Kenseth wins at Richmond, Dale Jr.
fourth_9/7
 No. 8 Budweiser Team makes brilliant recovery from two laps
down
Matt Kenseth won his fourth race of the 2002 season Saturday night at the Monte Carlo 400
at Richmond International Raceway. Kenseth recovered from two flat tires for the win,
topping rookie Ryan Newman and Jeff Green, who finished second and third. Fourth place was
reserved for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team, who recovered from 35th
position, two laps behind the leaders, to score their seventh top-five finish of the
season. In the last 100 laps, Dale Jr. gained 19 positions. The finish continues a recent
resurgence for the team, recording the third top-10 tally in the last four Winston Cup
races and the tenth top-10 finish in 2002. The strong finish moves the Bud bunch up one
spot in the Winston Cup point standings to 14th, and continues a career's worth of success
at the Richmond oval. Dale Jr. has one victory and five top-10 finishes in seven Winston
Cup races at the .75-mile oval, in addition to three victories in the Busch Series. The
top-five finish also earns the team an opportunity to win a $1 million bonus from Winston
in the "No Bull 5" program if they win the race at Talladega in October. (Dale
Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team have won the last two races at the harrowing Talladega
track.) The Key Moments: Dale Jr.,
starting in the 24th position, showed strength and speed from the green flag, working
through traffic and surviving a series of yellow flags (and even one red-flag period) to
climb into the top-10 before the race reached the 100-lap mark. The outlook was good until
lap 132, when Dale Jr. yelled into the radio "Flat tire! Flat tire!" and was
forced to slow dramatically. He limped into the pits where the team changed the punctured
right front tire, but dropped two laps behind the leaders and fell to 35th place. From
that point, it was a continuous march forward, as Dale Jr. gained one lap back as many of
the leaders pitted for fuel. Without the benefit of well-timed yellow flags, the red Bud
car remained one lap behind until lap 289, when Dale Jr. swept past the leader Ward Burton
to get back on the lead lap. In the remaining 111 laps, Dale Jr. clicked off laps faster
than any other car, streaking ahead of eventual winner Kenseth and essentially lapping
most of the rest of the field as he passed many contenders on the track while others were
forced to drop into the pits for fuel. The fuel-efficient Bud car made the final 126 laps
on one tank, finally running dry as Dale Jr. rounded into the third turn on the final lap
of the race.
Dale Jr's Quotes: "I'm really happy
with this. The team gave me a great car. It was fast enough to be a race-winning car, but
I got kind of high in turn one (on lap 132) and got up in the marbles and punctured a
right front tire. So, I guess that was really my fault. After that, the guys really made
the right adjustments and the track seemed to come around to us. I could pass guys high or
low and the car was great on long runs. We'd stay fast and lot of the other guys looked
like they were just hanging on after awhile.
"It was pretty exciting from where I sat. I knew I had
to just get up on the wheel and try to get those laps back and then we just picked 'em off
one by one. The guys were telling me when the cars ahead of us would run out of fuel, and
I know a couple of guys blew tires. We always seem to do well here, but this one is hard
to believe! This one is for the team and guys like Richie Gilmore (DEI chief engine
builder) who built a great engine that was fast and got great gas mileage."
Best Radio Conversations:
The final 100-plus laps were run under green flag conditions, making it hard to carry
on much of a conversation on the radio. However, Dale Jr. was in humorous form when a
brief red-flag period was called on lap 11 to clean up a multi-car crash. The field rolled
to a stop with the Bud car within approximately 50 yards of the team's pit area.
Dale Jr. "I like these red flag
periods when I can see y'all (referring to the team's catch-can man David Lippard) Is
Lippard gonna wear that helmet all night?... He's gonna need the HANS device to hold that
big thing up! (laughter) Hey man - just kidding. I'm just tryin' to keep a little humor in
this boring damn red flag."
Shortly thereafter, two Winston Cup officials began
chatting while standing alongside the No. 8 car. One got relaxed enough to lean against
the red racer.
Dale Jr: "Somebody needs to break up
this party goin' on here (loudly) "NOBODY TOUCH THIS CAR!" (pause) "For
everyone listenin,' that last quote was from the great movie 'Stroker Ace' (back in uh...
'character') "I said 'Nobody touch this car!"'"
