NASCAR Sadler wins first Winston Cup pole - Darlington 400 Sunday on Fox

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) -- Elliott Sadler put up a fast lap early, then waited nervously as driver after driver came up short in qualifying for the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400.

``It was pretty exciting to wait through all those cars,'' said Sadler, the 16th of 43 drivers qualifying at Darlington Raceway's demanding 1.366-mile oval.

Sadler, in only his fifth race with Robert Yates Racing, was the man to beat all day, leading practice in his No. 38 Ford despite running only five laps. He then backed it up with a lap of 170.147 mph in qualifying.

The 27-year-old Sadler, one of NASCAR's vaunted ``Young Guns,'' said a goal his new team set before the season was to win a pole.

Sadler said he and crew chief Raymond Fox, who also got his first pole, ``were a nervous wreck. We were sitting up in the truck and had the door slam locked and were nervous together.''

Ryan Newman, who won the pole a week earlier in Atlanta, came the closest at 169.374. The time difference between Sadler's Taurus and Newman's Dodge was 0.132 seconds.

``I just messed up the first lap getting into (Turns) 1 and 2 and didn't get the lap I wanted,'' said Newman, a 25-year-old driver and last year's leading pole winner with six. ``I'm happy for Elliott, getting his first one, but our Dodge was capable of winning the pole.''

``I didn't even want to hear his lap time,'' Sadler said, laughing. ``I just waited for the crowd reaction to find out how he did.''

One reason for Sadler's nerves was a history of coming close and being knocked off pole numerous times. He said one time in particular stood out.

``I got bit so bad by the bug at Texas,'' Sadler said. ``I was on the pole so long, and then Bill Elliott took it away from me. I never recovered from that instance.''

All those near-misses came while Sadler drove the past four years for the Wood Brothers. He said former car owner Eddie Wood was the first person to congratulate him Friday.

``There's a lot of good young guys on this race team, and I'm just glad I could get this pole for them,'' Sadler said.

Jerry Nadeau was third in a Pontiac at 169.170, followed by the Dodge of Jimmy Spencer at 169.088 and the Chevrolet of six-time Darlington winner and four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon at 169.071.

Rounding out the top 10 were Kurt Busch at 168.984 in a Ford, the Dodges of Ward Burton and defending race winner Sterling Marlin at 168.926 and 168.816, the Chevy of Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip at 168.769 and the Ford of Todd Bodine -- the last driver of the day to qualify -- at 168.764.

Current series leader Matt Kenseth was 12th at 168.665, while Atlanta winner Bobby Labonte was 20th at 168.043. Labonte's teammate, Tony Stewart, who's second in the season points and is the defending series champion, was 28th at 167.619.

Three-time Darlington winner Dale Jarrett and two-time winner Jeff Burton had disappointing runs. Jarrett was 36th, while Burton was 38th and had to settle for a provisional starting position.

Rain, which washed away Busch Series and NASCAR Truck Series qualifying on Thursday, threatened to fall Friday but did not interrupt the Cup time trials.

``After (Newman) didn't beat us, the wind came up and it was getting cooler, and I was just wishing everybody would just take one qualifying lap and get it done with,'' Sadler said. ``But we made it.''

Let me know if you want or off my NASCAR Ping list.

3/16/03 Sunday - Pre-Race show starts at 930 PT / 1230 ET


NASCAR Home	Standings	Schedule & Results	Drivers

Carolina Dodge Dealers 400

Preview | Qualifying Speed | News | Results

Starting Grid
Order	Driver (No.)	Car	Qualifying Speed
1	Elliott Sadler (38)	Ford	170.147 mph
2	Ryan Newman (12)	Dodge	169.374 mph
3	Jerry Nadeau (01)	Pontiac	169.170 mph
4	Jimmy Spencer (7)	Dodge	169.089 mph
5	Jeff Gordon (24)	Chevrolet	169.071 mph
6	Kurt Busch (97)	Ford	168.984 mph
7	Ward Burton (22)	Dodge	168.926 mph
8	Sterling Marlin (40)	Dodge	168.816 mph
9	Michael Waltrip (15)	Chevrolet	168.769 mph
10	Todd Bodine (154)	Ford	168.764 mph
11	Jeremy Mayfield (19)	Dodge	168.682 mph
12	Matt Kenseth (17)	Ford	168.665 mph
13	Rusty Wallace (2)	Dodge	168.538 mph
14	Jimmie Johnson (48)	Chevrolet	168.469 mph
15	Ken Schrader (49)	Dodge	168.261 mph
16	Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (8)	Chevrolet	168.175 mph
17	Greg Biffle (16)	Ford	168.146 mph
18	Dave Blaney (77)	Ford	168.094 mph
19	Jamie McMurray (42)	Dodge	168.066 mph
20	Bobby Labonte (18)	Chevrolet	168.043 mph
21	Kenny Wallace (23)	Dodge	168.025 mph
22	Johnny Benson (10)	Pontiac	167.980 mph
23	Mike Skinner (4)	Pontiac	167.951 mph
24	Casey Mears (41)	Dodge	167.846 mph
25	Bill Elliott (9)	Dodge	167.785 mph
26	John Andretti (43)	Dodge	167.768 mph
27	Mark Martin (6)	Ford	167.665 mph
28	Tony Stewart (20)	Chevrolet	167.619 mph
29	Terry Labonte (5)	Chevrolet	167.368 mph
30	Robby Gordon (31)	Chevrolet	167.135 mph
31	Ricky Craven (32)	Pontiac	167.123 mph
32	Jeff Green (30)	Chevrolet	166.913 mph
33	Kevin Harvick (29)	Chevrolet	166.908 mph
34	Jack Sprague (0)	Pontiac	166.789 mph
35	Steve Park (1)	Chevrolet	166.710 mph
36	Dale Jarrett (88)	Ford	166.394 mph
37*	Jeff Burton (99)	Ford	165.928 mph
38*	Joe Nemechek (25)	Chevrolet	165.253 mph
39*	Ricky Rudd (21)	Ford	166.292 mph
40*	Kyle Petty (45)	Dodge	165.894 mph
41*	Tony Raines (74)	Chevrolet	164.915 mph
42*	Larry Foyt (14)	Dodge	164.298 mph
43*	Brett Bodine (57)	Ford	165.816 mph
* Denotes Provisional entry

