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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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Close calls Marlin, Skinner boldly take 125-mile qualifiers
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If this is how the Daytona 500 is going to be, hold on. Sterling Marlin and Mike Skinner won the Gatorade 125s on Thursday, a pair of qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500 that may portend one of the most competitive -- if not downright scary -- Daytona 500 races in years. "What is good for the fans is not always good for the competitors," a harried Mark Martin said after the first race, which Marlin won in a wild last-lap dash. "It's show business and it's gonna put on a show. "Gonna be a lot of gray hair." The two races set records for the most lead changes in the Gatorade 125s, which is exactly what NASCAR wanted when officials decided to put new aerodynamic packages on the cars. The car changes -- mainly a strip across the roof of the car and a flange on the spoiler on the back of the car -- have made racing closer. Too close for some.
Cars raced four- and five-wide Thursday at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway oval. They drafted within millimeters of each other at speeds averaging near 150 mph in the first race and better than 162 mph in the second. There were 10 lead changes in the first 125, with six different cars holding the lead. Marlin led only one lap, the last. In the second race, there were 11 lead changes among nine different drivers. Last year, there was one lead change, total, in both races. "It's a little bit more frightening than it's ever been here at Daytona," said Jerry Nadeau, who finished second in the first race. "It's amazing how close we are and how much bumping there is. That's just a taste of what the 500's going to be like." In the first race, veteran Dale Earnhardt bolted away from the pack after the caution flag was raised with one lap to go, but the rest of the cars stayed back. Marlin overtook him coming out of turn 2, whipping from the top of the track onto the apron and outdueling Earnhardt and several others to the checkered flag. "Everyone got to the high side," Marlin said. "Nobody got down to the bottom." Nadeau finished second, Earnhardt third. "I was a sitting duck," Earnhardt said. Skinner, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet, slipped by Dale Earnhardt Jr. by four one-thousandths of a second to win the second race, with Jeff Burton third. The win puts Skinner on the outside of Row 2 for Sunday's 500. The first three spots for the 500 are Dodges -- pole-sitter Bill Elliott, Stacy Compton (who was second in speed qualifying) and Marlin, by virtue of his win in the first 125. The first 14 finishers in the Gatorade 125s, not counting pole-sitters, made the 500. Neither of the cars that won their spots in the front row in last Saturday's qualifying -- Elliott and Compton -- was a factor in Thursday's races. But last year's winner of the 500, Dale Jarrett, was involved in a wreck with rookie Ron Hornaday in the first race and sustained some damage to his car. He may have to go with a secondary car for Sunday's race. Johnny Benson and Tony Stewart also wrecked their primary cars. Most notable names that missed the field for the 43-car Daytona 500: Derrike Cope, Rick Mast and Todd Bodine.
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