IMS Brickyard 400 Trackside Report (8/1/97)
1 August 1997
DAY 3 _ FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 1997 _ Page 1 First Round Qualifying Breakdown: Entered Top 25 Chevrolet 19 12 Ford 24 9 Pontiac 8 4 Brickyard 400 Practice Notes: Slowest speed among top 25 to make field: 175.043 by #18 Bobby Labonte. 10 a.m. _ GREEN. 10:02 a.m. -- #95 Berrier turned a lap at 173.765, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:05 a.m. -- #77 Shepherd turned a lap at 175.428, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:06 a.m. -- #5 T. Labonte turned a lap at 173.963, second fastest of session among not-yet qualified drivers. 10:09 a.m. -- #7 G. Bodine turned a lap at 174.839, second fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:10 a.m. -- #9 Speed turned a lap at 176.111, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:20 a.m. -- #95 Berrier turned a lap at 175.002, fourth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:20 a.m. -- #29 J. Green turned a lap at 176.675, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:20 a.m. -- #90 Trickle turned a lap at 174.054, sixth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:21 a.m. -- #71 Marcis brushed the wall in the south short chute, and continued to the pits. No yellow. 10:30 a.m. -- #7 G. Bodine turned a lap at 174.951, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:34 a.m. -- #78 Hillin turned a lap at 174.236, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:36 a.m. -- #91 Sacks turned a lap at 174.982, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:36 a.m. -- #81 K. Wallace turned a lap at 174.975, sixth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. By 10:40 50 cars had participated in the practice session. The only entry missing so far is #4 Marlin. 10:41 a.m. -- #90 Trickle turned a lap at 175.203, fourth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:45 a.m. -- #77 Shepherd turned a lap at 176.350, second fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:50 a.m. -- #7 G. Bodine has turned a lap at 175.056, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:52 a.m. -- #12 Purvis has turned a lap at 174.880, ninth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 10:59 a.m. -- #91 Sacks turned a lap at 177.246, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:07 a.m. -- YELLOW, debris in turn 1. Green flag again at 11:08. 11:10 a.m. -- #9 Speed turned a lap at 176.894, second fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:15 a.m. -- #77 Shepherd has turned a lap at 176.526, fourth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:15 a.m. -- #95 Berrier has turned a lap at 175.384, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:18 a.m. -- #21, M. Waltrip pits after showing smoke. 11:20 a.m. -- #12 Purvis turned a lap at 175.111, seventh fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:21 a.m. -- #29 J. Green turned a lap at 177.347, fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:24 a.m. -- #90 Trickle turned a lap at 175.418, fifth fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:28 a.m. -- #44 Petty turned a lap at 175.155, seventh fastest of session among not-yet-qualified drivers. 11:30 a.m. -- END OF SESSION --Four not-yet-qualified drivers broke the previous track record (Jeff Gordon, 1996, 176.419) during the practice session -- #29 Jeff Green (177.347), #91 Greg Sacks (177.246), #9 Lake Speed (176.894), #77 Morgan Shepherd (176.526). --Additionally, five drivers bettered the Thursday qualifying speed of 25th position starter Bobby Labonte (175.043). Those drivers were #90 Dick Trickle (175.418), #95 Ed Berrier (175.384), #44 Kyle Petty (175.155), #12 Jeff Purvis (175.111) and #7 Geoff Bodine (175.056) --The spread between first and 25th positions is .779 of a second. The record spread for the top 25 positions in a Brickyard 400 field is .549 of a second in 1996. Eight drivers stood on their Thursday first-round times for second-round qualifying today. Those drivers are #6 Mark Martin, #99 Jeff Burton, #27 Rick Wilson, #98 John Andretti, #22 Ward Burton, #5 Terry Labonte, #23 Jimmy Spencer, #2 Rusty Wallace. Five drivers stood on their times in 1994, second-round qualifying was rained out in 1995 and eight drivers stood on their times in 1996. The only driver ever to be bumped from a Brickyard 400 field who stood on his time was Ricky Craven a year ago and Craven joined the field in a provisional starting spot, 39th position. Visitors to the Speedway today included four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt and 1960 Indianapolis 500 winner Jim Rathmann. JIM RATHMANN: "I ran the _Beach (in a stock car), ran an Oldsmobile. I ran a lot of stock cars, but not much NASCAR. AAA wouldn t let you run both back then. My brother, Dick, won 17 Grand National (later Winston Cup, plus convertibles) races. I go to a lot of them. I ve been to Charlotte, go to Darlington once in awhile and, of course, I go to Daytona because I live right near there." (NOTE: Rathmann won both ends of the only Indy-style races at Daytona International Speedway in 1959. He said he's attending his fourth Brickyard 400s and also attends the Winston Cup race in Phoenix.) According to Goodyear tire engineers, track temperatures were 111 degrees at 10 a.m. and 133 degrees at 2 p.m. Additional lap and television postings today raised the posted awards total to $4,965,217. Post-qualifying notes: --The 38-car qualifying field average is a record 175.663 miles an hour. The previous record was 174.435 miles an hour for the 38-car qualifying field of 1996. --The difference between the fastest