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Exciting effort Spencer takes pole, Dodges round out top three
Updated: Saturday August 04, 2001 11:29 PM
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com INDIANAPOLIS -- All that talk about NASCAR stacking the deck for Dodge was, apparently, just a bunch of hot air. In fact, though three of the newly modified Intrepids will start Sunday's Brickyard 400 in the top 10, the manufacturer wasn't even able to place one of its drivers on the pole, as it had at each of the three previous races at tracks where down force is king. However, for every sad story, there's a happy one, and Dodge's misfortune was Jimmy Spencer's good fortune. Though affectionately known as "Mr. Excitement" for both his driving and vocal talents, Spencer was perfectly in control, on and off the track. In contrast to many qualifiers who got loose coming out of turn 4 and slapped the outside wall. Spencer didn't and got around the track 179.666 mph. While it is just the second pole of Spencer's career (and first since 1994), Sunday's start will be Spencer's third top-10 start in the last four races.
Defending race champion Bobby Labonte qualified 15th and current Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon qualified 27th. "To be on the pole is special," Spencer said. "Pretty neat. There's no question that the pole here is bigger than anywhere else. I mean, winning any pole is big, but not as big as the Brickyard. This is really special." If the Dodge's didn't match either previous performance or expectations, they did perform more than adequately. Bill Elliott will start second, while his teammate, rookie Casey Atwood, will start third. Sterling Marlin, the third of the Dodge men in the top 10, will start eighth. And the rule change? "As far as it making an immediate difference, not a lot," Elliott said when asked how the change impacted his qualifying run. "The biggest key will be how practice goes [Saturday] afternoon and how the track is [Sunday]. But Casey unloaded and was fast and he really was no different than he tested." The Dodges tested at Indy a few days before NASCAR announced the rule change that allowed teams to extend the front air dam by two inches. Atwood, making the best start of his career and third top-5 start in the last five races, agreed with Elliott's read on the new-look Dodges. "We were fast right off the bat here in testing," he said. "And we had a good car [Saturday] morning in practice. But the change? I couldn't tell much of a difference, really. I think we'll be able to se the difference in the race. I hope so..." While Spencer appreciated the significance of his effort and its benefit to his race strategy (by allowing him the first pick of pit stalls, which can dramatically impact track position), he also noted a potential downside. "Well, this puts me in the Busch Clash next year [a race reserved for the previous season's pole winners]," he said, "so that's nice. But, I guess that will screw up my [ability to] golf in the afternoon next February."
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