By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
A four-letter word could cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. a $5 million payoff.
Earnhardt was bumped out of the lead in the NASCAR Chase for the NEXTEL Cup point standings Oct. 5 without turning a wheel.
This boosted Kurt Busch into the top position.
Two days after Earnhardt won the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and assumed the points lead, NASCAR levied a $10,000 fine and docked him 25 points in the standings for uttering an inappropriate word during a post-race interview.
The fine could be minor to what Earnhardt might lose should he miss winning the championship by a few points. The NEXTEL Cup champion will receive a check for $5 million-plus at the annual awards banquet in New York. Earnhardt trails Busch by 12 points after the penalty; he led by 13 before the penalty.
The points deduction also brings the other eight drivers in the Chase closer to the front.
In announcing the penalty, NASCAR followed the action it took against Ron Hornaday and Johnny Sauter earlier in the season for similar use of foul language during media interviews after Busch Series races. Both also were fined $10,000 and had 25 points removed.
Due to Earnhardt's slip of the tongue, NBC announced Oct. 7 that it will implement a five-second delay in its NASCAR telecasts starting with the Banquet 400 this Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Earnhardt won the restrictor-plate race with a brilliant drive to the front after the final pit stop to jump from third to first in the standings with seven races to go. He took the lead from Jeff Gordon, who fell to 19th in the race after making a mistake on the same pit stop. This dropped four-time Cup champion Gordon from first to third in the standings as the teams head to Kansas Speedway for the Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods on Oct. 10.
Earnhardt, ecstatic over climbing from 11th place to first in five laps to win at Talladega, was stopped by a television pit reporter. A question was asked about what it meant to win at the 2 ½-mile, high-banked track for a fifth time. Earnhardt replied that "it didn't mean" and then completed the sentence with a foul word. He added that his "daddy," the late Dale Earnhardt, had won 10 times at Talladega.
Earnhardt later apologized for his vocal misdemeanor and then suggested in the press box that his indiscretion differed from those of Hornaday and Sauter in that his naughty word came out while celebrating his victory and not aimed at anyone in anger. NASCAR didn't agree.
Busch finished fifth, his third top-five finish in the first three "Chase" races.
Busch, driver of the Sharpie/IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford for Jack Roush Racing, tops the standings with 5,530 points, while Earnhardt's total dipped from 5,543 to 5,518 after the penalty. Gordon closed the gap in third from 61 to 48 points.
A pit gamble and fine driving by Earnhardt won the race. An accident on Lap 177 brought out a caution, and Earnhardt's crew chief, Tony Eury Sr., rolled the dice on the pit stop on Lap 180 and took extra time to replace the right-side tires instead of settling only for a splash of fuel. So Earnhardt was in 11th place when the green waved for the start of Lap 184 of the 188-lap race. Earnhardt charged right to the front, holding off Kevin Harvick at the checkered flag.
"This is my place," said Earnhardt, who won for the fifth time at the high-banked northeastern Alabama track.
Gordon was in position to win the race when the yellow appeared. The lead cars suddenly peeled off for the pits, but Gordon was going too fast and was afraid that if he hit the brakes, closely following rookie Scott Wimmer would run into him. So Gordon had to circle the track again before making his fuel stop, dropping from fifth to 19th.
He led the standings by a point entering the race, but now is 48 points down.
"It was unfortunate for us," Gordon said.
Tony Stewart, wrecked out of the first "Chase" race at New Hampshire, salvaged a second straight sixth-place finish out of a day that seemed destined for disaster. He overshot his pit, and then the gears began to rattle. Pit-side repairs were made, yet the crew had to push him out of his stall on each stop. But the car improved on the track, and Stewart kept himself in the hunt for the championship.
Stewart climbed from ninth to sixth but still has 139 points to make up.
Things did not go well at all for Gordon's teammate, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeremy Mayfield.
Johnson led the race six times for 35 laps. But on Lap 125, he made a pit stop and wound up in the infield grass when exiting after swerving into Kasey Kahne's car in the middle lane. The damage from the hit appeared minor, but the air ducts to the engine were squashed, and the engine froze. Instead of battling for the lead, he finished 27th and plunged from fourth to ninth in the standings, 159 points out.
Mayfield was involved in his second accident in three races and is virtually eliminated from winning the NEXTEL Cup title. His car was badly damaged, but Mayfield did make it back out and picked up a position and three points. Still, he finished 38th and faces a 267-point deficit.
Veteran Mark Martin marched home in 15th position and now is fourth, just 98 points out of first.
Elliott Sadler was involved in the most spectacular accident of the day at the finish of the final lap. His car did an airborne flip, but landed on its wheels, and he was able to bring it to a halt in the infield grass.
Sadler was uninjured. Last year in the same race, he flipped several times in an even more dramatic accident. He placed 22nd in the race Sunday and fell from sixth to eighth in the standings.
THE CHASE
1. Kurt Busch 5,530 (Chase finishes: 1-5-5)
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -12 (5,518; 3-9-1)
3. Jeff Gordon -48 (5,482; 7-3-19)
4. Mark Martin -98 (5,432; 13-2-15)
5. Matt Kenseth -137 (5,393; 2-32-14)
6. Tony Stewart -139 (5,391; 39-6-6)
7. Ryan Newman -146 (5,384; 33-1-16)
8. Elliott Sadler -153 (5,377; 8-20-22)
9. Jimmie Johnson -159 (5,371; 11-10-37)
10. Jeremy Mayfield -267 (5,263; 35-7-38) ***
2005 tickets: The 12th Brickyard 400 is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005. Customers who are upgrading or purchasing Brickyard 400 tickets for the first time should act quickly to increase their chances of obtaining their desired seats.
To purchase tickets, camping or parking, contact the IMS ticket office at (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, (317) 492-6700 locally or log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.
| Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Talkback | Post Comment |
|
|
|