Marlin Gets Knocked Out of Qualifying Race : Daytona 500: It doesn’t affect his pole position, but time-trials winner blames Earnhardt for incident in Twin 125.

Fortunately for Sterling Marlin, he still gets to start on the pole Sunday in the Daytona 500 even though he finished only 19 of 50 laps Thursday in the first of two Gatorade Twin 125 qualifying races, witnessed by a crowd estimated at 100,000.

Marlin, who earned the No. 1 starting position with a speed of 192.213 m.p.h. in time trials last Sunday in his Junior Johnson-prepared Ford Thunderbird, was leading when he was spun into the infield grass by defending Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

Earnhardt, in a Chevrolet, went on to win the qualifier, worth $35,400 and a spot in the second row right behind Marlin in the 500. Bill Elliott, Marlin’s new Ford teammate, won the second 125-mile race in near wire-to-wire fashion and collected $35,200. He gave up the front briefly to Davey Allison and quickly regained it.

Marlin, after viewing tapes of the first heat accident, criticized Earnhardt for forcing the incident.

“He hung me in the rear quarter panel down the short chute,” Marlin said. “You’d think a guy like that, who had won a lot of championships, would race a little cleaner, but whatever.

“Then, after that, I was really minding my own business and he turned me around over there (in the fourth turn). It was a real quick turnaround. I didn’t hit anything, but every time I came around I saw that wall staring at me.”

Marlin wound up on the infield grass, his car so bent from the spinning that it could not continue.

Not surprisingly, Earnhardt had a more innocent viewpoint.

“I got up in there behind the 22 car (Marlin) and he got loose and I tapped him,” he said. “I got on the brakes as I tapped him and just tried to clear him. It wasn’t my fault or his fault. I hope he’s not too awful mad at me.”

It was one of three accidents that knocked 10 drivers out of the race, including Richard and Kyle Petty, A.J. Foyt, and Dale Jarrett, driving in Washington Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs’ first race as a car owner.

It was Foyt’s second accident in two days. He crashed his own Oldsmobile during practice Wednesday and borrowed Rick Mast’s backup Olds from owner Richard Jackson for the Twin 125. After Thursday’s accident, he borrowed another Olds from driver Eddie Bierschwale for Sunday’s race.

“What’s his name, Kulwicki, was sitting in the middle of the race track and I didn’t have nowhere to go,” Foyt said. “Somebody hit me, then I hit them. Just one of them deals.”

Kulwicki, running in the middle of a pack of cars on the seventh lap, lost control and turned sideways coming out of the fourth turn. Before the banging and spinning was over, seven cars were sidelined.

Petty, who will be in his final Daytona 500, a race he had won seven times, tried to continue. But after limping his Pontiac around the track for a couple of laps, he turned into the garage.

“We were all running in line, and the No. 7 car came out of the crowd sideways or backward,” Petty said. “I tried to cut to the inside and when I did, the 12 car (Hut Stricklin) spun right in front of me. I pushed him down through the grass and messed the front end all up.”

Jarrett was the only driver who admitted his mistake. He lost control in the fourth turn on Lap 37 and took Kyle Petty out with him.

“I got myself in a bad position and couldn’t get the car back where I wanted it, and I just messed up,” Jarrett said. “I tried to turn the car a little bit too much and I was going through a bump at the same time and it just lifted the back end up and there I sat. It was all Dale Jarrett’s fault.”

All the drivers involved in the accidents will start Sunday, but behind the first 28 who qualified according to their finishing positions in the Twin 125s.

The first race apparently served as a lesson to drivers in the second race as they finished 50 laps with only one yellow flag and that for a car that briefly slid out of control.

Elliott, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, was in command after he regained the lead from Allison, who led for about half a mile 10 laps from the finish. Allison had moved up from last place where he had to start after an accident on Wednesday forced him to drive a backup car.

Elliott was challenged on the final lap by Morgan Shepherd, who finished second just ahead of Allison as Fords ran 1-2-3. With only one caution flag for four laps, Elliott averaged 169.811 m.p.h. for the 44-minute 10-second race.

In the first race, GM cars took seven of the first eight places with only Mark Martin’s Ford, in second place behind Earnhardt, breaking the monopoly. Earnhardt’s winning speed was only 116.430 because 20 of the 50 laps were run under the caution flag.

Daytona Notes

Geoff Brabham, International Motor Sports Assn. sports car champion, will lead off the opening race of the International Race of Champions series in a lime green Dodge today at Daytona.

Brabham, who won the pole in a draw of starters, also started on the pole last year but when he hesitated at the start he was passed by all 11 other drivers.

“This time, when the pace car disappears, I’m going to stomp on the gas and have some fun,” Brabham said Thursday.

The race, among 12 drivers from various racing organizations, will be 100 miles, or 40 laps around Daytona’s oval. Each will be in Dodge Daytonas as identically prepared as possible. This year will be the first time all IROC events will be on ovals.