Record Day for Skinner

Mike Skinner scored a rare double in qualifying rounds Friday at California Speedway.

First, he was the fastest second-day qualifier for today’s Busch race, and then he came back in his Lowe’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo to win the pole for Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500 Winston Cup race.

Skinner, who was born a few miles from the speedway in Ontario, qualified at 186.061 mph in his Cup car, a track record for stock cars, after posting a 176.991 lap in his Albertson’s Chevy Busch car. Twenty-four cars bettered the 1997 record of 183.753 by Greg Sachs.

“I’ll tell you, it scared the hell out of me,” the burly Skinner said of his Winston Cup run. “Yeah, I was breathing pretty heavy for a minute. Man, I’ll tell you what. That was a handful. I’m glad it’s over with.

“We didn’t get a perfect lap. I just got a little too aggressive, I got a little too high on both ends of the race track.”

Almost as happy as the pole winner was the Big K Mart pair of Jimmy Spencer and Darrell Waltrip.

Spencer earned a front-row spot with his 185.979-mph lap, and the 53-year-old Waltrip, in the farewell year of a career that includes three Winston Cup championships won nearly two decades ago, was a surprising seventh.

“First of all, I love this race track,” Waltrip gushed. “I’ve had a good time every time I’ve been here mainly because of the people. The people love me out here. I’ve been coming to Southern California for 30 years--Riverside, Ontario and now here. I’m just tickled to death to be here.”

The last time Waltrip had a top-five finish was at California Speedway in 1998 when he was fifth. His best previous starting position this year was 26th at Talladega, Ala.

“Our goals [in qualifying] were to try and be in the top 25,” Spencer said. “That’s very important for practice and for race trim so being second is pretty special.

“It’s a new generation [of cars] for Darrell and me, but it’s not for the other Fords. We’ve just been noticing that our cars don’t look like other Tauruses. We’ve just learned a lot about these bodies and Ford has been a big help because they gave us a lot of wind-tunnel time.”

Although Skinner had the fastest Busch car on the second day, it only earned him the 26th starting position today as the first 25 were locked in Thursday.

A Who’s Who of NASCAR, including Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett and former champions Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, failed to make the top 25 for Sunday’s race and must either make a second run today or stand on their first-round speed.

Tony Stewart, last year’s rookie of the year, continued his sophomore jinx. In nine races, Stewart has not led a lap and was able to run only 183.006 mph, good for 31st. If all goes right for Stewart in today’s “Happy Hour,” he plans to head to Irwindale Speedway to drive one of Kenny Smith’s cars tonight in a super late model race.

On an overcast day ordered for speed, Skinner posted his lap early in the afternoon and then had to sweat out 40 other drivers trying to better his speed.

“It probably won’t hold up,” he said after climbing out of his Chevy. But it did. It was the fifth pole of Skinner’s career.

Winning the pole at California Speedway for a Winston Cup race is no guarantee of success. In three previous races, no pole-sitter has won. Joe Nemechek finished 18th in 1997, Jeff Gordon fourth in 1998 and Jeff Burton second last year.

But it does pay to start near the front. All three previous winners started from fifth or better--Gordon and Martin third, respectively, in 1997 and 1998, and Gordon fifth last year. That could mean that Sunday’s winner will come from Skinner, Spencer, Ricky Rudd, Ward Burton or Mark Martin.

“Track position is very, very important,” Skinner said. “But if a guy back there in 35th place gets his car hooked up and you have a long green-flag run, and he’s running three-tenths of a lap faster than you are, before long he’s going to have track position. The main thing is to get the car handling real well and the rest kind of takes care of itself.”

Sixth fastest was the top rookie, Scott Pruett, who qualified Cal Wells’ Tide Ford at 185.204 mph--50 mph slower than he ran last October when he put Wells’ Toyota on the pole in a CART race.

“My ultimate dream would have been to have the pole,” Pruett said. “We had back-to-back poles here with the Indy car in ’98 and ‘99, and we thought we might have a shot at it today.

“There’s a comfort level of being here and knowing the place, but as far as the track itself everything is different. Your line is different, your speed is different, the conditions are a bit different. What you do with the car is totally different, so the only thing that’s comfortable is that I’ve been to Fontana and I’ve raced here and I know where a lot of things are.”

Jeremy Mayfield qualified 24th, but ran with a cloud over the head of his Mobil 1 team. The team has been rumored to have used illegal fuel in the April 16 race at Talladega and Mike Helton, NASCAR senior vice president, said the controversy is being studied. However, because no ruling is expected before next week, Mayfield will be permitted to race here.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FRONT ROW

Top spots for Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500:

1. MIKE SKINNER Chevrolet: 86.061

2. JIMMY SPENCER Ford: 85.979

3. RICKY RUDD Ford: 85.830

THE FACTS

* What: NAPA Auto Parts 500

* Where: California Speedway

* When: Sunday, 11 a.m.

* Defending champion: Jeff Gordon