Winning Pole Makes Schrader a Longshot in Race at Phoenix

Kenny Schrader has won nine times at Phoenix International Raceway, but never in a Winston Cup race.

The 43-year-old veteran from Fenton, Mo., took a step Friday toward adding to his victory total when he won the pole position for Sunday’s DuraLube/Kmart 500 with a lap of 131.234 mph in the Skoal Bandit Chevrolet.

“It might have helped the first year, having been here in an open-wheel car, but after that I doubt if it made much difference,” Schrader said of his knowledge of the track. “These Winston Cup guys learn pretty fast, you know.”

Schrader’s nine wins on the Phoenix Mile came in three U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown races, four USAC midget main events and two NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour races--including the 1998 season opener in February.

“If you don’t win a Cup race, those other ones don’t count,” he said. “Somehow, we’ve got to get a win one of these days. It seems like it was 1906 since we’ve won one.”

Actually, it was 1991.

History doesn’t give much hope for Schrader this year, either. No pole winner has won a Winston Cup race at Phoenix, going back to the 1988 inaugural. Schrader also started from the pole in 1989, but finished 13th.

“You know how much I want to win this race?” he asked. “This thing pays 80 grand or something to win. I’d pay 80 grand out of my own pocket to stand up there on top of that podium on Sunday.”

Another veteran of open-wheel racing here, Winston Cup rookie Kenny Irwin Jr., will start on the front row with Schrader. He ran 131.205 mph in a Ford, his time around the mile oval only .006 of a second off the pole.

“It’s good to have Kenny starting alongside me,” Schrader said. “We’ve both done well here, and even if it’s no big advantage driving-wise, it always gets you pumped up to come back where you’ve won.”

Irwin won the 1994 Silver Crown race here. This will be the first time he has started on the front row in a Cup race.

Jeff Gordon, who needs to score only 12 points more than Mark Martin to clinch his third Winston Cup championship--and its $2-million bonus--in four years, will start 12th. Only four times in 30 races this season has he started farther back.

Gordon will be able to keep an eye on Martin, his only challenger, as they are starting in the same row. Martin ran 129.884 mph, Gordon 129.847, which is just about how close they have run most of the year. Eight times in the last 14 races, the two have finished within one position of each other.

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NASCAR DuraLube/Kmart 500

* Where: Phoenix.

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, race, 11 a.m., TNN

* Track: Phoenix International Raceway (oval, 1.0 miles, 11 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 9 degrees in turns 3-4).

* Race distance: 312 miles (500 kilometers), 312 laps.

* Last year: Dale Jarrett raced to the last of seven 1997 victories, beating Rusty Wallace by 2.105 seconds. Bobby Hamilton finished third.

* Fast facts: Jeff Gordon can end the championship race Sunday if he earns 12 more points than runner-up Mark Martin. Gordon needs only to finish among the top 32 in each of the final three races to wrap up the title and the $2 million bonus that goes with it. He has 17 consecutive top-five finishes.