qualifier, Ernie Irvan (50.637 seconds) and the slowest qualifier, Terry Labonte (51.536 seconds) in the 38-car qualifying field is .899 of a second, the closest spread in Brickyard 400 history. The previous mark was 1.030 seconds between the fastest and slowest qualifiers in the 1996 38-car qualifying field. --Two of the eight drivers who stood on their first-round speeds were bumped from the field in the second round. This is the first time in Brickyard 400 history that two drivers (#23 Jimmy Spencer and #2 Rusty Wallace) who stood on first-round speeds, have been bumped from the same field. Spencer and Rusty Wallace will start 40th and 43rd, respectively, after taking a regular provisional and champions provisional, respectively. --This is the first time a Winston Cup champion has been the slowest qualifier in a Brickyard 400 field (#5 Terry Labonte (Winston Cup champion, 1984, 1996) and also the first time a Winston Cup champion (#2 Rusty Wallace (Winston Cup champion, 1989) has started in last position or used a provisional to make a Brickyard 400 field. --The five provisional starters is a Brickyard 400 record. The 1994 and 1995 races had three each and the 1996 race had two provisionals. --Mike Wallace posted the fastest qualifying time to ever miss a Brickyard 400 field. His time of 51.567 seconds was just .031 of a second slower than 38th-place starter Terry Labonte. In 1994, Joe Ruttman missed the field by just .003 of a second. In 1995, Jeff Purvis missed the field by .002 of a second. In 1996, Ricky Craven missed the field by .053 of a second but was added through a provisional. --Second-round qualifying marked the first time that two sets of brothers were bumped in the final time trial round. Brett and Geoff Bodine were bumped, as were Mike and Rusty Wallace. Brett Bodine and Rusty Wallace made the field through provisionals. --Jeff Green s second-round speed of 176.153 is the fastest second-round qualifying speed ever recorded for a Brickyard 400. The previous fastest was 174.584 by Gary Bradberry in 1996. --The field contains 18 Chevrolets, 18 Fords and seven Pontiacs. This is the highest number of both Chevrolets and Pontiacs to start a Brickyard 400 field. The highest previous for Chevrolet was 15 in 1994. The highest previous for Pontiac was five in 1994, 1995 and 1996. The total is the fewest for Ford, which had 23 starters in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Order of the Day, Saturday, August 2, 1997 10:10 a.m. -- Indiana State University band 10:30 a.m. -- NASCAR show car lap 11:10 a.m. -- IMS Festival parade lap 11:20 a.m. -- "America the Beautiful", Indiana State University band 11:30 a.m. -- Driver introductions, presentation of NASCAR series awards, parade lap 12:03 p.m. -- Invocation, by Rev. Howard Brammer, Traders Point Christian Church 12:06 p.m. -- National Anthem, by Tracy Byrd 12:07 p.m. -- F-16 flyover 12:09 p.m. -- Starting command, balloon release 12:10 p.m. -- Parade lap 12:12 p.m. -- Pace lap 12:15 p.m. -- Start of fourth Brickyard 400 Honorary Starter -- Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith Final NASCAR Practice Notes: 2:30 p.m. -- GREEN. #4 Marlin first out. 2:42 p.m. -- YELLOW, debris on backstretch. 2:44 p.m. -- GREEN. 3:30 p.m. -- END SESSION Top Five -- #16 Musgrave 173.916; #6 Martin 172.768, #42 Nemechek 172.371, #46 Dallenbach Jr. 172.335, #17 D. Waltrip 172.209. Ted Musgrave came to the Trackside Conference Room after the final session. TED MUSGRAVE: (about race day setup): "I told the crew after that session just to leave it alone." (about the Speedway): "We ve seen it time and time again, it wears off a little bit. The first time was amazing, coming here knowing that the tradition of Indianapolis and all of the history here in these walls, if they could talk, we could be listening for a long time. We re making history ourselves by coming here and I never dreamed I d never be racing here at Indianapolis, other than if I was an open-wheel racer, which I never would be, I m not brave enough to drive those cars. There s still nothing like Indianapolis." (about pit stops): "I think we re going to put on four tires about every time because we ll be running a full fuel stop and by the time we get fuel we can get four tires on and also track position, the car is really fast by itself and if I get in traffic I get an aerodynamic push just like everyone else gets. If I can get that track position, get up near the front and get some good air on the front of my car, that thing will really go through the corners. I can run away from them. Hopefully we ll take that into consideration too as far as stretching fuel as much as I can and maybe making a pitstop where it will get me out ahead of the pack. I expect the window to be about 40-41 laps." Twenty-seven drivers will have started all four Brickyard 400s to date: Joe Nemechek, Dale Jarrett, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Bobby Hamilton, Sterling Marlin, Bill Elliott, Jeremy Mayfield, Rick Mast, Michael Waltrip, Ted Musgrave, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Lake Speed, Mark Martin, Derrike Cope, Jeff Burton, John Andretti, Ward Burton, Greg Sacks, Terry Labonte, Kyle Petty, Jimmy Spencer, Brett Bodine and Rusty Wallace. Those whose streak ended at three Brickyard 400 fields are Geoff Bodine, Bobby Hillin Jr., Morgan Shepherd and Hut Stricklin. Mike Skinner s qualifying speed Thursday of 176.415 miles an hour is the fastest ever for a first-time starter in the Brickyard 400. The previous mark prior to this year was 174.876 by Johnny Benson in the first round of 1996 qualifying. END FRIDAY NOTES
