Defending Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch led 131 of 203 laps and
survived a spirited green-white-checkered finish to win the
Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday. Busch took the
lead away from Rusty Wallace 17 laps from the scheduled finish
and held on for the victory. Wallace finished second and Mark
Martin third. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #8 Budweiser team
finished 32nd, snapping a string of three consecutive top-10
finishes. Junior fell two laps down early, all on pit road, and
was never able to recover. As a result, he slipped one spot to
14th in the point standings (2,262 points). With six races to
go before the start of the 10-race Chase for the Championship,
Dale Jr. sits 110 points out of the top-10 and 137 points away
from the 400-point cutoff for Chase eligibility.
Key Moments: Poor track position, an ill-timed caution
and a pit-road speeding penalty soured the Bud team’s day before
it ever really started. But if there was any solace, it came in
the quick lap times the Bud car was registering at the end of
the day, the result of major changes to the car’s set-up
throughout the afternoon. Starting 38th, an untimely caution
caught Junior one lap down to the leaders on the 49th circuit,
as debris was spotted on the backstretch while the #8 Chevy was
on pit road. Junior lost another lap by virtue of a pit-road
speeding penalty. The Brew Crew had just completed the first of
a two-part phase to change the right-front spring – a lengthy
but necessary adjustment to help the Budweiser Chevy’s handle.
But in a crunch to beat the pace car, Dale Jr. sped off pit road
and was hit with a lap-penalty. The two-lap deficit proved
unrecoverable, even with Junior driving one of the fastest cars
on the track by the time the checkers waved.
Dale Jr. Quotes: “It was kind of a rough start today, but
once we got the car figured out, it was pretty easy. A lot of
things happened that nobody really knows about, but we got the
car better at the end. We changed a spring, of all things,
under a pit stop, and lost a lap. Never could make the laps
back up. We got the car driving better, so we if we learned
anything for Indy, which I think we did, maybe we can gain what
we lost today. I don’t like losing that much, but we’ve got
enough races to get it done.”
How do you get back the momentum lost today? “We’ll get it back. We learned some stuff today. At the
beginning of the weekend, we were really bad, and no matter what
we did, we couldn’t get the car running better. But there at
the end, man, we were fast. We passed the second-place car, and
then ran away from him. So if you paid real close attention to
what happened today – well, I don’t know if I can explain it –
but we’ll be OK. We got some stuff figured out today that
really helped the car. I can’t wait for Indy.”
On having six races to climb into the Chase for the
Championship: “Plenty of time. We just got to win more, maybe run in the
top-five a couple times. We’ll be right there.”
Best Radio Chatter: After a lengthy pit stop to change the right-front
spring, Dale Jr. sped down pit road in effort to beat the pace
car. But he was clocked going 143 mph (pit road speed limit is
55), which warranted a one-lap penalty by NASCAR: Dale Jr.: “Everything’s cool. NASCAR did the right
thing. If the car is better, we can make it up.”
Dale Jr.: “Ya know, I only went that fast because that
was the only way I was going to beat the pace car. I’m sorry,
because that was really stupid actually, with all them guys out
on pit road. I’m sorry… tell Mike (Helton), and all them
officials.” Steve Hmiel (crew chief): “Yeah, no problem. It’s the
same thing (NASCAR Events Director) David Hoots said, that it’s
OK to run like mad and beat the pace car. It would probably
just get you a stop and go (penalty). But once we got by the
pace car, you needed to know so you could slow back down a
little bit. It’s OK, we live and learn. Nobody’s excited.” Dale Jr.: “Yeah, I was going down through there and was
thinking, ‘man, what if I got out of control here.’ So, I’m
real sorry about that. Got us some undeserved ignorant
attention there.” Hmiel: (laughing) “I think you set a record of 143 mph
down pit road.”
Having raced his way from the back to the front, Dale Jr.
jokingly suggested a change to the “beneficiary” rule: Dale Jr.: “Next year, they ought to consider giving
the ‘lucky dog’ award to whoever drives up through there the
best… like I did.” Hmiel: “Yeah, they ought to have a ‘Whatever’ Award.” Dale Jr.: “Yeah, hell, that was a lotta work!”
A handful of wrecks in the closing circuits prolonged the
race three extra laps, prompting a bit more imaginative tweaks
to the NASCAR rulebook: Hmiel: “I think they ought to restart three-wide on
green-white-checkered finishes.” Dale Jr.: “Yeah, unless you were second… or fifth even.” Hmiel: (laughing) Yeah, understand that!”
Today's Stats Started: 38th
Finished: 32nd
Led: --
Best Pit Stop: Stop 12 of 12 / four tires and fuel / 12.90
seconds / lap 178
Budweiser, the King of Beers.
***************************************** Mike Davis
fingerprint, inc.
Budweiser Racing / Dale Earnhardt Jr.
www.fingerprintonline.com
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