 |
|
 ABOUT CSD
Race
Shop
Tickets
Fantasy
Garage Opinions
ADVERTISE |
|
Click Here: |
Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
|
Quote of the day:
``There was a little drama in that last couple of hours that took about two years off my life span.''
7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: NASCAR officials admit error: Carl Edwards Responds Reiser wins weekly Crew Chief Challenge 50 entered for the 600 Tide signs on as sponsor at Victory Junction Waltrip testing at Kentucky Southampton Speedway in Virginia shuts down Harry Gant among those racing Saturday Rough Ride In Diversity Drive Gordon Looks Back On First Win -- 10 Years Ago Kyle Petty, Bill Elliott Turn Test Laps at Daytona Newman says that mutual respect kept finish against Kenseth clean Top ten heading to Charlotte Shame on You, ESPN and About That Tony Stewart/Darrel Waltrip Thing Cup Scene readers speak out about Talladega
SEARCH THIS SITE:
The Daily Scene Newsletter is BACK! CLICK HERE To Sign up
New Raceshop Stuff!
KEEP THE CUP SCENE DAILY COMING! PLEASE Support our sponsors!
Check out the NEW NASCAR Ebay page
Check out the NEW DIECAST SHOP!
|
Happy Birthday: Stacy Compton, Kenny Trout Dale Earnhardt Junior leads the NASCAR Nextel Cup points standings heading into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. And while he leads the series in wins he still sees room for improvement -- especially at 1.5 mile tracks.
"If we've got a weak spot -- obviously, every team's not perfect -- I think that's ours. We've been to Kentucky, which is a similar track, and tested as much as we can. There's some things that are inconsistent, whether it be me or the team. We can always be better." Lowes Motor Speedway is another 1.5 mile track where his team has had its tough moments. Earnhardt suffered a rare DNF at this race last year after a problem with the brake system. He wasn't able to rejoin the race when it was shortened by rain. The problem ended a then league-leading streak of 36 consecutive races without a DNF. On the plus side, Dale Jr. has four top-10s in nine races at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He made his NEXTEL Cup debut five years ago in this race. In May, 1999, he started eighth and finished 16th on what was called "E-Day" to commemorate his Cup debut. Dale Jr. won his first career Pole here in May, 2000, less than one week after becoming the first rookie driver to win the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge. "It's one of the first race tracks that I was able to go to as a young kid to see my dad race. I've seen a lot of races and history there. Before I ever even started driving it was a pretty important race track for me. I've had that on my list of race tracks where I wanted to win. I consider it to be one of the biggest races of the season." The difference in the event at Lowes compared to the other 1.5 milers, is the fact the race has an extra hundered miles tacked on.
"Physically, your arms, neck and eyes feel the difference. It beats you up and your eyes struggle to focus. Mentally, the challenge is just staying focused. It's not as difficult if you're running well. But if your car sucks and you can't pass anybody, then it's like a long road trip where you read every sign, look at every mile-marker and try to figure how much longer it's going to be 'til it's over. You start thinking about what you're going to do tomorrow or if your laundry needs to be done. Hopefully we won't have that problem." Junior is pleased with his Chance 2 Motorsports Chevy, driven by Martin Truex Jr., who is out front in the Busch Series championship chase. Truex has four victories in 12 races, and three of the last five, including Sunday, when he passed Bobby Hamilton Jr. on the last lap at Nazareth. "There are a lot of guys out there with a lot of talent.,"Junior said,"There are others who will never see the light of day in this sport. But if you put those guys in the good equipment, you're going to see a lot of guys succeed. Martin was in a situation this weekend where he had to rely on his intuition. He had to use his brain more than just his sheer raw talent. And so that's when you find out whether a guy can take it to the next level. In my opinion, you can get in a great handling race car and put a straightaway on the field and if you don't make any mistakes, you end up winning the race. But he had to really decide what to do at a certain point. There was a split-second decision to be made there. I would have probably made a different one and I don't know if the outcome would have been the same. It's just amazing that he was down in that corner and he knew he had to get that car turned on the bottom to be able to get off that corner better than Bobby Jr. (Hamilton). Now whether Bobby Jr. goes down in the corner too far or not, that might not happen every time. But Martin put himself in the best situation he could to get by him and that was just really a surprise to me. When a guy makes a move like that, he's up in the top percentage of his class." Earnhardt admits he's even learning from his prized pupil. "If you're really smart, you'll try to learn from everything, no matter what it is," Earnhardt said. "I've always been open-minded enough to realize an opportunity to learn from a guy like Martin or a team like I have in the Busch Series . . . to utilize every facet of experience I can."
"I've always had that on my list of the tracks I wanted to win at," he said of Charlotte. One less issue in his way this week will be the environment in the car, which has been intolerable of late. Earnhardt's uniforms were apparently machine-washed instead of dry-cleaned, and the Nomex material was ruined, resulting it being hot and uncomfortable in a normally hot and uncomfortable race car. "For the last three weeks it's just been brutal inside the car. Normally, it's not too big of a problem. There is a huge difference between the last three weeks and what I'm normally used to. I thought the texture of the uniforms was a lot different. I think what happened was that my uniforms got sent to one of those dry cleaners that claim to be a dry cleaner but actually just machine washes your stuff. That happens to everybody, I think, but you just don't know it. Our driver's uniform has a certain feel with the NOMEX when it's brand new and still in good condition. Once you actually machine wash a uniform, the layers that are fused together come apart and the suit becomes a lot more like cotton instead of NOMEX. It brings down the ability of the safety fibers prevent you from being burned. Also the uniform shrinks up too. I'm a little disappointed but hopefully I can get me a couple of new uniforms here. DEI is just having to dig in their back pocket and get me some more uniforms.." He also believes his team and the father-son brain trust of Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr. have worked out the bugs in over-adjusting on his car, something he'd complained about after finishing fifth in the NASCAR-Nextel All-Star Challenge last Saturday. "We had discussions about a lot things," Earnhardt said. "We had a great car when the race started. We obviously had some ideas on things we wanted to try to do to the car to make it faster, and that's what you do in that race. You go for the win. "I was disappointed that what we tried didn't work out for us and I was disappointed with my team. But when I looked back, we made a commitment before the race started that we were going for the win, nothing else." "I'm glad to be points racing again. The all-star race is cool and I know the fans love it, but we're so focused on running for the championship that it was a little more nerve-racking just from fear of messing up the big picture.
"I know what I need to do. You've just got to finish the best you can every week. That's all there is to it.
"My dad was the same way. Richard Childress had great race cars but he didn't get credit for them all the time because everybody liked to say that dad could take a 15th place car and run fifth with it. I don't want to sit here and tell you Richard didn't have great race cars. But Dad dug deep several times to help those guys win championships."
|
