Skinner, Earnhardt Find Daytona to Their Liking

Daytona International Speedway proved to be just the track for Dale Earnhardt to snap out of a horrible slump. It also proved to be a good track again for his teammate, Mike Skinner.

Skinner, the 40-year-old rookie who won the pole at the Daytona 500 in February, did it again Thursday with a fast lap of 189.777 mph. He beat Earnhardt by .004 of a second on a brutally hot day of qualifying to win the pole for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Saturday’s race will be the first this year with Earnhardt, the seven-time Winston Cup champion, starting in the front row. He hasn’t won in his last 42 races and hasn’t sat on the pole since Aug. 11, 1996.

Pro Basketball

The Chicago Bulls are waiting for Coach Phil Jackson to end a long motorcycle trip before resuming contract talks for next season, team owner Jerry Reinsdorf said.

“I will call him the first chance I can and when we have something to announce, we will announce it,” he said. “This is the last update I’ll give concerning him. The next time I speak regarding him, it will be because we have agreed to a deal or have agreed not to agree.”

The Indiana Pacers signed forward Austin Croshere, the 12th pick in the draft, to a three-year contract worth more than $4 million.

Jurisprudence

Houston Rocket guard Sedale Threatt was charged with driving under the influence and five other counts stemming from a single-vehicle accident in which he was injured. Police in Paradise Valley, Ariz., said the former Laker had a blood-alcohol content of .236, more than twice the legal level, when his car went out of control at near 110 mph, hit a tree and overturned early on June 26.

Jermaine O’Neal, 18, of the Portland Trail Blazers, missed his court hearing for a disorderly conduct charge at Columbia, S.C., saying afterward he had thought he didn’t need to be there. O’Neal was fined $300.

Former Nebraska wide receiver Jon Vedral, 22, has been fined $200, put on probation for nine months and ordered not to drive for 60 days on a drunken driving conviction. . . . Baylor starting quarterback Jeff Watson was suspended indefinitely after he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

College Sports

Bill Olsen is stepping down as athletic director at the University of Louisville, a program recently beset by NCAA violations. The athletic program is on two years’ probation for allowing its athletes use of private vehicles. . . . Bill Self, who transformed Oral Roberts from a cross-town loser into a fierce rival, was hired to succeed Steve Robinson as basketball coach at Tulsa. . . . Kansas State, which forfeited 11 women’s basketball games in 1995-96 after discovering illegal payments to players and recruits, was put on two years’ probation by the NCAA. The probation can be broken by violations in any sport. . . . Reports that Colorado athletes had made improper telephone calls apparently were underestimated. An internal audit documented 2,710 unauthorized long-distance calls made by 25 individuals that cost the university $3,918. The university would not release the names of the 25 athletes who used the stolen access codes.

Miscellany

The Houston Oilers have severed ties to the city and state that had been their home for 37 years before a move to Tennessee. The agreement was the last step the Oilers needed to leave Houston, where they first started to play in 1960 as a charter member of the old American Football League.

The heavy and lightweight single scullers representing the United States in this year’s world rowing championships will meet today in quarterfinal action at the Henley Royal Regatta at Henley, England. Jamie Koven, a 203-pounder from Brown University takes on Augusta Rowing Center’s Steve Tucker, who weighs only 151. They advanced after winning their diamond sculls heats.

Salsipuedes, skippered by Fred Frye of San Diego, held a 133-mile lead over Inquisitor as the cruiser class neared the halfway point of the Transpacific sailing race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. The race’s fastest boats, the multihulls, will start Monday from the Los Angeles Yacht Club. . . . Hong Kong will continue to compete as a separate entity in international sports even though the territory has been returned to Chinese sovereignty, the IOC decided. . . . George Weah of Liberia led the FIFA World team to a 5-3 victory over an Asian all-star soccer squad in drenching rain to win the Reunification Cup at Hong Kong. . . . Organizers called off next month’s Sestriere track and field meet at Sestriere, Italy, saying the cost of running the event had grown too high. . . . Teresa Gordon-Dick, 12, of Redwood Valley, Calif., pinned four of her five male opponents and became USA Wrestling’s first female national champion in a co-ed bracket at Waterloo, Iowa.