Apparently, Jeff Green didn’t get Monday’s corporate memo.
Two minutes after fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. had apparently won the Daytona 500 pole, Green took it away at Daytona International Speedway.
Say what? Jeff Green? The same Jeff Green who is 0-for-91 in Winston Cup races and had only one pole before Monday?
That’s him. Green shocked everyone — except, he said, his team — by qualifying No. 1 for next weekend’s season-opening NASCAR race. His best lap of 48.230 seconds in a Chevrolet computed to 186.606 mph around the 2.5-mile track.
Almost everybody figured Earnhardt Jr. and teammate Michael Waltrip would lead qualifying. After all, Dale Earnhardt Inc. is a master at preparing cars for restrictor-plate tracks. Witness: Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip combined to win six of the eight Daytona and Talladega races in 2001 and 2002.
So nobody was surprised when Waltrip went out seventh, ran 185.460 mph and moved atop the scoreboard. And certainly, nobody was surprised when Earnhardt Jr. went out 36th and displaced his teammate with a lap of 186.382 mph.
But what happened next stunned almost everybody. Green smoked them both, giving Richard Childress Racing its first Daytona 500 pole since Mike Skinner in 1997. Moments later, RCR driver Robby Gordon knocked Waltrip down to fourth.
“People looked at me like I had four eyes when I said I thought we could do this,” Green said after the second pole of his career. “We didn’t practice much Saturday because we knew we had a great car. I expected this, I really did. Everybody got us here. The engine shop, the fabrication shop and the crew had to be right … and they were.”
Another surprise was the continuation of Tony Stewart’s problems at Daytona. The defending series champion blew his engine on his first of two qualifying laps and failed to post a time. It was reminiscent of last year, when Stewart finished last in the race after engine problems forced him out on the second lap.
Earnhardt said he was satisfied with second. “I’d never been better than 15th here,” he said, “so that was a fantastic lap. I never expected to beat Michael, but it’s still bittersweet to lose the pole after being that close.”
Rudd, who ran his first 500 in 1977, fought hard to be fifth.
“The first lap was scary because I went to the high side and the car bounced real bad,” he said. “I cracked the throttle, and it was smoother on the bottom and the middle on the second lap. On the first one, though, I was worried if I could just hang on.”
The top 10: Green, Earnhardt Jr., Gordon and Waltrip in Chevys, then Rudd in a Ford, Kevin Harvick in a Chevy, Dale Jarrett in a Ford, Bobby Labonte in a Chevy and Sterling Marlin and Kyle Petty in Dodges.
The top-20 recap: Nine Chevys, six Dodges, four Fords and a Pontiac.
Qualifying began at 2:25, almost 90 minutes late. Several hours of rain had washed the track clean, and an unpredictable wind knocked cars around. “You can’t control what the wind does,” said 14th-fastest Mark Martin, “and it was pretty windy today. I’m not sure it was completely consistent.”
Monday locked Green and Earnhardt Jr. onto Row 1 for the 500. Starters 3-36 will come from Thursday’s 125-mile qualifiers, with 37-43 from provisionals. Monday’s odd-numbered qualifiers will run Thursday’s first race, and its even-numbered qualifiers will compete in the second race.
Despite being seventh, Jarrett was frustrated. “I’m disappointed because everybody talked about how equal things would be with these new (aero-matching) templates,” he said. “I don’t see it that way.
“My enthusiasm is down from what it was last week. I’m still excited to be here, but I know it’ll take a supreme effort to give us a chance to win.”
