Winners Go to the Head of the Class

For Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and rookie Tony Stewart, it’s a free ride, but for the other 57 drivers hoping to make it into Sunday’s Daytona 500 through today’s Gatorade Twin 125s, it’s qualifying time.

Gordon and Stewart, by virtue of having the fastest two cars in last Saturday’s time trials, are guaranteed starting positions in the front row. The others will race for theirs. The first 15 in each of today’s 125-mile races will qualify, with the remaining spots in the 43-car field determined by qualifying speeds or their ranking in last year’s Winston Cup car owner’s standings.

Although he is in the 500, much of the focus on the 125s has been on Stewart, who will be running in his first Winston Cup race, driving a Pontiac for former NFL coach Joe Gibbs. He will start on the pole today in front of a group that includes Dale Earnhardt, last year’s winner, and Rusty Wallace, who has been fastest during most practice sessions.

“Jeff [Gordon] keeps reminding me that I’m going to get a schooling in the 125,” said Stewart, like Gordon a former open-wheel champion who switched to stock cars. “He’s absolutely right. He knows because he’s been there. What’s important is that you learn from your schooling.

“Trust me, it’s a big book. It’s bigger than the Encyclopedia Britannica. There’s chapter after chapter that must be learned in order to be good in this series. I hope I’m a quick study.”

Gordon, who qualified his Chevrolet at 195.067 mph, will start on the pole in the first race. Stewart, who ran 194.553, will start in front in the second heat.

“I was only half-kidding Tony,” Gordon said. “I know he’ll learn a lot racing in the 125, the way I did in 1993, when I was a rookie.

“I got schooled quite a bit. I told Tony that if Earnhardt gets up there, he’ll be schooling him too.”

It would be shocking if Earnhardt did not get to the front. He has won his 125 heat the last nine years in a row. He will start fifth today.

“It doesn’t help you [that you’ve won in the past] to win it this time,” Earnhardt said. “You’ve just got to go out and work hard and get ready and do it again this year. It’s as hard to work back to the top as it was to win it.”

Stewart has started on the pole at Daytona International Speedway before, in an IROC race, and he hopes for a better fate today.

“I got lucky enough to draw the pole position for the IROC race here last year,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t real excited about it after I got to turn one because I had slid back from first to about fifth.

“On the other hand, I’ve started on the front row of Busch races in the past and we ran in the top-five the majority of the day in the Busch race here last year. I may be a rookie in Winston Cup racing, but this is my 20th year in racing. When they drop the green [flag], it’s going to be business as usual.”

Qualifying speeds mean less here than at most Winston Cup races. Only seven times in 40 races has the pole-sitter won the 500 and no one has accomplished it since Bill Elliott in 1987. Elliott will start 17th in today’s second race.

“For the 125 and the 500, you can throw qualifying right out the door because now it’s time to start handling and get that car to stay on the white line around the bottom and never have to lift the throttle,” said Gordon, who has won seven races here--Twin 125 in 1993, Daytona 500 in 1997, Pepsi 400 in 1995 and 1998, IROC in 1998, and Busch Clash in 1994 and 1997.

Daytona Notes

In the first step toward retirement, NASCAR President Bill France Jr. turned over the reins of the stock car racing sanctioning body to Mike Helton, who was named senior vice president and chief operating officer of NASCAR. France, 66, will continue in his position as president, but with lessened responsibilities. Helton assumes ultimate authority on all day-to-day decisions. “I’m still the president, but where I might have stuck my nose in some different issues in the past, I’m staying out of it,” France said. “For instance, we have not approved the 1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. I’ll let Mike Helton and Gary Nelson [Winston Cup director] take care of that. My role depends on how the fish are biting.”

Daytona 500

* Race: Sunday, 9 a.m. PST, at Daytona Beach, Fla. (500 miles, 200 laps).

* TV: Channel 2.

* Qualifying: Today, twin 125-mile qualifying races (Channel 2, tape, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.). Jeff Gordon took the pole last Saturday, bumping rookie Tony Stewart out of the top spot with a lap of 195.067 mph. Stewart had a lap of 194.599 to lock up the outside spot in the front row in the unique qualifying format.

* Track: Daytona International Speedway (tri-oval, 2 1/2 miles, 31 degrees banking in corners, 18 degrees in tri-oval).

* Defending champion: Dale Earnhardt raced to his first victory in NASCAR’s premier event, beating Bobby Labonte to the finish line during a caution period on lap 199.

* Up next: North Carolina 400, Feb. 21, Rockingham, N.C.