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Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Earnhardt making up ground on points leader
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Quote Of The Day: "We came to Phoenix and tried to win, and we won. We go to the next race and do the same." – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Happy Birthday: Rick Carelli 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Newman predicts that sparks will fly at Darlington Raceway offers free admission Thursday Busch just keeps hanging around Junior makes a point with NASCAR at Phoenix Ward Bruton may be out of the #0 at Darlington Testing kicks off today in Miami Homestead race sold out And then there were seven Sunoco to kick off NASCAR toy sale Therapeutic trips: Motorcycles calm Kenseth Follow the bouncing Junior Cup Scene readers speak out
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November 9 One single four letter word is growing larger and larger all the time. And the 25 points Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost for uttering that word, a vulgarity during a live TV interview, would come in pretty handy about now.
Junior came up with a big victory Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, leaping from fifth to third in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings. With only two races left, he trails series leader Kurt Busch by 47 points and second-place Jeff Gordon by six. Giveback those points that Earnhardt was docked for his slip of the tongue after his previous win, Oct. 3 at Talladega, and he would be only 22 points off the pace. Junior admits he watched his language after his latest victory - the 15th of his career. "I was really scared that I might slip up because I have a lot of bad words in my vocabulary and so I will always from here on out be nervous about that," Earnhardt said. "Tony Sr. came up to me before I got out [of the car] and said, 'Now, don't cuss.' I was glad he reminded me because you get excited." Earnhardt really hasn't given much thought to the lost points. After all, he points out, even with those 25 points, Earnhardt would still be behind Busch. "Well, being in second still ain't first, so it really doesn't matter," Earnhardt said after outdueling Gordon at the end Sunday. "I'm not going to dwell on that." In fact, Earnhardt figures those missing points could be a PR plus if he doesn't go on to win the championship. "We all have our secret agendas," he said, grinning. "It would be great exposure for my team and my sponsor if we do lose the championship by less than 25 points. ... That will give us all kinds of exposure, I guess, through the winter - probably more than winning the championship." Joking aside, though, Earnhardt - who trailed Busch by 98 points before Sunday - figured he would need to win at least two of the last three races to have any shot at taking his first Cup title. So far, so good. "All we can do is race," Earnhardt said. "We came here and tried to win. We win. That's great. We go on to the next race and do the same. "But I don't worry about it too much. I don't feel any pressure going into these last two races. We've already had things like the penalty and the mistake I made last week," he added, referring to crashing late in the Atlanta race and turning what looked like a sure top-five finish into 33rd place. This was Earnhardt's second straight victory on the one-mile Phoenix oval, but he has never won at Darlington or Homestead, sites of the final two events. "We've got an opportunity, but I'm not going to get all worked up about it," Junior said. "We're just going to try to race smart and finish good. There is too much going on. So we'll just race each lap at Darlington next Sunday and get out of there. We'll know after Darlington what kind of opportunity we've got at Homestead." Reminded how much closer Earnhardt would be if not for the 25-point penalty, Busch said, "We would still have the advantage. It really isn't of much relevance right now and I hope that after Homestead we still have that advantage. "Obviously, they've got to catch us," Busch added. "We're in the best position to continue to move forward. They have to reach out and gain positions and take advantage of other people sliding around on the track and put their car in awkward positions." Meanwhile, Earnhardt expects the questions about those lost points to continue. "It's not my place to tell anybody to let it go," Junior said. "People are going to talk about it. I should consider myself lucky that people are so concerned about it. I shouldn't really complain." Earnhardt isn't alone in being aware of the role the 25-point penalty could play. If Jeff Gordon had his druthers, the championship would not be tarnished by the potential impact of the penalty. "If he loses it by less than 25 points, than you guys [the media] are going to have lots to talk about," Jeff Gordon said with a laugh after Sunday's race. "Until then, I think it's got to be a forgotten issue, we've got to move on and he's got to move on. It doesn't mean we agree with it or disagree with it. "But, I hope that one of us wins it by more than 25 points so that it's a non-issue, or if he wins it. I don't think it needs to draw too much attention and hopefully it won't." Earnhardt now turns attention to Darlington where his best finish at was fourth in March of 2002. “We’ve never dominated at Darlington, that’s for sure,” said Earnhardt, who has only three top 10s in nine Darlington starts. “I used to hate it, and they gave me a trophy because I said some nasty things about the track surface. “Since then we’ve been really competitive.” Earnhardt had a chance for a top-three finish in the fall of 2001, but crashed in the final laps. That was the same year he received “The Shelly” award for saying the track was paved with tire-shredding sea-shells. “The way we’ve been running, I think we’ll be in the mix to get a win or at least a top five,” Earnhardt said. “But it’s tough because 500 miles around that old place feels like it takes 53 years.” "We'll be in Homestead all week really working our guts out every day in testing and trying to get it right. We thought about it last weekend and want to put ourselves back in position to win. We've got a lot to gain. These guys ain't going to be easy to beat."
