BRIEFLY : BOAT MAKES FOYT'S DAY.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

After crowd favorite A.J. Foyt drove his old roadster around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for fun, Billy Boat gave Foyt an even bigger thrill Saturday, taking the tentative Indianapolis 500 pole at a speed almost 100 mph faster than his boss.

Foyt, a four-time winner of the world's richest and most prestigious auto race and now a full-time car owner, got the top two spots in the early qualifying for next Sunday's race. His other driver, Sweden's Kenny Brack, relegated pole favorite Tony Stewart to the outside of the front row.

Stewart, the defending Indy Racing League champion, topped the speed charts on four of the six days of practice leading to the first of just two days of time trials. His fast lap, 223.797, came Friday.

But it was Boat, seventh last year as an Indy rookie, who turned up the heat in practice Saturday morning with a lap of 223.836 - the fastest since the track opened May 10.

Mark Martin made his first victory in stock car racing's annual all-star event a stunning one, winning The Winston in Charlotte, N.C., when Jeff Gordon ran out of gas on the final lap.

Gordon appeared to be the class of the field in the 70-lap event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and he was leading by about 10 car-lengths and was pulling away when he slowed going into the first turn on the last lap.

Martin, headed for what appeared to be an outclassed second-place finish, zipped past Gordon while a shocked crowd of 160,000 stood and screamed.

``They had it won. We lucked out,'' said Martin, who won $257,500. ``I don't think that we would have ever caught them, but that doesn't matter.''

Cruz Pedregon of Moorpark led qualifying in the Funny Car division at the NHRA's Mopar Parts Nationals in Englishtown, N.J. Pedregon kept his car out front with a 4.832 second run at 313.15 mph, followed by John Force, who ran 4.843 at 323.35, the fastest speed in NHRA history.