NASCAR Capsules: Junior hopes Atlanta pole start of something good
HAMPTON, Ga. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is doing his best to forget 2009.
Not a bad way to start.
Junior will be on the pole for the first time in nearly two years on Sunday for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, giving the popular, second-generation driver another reason to believe that he’s left behind the most dismal season of his career.
"It’s definitely a step in the right direction," he said.
Then again, Earnhardt has more in mind than just starting races out front.
He wants to be there at the end, too.
"We are starving for a good finish," said Earnhardt, who’s gone 60 races since his last Cup win on June 15, 2008, at Michigan. "That is really all we can think about."
Earnhardt’s confidence was devastated during a winless 2009. His crew chief was fired midway through the season in hopes of turning things around, but nothing worked. Junior cracked the top five only twice and led a mere 146 laps in 36 races.
It wasn’t like he was with a mediocre team, either. Earnhardt’s three Hendrick Motorsports teammates — Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon — went 1-2-3 in the season standings. Junior didn’t even make the Chase for the Championship and wound up 25th overall.
"We just got beat down last year," Earnhardt said.
During the offseason, car owner Rick Hendrick called on his considerable resources to turn things around with for No. 88 team. Martin’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson, was persuaded to let go of two crew members, including his lead race engineer. He also was steered toward a partnership with Earnhardt crew chief Lance McGrew, the sort of relationship that has made Johnson and Gordon such a dynamic pairing.
"We’ve seen race teams completely change their identity in offseasons before," Earnhardt said. "I hope that’s what we’ve been able to do."
Earnhardt’s redemption season got off to a promising start: a hard-charging second-place finish at Daytona, where he’s had some of his greatest successes and was dealt his most devastating loss — the 2001 death of his father in a last-turn crash.
Earnhardt knew a strong run at NASCAR’s most famous track wasn’t necessarily an indication that he’d be a contender anywhere else, though. It’s about doing it week after week.
"We’re not the total package," Earnhardt conceded. "We haven’t cured everything, obviously."
He was doomed by a broken axle at California, finishing 12 laps behind. He qualified fourth at Las Vegas last week and was in contention for a top-10 finish, though he dropped to 16th.
Now, he’s on the pole for the Kobalt Tools 500 — the first time he’ll lead the field into a race since April 2008 at Texas.
Earnhardt’s blistering lap of 192.761 mph was the fastest pole speed since 2007, before the boxier Car of Tomorrow made its full-time Cup debut. In fact, nearly everyone went faster than the pole-winning speed for the spring race at Atlanta a year ago.
"It’s actually crazy how fast it is," said Juan Pablo Montoya, who’ll start inside the second row.
The speeds won’t be as quick on race day, but Earnhardt showed in the final practice Saturday that his qualifying effort was no fluke. He put up the second-fastest lap (185.517), only a thousandth of a second behind Martin on the 1.54-mile trioval.
"It builds a lot of confidence," Earnhardt said. "It’s just a matter of time. If we keep performing like this, it should leak over to our performance on Sunday and we can get to where we want to be as a race team."
Where he wants to be is where Johnson already is. The winner of an unprecedented four straight Cup championships shows no signs of letting up in his quest for five, rolling into Atlanta off back-to-back victories.
"To have so many people working in the right direction and have their career paths peaking at the same point collectively as a group is pretty cool," Johnson said. "It doesn’t happen often in sports."
He is one away from his 50th career win. If it comes in his 295th start, Johnson will be the fourth-fastest to achieve that feat, trailing only Gordon, David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip.
"I definitely never dreamed of being in this position," he said. "To be here and living this is pretty damn cool, and weird, and amazing. I’m very proud of what I’ve done as a driver and very proud of what we’ve done as a team and how we’ve worked together over the years."
Johnson is not satisfied, either.
"I feel we have a lot more to prove and a lot more that we can still do as a race team," the 34-year-old said. "We are fairly young as a whole, I would say coming into the middle part of our careers. I think there is a lot of racing left in all of us."
