Earnhardt, Bodine Win Qualifiers

Dale Earnhardt charged from behind to win easily, and Geoff Bodine’s gamble on fuel mileage paid off in victory today in the twin 125-mile qualifying races for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Earnhardt led early in the second of the 50-lap races at Daytona International Speedway, then began to slip back into the pack with apparent handling problems.

A caution flag on lap 36 gave Earnhardt and some of the other leaders an opportunity to pit and make some adjustments.

After the stop, Earnhardt rocketed through the pack, drafting with two-time Daytona 500 champion Bill Elliott. The two were eighth and ninth on lap 41. On lap 48, Earnhardt took the lead from 1989 Rookie of the Year Dick Trickle, with Elliott fourth, just behind Jimmy Spencer.

Trickle spun off the track on the backstretch of lap 49 without damage, and Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Lumina went on to beat Elliott’s Ford Thunderbird to the finish line by 0.47 seconds.

Spencer was third, followed by Phil Parsons, Bobby Hillin Jr. and Derrike Cope.

The first race was dominated by Sunday’s pole starter Ken Schrader, defending Daytona 500 winner Darrell Waltrip, seven-time Daytona winner Richard Petty and Mark Martin. Those four drivers pitted for fuel at the same time on lap 43.

Schrader, Waltrip and Petty all led in the race.

Ricky Rudd inherited the lead and stayed on the track, hoping to go all the way, but he ran out of gas on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile oval two laps from the end.

That left Bodine’s Thunderbird on top, about two seconds ahead of Harry Gant’s Oldsmobile Cutlass. That’s the way it finished, with Bodine, driving only his second race for Junior Johnson, beating Gant to the finish line by 2.02 seconds.

Martin, who won the race out of the pits, finished a distant third, followed by Waltrip, Petty and A. J. Foyt.

Schrader, who will be one of the favorites in Sunday’s $2-million race, along with Earnhardt, Waltrip and Bodine, was running fifth coming off the fourth turn on the last lap but lost control, slid sideways and was hit by Hut Stricklin, who was pinched to the top of the track. Waltrip barely stayed out of the way.

Stricklin’s car was badly damaged, but the driver was not hurt.

Schrader’s car was not badly damaged, and he recovered to finish the race on pit road, taking seventh just ahead of Mike Alexander, driving his first race for Bobby Allison. Butch Miller was ninth.

The twin-125s determine positions 3 through 30 for Sunday’s field.