Results Leave Gordon Feeling Doubly Good

It was a new experience Friday for Jeff Gordon as stock car racing’s leading man jumped back and forth between his Winston Cup and his Busch Grand National cars while practicing and qualifying for this weekend’s NASCAR spectacular at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Double duty is nothing new for drivers such as Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, Geoff Bodine and Jimmy Spencer, who regularly run Busch races as tuneups for their Winston Cup efforts.

But Gordon has not raced a Busch car since he stepped up to the Winston Cup in the final race of 1992. Before that, he had raced two years in the Busch series.

“It was a great feeling,” Gordon said after qualifying 11th at 169.205 mph for Sunday’s Las Vegas 400 and second at 165.330 mph for today’s Sam’s Town 300 Busch race.

“I went and drove the high-powered Winston Cup car and qualified that first. We did OK, but I think that helped me to qualify the Busch car. And I’m hoping that on Saturday the Busch race will actually help me for Sunday’s race.

“This is great for me to go back and forth and run these two cars. It really brought back some memories from back when I was driving a Ford for Bill Davis in the Grand Nationals. We’re really looking forward to both races. Things just continued to progress all day long.”

Gordon didn’t play favorites. He practiced 33 laps in the Cup car, and 32 in the Busch car.

Both cars are No. 24, but they don’t look alike, nor do they run alike. The Pepsi-sponsored red, white and blue Busch car has about 200 less horsepower than the rainbow DuPont Cup car.

“With that 9-to-1 compression engine, it definitely is different from driving the Winston Cup cars,” Gordon said of the Busch car. “You can drive so much deeper into the corners here . . . than you ever would with the Winston Cup car, but you don’t carry the corner speed off, or the speed at the end of the straightaway.”

Bobby Labonte, in one of Joe Gibbs’ Pontiacs, won the pole for Sunday’s race with a track-record 170.643 mph.

“We came here and tested in January and the car worked flawlessly all day,” Labonte said.

His speed bettered the record of 168.224 mph set by Dale Jarrett in the inaugural race last year.

Jarrett, in a Ford, ran faster Friday, 169.348 mph, but it was good only for ninth place.

Only the fastest 25 cars qualified for the Las Vegas 400. The rest of the field will try again today, among them Dale Earnhardt, Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace.

Martin will be on the pole for today’s Busch race after qualifying at 165.715 mph in his Ford, with Gordon alongside.

“This is a great racetrack and one of the nicest I’ve ever driven on, so I look forward to getting out there and get racing tomorrow,” said Martin, who is defending champion in Sunday’s race.

Gordon and his Winston Cup crew chief, Ray Evernham, decided at the end of last season to put together a Busch series team and have Gordon drive in five races. Evernham and Brooke Gordon, Jeff’s wife, are the owners.

“It just got put together, but Ray and I’ve talked about running a Busch car a long time,” Gordon said. “We needed sponsorship, people and personnel, and it all came together.”

Auto Racing Notes

Winston Cup driver Jerry Nadeau, after qualifying eighth for Sunday’s Las Vegas 400, stepped down into the Winston West and drove a Ford to an easy victory in the Orleans 150 under the lights. Ron Hornaday, NASCAR Craftsman Truck champion from Palmdale, finished second. Ricky Craven, another Winston Cup driver, was third, followed by Sammy Potashnick and Austin Cameron of El Cajon, the third Winston West regular to finish.

Las Vegas 400

* When: Today, second-round qualifying, 11:30 a.m.; Sunday, race, 11:30 a.m., Channel 7.

* Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* Defending champion: Mark Martin.