NASCAR is surely pulling for someone to step up as a potential challenger. TV ratings are down, empty seats are becoming more and more the norm. The struggling economy has surely had an impact, but Johnson’s extended dominance isn’t making it any easier to sell the once-hip sport.
Earnhardt getting back into the mix would undoubtedly boost interest.
That said, there’s no denying Johnson’s greatness.
"There’s probably a belief that the garage area has this animosity or negative energy about the 48 (Johnson’s car) and Hendrick Motorsports in general," Jeff Burton said. "I just don’t have that.
"I want it to be me and, don’t get me wrong, I’m not cheering for them. But I also respect a great deal of what they’ve done. It’s unbelievable what they’ve been able to do at a time where it’s the most competitive that it’s ever been."
Notebook: Kyle Busch ticked off after practice scrape
HAMPTON, Ga. — Kyle Busch walked away from a banged-up car shaking his head, clearly miffed about a scrape in the final practice for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Busch, who'll start on the outside of the front row in the Kobalt Tools 500, tangled with Boris Said coming onto the back straightaway and was forced to park his Toyota after getting in 37 practice laps. While the damage around the right rear tire was mainly cosmetic, that didn't improve Busch's mood.
"You've got guys who don't belong out there," he said. "He's off the pace at every track we've been to. But he keeps getting in on owner points."
Said drives for Latitude 43 Motorsports, a new venture started by a Vermont businessman who bought the No. 26 team from Roush Fenway Racing, inheriting its points from a year ago. Since that team finished 22nd in the Cup standings, Said is guaranteed entry into the first five races of 2010.
"I'm out there minding my own business, running my car at the bottom of the track," Busch said. "He's at the top, then all of a sudden he wants to run in the middle on the straightaway. Usually if you're running at the top, you stay up there."
Said, who's gotten into the last three races based on his owner points, managed only two laps in his final tuneup for the race. He was next-to-last on the speed chart, beating out rookie Kevin Conway.
GOLDEN GEOFF: Geoff Bodine is still basking in the golden glow of the Olympic bobsled that bears his name.
An older Bo-Dyn sled was on display in the media center at Atlanta Motor Speedway, commemorating the triumph of a program that made it to the top of the medal stand with the help of Bodine's finances and expertise. The U.S. four-man team, driving a sled known as the "Night Train," won the first U.S. gold in the event since 1948.
"I'm in awe of what happened," said Bodine, a longtime NASCAR driver who was on hand in Vancouver to cheer the American sled driven by Steve Holcomb. "I'm just in awe of the experience. It was so cool to hang out with people from all over the world.
"I couldn't understand them most of the time," he jokingly added. "There was a lot of head nodding."
Bodine said the biggest thrill was being at a sporting event where athletes represented entire countries, not just a group of fans.
"When you win in NASCAR, you have your fan base," he said. "But in the Olympics, you have a whole country cheering for you. It's very humbling to be a part of that. That's a very big playground they're playing on."
Bodine also noted that all he heard in Vancouver were cheers. No booing allowed.
"When someone falls down, they wait for the athlete to get up and they all cheer," he said. "When someone wins, they all cheer. In racing, you get a lot of boos. But in the Olympics, everyone cheers. No one boos. They appreciate what the athlete has done. It's just incredible to be around that environment."
Two of the bobsled gold medalists, Holcomb and Steve Mesler, were on hand Saturday to cheer the 60-year-old Bodine as he made his first appearance in the truck series since 2004. Unfortunately, the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Dodge didn't have as much success as the Night Train.
Bodine went out with a gear problem and finished 26th, but he hopes to get back on the track soon.
"It's very hard for someone my age to get a ride," Bodine said. "But I am NOT retired. Everywhere I go, I have to remind people I am not retired."
FEUDIN' DRIVERS: Juan Pablo Montoya said he's patched things up with Jamie McMurray.
Montoya blew up at his new Chip Ganassi teammate after a wreck in last week's race at Las Vegas. The two were running ninth and 10th midway through the race when McMurray lost control of his car and ran into Montoya.
Montoya unleashed words not fit for print on the team radio, and his wife weighed in on Twitter with a Spanish post that, roughly translated, said the McDonald's clown must have been driving McMurray's car.
