| | Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- The fastest car in the Brickyard 400 will start 26th in the 43-car field.
Brett Bodine, who was 44th of 49 drivers after the first round of time trials for Saturday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, turned a lap of 181.072 mph. He broke the day-old track qualifying mark of 181.068 set by pole-winner Ricky Rudd.
The time difference between the two fast Fords was 0.001-second.
Bodine hit the wall in Thursday's opening practice on the 2.5-mile oval.
"It surprised me that we set a new track record," he said. "I'm not surprised I made the race. We've been working our tails off to get to this point.
"I learn more with each turn and I kept getting more and more confidence in the car. That's what it takes to run these things at speed."
Bodine has not had a top-10 finish this season and is 37th in the standings.
"We're a very underfunded team, compared to some of the others," he said. "We can't take too many chances. I wanted to be careful without being too conservative on my warmup lap. During my run, the car handled the best it had all weekend."
Geoffrey Bodine, who banged his Chevrolet off the wall during his Thursday qualifying attempt and posted no speed, took the 27th spot with a lap of 179.037.
The rest of Friday's qualifiers either stood on their first-day speeds or made it with provisionals, based on team owner points.
Jeff Gordon, a two-time Indy winner, chose to stand on his
first-day lap and will start 29th.
Among the drivers using a provisional to make the field was top
rookie Matt Kenseth, who will start 37th.
Failing to make the race were David Keith, Dave Marcis, Rich
Bickle, Robby Gordon, Bill Faird and Steve Grissom, driving for
Kyle Petty, who skipped Friday's qualifying to participate in the
Kroger 200 Busch Series race later in the day.
Petty will drive in the race, however, substituting for Jeremy
Mayfield. He received a concussion from a crash during practice
Friday and was admitted to Methodist Hospital.
Playing catch-up
Three-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon is a distant eighth in the season points with 15 of 34 races yet to be run in 2000.
But Gordon, who turned 29 on Friday, said recent strong showings give him reason for encouragement that his No. 24 team is on the way back.
"I think we're turning things around right now," he said. "I don't think winning the Brickyard is what would turn things around. We'd like to do that, and we're going to do everything we can to do that, but we're not looking for a quick fix turnaround. We're looking for a constant gain each and every race.
"What I want to see, from midway until the end of the season, I want to see Jeff Gordon gain more points than anybody. Whether that happens or not, I don't know. That to me is what's going to prepare us for next year."
Gordon said he's certainly not giving up on this year.
"Our goal is to get as high in the points as we can," he said.
"But it's so competitive. You've got guys that aren't falling out
of races and guys that finish in the top five every weekend. On top
of that, you don't have a guy that's going out there winning every
race. It's hard to make big gains in the points."
Truckin' on
Sears, Roebuck and Co. and its Craftsman tool brand have extended their sponsorship of NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series through 2005.
The extension of the current contract also includes plans for an
expanded marketing program.
The truck series started in 1995 and has grown from a
predominantly short-track tour to include several superspeedways,
including Daytona International Speedway and new events at Chicago
Motor Speedway, Dover Downs International Speedway and Kentucky
Speedway.
Under the agreement, Craftsman will continue as the Official
Tool of NASCAR and will also increase its support of NASCAR's
grassroots Weekly Racing Series at more than 100 local tracks
nationwide.
A caring guy
ESPN announcer Bob Jenkins was presented the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Caring Hands Award on Friday for his work in helping awareness of the organization and its mentoring program.
The program, sponsored by Valvoline, has raised $527,025 for the
BBBSA in 17 months.
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