Earnhardt Wins Daytona Pole

Dale Earnhardt got one big first out of the way Saturday by winning the pole position for the Feb. 18 Daytona 500 at Daytona Beach, Fla.

The seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion firmly established himself as the favorite to win the one major event that has eluded him by taking the pole with a lap of 189.510 mph.

Ernie Irvan, the 1991 Daytona winner who missed most of the season last year while recuperating from near fatal injuries sustained in a crash in August 1994, continued his comeback by taking the outside pole at 189.366.

Only the top two qualifiers in the opening round lock in starting positions in the 42-car lineup, with the rest of the speeds posted in time trials Saturday, Monday and Tuesday used to establish the lineups for Thursday’s Twin 125-mile qualifying races.

Baseball

The Baltimore Orioles avoided an arbitration hearing with Kent Mercker by signing the left-hander to a one-year contract with a club option for a second season.

Mercker, 28, will receive $2.8 million plus incentives in 1996. He was scheduled for an arbitration hearing Monday. He went 7-8 with a 4.15 earned-run average with the Atlanta Braves last season. He was traded to the Orioles on Dec. 17.

Infielder Luis Alicea and the Boston Red Sox agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract, nearly double his $800,000 salary in 1995.

Last year, Alicea hit .270 with 44 runs batted in. He had asked for $1,925,000 in arbitration and the Red Sox had offered $1 million.

Boxing

Carlos Salazar of Argentina retained his IBF super flyweight title with a sixth-round TKO of Italy’s Antonello Melis at Rome.

Salazar, 31, improved to 40-7-1 with 16 knockouts. Melis suffered his first loss in 16 pro fights.

WBC welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker was arrested and briefly jailed after scuffling with three off-duty officers during a party held for the NBA’s All-Star Weekend at San Antonio.

Whitaker, 32, was booked on two misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. He was released at 8 a.m. on two bonds of $800 each.

Winter Sports

Germany’s Stefan Krausse and Jan Behrendt won their fourth consecutive gold medal in a World Cup luge doubles event at Saint Moritz, Switzerland.

Krausse and Behrendt turned back Americans Chris Thorpe and Gordy Sheer by 16-hundredths of a second over two runs.

In single’s competition, Gerda Weissensteiner of Italy earned her second consecutive victory.

Russian Alexei Prokurorov won the 10th stage of the men’s World Cup cross-country ski race, which ended after 15 kilometers--half the scheduled distance--because below-zero weather delayed the start at Kavgolovskoye, Russia.

World Cup giant slalom leader Mike Jacoby of Hood River, Ore., took charge on the second run to win another snowboarding GS at Nagano, Japan while Sondra Van Ert of Ketchum, Idaho, won both runs to collect the first snowboarding World Cup victory in gate-running by a U.S. woman.

Christine Witty of West Allis, Wis., won the women’s 1,000-meter race at a World Cup speedskating meet at Innsbruck, Austria. . . . Germany relied on perfect shooting to clinch the gold medal in the women’s 4 x 7.5-kilometer relay event at the biathlon World Championships at Ruhpolding, Germany. . . . Janne Ahonen, an 18-year-old Finn, took the lead in the first day of the ski flying world championships, after soaring 191 meters for the day’s longest jump at Bad Mitterndorf, Austria.

Miscellany

The 1999 Super Bowl may have to be held elsewhere because the city of San Francisco doesn’t have the $26 million needed for Candlestick Park upgrades.

The city agreed to planned improvements at the park, including $8 million in upgrades the NFL would require, but San Francisco 49er President Carmen Policy and Mayor Willie Brown have suggested the NFL postpone San Francisco’s Super Bowl in light of the team’s attempt to develop a new stadium proposal.

Maria Mutola of Mozambique smashed one of the oldest world indoor records when she won the 1,000 meters in 2 minutes 32.08 seconds at Birmingham, England. She broke Brigitte Kraus’ 2:34.8 mark, set in 1978.

Carla Overbeck’s goal in the 83rd minute highlighted a second-half comeback as the United States women’s soccer team defeated Denmark, 2-1, in a pre-Olympic exhibition match at Orlando, Fla.