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Show TheSalt Lake Tribune AUTO RACING Sunday, March 11, 2001 NASCAR Only Nerve Holds Down Atlanta’s Speeds THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAMPTON, — There aren't any restrictor plates at Ae"Motor Speedway and the drivers like it that way. But with race speeds inching toward 190 mph, a few were uneasy preparing for today’s race. “Howfast you get around Atlanta depends.a whole lot on how muchnerveyouhave,” Mike Wallace said. “You're driving down into the corner at almost 200 mph,and through experience you're thinking you're Jose Luis Magana/TheAssociated Press supposed to be backing off. But you need to just about run wideopen here.” Ven Brack hadthe fastest qualifying speed for today's CARTrace in Monterrey, Mexico. Thecars can’tgo thatfast at Daytona and Tallade- ga, the sport’s two biggest andfastest tracks, because NASCAR requires the use ofspeed-sapping restrictor plates. - But they don’t use them atthe 1.5-mile oval in At- Brack Earns Pole lanta, where the wide, sweeping track layoutallows ‘drivers to build speed — even after a crash. South of Border ° BY MIKE HARRIS *Youfeel the speed here more than at any place we go,” said Dale Jarrett, who won thepole for today’s Cracker Barrel 500 WirfSton Cuprace with a speed of * 192.748 mph. » That speed was almost 10 mphfaster than the lap 1 Bill Elliott turned to win the pole for last month’s Daytona 500. Jaftett said he probably could have ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: throttle. CART rookie, stolethe spotlight froma triooffast Brazilians oh didn’t,hold it wide open — I’m too old for that now,” he said with a laugh. Jarrett may havebeen joking, but the speeds have n Saturday, winning the pole for the inaugural Telmex Tecate GrandPrix. Calling the slippery new track “‘a moving target,” Brack added, “I’m little surprised, to be honest. Coming down here,weset a goal to be in thetopfive,top eight.” Although Team Rahal stayed with Ford engines, the switched overthe winter from Reynard to Lola chassis. “With the chassis change and‘ everything else that changed, I didn’t think we'd be as competitive as we have been this weekend,”Bracksaid. To win his first CART poleandfirst pole of any kind since August 1996 in Silverstone, England, in Europe’s Formula 3000 series, the Swedish driver madethe best adjustment on the treacherous 2.1-mile, 12-turn road circuit in downtown Fundidora Park. “This morning, I made a mistake and ripped the front “They're too fast, too fast for‘Busch cars,”the 23- the secondgro Brack,innhis2ist CARTstart, switched to his secondset of qualifyingtires about halfway through his session. “We watched: what happened in thefirst group and saw that manyofthe drivers were going outat the end andtrying so hard for a fast lap that they were going off [course] and, throwinga lotofdirt on the track,” Brack said. Brazil's Cristiano da Matta earned the other front-row starting spot for today’s race. Brack got aroundthe dusty, slippery course in 1 minute, 14.255 seconds — an average of 100.665 mph. Da Matta was just 0.218-seconds slowerand averaged 100.404. Defending series championGil de Ferran of Brazil, fast in the opening practice on Friday, led early in the qualifying session but wound upthird at 1:15.551 (100.255), followed by tna teammate Helio Castroneves of Brazil at 1:15.580 (100.217). % Hampton, Ga., on Saturday. Sauter was temporarily knocked out when Sawyers °' carhit him, but he was later released from theinfield care. , center. Joe Nemechek won the race. ” year-old Wimmersaid. “It does concern me. ” ‘The Winston Cupcars are quicker and Ca itin Saturday's prictice, avhere Jerry Nadeauposted the fastest lap.at 187.101 mph. The high speeds left some two 30-minute ee with most ofthe fastest drivers in lap of the Aaron’s 312 NASCARBusch Series race at Dale Earnhardt’s death at Daytona. * Scott Wimmer,a rookie in beret's Busch race, admitted the high speeds scared Theonly qualifying session of the weekendwassplit into * Atlanta Motor Speedway in ~ been a concern in the garage area — especially since wing anda piece of the underbody off,” said Brack, who came to CARTlastyear after winningthe 1999 Indianapolis 500 and the series championship a year earlier while competing in the rival Indy Racing League. “You have to keep on top of whatthetrackis doing, and, this afternoon, we just managed to time everything right.” Tim Sauter,left, and Elton Sawyer, center. Houston's car: hits the wall during the 105th gonefaster but backed off before he was running full MONTERREY, Mexico — Kenny Brack, last year’s top | Fire erupts from Marty ! Houston's car, above,after a Collision,at left, with the cars of ffetting about what would happenin an accident. “Onthis track, when you do hit the wall, you hit it pretty hard,” Tony Stewart said. “There’s not much room forerror. Thefaster you go, the more race track you need to get your car back undercontrol.” Butthetrack is expected to slow underactual race conditions, whenthetires begin to wear. Jeff Gordon, vino/The Associated Press whostarts second today, said he would be more comfortable pnce that happens. “The qualifying is the hairy part,” Gordon said. “The speeds dropoff pretty quick once weget into the race andthetires wear,” Nemechek Wins Busch Race Joe Nemechek ended Todd Bodine's recentsi glehold on the Busch Grand National Series by win. ning theAaron’:'s 312 at Hampton, Gam; Nemechek, a Wirf8ton Cup regulars gambled by pitting five laps before the rest ofthefield did. That allowed him to build a comfortable lead when therest ofthe cars stopped With 31laps to go. 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