Western 500 at Riverside : Owner/Driver Hendrick Among the Qualifiers

Rick Hendrick III, a wealthy stock-car owner who decided to try racing himself, was one of three Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet drivers who qualified Friday for the 27th Winston Western 500.

Another was Geoff Bodine, who won the pole with a lap 117.934 m.p.h. It was Bodine’s first pole win here, although he won the race in 1984. The third Hendrick qualifier was Benny Parsons, the 1973 NASCAR champion, who coaxed 115.621 from his Chevy.

The fourth Hendrick car, driven by five-time Riverside winner Darrell Waltrip, didn’t make it.

While Hendrick, who owns a nationwide chain of auto dealerships, qualified the No. 25 car at 114.664 m.p.h. for 21st place in the field, Waltrip ended up spinning in the second turn and returned to the pits without finishing a lap.

Hendrick was driving the car that Tim Richmond drove here last June when he won the Budweiser 400. Richmond also would have been the defending champion Sunday, having won last November, but he recently quit the team after reportedly suffering a relapse of double pneumonia.

Richmond set the track record of 118.247 m.p.h. last year.

“The track is rougher than it was last year,” Bodine said. “That, plus not being able to cut through the dirt on some of the corners, might have slowed us down a bit.”

Heavy rains earlier in the week made mud out of the dirt, and it is not only dangerous, but having mud on the tires makes for a more slippery ride.

Bodine also said he profited by being the first car on the track for qualifying.

“I had a clean track, no debris or dirt,” he said. “I’m sure by the time some of the other fast cars, like (Terry) Labonte’s, got out, there was a lot of mud and crud on the track. That definitely helped.”

Ricky Rudd, who was the second driver to qualify, also had the second-fastest speed, 117.696. That set up a front row for Sunday’s 500-kilometer (310.5-mile) race of former winners, Bodine in 1984 and Rudd in 1985.

Sunday’s race will be the first Cup start for Hendrick, a former drag boat racer from Charlotte, N. C.

“All of us on the team are all excited--maybe I should say concerned--to have Rick in the field,” Bodine said. “We just hope he doesn’t get into an accident or get hurt, but he’s been around racing enough to know how to take care of himself.

“He’s a competitor, though. I noticed he swapped a little paint with Dale (Earnhardt) out there during practice.”

Earnhardt, who clinched his second straight Cup championship two weeks ago at Rockingham, N. C., qualified eighth at 115.896.

Hendrick, 38, seemed less apprehensive about his ride than his teammates/employees.

“I decided to run because we had two Folgers cars ready and only one driver (Parsons),” Hendrick said. “Since I was just a kid, I’ve driven as many race cars and race boats as I could, and worked on and built an awful lot of them.”

Although he qualified only sixth, Bill Elliott clinched a $30,000 bonus for winning the most Cup poles this season. Davey Allison is second with five, but when he failed Friday, it meant Elliott was the winner.

The season will end Nov. 22 with the Atlanta Journal 500.

Only the fastest 25 cars qualified Friday; the remainder of the field will be determined today, starting at 10 a.m.

Among those who missed in the first round, besides Waltrip, were Hershel McGriff, a 14-time winner of support races at Riverside, 113.576; Chad Little, the new Winston West champion, 112.520; Tom Kendall, the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GTU champion making his stock car debut, 111.740, and Brad Noffsinger, the California Racing Assn. sprint car champion, 109.884.

Jon Pacques, a 20-year-old former kart and dirt-track driver from Albuquerque, N. M., won the pole for today’s NASCAR Southwest tour race for Grand American cars. Pacques ran a 114.935-m.p.h. lap in his Chevrolet.

Bobby Allison, who is driving a Buick as a tuneup for Sunday’s race, qualified 34th at 108.749.