Sonic Youth Zooms to Front

The easy part, winning the pole, is over for rookie driver Jimmie Johnson. Now comes the hard part, the Daytona 500.

Johnson, 26, of El Cajon, and Kevin Harvick, also 26, of Bakersfield, will start on the front row in next Sunday’s 500 after qualifying a pair of Chevrolets faster Saturday than 51 other drivers around Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile triangular oval.

Johnson, a protege of four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, won the Bud Pole with a lap of 185.831 mph in a car co-owned by Gordon and Rick Hendrick, continuing his monthlong dominance. Harvick, last year’s rookie of the year and also a first-time starter in the Daytona 500, was a tick back at 185.770.

In both January test sessions and Friday’s two practice stints, Johnson has been in the fastest car.

“Qualifying reflects so much of the team and very little of the driver,” said Johnson, whose career started in off-road racing as a three-time champion in the Mickey Thompson Stadium series in the early 1990s and winner of the 1994 SCORE desert championship.

“It’s hard to believe it’s real. But it’s really neat to see all the hard work at Hendrick Motorsports pay off. We had shown our hand during testing and practice. We thought some guys had an ace in their back pockets and we didn’t expect Kevin Harvick to jump up there. I went through two packs of gum and wore out my shoes waiting for qualifying to be over.”

Johnson was the fourth driver off the line and had to sweat out 49 others before earning the pole.

Gordon, defending Winston Cup champion and a two-time Daytona 500 winner, qualified third at 185.491 in a car he said was identical to Johnson’s.

“They are so close that when I saw Jimmie get loose over there in Turn 4 [during his fast lap] I figured my car would do the same thing. And it did.

“I had a lot to do with picking Jimmie to be part of our team. Maybe I saw some of myself in Jimmie. I like his style. I like the way he does things. I like the way he handles himself in the race car and I like the talent he has. You just hope that the experience of the other teams at Hendrick Motorsports will benefit a new team coming in. They’ve obviously done a great job of getting off to a great start here at Daytona.”

Johnson and Harvick will start on the poles in Thursday’s Gatorade Twin 125 races, which serve as qualifiers for all other drivers.

Harvick did not race in the 500 last year because he was driving a Busch Grand National car the day before the 500 and got into Winston Cup only when car owner Richard Childress called on him a few days later to take over Dale Earnhardt’s car after Earnhardt’s death.

“I’m as excited now as I was when I won my first Winston Cup race last year in Atlanta,” said Harvick. “Maybe I should wear rookie stripes like Jimmie because it’s my first 500, too.”

Never before have two drivers started at the front of the Daytona 500 who have never even raced in it before. When Johnson was asked about it, he laughed and said, “Could be one heck of a wreck, couldn’t it?”

The two Southern Californians are longtime friends who credit stock-car veteran Ron Hornaday Jr. of Palmdale for jump-starting their careers.

Said Harvick: “We were both fortunate enough to have Ron to take both of us under his wing, and he’s part of the reason why we’re both sitting up here today. I was living on Hornaday’s couch and Jimmie was getting ready to move in. I left when I got the ride with the No. 98 truck and then with Richard Childress. That was all a California connection.”

Said Johnson: “I had met Ron at a Chevrolet function in Detroit and he said that if I ever needed a place to stay to call him. The day I landed at Charlotte airport, I called him to see if I was still welcome. Kevin had moved out not long before and Ron let me in and wouldn’t let me move out until I could [afford] to buy a house. We called it Camp Hornaday.”

Johnson might be the least-experienced pole-sitter in 500 history. He has been in only three Winston Cup races, with a best finish of 25th at Homestead, Fla., although he was running in the top 10 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway until mechanical problems forced him out.

“Running those three races last year taught myself, and the team, a whole lot,” he said. “Now I have some time to practice and get in some drafting. I need experience, so every lap I get in Thursday will help.

“I’m in a great environment. We have great equipment and I have a great mentor in Jeff, and Terry [Labonte] and Jerry [Nadeau] help, too. Our goal is to make the races and finish on the lead lap.”

The only other Californian to win the Daytona 500 pole was Mike Skinner of Susanville in 1997. He was a rookie but had been in 15 previous Cup races.

After leaving off-road racing, Johnson drove in the Busch series and last year finished eighth in points for William Herzog and Herzog Motorsports.

“The Busch series was great in preparing me for Winston Cup,” said Johnson. “There have been times when drivers have come right out of the Busch series and successfully moved into Winston Cup. Then again, there are those who haven’t.

“I have a big advantage in driving for Jeff [Gordon], though. He doesn’t like to be called the owner. He’d rather be called the teammate. He’s phenomenal, what else can you say? I’m hoping I can hook on the back of him and follow him through the race, and learn when and why I need to make the moves I need to keep myself in the front of the pack and out of trouble.”

Hendrick, who has fielded five Winston Cup championship cars--four with Gordon and one with Labonte--agreed with Gordon that what attracted him to Johnson was that he reminded him of Gordon.

“I got Gordon the same way,” Hendrick said. “When I first saw Jeff, I was reminded of Tim Richmond, who drove for me in 1985 and ’86 and I have always felt that Tim would be one of the greatest drivers ever if he’d lived. So the way I look at it, Gordon is like Richmond and Johnson is like Gordon and that means we’ve got a great lineup this year.”

Richmond died of AIDS on Aug. 13, 1989.

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Daytona 500 Qualifying

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