Earnhardt Captures Qualifier, Still E Daytona’s Top Prize Nascar Legend Dominates Speedway Except When It’s Time For The Big Race

For nine straight years, Dale Earnhardt has parked his black No. 3 Chevrolet in the winner’s circle after finishing first in one of the two qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway. But he has yet to return to the winner’s circle after the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in the Winston Cup series.

There has been nothing but disappointment here on race day for Earnhardt, a seven-time Winston Cup champion. Three of his four second-place finishes at Daytona were during the streak of nine straight qualifying victories. His most disappointing finish came in 1990, the year his streak began. Earnhardt was leading with less than half a lap to go, but when a tire blew in the third turn, he dropped to fifth.

Thursday, Earnhardt led all 50 laps in the second of the Gatorade 125-mile qualifying races, and he will start the 500 on Sunday in a familiar spot, fourth. Sterling Marlin, a two-time winner of the 500, won Thursday’s other qualifier.

Earnhardt, who at 47 is running at Daytona for the 20th year, thinks this would be a grand time to end his string of disappointments.

“You couldn’t write it no better than that,” he said. “To go out and win the Daytona 500 in our 20th year and NASCAR’s 50th would be a heck of an honor and an accomplishment. It’s tough to go out every year and not win. If you were a basketball or football team, everybody would be getting fired.”

He likened himself to the Denver Broncos and their quarterback John Elway, who won the Super Bowl last month on their fourth try.

“Everybody saw that look in Elway’s eyes,” Earnhardt said. “Look in my eyes.”

At Daytona, turning a fast lap in qualifying is merely the first step toward qualifying for the 500, unless the lap is the fastest or second-fastest over all. The drivers who turn in those fastest laps lock in the pole position and the outside pole position during qualifying.

Bobby Labonte and Terry Labonte were the first- and second-fastest in qualifying on Monday, gaining the pole and the outside pole, and becoming the first siblings in the 40-year history of the 500 to do so.

The first 14 finishers in each of Thursday’s races, plus the two cars already on the front row, constitute the top 30 for the 500. The rest of the field, which can have as many as 43 starters, will be determined by qualifying times and provisional positions, which are based on last season’s final results.

Since the introduction of the twin races in 1967, only five times has one of the winners gone on to win the 500.

In his race, Marlin was lucky enough to steer his Monte Carlo clear of four accidents - including one involving four cars on the final lap - and gutsy enough to avoid making a pit stop. He will start on the inside of the second row, next to Earnhardt.

“I was just trying to hang in there at the start of the race,” said Marlin, who started 12th. “But everybody kept lifting, so I said, ‘I’m going to try to win this thing.’ I got to the bottom, and it worked out good for us.”

On Sunday, Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip will share the third row, and Jimmy Spencer and Mike Skinner will share the fourth.

Jeff Gordon, the defending champion and last year’s Winston Cup champion, started Thursday’s first race on the outside of the fourth row, but finished a disappointing 15th. After three aggressive passes early in the race, Gordon took the lead by lap 16. But a decision to pit for tires late in the race dropped him out of contention, and he will therefore start the 500 in 29th position.

“I thought we had the car to win,” he said. “Pitting just wasn’t the right thing for us to do today. I felt like it was the right call at the time.”