Pace, Place Suit Gordon Fine

FONTANA — In a two-hour celebration of stock car racing nostalgia, NASCAR named its drivers of the decades Friday night for the 50 years Winston Cup racing has been running on America’s race tracks.

The names were Herb Thomas from the 1950s, Richard Petty from the ‘60s, Cale Yarborough from the ‘70s, Darrell Waltrip from the ‘80s and Dale Earnhardt from the ‘90s. All were honored during a dramatic ceremony at a party at the majestic Wiltern Theatre in Hollywood.

As a postscript to the moment, NASCAR also announced a “Future NASCAR Legend” award.

The future is now.

Jeff Gordon, the young Californian from Vallejo by way of Pittsboro, Ind., is encroaching on Earnhardt’s decade.

It is only fitting that he will be on the pole today in his rainbow-colored Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the 12:30 p.m. start of the second California 500 at California Speedway.

In addition to being the pole-sitter with a one-lap speed of 181.772 mph, the 26-year-old Gordon is defending champion in the race and defending champion in the Winston Cup points race. No other driver has won 31 races and more than $17 million at such a young age. And he has done it in only six years.

When Gordon won his second championship last year, it came in only his fifth season. It took Petty, who received NASCAR’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his personality as well as for his driving, nine years, and Earnhardt eight before they won a second Winston Cup.

When Earnhardt won the first of his seven championships in 1980, Gordon was racing quarter-midgets in Northern California.

“I really enjoy racing in California, and at California Speedway,” Gordon said of last year’s win and today’s race. “It’s a very fast, flat track with plenty of room to pass. I think that all the drivers like side-by-side racing where there are opportunities to pass. California is a great place for that.

“I raced as a kid all around the state of California. I’ve missed it because, if you look at where my career has gone since the family moved to Indiana, I haven’t been back much except for the [Sears Point] races in Sonoma, but I love coming to Southern California.

“It makes me feel at home when I see all the NASCAR bumper stickers on cars out here, things you expect to see back East but don’t really expect to see out here. Having this great track here has really meant a lot to us.”

After nine of 33 Winston Cup races, Gordon is in fifth place but only 73 points behind leader Rusty Wallace, and only 11 out of third place. He has two wins, the GM Service Plus 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway and the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Wallace, who leads despite not having a win, will start on the second row after posting a 180.230-mph lap. Fords fill the next four positions behind Gordon with Jeremy Mayfield, Mark Martin, Wallace and Johnny Benson.

“We thought we’d go a little faster, but you know what we want, a consistent run and a strong finish,” said Wallace, who received an award Saturday in Victory Circle as first-quarter winner in Driver of the Year balloting.

“It’s a great honor to have won [this award],” he said. “I look at this as a tribute not only to me, but to our entire Penske South racing team. We’ve been focusing on the big picture, the 1998 championship, since the beginning of the year.”

In nine races this year, Wallace has finished sixth or better six times.

He is the only driver to have tested at California Speedway since last year’s race.

“I can’t say I don’t know this track, but in a way you never know a track,” he said. “It can change every lap. I think it changed a lot Friday between practice and qualifying.”

During qualifying, the third turn proved costly to several drivers. Dale Jarrett and Brett Bodine crashed during qualifying runs and Todd Bodine crashed during practice.

“That [third] turn is a little bit tighter as you’re coming in than the rest of the turns,” Gordon said. “It has kind of a flat transition where you’re going real fast and you’ve got to be careful not to drive in too deep. There’s no bumps or cracks or anything that sets the cars sideways. It’s just you can’t feel the car getting away from you until it’s too late.”

Gordon said he felt the second turn was equally as tricky.

“There’s a little bit of a dip [in the second turn]. The car wants to fall away from you a little bit there. Sometimes it’s the front end and sometimes it’s the rear end. You’ve got to be careful.”

Jarrett, who is fourth in points, qualified Saturday, but Brett Bodine and Wally Dallenbach Jr., a replacement for Todd Bodine, took provisional starting positions in the 43-car field.

Earnhardt, who failed to become one of the 25 first-day qualifiers Friday when he ran 177.866 mph in his Chevrolet, tried again Saturday and ran even slower, 177.419, so he took a champion’s provisional and will start 43rd and last.

More than 110,000 fans are expected for today’s 500-mile race over a D-shaped two-mile oval where only two years ago there were only rotting ruins of the Kaiser steel mill.

One of the saddest sights of the weekend was seeing Dave Marcis’ Realtree Racing transporter leaving the track during the running of IROC. Marcis, who Saturday night received a plaque with bronzed wingtip shoes, was named NASCAR’s Iron Man award for having endured for 31 years as an independent driver--who always wears black leather wingtips while driving.

But Saturday he was too slow. When all he could muster from his Chevy was 177.642, and out of provisionals, there was no place to go but back home to Avery’s Creek, N.C.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

California Speedway: TODAY’S RACE

What: California 500

Time: 12:30 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Radio: KCKC (1350)

Laps: 250

Pole: Jeff Gordon

Defending champion: Jeff Gordon

Purse: $2,343,916