Daytona Beach, Fla. – Robert Yates Racing went from skid row to the front row, emerging from the darkest season in team history to take the Daytona 500 spotlight.
At least for a week.
David Gilliland and Ricky Rudd won the top two starting spots Sunday in qualifying for the Daytona 500, putting Yates back on the racing map after a horrendous season.
“There was a time last year when I felt like I maybe was the problem, and wasn’t in love with it and really wanted to leave (racing),” Yates said. “I could have walked out of here last year.”
That dark time saw Yates lose his drivers, a sponsor and both of his crew chiefs in a tumultuous year that saw the once-proud team collapse to the point that Yates was convinced he was dying.
He handed the keys to his two cars to Gilliland, an unproven rookie, and Rudd, the Iron Man of NASCAR who spent last year out of racing.
Gilliland turned a lap of 186.320 mph to win the pole, and Rudd was right behind at 185.609 to put themselves on the front row for the season-opening Daytona 500 next Sunday.
Juan Pablo Montoya flirted with the front row, putting his new No. 42 Dodge in the second spot only to be bumped from it moments later by teammate David Stremme. Stremme ended up third and Montoya was fourth.
Gilliland and Rudd were the only two drivers to lock down their starting spots under a complicated qualifying procedure for NASCAR’s biggest event of the year that was marred when Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne’s cars failed inspection and Michael Waltrip’s was impounded because of a suspicious part.
TENNIS
Roddick delivers the clincher as U.S. tops Czechs in Davis Cup
Andy Roddick beat Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) to lead the United States to a 4-1 victory over the host Czech Republic in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
The victory gave the Americans an insurmountable lead in the best-of-five format, and Roddick ran his record to 8-0 in Davis Cup matches with victory on the line.
Other World Group winners in the first round were: defending champion Russia (at Chile), Sweden (at Belarus), Germany (home against Croatia), Spain (at Switzerland), France (home against Romania), Argentina (at Austria) and Belgium (at home against Australia).
“It is one of his biggest wins, certainly in Davis Cup – one of his most impressive wins,” captain Patrick McEnroe said.
Nadia Petrova came back from a set down to beat Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 and win the Gaz de France in Paris.
Austria’s Sybille Bammer saved three match points to beat Argentine Gisela Dulko 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 at the Pattaya Women’s Open in Bangkok, Thailand, for her first WTA title.
FOOTNOTES
Kramer shatters own skating mark
Sven Kramer broke his own 10,000-meter world record and made it a Dutch double at the World Allround Speedskating Championships, winning the men’s overall title in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Ireen Wust won the women’s title.
Kramer won the 10,000 in 12 minutes, 49.88 seconds, cutting 1.72 off the record he set last March in Calgary, Alberta. Carl Verheijen was second in 12:55.30, and Eskil Ervik of Norway was third in 13:08.92.
Two-time defending champion Shani Davis of the United States struggled to find his form and finished sixth in the overall standings.
Steven Holcomb of the United States and teammates Pavle Jovanovic, Steve Mesler, Brock Kreitzburg won a four-man bobsled World Cup race in Cesana, Italy.
It was Holcomb’s third straight victory. The team finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 51.78 seconds.
Ashley Force, the 24-year-old daughter of funny car star John Force, lost in the first round of eliminations at the NHRA’s Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., her first professional event.
Force, the 10th woman to drive a funny car in professional drag racing competition, saw her chances of beating teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight go up in smoke when her Castrol/Auto Club Ford Mustang lost traction midway down the quarter-mile strip.
Indiana Pacers guard Darrell Armstrong, who was ejected during a loss to Denver on Friday, was suspended by the NBA for Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
