Egos Take The Wheel At Daytona

Dale Earnhardt calls the Busch Clash his kind of race.

“It’s a carefree race because there’s no points involved,” the seven-time Winston Cup champion said of today’s 50-mile sprint for last year’s pole-winners. “It’s a go-for-broke race.”

Still, there are a number of reasons to feel at least a little pressure to perform well in the made-for-TV event at Daytona International Speedway. Among them is the possibility of winning as much as $70,000 if you can finish first in both 10-lap segments.

But there also is a certain amount of ego involved, with most of the big stars of NASCAR in the 17-driver lineup.

“We care about it very much because we want to win it again,” Earnhardt said. “We’ve won it six times, and we’re going to go after it again.”

If he does win it, Earnhardt will have to come from the back of the field. He drew the 16th starting spot, with only defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon lining up behind him.

Making things more interesting in the 20-lap event on Daytona’s 2-1/2-mile oval is the rule inverting the field at the halfway point.

Earnhardt’s priority

How much do Earnhardt and Richard Childress Racing want to win the Daytona 500? “We spend more time testing here than probably 10 other tracks together,” Earnhardt said Saturday after taking care of one important first at Daytona International Speedway by winning the pole position for next Sunday’s race.

“The effort that goes into the Daytona 500, the engine dyno (testing) time is probably double the time that goes into Charlotte, Atlanta and Michigan all put together,” Earnhardt added.

“The ice storm the other week in the Carolinas knocked out the power and Childress had the generator hooked up just so we would have power to run the dyno all weekend… . Winning the Daytona 500 is what it’s all about. That’s what everybody works for.”

The seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion firmly established himself as the favorite to win the one major event that has eluded him by taking the pole for stock car racing’s Super Bowl with a lap of 189.510 mph.

Ernie Irvan, the 1991 Daytona winner who missed most of last season while recuperating from near-fatal injuries, continued his miraculous comeback by taking the outside pole at 189.366.

That bumped Dale Jarrett, the 1995 Daytona pole-winner, to third at 189.330.

Only the top two qualifiers in the opening round lock in starting positions in the 42-car lineup. The rest of the speeds posted in time trials Saturday, Monday and Tuesday are used to establish the lineups for Thursday’s Twin 125-mile qualifying races.