Tony Eury Jr. (car chief): "We were
wondering why it took two of those officials to keep an eye on you"
Dale Jr: "Hey - they just want some
'cool points' to rub off onto 'em"
Dale Jr: "Hey, I like the seat that
Tony (Eury Sr.) and Tony Jr. have! (Referring to their perch atop the team's pit box.) I
need a job where I can sit up there and watch. (Suddenly remembering that he is the
co-owner of a new Busch Series team that will race a limited schedule of events in 2003)
Yeah! I can't wait for (teammate Steve) Park to drive that car. I'll be sittin' up there
goin' "BRING HIM IN! BRING HIM IN! FOUR TIRES!! FOUR TIRES!!" That'll be fun as
hell!"
Today's Stats
Started: 24th
Finished: 4th
Points Position: 14th (gained one)
Money Won: $87,205
Laps Led: ---
Best Pit Stop: Lap 254/ Stop #4 of 5 / 4 tires, Fuel / 14.34 seconds
-Budweiser
Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser Richmond
Preview_9/3
Dale Jr. Quotes for Richmond
"This is one of the tracks where I always look forward to getting there and racing.
As a team, we have always done well at this place, from the Busch Series right into
Winston Cup. Plus, I'm always ready for a night race because they seem to suit me better.
We qualified great here in May (2nd) and were really fast during the first part of the
race before the rains came. (The first segment of the race was run on Saturday night, then
rain delayed the remainder of the race until Sunday afternoon.) We were junk during the
day. We struggled with the tires and the sealer on the track, and… well, I think the
conditions should be better this weekend."
"I thought we were going to win this one last year. We were in third place and the 29
(Kevin Harvick) and the 28 (Ricky Rudd) cars were beating on each other big time. I was
kind of hoping they'd take each other out and I'd just slide on by with a wave. I went
over to Victory Lane and congratulated Ricky… he had a big ol' surprised look on his
face. That night is an example of fun racing. Yeah, I wanted to win, but you have to be
happy when the car is good and team keeps you in contention all night long. If we're
competitive and have a shot at the win is when I'm happiest out there, and we sure need to
get back to having that opportunity each week."
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Richmond
Previous Winston Cup Starts: 6
Best Start: 2nd (May, 2002)
Best Finish: 1st (May, 2000)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 8th FIN: 3rd
Dale Jr. has been fantastic at Richmond, starting with two victories in the Busch Series.
His first Winston Cup race there in 1999 resulted in the first top-10 finish for the No. 8
Budweiser team, and then they followed that up with a sparkling victory in May, 2000. It
was the second win for Dale Jr. in only his 16th Winston Cup start, which tied him with
Davey Allison as the quickest multi-race winners in NASCAR Winston Cup's modern era. In
his first six Cup races at Richmond, he has recorded four top-10 finishes. Night time
racing is an occasional thing on the Cup circuit, but Dale Jr. has recorded three of his
victories under the lights: Richmond (May, 2000), Charlotte (the Winston, May, 2000) and
Daytona (July, 2001).
Is a "Speedo" the Logical Choice for a Race Car Driver?
In the July/August issue of Sports Illustrated for Women, more than 15,000 female readers
were polled to determine what male athlete they would like to see in a swim suit. Dale Jr.
(tan or not) ranked seventh in the voting. Apparently he needs to take up skating of some
sort to move up the list next year…
1. Apolo Anton Ohno - speed skater / best name and the best soul patch* on the list
2. Alexei Yagudin - figure skater / apparently a four-time world champion
3. Derek Jeter - baseball / Yankee babe magnet
4. Patrick Rafter - tennis / Big-serving Aussie heart-throb
5. David Pelletier - figure skater / could there be any judging scandals here?
6. Landon Donovan - soccer / looks like the MLS San Jose Earthquake fans vote in blocks
7. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - driver no. 8 / Ladies love the smell of Budweiser and Drakkar
Noir
8. Sergei Federov - hockey / Russian star beloved in Detroit, a.k.a. Hockeytown
9. Eric Lindros - hockey / very popular in the concussion wards of several hospitals
10. Mike Piazza - baseball / commercials with ALF
(*for all you kids who don't know, a "soul patch" is the tuft of hair from the
lower lip to the chin)
What:
Monte Carlo 400
.75-mile oval / 400 laps / 300 miles / Race #26 of 36
Where:
Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Va.
When:
Saturday, September 7 / 7:30 p.m.
Watch:
TNT / Pre-race 7:00 pm
You can also tune in on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) on a radio or computer near
you…
Bud Pole Qualifying:
Bud Pole qualifying can be seen live at 3:00 pm Friday on TNT and heard on MRN affiliates
across the nation.
(All Times: Eastern)
-Budweiser |
