MOTOR RACING : TWIN QUALIFYING RACES AT DAYTONA : Petty Steals the Thunder From Two Winners and One Pole-Loser

The King is back.

Richard Petty came out of the pack--and a time warp--Thursday to lead the first of the twin 125 qualifying races for 15 laps and bring the crowd of 95,000 at Daytona International Speedway to its feet, cheering for the blue and red No. 43 stock car.

It was the first time since July 4, 1984, that Petty, who has won the Daytona 500 seven times, had led a lap here.

Geoff Bodine, in Junior Johnson’s Ford, and Dale Earnhardt, in a Chevrolet, won the twin 125s, which serve as qualifying races for Sunday’s Daytona 500, but it was Petty who provided the most excitement.

Petty, 52, swept past defending 500 champion Darrell Waltrip on Lap 28 to take the lead and remained there until Lap 42, when he pitted for a splash of fuel along with the other members of the front-running group--Waltrip, pole-sitter Ken Schrader and Mark Martin. Only eight laps remained in the 50-lap sprint.

This permitted cars driven by Bodine and Harry Gant, neither of whom pitted, to finish first and second as Petty and the others could not make up the time lost during their stop. Martin finished third, Waltrip fourth and Petty fifth, followed by another racing legend, A.J. Foyt.

Schrader, who won the pole with a 196.515-m.p.h. lap during qualifying, spun out as Bodine was crossing the finish line and was hit by Hut Stricklin. Schrader’s Chevrolet was so badly damaged that it was withdrawn from Sunday’s race, and he will start in a backup car from the rear of the field.

Bodine’s victory was almost identical to what happened last year when Terry Labonte drove a Johnson Ford to win one of the 125s by conserving fuel and racing the 125 miles without a pit stop.

“We used a lower gear and couldn’t keep up with the lead cars but we set out to finish 125 miles without fueling, and we accomplished it,” Bodine said. “That was the plan we went into the race with.”

Earnhardt won the second race by pitting for four new tires during a caution period 12 laps from the end and then running up through the field with an impressive display of horsepower. Earnhardt, a three-time Winston Cup champion still looking for his first Daytona 500 victory, passed cars in gulps, picking off four before the pack reached the first turn on the restart.

Driving a black Chevrolet prepared by Richard Childress, Earnhardt got five more cars on the next lap, then two more the next time around, before he set out after the leaders, Dick Trickle and Jimmy Spencer, who were driving Pontiacs.

With Bill Elliott following right behind in a two-car draft, Earnhardt grabbed the lead on Lap 47, and the two of them finished going away. Spencer, on his 33rd birthday, came in third, but Trickle ran out of fuel two laps from the end and dropped to 22nd.

Normally, the talk along pit row after the twin 125s would have been of Bodine’s strategic victory and Earnhardt’s power, but Thursday was King Richard’s day, and his fellow drivers seemed as enthusiastic as the fans at seeing him in front.

“I was glad to see him back up there because maybe it showed people, who said he ought to retire, that he can still drive a race car,” Earnhardt said.

Bodine, who said he has been a Richard Petty fan since he began racing micro-midgets in 1955, added: “The way Richard ran today, he’ll definitely be a factor come Sunday.”

Petty, who led only once, for nine laps, during the entire 1989 season, was obviously pleased, but not with the outcome.

“It’s more fun being up front,” he said. “I know more people up there. I like being five (rows) from the front a lot better than being five from the back.” He will start 11th, in the sixth row, Sunday.

“One on one, we were as strong as anybody out there,” Petty said. “But together, they were better than me alone. We ran good and we ran in front, but if you look at the results it’s totally different. Circumstances dictate that the fastest car doesn’t always win.”

The circumstances also dictated that some of the participants weren’t sure what was going on .

“I thought I had won the race,” Martin said. He had been the first car out of the pits after he, Petty, Waltrip and Schrader had stopped for fuel.

“They came on the radio and told me I had outrun everybody on the track. It turned out they meant everybody but the ones who didn’t pit. Heck, I thought I won, dadgumit. I thought I was racing for the win and I was just trying to hold Kenny (Schrader) off at the end.”

Gant, who finished second, had about the same idea Martin had.

“At the end, I didn’t know who was the leader,” Gant said. “I didn’t know until two laps from the end that I was second behind Bodine.

“Around four laps to go, I looked up at the scoreboard and didn’t see my number. The reason was I was looking at the bottom of the scoreboard instead of the top. I figured I was somewhere near 10th.”

Schrader blamed himself for his last-lap accident, which also knocked Stricklin’s car out of the 500.

“I thought I was racing Martin for the win,” Schrader said. “If I’d have known I wasn’t, I would have backed off. I just plain old lost it. My car had been loose all day, and I didn’t see why it should act any different on the last lap, but coming out of (Turn) 3, it just started sliding.”

Rick Hendrick, who owns Schrader’s car, said his team would lend a Chevrolet for Stricklin to drive Sunday, since he had no backup.

NASCAR officials said Schrader will line up Sunday at the front of the field, alongside Earnhardt, the second-fastest qualifier. But when the field starts out behind the pace car, Schrader will wait at the side of pit road and fall in at the back, with everyone in the left line--led by Bodine--moving up one position.

Bodine and Earnhardt each collected $34,000 for his victory.