MOTOR RACING DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING : Schrader on the Pole Is Getting to Be a Habit

Qualifying day for the Daytona 500 turned out cool, cloudy and windy Saturday, but that didn’t make any difference to Ken Schrader, qualifier extraordinaire.

He put a Chevrolet Lumina on the pole for next Sunday’s $2-million race with a lap of 196.515 m.p.h. It was the third consecutive year that the former sprint car champion from Concord, N. C., had the pole position speed in one of Rick Hendrick’s stable of Chevrolets.

While other drivers complained wind buffeting their car in the turns and whitecaps were whipped up on the infield lake, Schrader calmly posted his time midway through the qualifying session, and then sat back and worried about anyone beating it.

No one came close.

Second fastest, and the only other driver to lock in his position for the 500, was three-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, who is still looking for his first victory in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt, who ran 195.767 early in the day in another Lumina, was not challenged until Schrader came out.

The remainder of the 42-car field will be determined by finishing positions in the Twin 125-mile qualifying races Thursday.

Schrader’s speed was slightly slower than last year’s 196.997 in a Chevy Monte Carlo SS. In 1988, he qualified at 193.823.

The Daytona record is 210.364, set by Bill Elliott in a Ford in 1987, the year before carburetor restrictor plates were mandated to slow the cars.

“We were slower than we’d hoped to run, maybe a couple of tenths, but it was the same for everyone,” Schrader said. “The wind hurt, especially in (turn) four, but the track was slicker than we’d have liked. It hasn’t rained since the 24-hour race (last weekend) and all those sports cars laid down a lot of rubber.

“It was a real problem getting the car set up right to get around the track as fast as I figured we had to go.”

Schrader joined the late Fireball Roberts and Elliott as the only drivers to win the pole for the 500 in three consecutive years. Roberts, a stock car racing pioneer, did it in 1961-62-63 and Elliott in 1985-86-87.

“Getting my name alongside Roberts and Elliott is nice, because they’re great names, but it wouldn’t do near as much for me as it would be to see my name as a one-time winner of the Daytona 500. Especially this year.”

Schrader was referring to the $212,800 bonus for the first driver to win a Winston Cup race after winning the pole. For Saturday, Schrader collected $8,500.

The Busch Clash, a 20-lap, 50-mile dash today that pays $50,000 to the winner, has one of the strangest lineups in stock car racing history.

Darrell Waltrip, the defending Daytona 500 champion, and Earnhardt, runner-up in last year’s Winston Cup, are not in it.

Jimmy Hensley, who will start on the pole, has never driven in a Winston Cup race on a superspeedway. Greg Sachs, who will start alongside Hensley, will drive a Hendrick Motorsports research and development car that has been used recently to film scenes in the Tom Cruise motion picture, “Days of Thunder.”

The Clash is for pole winners from the previous season, and neither Waltrip nor Earnhardt earned one. Neither did Sachs. He got in the 10-driver field as a wild card selection among drivers who posted the best second-day time during the 29-race season.

Hensley, 44, drives an oil truck out of Horsepasture, Va., for a living and has raced sportsman cars for 24 years.

He qualified first in Earnhardt’s car at Martinsville, Va., when Earnhardt was unable to get from Charlotte, N. C., to Martinsville because of Hurricane Hugo. When car owner Richard Childress learned that Earnhardt would be late, he called Hensley, who lives about seven miles from the track.

“All my life, I’d dreamed about qualifying (for) a Winston Cup (race), especially at Martinsville, and when I got the chance I decided to make the most of it,” Hensley said.

“I almost didn’t get the chance. Earnhardt walked into the pits just as I was qualifying. A few minutes earlier and I’d have missed the opportunity. One of the big thrills for me was having Dale shake my hand when I came in.”

Behind Hensley and Sachs will be the giants of NASCAR--excluding Waltrip and Earnhardt. Row by row, it will be Schrader and Elliott, Geoff Bodine and Alan Kulwicki, Rusty Wallace and Morgan Shepherd and Davey Allison and Mark Martin.

Also today will be the American Racing Club of America (ARCA) 200 for late model cars.

Patty Moise, stock car racing’s top-rated female driver, will start on the pole for the second year in a row. The Jacksonville, Fla., driver qualified her Buick V-8 at 194.536 m.p.h., nearly two miles faster than second-place Bob Keselowski, defending ARCA Permatex series champion from Rochester Hills, Mich.

Richie Petty, a nephew of Richard and cousin of Kyle, qualified for his Daytona debut in the ARCA race, but late Saturday he was involved in a six-car crash during practice that knocked him out of today’s race. Petty was not injured, but the family’s Chevrolet, prepared by his father, Maurice, was said to be unrepairable.

The chain-reaction accident was started when an Olds driven by Ben Hess broke loose at the front of a pack of cars and following drivers, including young Petty, could not avoid it.

“There was nothing I could do,” Petty said. “I was out there learning to draft behind Red Farmer and suddenly I saw Hess get sideways. Everyone threw their hands up, and the next thing I was in a big cloud of smoke.

“I thought I could make it through, and then it was like I hit a ton of bricks. I couldn’t see a thing and I hit Slick Johnson in the back. We’re out of the race, that’s for sure.”