Earnhardt Is Willing to Try a New Tactic : Daytona 500: He takes Saturday off with hopes of finally winning the big one today in his 17th try.

For the first time since 1981, Dale Earnhardt took Saturday off before the Daytona 500.

He has always driven in the Goody’s 300 for Busch Grand National cars. He won the last five in his own black Chevrolet.

He said it helped him get ready for the 500-mile race the next day, but it never helped him win the 500. In 16 starts, he has finished second twice, third once, fourth once and fifth four times--but never first.

Once, he led 155 of the 200 laps before losing to little known Derrike Cope when he cut a tire on some debris less than a mile from the checkered flag. Earnhardt drove Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and Fords in the 500 before settling on Chevrolets when he joined Richard Childress’ team in 1984.

He has won seven Winston Cup championships, pulling even with Richard Petty, the retired king of stock car racing.

“As a champion seven times over, I think it’s time to focus my driving solely on Winston Cup, starting with the Daytona 500,” he said.

Jeff Green, of Owensboro, Ky., drove Earnhardt’s No. 3 Chevrolet in Saturday’s Goody’s 300 and finished seventh with Earnhardt coaching him on the radio.

Today, in the 37th annual Daytona 500, opening event of NASCAR’s $36-million Winston Cup series, Earnhardt, 43, will be well rested when he climbs into his new Chevy Monte Carlo, an aerodynamically sleek model that has dominated the season’s Daytona preliminaries.

Earnhardt won the Busch Clash in one, and he and defending 500 champion Sterling Marlin won the twin 125-mile qualifying heats in Monte Carlos. The only thing the Chevrolet has missed is the No. 1 qualifying spot, which went to Dale Jarrett’s Ford Thunderbird at 193.498 m.p.h.

Earnhardt also won the IROC Friday, bringing to 26 his number of victories on Daytona’s 2 1/2-mile tri-oval.

“I know y’all are thinking it’s bugging me that I haven’t won the 500 yet, but it’s bugging you (reporters) more than it is me,” Earnhardt said with a mischievous grin. “You know, if I don’t win, I’ve got next year and the year after. I’ll get it, don’t you worry.

“It’s pretty exciting to come down here with a new race car that has never run at Daytona and sit on the outside pole.”

The black No. 3, starting alongside Jarrett in the front row, will be the focus of the 150,000 spectators and the other 41 drivers when today’s race starts.

“I think they know he’s going to go to the front,” Childress said. “That’s what racing is all about. This should be Dale’s year to win the Daytona 500. Of course, I’ve thought that every year and it hasn’t happened yet, but this should be the year.”

Jarrett, who won the 1993 race by passing Earnhardt at the start of the final lap, believes his Ford can do it again.

“This team (Robert Yates Racing) knows how to win,” Jarrett said. “They won here with Davey Allison in 1992, and I know how to win and how to beat Earnhardt. We know who we’re chasing, and who we have to beat. Now, we’ve got to get out there and do it.

“The Fords didn’t win Thursday, but it was good to at least see Mark (Martin) and Bill (Elliott) run decent, and Rusty (Wallace) looked pretty good, so I think we’ll be OK. The first part of the race, they’re going to try and shuffle me back, but that part doesn’t pay anything. It’s when you get to the end of the race that moves start counting, and I think we’ll be there when it counts.”

There are some who think Marlin, not Earnhardt, may be in the dominant Chevrolet.

“The scary thing about Sterling (Marlin) is that he said his car wasn’t handling good in the 125,” Pontiac driver Mike Waltrip said. “I’d just like to have what he has for the race. He had his heat totally pulled apart. He pulled the whole draft apart, he was that strong.

“In the other race, Earnhardt had cars all piled up on top of him. He didn’t look nearly as strong.”

Waltrip’s older brother, Darrell, says no one should overlook him, even though he recently turned 48.

“I know some people don’t think I can win, but you might see one of those Joe Montana fourth-quarter comeback drives win the game,” he said.

Darrell Waltrip stole the 500 in 1989 when he snookered Earnhardt and others by not making a final stop for fuel when the others did.

“We’re ready to race the whole 500 miles, and I think if we can do it without getting in trouble somewhere, we can win it,” he said. “All I know is that you get smarter as you get older, and you’ve got to run the 500 different than you do other races. You’ve got to use your head. That’s how we won it before.”

When Waltrip won the 500, it was his 17th attempt. Today is Earnhardt’s 17th.

That probably means as much as Earnhardt’s taking Saturday off to change his luck.