Las Vegas Qualifying Surprise

Hubert surprises field, qualifies fourth By Shawn A. Akers LAS VEGAS (March 5, 1999) Tom Hubert has never had to make all left turns in a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race. He'll have to keep that in mind on Sunday in the Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas ...

Hubert surprises field, qualifies fourth By Shawn A. Akers

LAS VEGAS (March 5, 1999) Tom Hubert has never had to make all left turns in a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race. He'll have to keep that in mind on Sunday in the Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hubert, driving a Ford owned by Kurt Roehrig, pulled off a surprise by qualifying fourth Friday during Bud Pole Qualifying for Sunday's event, touring the 1.5-mile paved speedway in a lap of 169.988 mph. He was bested only by Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip and Joe Nemechek.

The Las Vegas 400 will be Hubert's fourth career series race. The previous three were all run on road courses, where Hubert has enjoyed much success.

"We knew we had a good chance to get in the show, but we wanted to be better than we were," Hubert said. "I knew I had a little bit left this morning, it was just the fact of if I could talk myself into getting back in the gas when I needed to. I got in there good and I think the cloud helped us a bit. The whole lap felt good, so now we'll just get ready for the race."

Hubert's last NASCAR Winston Cup Series race was the 1998 Save Mart/Kragen 350 at Sears Point Raceway. Again driving a Ford for Roehrig, Hubert qualified 10th and finished 41st after developing transmission problems.

Roehrig fielded cars on a limited schedule in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series last year, but his main focus over the past couple of seasons has been in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Hubert said he's not quite sure how he'll fare in Sunday's race, but just getting into the event is a coup for the Bradford White Ford team.

"We've got a semi-pit crew, we're gonna hurt there a little bit, but just making this thing for Bradford White water heaters is great," he said. "This Bradford White Ford Taurus was awesome. Pro Motors gave us a good motor today.

"We tuned her up there for qualifying and we hit our marks and just had a good run. The biggest thing we've been worried about is hitting the marks. We knew we had a good car, but we found out testing here how critical it is to be just a little bit off, and that was the main deal."