From:

Loss of race would cost state millions

NASCAR may move some races; S.C. track could lose one of two it hosts

By JIM McLAURIN
Staff Writer

DARLINGTON - William Knox, co-manager of the Bi-Lo down the street from Darlington Raceway, treats the track's two racing weekends a year like a big picnic.

"All your grilling-type items - steak, barbecue sauce - anything you can throw on a grill, the sales of it will increase on a race weekend," Knox said.

Throw in the price of more than 60,000 race tickets (from $45-$125), plus parking, hotel rooms, T-shirts and driver caps, and you get an idea of how much a weekend at the races is worth to the local economy.

Knox and many others in the seven-county Pee Dee area might be missing a lot of income next year if NASCAR decides to take away Darlington Raceway's spring race.

On Jan. 21, Bill France Jr., who runs NASCAR and the International Speedway Corp., which owns Darlington Raceway, put several tracks on notice: Be better or be gone.

France pointed to Darlington and Rockingham, N.C., as well as Atlanta and several others, as tracks thatmight have to give up one of their races to better-performing tracks if business doesn't pick up.

Several tracks in bigger markets - such as California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. - have only one race and want another one. Another new track, Kentucky Speedway outside Cincinnati, is seeking its first Winston Cup race.

Losing a race at Darlington would leave a big hole in the South Carolina economy, Gov. Mark Sanford said.

"What you're looking at is about $50 million of additional economic activity that comes as a result of these races taking place," Sanford said. "The math is real simple. If you don't have the race, the $50 million disappears, period."

The loss of a Darlington race, according to Tom Regan, chairman of the University of South Carolina's Sports and Entertainment Management Department, would be more keenly felt.

"It's all new money," Regan said. "A very small percentage of the fans are from that area. If you get 100,000 people in there, if 10,000 are from the Pee Dee, you're doing good. The (majority of the) people at Darlington are coming from 34 states and four nations, who would never, ever be in the Pee Dee for any other reason."

The impact won't be felt by just the motels and restaurants. Temporary workers come from all over the area to fill a variety of roles at the race - everything from picking up trash and parking cars to serving food in the concession stands, even to providing music in the "hospitality villages."

"It's going to have a very large trickle-down effect," said Fran Willis, of the Pee Dee Tourism Commission. "It's not just the chain motels... . Because it's a gated event, part of the ticket price (2 percent) goes to the admissions tax, at the state level. That is used, in turn, for grant funding for statewide events or regional tourism offices. That money would be cut."

The nickels and dimes taken in at the mom-and-pop motels and restaurants, the privately owned parking areas near the track, and locally owned burger joints and souvenir outlets, all add up.

Darlington Raceway president Andrew Gurtis believes that should the spring race be taken away, the Southern 500 weekend on Labor Day would become a bigger event, and some of that money will come back into the community.

"At that point, the Sunday race sells out, the Saturday Busch race grows, and the Friday truck race grows, and we get back on the building curve of putting up seats each year to accommodate the demand," he said. "I think we'd make up that ground slowly by having sold-out events and the growth of the support events."

Regan, who just completed a study of the economic impact of the race, doesn't necessarily buy into that theory.

"If anything is lost, it won't be back," he said. "I don't care if it's the Heritage, the Family Circle, or Darlington. If you lose it ... just go up and ask the people in North Wilkesboro if they miss it."

Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications and former Darlington Raceway president, said it's premature to assume Darlington will lose a race in 2004.

"People who are hearing about realignment and schedule changes automatically think that Darlington is going to lose a race," Hunter said. "I don't think that's the case.

"But after we talk to all the tracks and work out the schedule, Darlington and Rockingham are certainly among the tracks that are candidates, due to the fact that they don't sell (all) the tickets."

Regan said losing a race also would hurt the state's prestige.

"This is our major league," Regan said. "We're not a dirt track. (NASCAR) is the fastest-growing sport, and we've got the major league teams sitting right there two times a year. We've got the all-star game twice a year. And we've had it longer than anybody else.

"You look at other states: We don't have an Atlanta, where you have a Georgia Dome. You're sitting in a small state, a fairly poor state, that has some great events - tier-1 level. You can't get any better."

This weekend, Knox and many in the Pee Dee area could only estimate how much race fans would spend at the NASCAR triple-header at Darlington. But they know that by Sunday night, the coffers will be full.

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