Winston Cup Qualifting Quotes

GOODWRENCH SERVICE 400 Qualifying Notes/Quotes

Rockingham, NC

Terry Labonte's pole today for the Goodwrench Service 400 is the 22nd pole of his Winston Cup career and fourth at NCMS. Labonte edged out teammate Jeff Gordon to claim his entry into the 1997 Busch Clash alongside Dale Earnhardt, the Daytona 500 pole sitter.

This is the first time the spring race will be contested at 400 miles. The fall race, the AC Delco 400 made the switch last year.

Labonte has two wins to his credit at NCMS. In the spring of 1986 he won the Goodwrench 500 from the pole position by beating out Harry Gant. He drove an Oldsmobile to victory lane for the first time in 6 years.

In the fall of 1983 he won the Warner W. Hodgdon American 500 after a five-lap side-by-side duel with the late Tim Richmond. It was his second career victory. "We needed this win", Labonte explained.

He could use a win this weekend to ease the memories of the last Sunday's 500. Labonte led the most laps - all in the first half of the race - and was looking like the car to beat until his engine experienced difficulties.

Asked to put the Daytona 500 is perspective.

"I've been racing for a long time, and I've never heard of this happening, but we picked up a plastic bag off the race track and it got on the back of the air cleaner. It cut the air off to the engine. There was nothing wrong with the engine. There was nothing wrong with the car. We just picked up a piece of trash off the track. They found it when they took the air cleaner off. At that point, we were four laps down. There was no point trying to get back even one lap. I knew we couldn't make up four. We just rode around after that. "

As is often said by the pole sitter, Labonte indicated that he didn't expect the time to hold up. He said, "The car really stick good and we picked up two-tenths from practice. Just one slip somewhere can make the difference between first and 10th. Everytime we go to qualify our main deal is that we want to be on the main straightaway."

"Qualifying is pretty tough, and if we qualify in the top-10 we're pretty happy."

Up front historically is the place to be at North Carolina Motor Speedway. The average starting position for the winner at "The Rock" since 1990 is 7.08.

Fifteen times the race at Rockingham has been won by the driver starting from the pole. Ten of those times have come in the Goodwrench 500 - now 400.

Forty-one of the 61 races run at "The Rock" since it opened have been won by someone who started in the top five.

Four of the last six have been won by someone starting outside the top 10, however.

Seven active drivers have won the Goodwrench 500, but only two, Rusty Wallace ('94, '93, '89) and Kyle Petty ('91, '90) have won the race more than once. Jeff Gordon ('95), Bill Elliott ('92), Dale Earnhardt ('87), Terry Labonte ('86), and Darrell Waltrip ('81) have each won once.

Notes:

Todd Bodine sat in for brother Geoff in the #7 QVC Ford Thunderbird. Geoff suffered cracked ribs as a result of his wreck during the Daytona 500 with Chad Little.

Mike Skinner is making is first of five planned appearances in the #31 Richard Childress Racing Monte Carlo. His first round qualifying time put him in the 35th spot. 38 cars plus 2 provisionals and possibly a champions provisional will take the green Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

The 'other' Rookie of the Year candidate, Randy MacDonald is making his first attempt at qualifying for an event in 1996. His 43rd qualifying speed will leave him with a considerable amount of work to do prior to the second round of qualifying Saturday morning. His ROTY competitor, Johnny Benson Jr. had his best Winston Cup qualifying effort to date with his 3rd place spot on the starting grid.