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2004 Season
2004 GFS Marketplace 400
| Race Information |
| Event: GFS Marketplace 400 |
| Date: August 22, 2004 |
Track: Michigan Int'l Speedway |
| Started: 3rd |
Finished: 21st |
| Status: Running |
Laps Completed:
199 of 200 |
| Points
Pos. Before/After Race:
3rd/-- |
Points
Earned: 100 (w/ 0 bonus) |
| Money
Earned: $107,393 |
Summary and Related News |
Biffle claims Michigan victory,
Dale Jr. finishes 21st_8/22/04
Handling woes damper day for Bud team
Greg Biffle led 73 of 200 laps and drove away from the field at the end to win
Sunday’s GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway. It is Biffle’s
second career victory and first of 2004. Mark Martin finished second and Dale Jarrett
third. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team struggled from the outset with a
poor-handling car, needing numerous adjustments to salvage a 21st-place finish. It matched
the result the Bud team posted here in June. Despite the struggle, Dale Jr. remained in
third in the NEXTEL Cup championship standings, now 139 points behind new leader Jeff
Gordon and 26 points ahead of fourth-place Tony Stewart. Jimmie Johnson, who had held the
lead for eight weeks, slipped to second with a blown engine and a 40th-place finish.
Key Moments: Starting third for the second consecutive week due to a
rained-out qualifying session, Dale Jr.’s door-to-door racing with the top five cars
in the opening laps proved misleading, as the Bud team struggled much of the day with the
No. 8 Chevy. Reporting a severe tight condition early in the event, Dale Jr. fell as far
back as 33rd at lap 54, and only sporadically broke the top-20 for the rest of the
afternoon. Fortunately a caution-plagued race kept the field bunched, and it gave the Bud
team ample opportunity to make drastic changes. Far from perfect, the red No. 8 responded
with gradual improvement, climbing to 21st and holding its position in the closing
circuits.
Dale Jr. Quotes: “That was actually a better finish than what I
thought we’d get. I don’t know, it ain’t that bad. We were just tight all
day. I couldn’t ever get the car to turn in the middle of the corners, and it just
killed us. What are ya gonna do about it? We’re busting our ass right now as hard as
we can, and that’s all you can hope for. We struggle at tracks like this for some
reason. We’ll figure it out. It wasn’t the worst day we’ve ever had, and
I’m real proud of my team for sticking it out at the end.”
Best Radio Chatter:
A strong series of fast laps to open the race quickly disappeared, as the Bud car
became excessively tight, and the Bud team tried to figure out how to fix it:
Dale Jr.: “The nose just slides, and it feels like there’s
something wrong with the steering. I feel like it will be OK if we can just fix the center
(of the turns). It’s like I got no control. And something’s making smoke come
into the cockpit. It smells like something is burning, but I don’t know if it’s
serious.”
Tony Eury Jr.: “All I did on that last stop was take out two rounds
of bite and pull a half-rubber out of the left rear. I don’t know how that would mess
up your steering, so I’m just going to ignore it, because there’s nothing I can
do about it.”
Much of the afternoon’s conversation was specifically about the car, but Dale Jr.
broke form during the ninth caution:
Dale Jr.: “I think the 30 (Jeff Burton) broke a valve or lost a
cylinder or something. He started running like (crap).”
Stevie Reeves: “They said there is nothing wrong with the 30. He
just slowed because he thought there was a caution.”
Dale Jr.: “I mean, I don’t (really care). I was just
talking.”
Reeves: “Well, if he’s lost a cylinder it’s good to know
for the restart.”
Dale Jr.: “Yeah, that’s true.”
After taking the checkered flag:
Dale Jr.: “Whether we performed well or not, the effort was good. I
appreciate y’all gutting this one out and not giving up.”
Today's Stats
Started: 3rd (based on Nextel Cup points)
Finished: 21st
Points: 3rd (-139 to the leader)
Best Pit Stop: Pit stop number 9 of 9 / four tires and fuel / 12.35 seconds
-Budweiser
Budweiser Race Preview: Michigan_8/16/04
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – driver, No. 8 Budweiser team:
“It’s gut-check time, and the team is stepping up. We’ve had two pretty
good runs the past two races. Indy didn’t work out for us (blown tire on the final
lap knocked Dale Jr. from sixth to 27th in the Brickyard 400), but it was still a good
run. We’re not where we need to be, but I get the feeling we’re heading that
direction.”
On the Michigan race:
We tested Michigan for two days last week. The car was OK, but it seemed like the track
had a lot more grip, and I’m not sure it will be that way this weekend. We worked on
several things. Hopefully we can apply what we learned. We sure as hell don’t have a
lot to go off of from the last Michigan race (June 20). We finished 21st, but the car
probably wasn’t even that good. We put (spring) rubbers in to try to make it turn
better, we took ‘em out, we moved ‘em from the back to the front, we took two
tires… we did it all. When you do all that and it’s still slow, then you know
it’s time to go test. So that’s what we did.”
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Michigan:
Previous Nextel Cup Starts: 10
Best Start: 1st (Bud Pole Award: Aug. 2000 and Aug. 2002)
Best Finish: 7th (June, 2003)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 19th / FIN: 32nd
Dale Jr. holds the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series track record at Michigan International
Speedway (191.149 mph) set in his rookie season (2000). He picked up another one of his
six career Bud Pole Awards there in Aug. 2002, making MIS the only track the Bud team has
scored more than one Bud Pole Award. Dale Jr. has two top-10 finishes at MIS in 10 races,
and has led there five times for 64 laps.
With four races to go before the “Chase for the Championship” begins, Dale Jr.
remains in third place in the NEXTEL Cup championship standings, 128 points behind leader
Jimmie Johnson. The Bud team finished fifth at Watkins Glen on Sunday, its 10th top-five
of the season and first in five races (the last was a third-place finish at Daytona on
July 3).
Race Details:
GFS Marketplace 400
Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, MI
2.0-mile oval / 200 laps / 400 miles
Sunday, Aug. 22, 2004
TV: TNT, 2 p.m. ET (pre-race begins at 1:30 p.m. ET)
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN), XM Radio.
Bud Pole Qualifying: Friday, 3 p.m. ET (televised live on TNT)
-Budweiser |
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