The last time Dale Jarrett wasn't in a race Geoffrey Bodine took home the trophy. Terry Labonte, Rick Mast, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin rounded out the top 5 in that race -- the 1994 Tyson Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro.Saturday night, those drivers will no longer get to hold that distinction. Jarrett ran a lap of 123.226, nearly 3 miles per hour slower than pole-winner Jeff Gordon, that failed to qualify him for the Nextel Cup Series event.
It's not much of a surprise to see Jarrett miss a race now, as he has used up his entire allotment of past champion provisionals early in the 2007 campaign. It is a surprise to think that it's been 424 races since DJ hasn't been around on Sunday (or Saturday night).
David Reutimann is the only Michael Waltrip Racing entry to make Saturday night's Jim Stewart/Crown Royal 400.
DJ parted ways with crew chief Matt Borland this week, and today at Richmond got a little heated after a question from a reporter about Jarrett having nearly 12 different crew chiefs over the past 5 years.
"That's because y'all count everybody that was put in for one race or another. I didn't have a thing to do with it sometimes and to be quiet honest it's not something I'm concerned with. If it takes 42 [crew chiefs] from now until whenever I don't really care what the number is," said Jarrett.
The last time Jarrett missed a race, however, he came back and won the next weekk. Hmm...
Jeff Gordon Makes 3-in-a-Row
Gordon went out 14th on the grid Friday night and held on to win the Budweiser Pole Award. It is Gordon's 61st career pole and he has now started first in 5 of his past 6 races, earning four poles. Carl Edwards will start 2nd. Scott Riggs, outside the top 35 in owner points, starts fourth and A.J. Allmendinger made his 3rd race of the year. Johnny Benson will start Saturday night's race in what will be his first Nextel Cup start since fall 2005 at Atlanta.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The struggles of Toyota in America's premiere racing series is not surprising. Toyota has had the largest budget on the F1 grid since they entered Formula 1. And they still continue to struggle, garnering scant points at the end of the season. Their resources are huge and look to end the first season in Nascar with egg on their face. Of course they couldn't have entered Nascar at a worst time. They have little experience and data on the old format being run and have tackled the series at a time when even long time participants in the sport are struggling with running two completely different cars. USAC/CART effectively pushed Porsche out of the Indy series cliamimg rule infractions concerning the design of the chassis. Forcing Porsche to trash all the research and development of that car. Then the rules were changed the following year to allow what Porsche had done the year before. The powers that be in later years ruined the Indy car series relegating it to a near has been form of open wheeled American racing. The wave of popularity that NASCAR now enjoys is reminiscent of those days when CART and USAC were tops in popularity on the American racing scene. I see NASCARS involvement with Toyota as a major slap in the face of European manufacturures attempts at entering all forms of American racing in the past. Whereas a Ford sponsored F1 powered car(Frod Cosworth) has only recently been surpassed in wins by Ferarri. I would very much like to see an American F1 team, in order to showcase American automotive technology and once again put American manufacturing in the forefront of the worlds most advanced form of racing. Instead we bend the rules to eliminate competition in open wheeled racing, while bending them again to allow Toyota to enter NASCAR. And sorry I don't buy that statement that Toyota's are built here in the US. That is a whole other issue that has its roots in corporate run politics.
I used to be a hard-core Nascar fan. That is in the past tense because of how diluted and main stream the sport has become. I liked it when it was a redneck thing. Now it seems all the new drivers have to look like MTV wannabes to get a contract. For me, Toyota was the last straw. In my opinion Nascar is trying to distance themselves from their roots. I believe this move will have a backlash and the popularity will eventually collapse. Maybe it's for the best. Now I have time on Sundays to do more meaningful things.