TRADING PLACES
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Turns First Official Laps For Hendrick Motorsports
By Greg Engle,Editor Cup Scene Daily October 30
Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett being traded to the New York Yankees would be big news.
The bigger news though would be if he were allowed to practice with the Yankees before the season ended.
Monday Dale Earnhardt Junior took his first official laps with the organization he’ll drive full time for starting in 2008. Earnhardt began his transition to Hendrick Motorsports as he, along with 46 other drivers, tested NASCAR’s ‘Car of Tomorrow’ at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The test is the last of seven NASCAR-sanctioned tests this season. It’s also the first full-scale session for the new car at a 1.5-mile track, so Earnhardt was researching not only his new team, but also the “new car.”
Earnhardt is testing the No. 5 Chevrolet during this week’s session. Both test cars carry a red and white paint scheme that echoes his current car – the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Inc.
He announced during the summer he’d leave DEI – where he began his series career in 2000 – for Hendrick in 2008. Other than a few laps in the No. 5 this spring at Texas Motor Speedway, where he stepped in for current driver Kyle Busch, this week’s session marks Earnhardt’s debut with Hendrick.
HAMPTON, Ga. — There may be those in the garage who think NASCAR
president Mike Helton can walk on water, but a Nextel Cup car can’t run
on it.
Nextel Cup Series director John Darby confirmed Monday that water
contamination of the Sunoco racing fuel used in Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto
500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway was more widespread than generally known
during and immediately after the race.
Postrace inspection uncovered a small amount of water in the fuel of
winner Jimmie Johnson, but not enough to affect the performance of the
car.
Dave Blaney and Denny Hamlin weren’t as lucky. Blaney’s car stalled on
the backstretch and brought out the second caution of the race. Hamlin’s
car stalled while leading on the next-to-last restart and triggered a
wreck that eliminated one of the dominant cars, the No. 1 Chevy of
Martin Truex Jr.
Darby confirmed that the percentage of water found in the cars of Blaney
and Hamlin was higher than that of other cars that escaped fuel-related
problems. Sources in the garage indicated that all three Gillett
Evernham cars, among others, had water in their fuel.
Darby also said that inspection and analysis of the main tank at the
speedway, the repository from which the fuel is delivered to the pumps,
revealed the fuel source was clean. (The tanks at all Nextel Cup venues
were cleaned thoroughly to facilitate the transition from leaded to
unleaded fuel this year.) He added that contaminant was a brown, murky
color — not clear.
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