Jeff Gordon wins second straight, Dale
Jr. sixth at Atlanta_10/27/03
 No. 8 Budweiser Team Leads 32 Laps in Rain-Delayed Race
Jeff Gordon won for the second week in a row, taking the victory Monday in the
rain-delayed Bass Pro Shops 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Tony Stewart finished second
while Jimmie Johnson finished third. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team
finished sixth, leading five times times for 32 laps. His 20th Top-10 finish of the year
boosts Dale Jr. to second place in Winston Cup points with three races remaining. Dale Jr.
has now led a league-best 23 races this year, for a total of 952 laps. The Bud team has
led the last eight Winston Cup races, and has now scored five consecutive top-10 finishes
at Atlanta, leading each of those five races for a total of 268 laps.
The Key Moments: Dale Jr. started third (he has started third in three of
the last four races), and ran among the top-three Sunday afternoon until rain stopped the
race on lap 39. The rain continued into the evening, postponing the remainder of the race
until Monday. Taking advantage of superb fuel mileage, Dale Jr. took the lead for the
first time on lap 100 when the other leaders pitted for fuel and tires. While Dale Jr. was
rolling down pit lane for his stop on lap 104, the yellow flag came out, creating an odd
situation where Dale Jr. regained the lead, but restarted in the middle of the field
behind a long line of cars at the end of the lead lap. Dale Jr. traded the lead several
times in an exciting dual with Tony Stewart through the middle stages of the race. Dale
Jr. faded from the top-three in the latter stages of the race as the final two sets of
tires did not seem to agree with the No. 8 chassis.
Dale Jr. Quotes: “It was like any other race here – a lot of
fun and a lot of two- and three-wide racing. When the race restarted (this morning), we
weren’t as good as we were on Sunday, but we made a few small changes and the car was
really, really fast through the middle of the race. The final two sets of tires just
weren’t the same for us, and we weren’t near as good. We had a streak of
three-straight top-fives here that we wanted to extend, but we did gain some points on
Matt (Kenseth) and Kevin (Harvick) so we’ll take it. We’ll keep trying to get
all the points we can get.”
About the late-race contact with Ryan Newman: “That’s a bad
deal, cuz’ he’s a helluva driver… and we had traded spots back and forth
for probably 10 laps. I had a really strong run off the corner, and he moved up toward me.
I breathed the gas pedal but he got sideways and I hit him. I couldn’t get off the
throttle quick enough.”
Best Radio Conversations
Exhaustion has set in after 17 consecutive weeks of racing, compounded by a one-day
rain delay to finish the race. The Monday morning mood seemed to match the weather: kind
of sleepy, glum and dreary.
During a yellow-flag period on lap 172, while running third:
Tony Eury Jr. (car chief): “We’re stayin’ out…”
Dale Jr.: “I’m following the 24 (Gordon) or the 20 (Stewart) if
they come in ahead of me…”
Dale Jr. came onto pit road, despite his rivals staying on the race track. The stop
dropped Dale Jr. to 15th place. When the race restarted, Dale Jr. made a mad dash up
through the field, getting as high as eighth place before the next yellow flag on lap 201.
Dale Jr: (slightly sheepish) “Uh, yeah, I probably shouldn’t
have pitted that last time. That’s my fault. But, it sure was fun passin’ all of
them cars!”
Today’s Stats
Started: 3rd (This is the third 3rd-place start in the last
four race/9th top-three start of 2003)
Finished: 6th (20th Top-10 of 2003)
Points: 2nd place (+1 position)
Laps Led: Led six times for 66 laps.
Best Pit Stop: Stop 6 of 6 / lap 224 / four tires & fuel / 13.17 seconds
VH-1: VH-1 will show “All-Access; NASCAR,” starring Dale Jr.,
Tony Stewart and 3 Doors Down, beginning this Tuesday. The show will air multiple times
throughout the week, so check your local listings… (VH-1 is also calling the show
“NASCAR Fever.” Should you contract NASCAR Fever, we suggest you see your
doctor…)
-Budweiser
Earnhardt Jr. Budweiser Bass Pro Shops
MBNA 500 Preview_10/20/03
Dale Jr. Quotes for Atlanta:
“I was racing on-line (racing on the internet against competitors from across the
globe) the other night on the Atlanta track. I led the entire race until the end, and then
the car started pushing and I dropped back and finished fourth. I laughed and thought
‘well, that’s about usual…’ We always run great at Atlanta, we lead a
lot, but it’s kind of like Martinsville- we are one of the cars to beat, but
something always seems to happen late in the race to knock us out of win. A cut tire when
we were set to win late in the spring race in 2001… a piece of metal in my eye later
that season… even a brake line cut by a television telemetry sensor while we were
leading in 2000. Maybe I got all of that out of my system racing on the computer and we
can pull it off Sunday.
“Atlanta is the fastest place we go, and it’s almost impossible to describe the
feeling launching into turns one and three at more than 200 mph. It’s a rush, and it
takes guts to keep your right foot held down. But, the track is one of the best when it
comes to two- and three-wide racing through the turns. It’s an awesome place to race
because you can go where your car is working best and really race somebody hard.”
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Atlanta
Previous Winston Cup Starts: 8
Best Start: 1st (November, 2001, Bud Pole winner)
Best Finish: 2nd (March, 2002)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 13th / FIN: 5th / Led: 4 laps
-- Dale Jr. and the Bud team have three consecutive top-five finishes at Atlanta, and four
consecutive top-10 finishes. (The team had the same streak of top-five and top-10 finishes
going into last weekend’s race at Martinsville, where they finished fourth.)
-- Dale Jr. has led each of the last four Winston Cup races at Atlanta for a total of 236
laps… In the season finale of 1999, Dale Jr. and the Bud team led for the first time
in their Winston Cup careers at Atlanta in their fifth career start. They led for a
sparkling total of… one lap.
Race Time:
Bass Pro Shops 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hampton, GA
1.5-mile oval, 334 laps, 500 miles
Sunday, October 26, 2003
TV: NBC-TV, 12:00 pm (pre-race) / 12:30 pm race start (All Times:
Eastern)
Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN), or on a radio station or XM
Radio near you.
Bud Pole Qualifying: You can tune in live for Bud Pole qualifying Friday
evening at 7 pm on the Speed Channel.
Congrats, Dad: Bill Snyder was back over the wall Sunday as catch-can man
on the No. 8 Budweiser team… He had been at home the last two weeks with his wife
Becky. The Snyder’s first child, Dorothy (“Dottie”) Katherine Snyder was
born October 11… she was 8 lbs. 4 oz…
Best Quotes from Martinsville: Both came during Speed Channel’s
coverage of Saturday’s final Winston Cup practice session. The first was Dale
Jr’s on-air reference to a purse and an intimate part of car chief Tony Eury
Jr’s anatomy. The second was from commentator Bill Webber, after watching Dale Jr.
hound Ricky Craven for several laps during the practice session: “That’s how
Dale Jr. likes to practice. He likes to make it entertaining… (pause) entertaining
for himself…”
"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no
music, no choreography and the dancers hit each other."
--Jack Handy, Deep Thoughts
-Budweiser |
