Labonte Brothers Get Front Row Seats

All week long, a Labonte had been the fastest driver in practice at Daytona International Raceway, but it was Terry, not Bobby, who was the heavy favorite to win the pole for next Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Bobby, younger of the racing brothers from Corpus Christi, Tex., upstaged his two-time Winston Cup champion sibling on a cold and blustery Saturday with a lap of 192.145 mph in Joe Gibbs’ Interstate Pontiac on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway trioval.

That was enough to drop Terry’s 192.127 mph effort, in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, to second.

“Man, Terry’s going to be mad at me,” exclaimed Bobby as he climbed out of his car. “I might not be able to go back to the motorhome tonight.”

Terry, 41, eight years older than Bobby, did not seem particularly upset. “We did the best we could. We’re happy. As long as we didn’t get it, I’m happy that Bobby did.”

It was the 11th pole of Bobby’s six years in Winston Cup racing. Last year, he finished well, winning the final race, the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, for his only victory.

“It was pretty special for our family to come down here for the 50th anniversary of NASCAR and sit on the front row together,” said Bobby, “but it’s only the second best day we’ve had together. The best was in Atlanta two years ago when I won the race and Terry won the [Winston] championship.”

The green No. 18 will be the first Pontiac to start on the 500 pole since Kyle Petty in 1993.

It was the first time brothers had won the right to fill the front row for a Daytona 500. The margin between them was less than a tenth of a second for the 2.5 miles.

“The difference might have been a little gust of wind, maybe it helped me get that little tenth of a second,” said Bobby. “It really doesn’t make any difference now, what it was. It was good enough.

“The Pontiac is a brand new race car, but I think one thing that helped was that Jimmy Makar and the guys in the shop got it early and had more time than usual to get it ready for Daytona. As far as I’m concerned, they did 99.9 percent of what it took to get the pole.”

No one threatened the Labontes, who posted their times early and waited for the 55-car field to complete its two laps of qualifying.

Ken Schrader. who had been No. 1 qualifier three consecutive years here in 1988, 1989 and 1990, is third at 191.787, followed by seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, 191.006.

Earnhardt, who has gone 96 races without a victory and has never won the Daytona 500 in 19 starts, was pleased with his performance.

“That’s a lot quicker than we tested,” he said. “The engine shop did a great job. We’ve got a real good race car, thanks to a lot of hard work from [crew chief] Larry McReynolds and the guys.

“We’re ready to go racing. We tested nine full days for two-lap qualifying runs. Now we’ll keep on working and making it better for 500 miles. I’m ready. I can’t wait for next Sunday. Maybe this will be my year at Daytona.”

Earnhardt and everyone else but the Labontes must wait until Thursday, however, to learn their 500 starting positions. They will be determined by their finishing positions in the Gatorade Twin 125-mile qualifying races.

The new Ford Taurus did not fare well in its debut, replacing the Thunderbird as the Ford factory’s car of choice for Winston Cup racing. Three Pontiacs and four Chevrolets qualified before the fastest Ford, Rusty Wallace’s 190.444.

Jeff Gordon, defending Winston Cup champion and last year’s Daytona 500 winner, qualified 11th, the fifth-highest Chevrolet, at 189.930 mph.

Gordon, too, was pleased with his effort.

“That’s as fast as we’ve run since we’ve been here,” he said. “And that’s what you hope to do when you go out there. As good as my race car is handling, I’m real happy. It wasn’t necessarily our fastest car. I think it’ll be great in the race.”

Gordon’s fastest car--the one he drove last year--may be on display at Daytona USA, where the winning car in the Daytona 500 is obliged to remain for a year.

The new $1 million Winston bonus, called the No Bull 5, may have stimulated the five eligible drivers and their crews to make an extra effort in qualifying. Of the five drivers eligible for the prize if they win next Sunday’s race, four qualified in the top five--Bobby Labonte first, Terry Labonte second, Schrader third and John Andretti fifth. Only Ernie Irvan, who is 14th, is not among the leaders.

Eligibility is based on finishing in the top five in the previous Winston No Bull 5 race, in this case last season’s DieHard 500 at Talladega.