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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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Falling behind After poor run, Schrader points finger at Dodge drivers
By Mark Button, CNNSI.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Looking at the numbers, one might think something bad may have happened about lunchtime. Or perhaps something sneaky. In the final qualifying practice run Saturday morning at Daytona International Speedway, Kenny Schrader's No. 36 M&M's Pontiac recorded the fastest single lap time of any car -- 49.150 seconds at 183.113 mph. That lap would have earned Schrader the pole position for the Daytona 500 had the practice been the official qualifying. Schrader was .145 of a second faster than Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose Chevy recorded the second-best time of the morning practice session at 49.295. Then came the official qualifying run Saturday afternoon, and things were remarkably different. The Dodge cars took over, placing four cars in the top 10 after only two Dodge drivers (Ward Burton and Sterling Marlin) recorded top 10 times in the morning practice. Bill Elliott -- in the No. 9 Dodge -- earned the pole position for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18 with the top qualifying time of 49.029 seconds at 183.565 mph. Schrader and his Pontiac, meanwhile, finished in 28th place. He was less than pleased. "The Dodges did a great job of sandbagging," he said sharply. Schrader contends that the Dodge cars tested at slower speeds in the morning -- and did so on purpose. "They just ran with smaller restrictor plates in practice," Schrader said. "I would say it was pretty much a company order. It's not like they all, this morning, figured out how to pick up a half a second." After Jerry Nadeau, who record the second fastest qualifying time in his No. 25 Chevy (49.244 seconds at 182.763 mph), was disqualified for failing a height check after the race, another Dodge joined Elliott on the front row. Stacey Compton, who placed a 49.266 second lap at 182.682 mph in the No. 92 Dodge, moved from third place to second place to make Dodge's day even more impressive. Schrader's crew was visibly disappointed, but it has time to tweak the Pontiac before next Thursday's twin Gatorade 125s, where the positions 3-30 of the 43-car field in the Daytona 500 will be decided. "I didn't think we would sit on the pole," Schrader's crew chief Sammy Johns said. "But I thought we would be more solid than this. But we have a good car. We just have to get it ready for Thursday and race our way in." Schrader said his fall from first place in the morning practice to 28th place in the afternoon qualifying is not a huge deal. His 17 Winston Cups seasons have taught him a thing or two about perspective. "This is disappointing, but it is no big heartbreaker," he said. "How you qualify and how you run in the 500 aren't necessarily related."
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