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2003 Season
2003 Sirius 400
| Race Information |
| Event: Sirius 400 |
| Date: June 15, 2003 |
Track: Michigan Int'l Speedway |
| Qualified: 3rd (but started at rear of field due to
pre-race engine change) |
Finished: 7th |
| Status: Running |
Laps Completed:
200 of 200 |
| Points
Pos. Before/After Race:
2nd/2nd |
Points
Earned: 151 (w/ 5 bonus) |
| Money
Earned: $-- |
Summary and Related News |
Busch wins Michigan 400, Dale Jr.
seventh_6/15/03
No. 8 Budweiser Team Records Career-Best Finish at Michigan
Kurt Busch won Sunday’s Michigan 400, leading Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon across
the finish line. Busch has won a league-leading three races this season. Dale Earnhardt
Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team were in fourth place entering the final lap of the race,
but lost three positions to cars with fresher tires after a close incident with Matt
Kenseth. The seventh-place tally is the 10th top-10 of the season for the team, and is the
best career Winston Cup finish at the two-mile oval for Dale Jr. and the Bud team. Dale
Jr. remains in second place in Winston Cup points, gaining five bonus points for leading a
lap. The Bud team has scored more bonus points for leading races (70 points) than any
other team.
 The Key Moments:
The No. 8 Budweiser team qualified third in Friday’s Bud Pole qualifying session, but
were forced to start at the back of the field after changing an engine prior to the race.
The team discovered a cam shaft problem with their engine after the final practice
Saturday afternoon. The poor starting position turned into an advantage when a yellow flag
on lap two allowed the Bud team to pit for adjustments and four fresh tires. When a second
yellow flag fell on lap 11, most of the field made a pit stop while the Bud team remained
on the track, leaving Dale Jr. in fourth position on the restart. The red No. 8 car led
the race on lap 20, diving low on the front stretch in a three-wide battle for the lead.
For the first 100 laps, Dale Jr. complained of an engine that was down on power, but the
car handled well in the corners, allowing him to stay in the top-10 for the remainder of
the race. The team made a final pit stop for two tires on lap 172, and were able to hold
off cars with fresher tires until the final lap.
Dale Jr’s Quotes: About the final lap: “You’ll have to ask
Matt (Kenseth) what happened. He got up inside of me (in turn two) and just run me up into
the wall. I was a sitting duck out there for the final restart (on lap 195). The guys
behind me with fresher tires didn’t have any lapped cars to contend with, so I just
had to drive my (butt) off. What can you do?”
Later quote from Speed Channel interview: “We're buddys and all, but
Matt always seems to run me into the wall. He had new tires, so he was going by me anyway,
so I don’t know why he did that. It killed my momentum, it lost me two more spots.
That's two spots I should've had. If that's how he wants to battle, that’s how
we’ll battle.”
Best Radio Conversations
The race began with the Bud car at the back of the field, but a series of early yellow
flags allowed the team to leap-frog back into the top five before the driver began
complaining of an engine that was straining against the rev-limiter.
Dale Jr: (holding the mic open on his radio so the team could listen to
the engine) “Listen to this. What am I gonna do? Listen how long it’s ‘on
the chip!’ (a rev-limiting chip in the ignition system)
Tony Eury Jr: “Take care of it the best you can. The pace should
slow down – you’re running laps a lot faster than we did last year, but it
should slow down.”
Dale Jr: “I can’t help it. In the draft, the car just goes. It
just takes off!”
On lap 20, Dale Jr. made a dive to the apron of the track to take the lead in a
three-wide battle with Tony Stewart and Sterling Marlin.
Dale Jr: “Tell me if I lead this lap…”
Tony Jr: “10-4. You led the lap – you got the bonus
points…”
Dale Jr: (dropping back to fourth on the next lap) “Alright, I
don’t wanna hurt this engine, so I’m just gonna chill out and keep the leaders
in sight.”
On lap 25:
Dale Jr: “There’s something wrong with this motor. The engine
is tightening up, like I broke a valve spring or something.”
