Drivers Back on Right Track

Winston Cup drivers went back to work Saturday, getting the best therapy possible--driving race cars.

It was exactly what they needed after grieving all week for Dale Earnhardt, the man who had been their leader. It gave them a brief chance to focus on something besides thoughts of the seven-time NASCAR champion and how he was killed last Sunday on the final turn of the Daytona 500. Thoughts of that broken lap belt that might have caused his death.

Many were wearing caps with No. 3, Earnhardt’s number, on them.

“Today, it was difficult walking into the garage area, seeing all the sadness in everyone’s face,” said Jeff Gordon, who won the pole for today’s Dura-Lube 400 with a 156.455-mph lap around North Carolina Speedway’s 1.017-mile oval.

“The reason I’ve got this No. 3 hat on is because I want to dedicate this pole to him. I wanted to show how much I respected him and how much we’re going to miss him. Climbing into my Monte Carlo this morning was the best time of the week.”

Nerves were taut, realizing that if something could happen to Earnhardt, the man who seemed indestructible, something could happen to any of them.

When Michael Waltrip, who won the Daytona 500 in one of Earnhardt’s cars, hit the wall in the fourth turn during early-morning practice it sent a shiver of fear through the garage area. Waltrip was not hurt, but the car could not be repaired in time for qualifying.

NASCAR has gone to one-day qualifying this year, which means there is no second chance. Because Waltrip was driving for a new team, he was not eligible for a provisional and he had to make his qualifying laps in a car in which he had not practiced.

Despite brushing the wall in a backup Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Waltrip managed to earn the seventh starting position today.

“Whew, I know how good it felt to win that race last week, but you don’t know how good that just felt,” a relieved Waltrip said. “Can you imagine winning the Daytona 500 and then not making the next race? Getting that qualifying run was just huge for me. I guess I lost sight of the goal this morning when I wrecked.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., doing what “my daddy would have wanted me to do,” was a marked man from the moment he reached the track. It was easy to know where he was because Fox TV cameramen surrounded him wherever he went.

Not surprisingly, he didn’t qualify well. His speed of 153.981 put him in the 13th row alongside Sterling Marlin, the driver who was involved in a bumping incident with Earnhardt on that fateful final lap.

“I do want to say that any notion, or any idea of any blame placed upon anyone, whether it be Sterling Marlin or anybody else, it’s ridiculous,” Earnhardt said. Marlin had received threats from fans who mistakenly blamed him for the accident.

Race track therapy lasted only as long as the drivers were on the track, however.

“It’s tough, I tell you, when you get in the car and you end up fighting the same old stuff like fighting the chassis and not running the way you want to, your mind focuses on the car,” Rusty Wallace said. “But as soon as you get out of the car it’s back on what happened to Dale.

“I grieved all last week and I’m gonna grieve for some time. That’s not gonna stop, but you’ve got to get back in the game some time.”

Defending Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte qualified third at 156.068 mph in Joe Gibbs’ Pontiac.

“That was a great qualifying run on our part,” said Labonte, who is also the defending race winner today. “After last week’s big wreck, we definitely wanted to get back to racing. Our race car is like whatever makes other people feel good. That’s what makes us feel good. We’ve got heavy hearts, but we still want to get back to racing.”

Labonte was caught up in a 21-car wreck that caused the Daytona 500 to be halted temporarily.

Kevin Harvick, the rookie from Bakersfield who is driving Earnhardt’s old car--with a new number and paint job--grabbed the last qualifying berth with a 153.240 lap. It was the first time he had driven a Winston Cup car competitively.

“Not bad for our first time under the conditions we were dealt,” said Harvick, whose GM Goodwrench car is No. 29 and white. “I think we did fine.”

Harvick, who had been planning to run the full Busch Grand National schedule before being tabbed by Richard Childress to drive Earnhardt’s Winston Cup car, came back later in the day to finish second behind Todd Bodine in the Alltel 200 Busch race.

Bodine, who is also in today’s race, led 146 of the 197 laps and averaged 112.049 mph for the 200 miles.