The Twin 125-mile qualifying races for Sunday`s Daytona 500 were a little like one of Glenn Miller`s pre-World War II radio broadcasts-something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
The old was Dale Earnhardt, who won for the third year in a row Thursday in the wreck-marred first race. The new was Bill Elliott, who won the second race almost wire-to-wire for new car owner Junior Johnson.
The borrowed was A.J. Foyt`s car, on loan from Richard Jackson`s team after Foyt wrecked his own car in practice Wednesday.
The blue? Take your pick. Foyt almost missed making the field for the Daytona 500 when he was wiped out in the first of three wrecks in the first race that brought the caution flag out for 20 of the 50 laps.
Both Richard and Kyle Petty lost their race cars in separate crashes and will have to start backup cars in Sunday`s race. Dale Jarrett trashed Joe Gibbs` new race car after putting on a whale of a show, and he, too, will start in a backup car.
Alan Kulwicki was black and blue after triggering the most serious of the first race crashes, and he made the field only through a provisional entry.
The first race pretty much confirmed that Earnhardt`s Chevrolet is a major threat in Sunday`s race despite the domination by Ford in qualifying and practice.
Earnhardt grabbed the lead on the restart after the final caution period of the race and, with help from fellow Chevy driver Ernie Irvan, held off Mark Martin`s challenge on the final lap to win by three-quarters of a car length. Martin had gotten his nose in front of Earnhardt`s black Chevy going into the fourth turn, but Irvan, sitting in third place, chose to draft behind Earnhardt rather than Martin.
”Ernie came up at the end and helped me out,” said Earnhardt, ”or I think Mark would have beaten me back to the line. I`m sure it was because of what I was driving, not who I am.”
Irvan confirmed that he was not about to help a Ford driver. ”You can`t cut off the hand that feeds you,” he said. ”Dale`s in a Chevrolet and we`re in a Chevrolet. It`s a choice you have to make.”
Earnhardt had shown some muscle early, grabbing the lead from the second row on the first lap. Only six laps into the race, Kulwicki got sideways out of turn four and collected Terry Labonte before sliding into the outside wall, starting a general melee.
Among those caught in it were Richard Petty, Foyt and Hut Stricklin. Kulwicki thought someone might have bumped him from behind to start his wild ride, and TV replays seemed to indicate the someone was Martin.
”It turned me around right in front of everybody,” said Kulwicki.
”That`s all.”
When racing resumed, pole-sitter Sterling Marlin went to the front, but on the 19th lap, coming out of turn four, Marlin got loose and spun out, aided by a tap on the trunk from Earnhardt.
Fortunately, although he was out of the race, Marlin kept the car away from the walls and will be able to start it on the pole Sunday.
Jarrett, meanwhile, had been the real surprise, running in the top five from the very beginning, but on the 36th lap, Gibbs saw his new
”quarterback” throw his first interception.
He got loose in turn four, spun out and took Kyle Petty with him, damaging both cars beyond repair.
”I just messed up,” confessed Jarrett. ”I got myself in a position where I really shouldn`t have been and was trying to get out of it, but there really wasn`t anywhere to go without putting on the brakes and going to the back of the line. Race drivers have too much pride, or not enough sense, to do that.”
Elliott led 49 of the 50 laps in the second race, which was run almost without incident.
”I saw too much of what was going on in the first race,” said Elliott.
”Too many guys were trying to occupy the same place at the same time.”
”After seeing that first race, my strategy is going to be to find someplace to hide as soon as possible,” said Dorsey Schroeder even before the second race began.
The revelation of this race was Morgan Shepherd in the Wood Brothers Ford. He dogged Elliott`s tracks for the entire race. Elliott used up every bit of the race track in holding him off for the last two laps.
Davey Allison also ran a strong race, finishing third after starting from the back of the pack. Earnhardt and Shepherd will start from the second row Sunday, with Martin and Allison right behind them.