Under a yellow-flag period on lap 40:
Dale Jr: “It’s a bad vibration somewhere. It goes away when I
put in the clutch – but it’s like I can only drive it three-quarters of the way
– and I don’t like that. I wanna be able to push it 100%… “
Under the a yellow-flag period on lap 48:
Dale Jr: “I feel like we killed the engine speed-wise. But, I still
seem to be pretty fast. Maybe this engine is possessed. It’s on, then it’s not.
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise because I’m really getting through the
corners. I’m not overdriving it. What do you guys think? I look pretty good in the
corners?!”
Tony Jr: “I can’t see ya in the corners, but your lap times
have been good.”
Best Non-Radio Conversations
In the post-qualifying news conference Friday afternoon, a giddy Dale Jr. pointed out
Bobby Labonte’s new uniform, a special design promoting the new HULK movie.
“Hey Bobby, if I bump into your car Sunday, will it grow bigger?”
Today’s Stats
Started: 3rd (in 8 races here, Dale Jr. has six top-10 starts and two Bud Poles)
Finished: 7th (career best Michigan Winston Cup finish)
Points Position: 2nd (-185 to Kenseth)
Led: One lap (lap 20)
Best Pit Stop: Lap 121 / Stop #5 of 7 / Fuel, four tires / 13.91 seconds
After 15 of 36 races:
Top-Five Finishes: 7
Top-10 Finishes: 10
Laps Led: 529
Races Led: 11
Want music? Films? Fun? Budweiser? Get it all at www.Budweiser.com. True.
-Budweiser
Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser Sirius 400 Preview_6/9/03
Dale Jr. Quotes for Michigan
“Did anyone watch the Arturo Gatti fight Saturday night? He’s one of the boxers
sponsored by Budweiser, and he’s always been my favorite. But now more than ever,
because he won the fight after breaking his right hand early in the fight. Man, that was
baaaaad, because he had to win by primarily using his left hand. It shows how guts and
determination can overcome a lot of things. I have had that kind of feeling about my team
before we turned a lap in testing this year: nothing’s going to stop us. You can
knock us down, but we’re gonna keep coming back, pounding you any chance we can
get.”
“You know what else is kind of cool? We had the brake problems at Charlotte, then had
to start at the back at Dover with a car that hadn’t made a lap, but we came back to
finish 11th. Neither of those were good results, but a lot of people this week said 'man,
your team is really struggling.' I think that shows how far we’ve come: that the
media and the fans and especially the other people in the garage expect us to be at the
front every week now, and it’s a big surprise when we’re not in the top-5 when
the race ends. To get to Pocono and lead some laps with a brand new chassis at a track
where we haven’t had a good record was fun. We’re getting there…”
“We have a strange record at Michigan. The team has always been fast there:
we’ve won two Bud Poles, we’ve led four races (out of seven career starts).
Before that, we won a race and never finishing out of the top 10 in the Busch Series. This
was where I raced my dad to the line in the IROC (International Race of Champions) race in
1999. But, when you look at the numbers, for some reason, our best Winston Cup finish is
10th. We’ve had times where we’ve lost the handle on the car, or it rained and
the race was stopped early. Just weird finishes that don’t show how fast we’ve
been here.”
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Michigan
Previous Winston Cup Starts: 7
Best Start: 1st (Bud Pole: August, 2000 and August, 2002)
Best Finish: 10th (July, 2001)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 3rd FIN: 22nd
The Budweiser team led the race early, but fell victim to a yellow-flag that
flew as Dale Jr. was exiting pit lane, leaving them a lap behind the leaders.
What:
Sirius 400
200 laps / 400 miles / Race #15 of 36-race Winston Cup Series
Where:
Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, MI
2-mile oval
When:
Sunday, June 15 / 1:00 p.m.
Watch:
Fox-TV (pre-race: 12:30 pm)
Bud Pole Qualifying:
Bud Pole qualifying can be seen Friday at 3:00 p.m. on Speed Channel. You can also hear
qualifying and race action on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) on a radio station or
computer near you. The radio programming is also heard on the 24-hour NASCAR channel on XM
Radio. (All Times: Eastern)
"People who don't have passions don't struggle." -- Po Bronson, author
-Budweiser |
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