Saturday, March 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Bessey, driving a Chevrolet, toured the 1.5-mile superspeedway at 156.191 mph to earn 26th starting spot Sunday. Bessey's speed was 14th-fastest overall.
"The car has been real good all day," Bessey said. "I tried to squeeze everything out of what the car had. I just can't wait to get racing."
Jeff Green won the pole position for the race in qualifying Friday with a lap of 159.311.
Greg Sacks was second-fastest Saturday to earn the 27th spot, while series rookie Steve Park, who crashed Friday, was third-fastest in the session.
Defending series champion Randy LaJoie, who also crashed Friday in qualifying, turned a lap of 154.475 Saturday in his backup car. He will start 32nd.
"We slowed down, but we had to because we don't have another car on the truck," LaJoie said. "We think we have a good setup for the race and we should do well. This is probably my favorite car of the bunch."
With only 42 cars attempting to qualify for the race, all drivers were assured a starting spot before qualifying began.
The race Sunday begins at 4 p.m. EST and will be broadcast live on TNN and MRN Radio.
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