Speed Not Major Factor In Daytona Traffic Jam Driving Skills To Get Big Test In Nascar’s Race Of Equality

Perfection may be something to be sought and never to be found.

Still, winning the 40th running of today’s Daytona 500, NASCAR’s richest and most prestigious event, may take near perfection.

“Everybody’s stuff is equal,” said Sterling Marlin, who won in 1994 and 1995. “It’ll take a perfect day to win the race.

“It’s all getting in position. You’ve got to be at the right place at the right time with the right people. You can have a fast car and run 10th. You ain’t going to pull away.”

Marlin, who moved to struggling Team Sabco over the winter, has made the team owned by Felix Sabates a legitimate contender, a fact clearly shown by his solid victory in one of Thursday’s 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway.

But Marlin attributes the win that earned him a second-row start on Sunday to circumstances and luck.

He passed Dale Jarrett, another two-time Daytona winner, for second place moments before leader Jeff Gordon chose to pit for tires under a caution flag. That put him in front and Marlin was able to keep his Chevrolet Monte Carlo ahead of Jarrett’s Ford Taurus the rest of the way.

“If I had waited half a lap (to pass Jarrett), he would have had the lead,” Marlin said. “The caution comes out, Gordon pits and I beat Jarrett back to the line by 8 inches. It’s luck. Clean living.”

But Marlin is only one of perhaps a dozen solid contenders.

Of that group, the sentimental favorite is clearly seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

The Intimidator has come close, finishing second four times and twice leading to the last lap. But he is 0-19 in NASCAR’s richest and most prestigious event, the one major stock car race he has never won.

“You guys would probably be pretty happy not to have to ask me if I’m ever going to win the Daytona 500,” Earnhardt said with a grimace. “I’d be real happy not to have to answer that again.”

This could finally be the year for the 46-year-old second-generation racer. But there are plenty of other good stories lurking out there on the 43-car grid for today’s Winston Cup season-opener.

Brothers Bobby and Terry Labonte will be at the head of the field when the green flag waves.

For pole-winner Bobby, the victory would be the biggest moment of his still budding career and a huge win for Pontiac, which has struggled in the stock car series in recent years.

Terry, like Earnhardt, has come tantalizingly close, taking the runnerup spot three times. But he too is 0-19.

“Terry looks like the guy to beat,” Earnhardt said. “He’s been fast since they took his car off the truck, and he’s acting real confident.”

Always a contender at Daytona in his short career is Gordon, the defending race winner and also the defending Winston Cup champion.

But if the 26-year-old repeats his win of last year, it will be against the odds.

He will start 29th. Since nobody has won from farther back than 12th since 1980, it would seem Gordon’s task is unenviable.

“For me, starting where I am, I’m going to have to have everything go my way to get it done,” Gordon said. “It seems like these days you need a perfect day to win every race. But Daytona is even tougher because the cars are so close.

“You’ve got to position yourself to be able to pull out of line and have the right guys go with you, have great pit stops, everything.”

Jarrett, starting fifth, and Rusty Wallace, 12th, probably have the best chance to put Ford’s new Taurus - the replacement for the discontinued Thunderbird - into Victory Circle.

Wallace, who is 0-15 in the 500, said, “We can win this race, I know we can. The car will race good. But we’re going to have to have some help and, man, we’re going to have about a perfect race.”

Nemecheck dominates 300

Joe Nemechek led all but 15 of 120 laps in the most dominating NASCAR Busch Series performance ever at Daytona International Speedway, and won the NAPA Auto Parts 300 Saturday.

It was the second straight Busch victory and sixth overall for Nemechek, the 1992 series champion who now drives full time on the Winston Cup circuit. It came in his 22nd start on the 2-1/2-mile oval where Paul Goldsmith led 101 laps in 1967 but did not win.

Nemechek ended the 1997 season with a victory at Homestead, Fla., and an emotional scene in the winner’s circle. The 34-year-old Nemechek’s younger brother, John, died earlier in the year after being injured in a NASCAR truck race at Homestead.

Nemechek led the final 34 laps and collected $78,600 in the biggest payday of his career. He beat Jeff Purvis by about four car-lengths in a race slowed six times by 24 laps of caution. The average speed was 137.213 mph.

There were four lead changes among four drivers.

Mark Martin was third. Buckshot Jones was fourth in a Ford, followed by the Chevy of Randy LaJoie.