"I'm sure in the drivers meeting at Darlington they'll say something. Usually this time of year, they make it pretty clear to respect the guys racing for the championship. Hopefully, they'll start giving some respect to the guys racing for the championship." However, crew chief Chad Knaus, who runs Jimmie Johnson's team, said, "Fat chance." He doesn't expect NASCAR officials to try to cool things off: "They're not going to settle them down. They love it." Johnson singled out Kevin Harvick for having a hair-trigger temper. Harvick had run-ins with both Gordon and Kasey Kahne Sunday. But Harvick and Kahne weren't the only drivers using their bumpers and fenders aggressively. And John Darby, a NASCAR official, said that it was just business as usual: "There's a big difference between someone racing for position, maybe even racing aggressively for a position, and somebody taking potshots at the top 10. "This was a heck of a competitive race, and it was not 'kind- of' hard racing, it was obviously good, hard racing, because a position is still a position. "I still believe there is some respect among the group, regardless of whether you're in the 10 or 27th. Yes, there may be some words exchanged; there may be some phone calls. But when it comes down to it, the focus is what happens on each Sunday." Is Darby worried that some drivers are getting out of hand? Does he need to try to calm them down? "That's a hard thing to do," Darby said. "These guys are here to race. It's hard to tell a racer not to race. "And if I'm running fourth and you're running third, and you're in the Chase and I'm not, I don't think the chase is the focus at that moment. It's if I'm fast enough and get an opportunity, I'm going to take your spot. "If you walk backward to where we announced the Chase, the message we delivered loud and clear, particularly when you separate the two groups (into the 10 finalists and the other 33), was this - it's pretty obvious everyone has a purpose, and that's to win the race. And it's not just about first place. There really are 43 competitors on the track, and NASCAR won't segregate one group from the other." After Harvick passed Kahne late in Sunday's race, Kahne took exception and bumped him several times. After the race, as the field slowly moved to pit road, Harvick stopped his car in front of Kahne's car and got out to discuss the situation. "He started running into us after the caution, so I wanted to stop and ask him what the problem was," Harvick said. The sparks came during one of Harvick's best recent runs: "We battled back. I told the team 'Let's fix it, and we can get back up there and do what we have to do to race hard.' And we raced our way back up there, and got a little bit lucky with the pit call, and for once things went our way." Todd Berrier, Harvick's crew chief, said: "To come back from a lap down was a good day. Yes, tempers are flaring. But that's what they did the green-white-checkered for, isn't it? "I don't honestly know what was going on with Kevin and Kasey. Maybe Kevin shoved him up, or vice versa. But somebody made some tempers flare. But that's just part of life. "I absolutely expect the same thing at these last two races. Think about it - in our position, what do we have to lose? We're here to win, and nothing else. Whatever it takes." Kahne tried to sidestep the issue with Harvick, "That was pretty exciting," he said. "There was a lot of beating and banging at the end. It was a pretty good run for us. I don't know what happened with Harvick. He pushed me all over the track. I didn't ever get close to him." Knaus said that the events of Sunday prove his point that there ought to be a separate points structure for the 10 teams that make the 10-race playoffs. "I don't feel it's right for guys who have fought their way into the top 10 to have to race under the same point system as the other 33 guys," Knaus said. "They should be under their own system, so if you have a bad day you finished 10th, not 43rd. So if there is some rough racing, you have a chance to rebound. "Because you're not going to any respect out there. There are a lot of guys who haven't won races, a lot of guys looking for rides, and guys on their last leg, and they're all going for blood." ORIGINAL STORY-Winston Salem News Journal
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