion Jeff Gordon and Sterling Marlin.
Robby Gordon, who has been among the fastest drivers in practice
the last two days, is also in the first race.
"It's pretty incredible," Jarrett said of the first race
lineup. "It's not that either race is easy but, man, I started
looking down our race and said, 'Well, we'll know where we stand
for the 500, aside from Ricky.'
"That's going to be exciting and I think every one of us, as
much as we enjoy Earnhardt, we're all out to end that streak."
Elliott, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, shrugged off the
overabundance of competition in his qualifier.
"You've got to race all of them on Sunday, so what does it
matter?" he said.
Wallace said: "I've never seen a stronger field in my entire
life. It's the exact race I don't want to be in, although, if I
conquer the first race then I'll feel pretty good for the 500."
Rudd will start from the pole in the second race, alongside the
top General Motors qualifier, Mike Skinner, in a Chevrolet. That
lineup also includes the Fords of Jeff Burton and rookie Matt
Kenseth, the Pontiacs of Ward Burton and John Andretti and the
Monte Carlos of Joe Nemechek and rookie Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The first race has a total of 18 Winston Cup championships and
423 race wins. The second race has no championships and 48 wins _
20 by Rudd.
"Sure you can look at them and sit there and say on paper which
one is going to be the toughest," Rudd said. "But I've never had
any luck because once you think you're in a tough one it ends up
being an easy one. And the easy ones end up being the tough ones."
Rudd, who sold his own team so he could drive the No. 28 for
Yates, is the heavy favorite in the supposedly weaker field.
"We've came here with two cars and one is gone, so we have to
kind of sneak through," he said.
Excluding Jarrett and Rudd, who already have clinched starting
positions in the 43-car field for Sunday, the top 14 finishers in
each qualifying race will move into the 500-miler. The rest of the
lineup will be filled by the remaining fastest drivers from two
days of time trials and provisionals based on last year's team
owner points.
Dave Marcis will start 22nd in the second of the 28-car races.
He doesn't have good enough speed or enough points to fall back on
and must qualify on Thursday to extend his record string of Daytona
500 starts to 33.