But they've reached a truce.
"He sent me a text saying la-la-la-la and he was sorry and the whole thing," Montoya said. "I said, 'Don't worry about it. It happens.' It's racing. Move on. I was really (ticked) at the time because we (did not finish) the week before with an engine problem. And being taken out by your teammate is something you really don't expect, but it happens."
TICKETS, GET YOUR TICKETS: The Atlanta track has struggled to sell tickets for its spring race, which has frequently been plagued by inclement weather.
But a promising forecast could lead to a big walk-up crowd Sunday.
The track plans to bring in extra ticket sellers to accommodate the demand that figures to be spurred by a forecast calling for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s.
Then again, the turnout was rather sparse for Saturday's truck race, with huge sections completely empty and plenty of available seats along the front straightaway despite a sunny day and the temperature approaching 60.
REMEMBERING SCOTT: The Sprint Cup cars will be bearing a special commemorative decal honoring Wendell Scott's first race in NASCAR's top series on March 4, 1961.
Wendell went on to become the first African-American to win a race in what is now the Sprint Cup series in 1963, overcoming racial discrimination in a sport still dominated by whites.
"This is enormous for our family in so many ways," said Sybil Scott, daughter of the late driver. "He would want the young drivers coming up today to be inspired."
Ryan Gifford, who takes part in NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, visited with Scott's family earlier this year as part of a reality television show.
"It really showed me what he went through to open the door for someone like myself," Gifford said. "I couldn't be more grateful."
SPARK PLUGS: Kurt Busch is ready to try out drag racing. He bought a 1970 Dodge Challenger on eBay for $15,000 and will make his debut at the Gatornationals next week, an off week for the Sprint Cup series. "I guess I can't quite correlate it to Danica (Patrick) coming to NASCAR, but Kurt's going drag racing," he said. ... Nineteen-year-old Austin Dillon finished 10th in Saturday's truck race, his best showing in four career starts in the series. Dillon is the grandson of team owner Richard Childress.
-- Paul Newberry
Harvick wins truck race at Atlanta
HAMPTON, Ga. — Kevin Harvick got tired of watching Kyle Busch win so many truck races.
He's done something about it.
Now the man to beat when he shows up for a NASCAR truck race, Harvick pulled away from Busch for a dominating victory Saturday in the E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Harvick's crew made only one slight adjustment on his Chevrolet truck, taking out three-10ths of a pound of air in the right rear tire on the first pit stop. It was clear right from the start he had a machine to beat as long as he stayed out of trouble.
"We just had a really fast truck," Harvick said.
He's now won three straight starts in the Camping World Truck Series, and five of his last nine. During that stretch of dominance dating back to 2008, he's finished no lower than fifth.
"A lot of the reason we race trucks is just to make sure Kyle doesn't win all the races," Harvick said. "Sometimes, you've got to protect your turf. It's important to us and Chevrolet to score as many bonus points as we can. That's the honest truth. The reason we started running more trucks races was just to protect from him winning seven or eight races a year. It's gone well so far."
Harvick, winning for the seventh time in his truck career, led 100 of 130 laps and pulled away to a 1.308-second victory over Busch's Toyota. The runner-up was denied his 17th career truck win after reaching Victory Lane a series-leading seven times in 2009.
"We were not quite as fast as we'd like to have been," said Busch, who got into a first-lap scrape that did much more damage to pole winner and defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. "But we had a decent effort."
Hornaday, a four-time series champ, sustained damage that led to a blown tire, which sent him slamming into the wall between turns three and four after just 22 laps and caused severe damage to the rear deck of his truck. He was done for the day, finishing 34th out of 36 trucks.
Driving for Harvick's team, Hornaday is off to a tough start this season, following up a 27th-place finish in the opening race at Daytona. He's 28th in the standings, leaving him a big hurdle to overcome in the quest for a fifth title.
"Those guys are in a hole, but we'll keep giving them good trucks," Harvick said. "That's just part of it. You have good days, you have bad days. They've had two bad days this season, but they've had a lot of good days, too. They're just in a little bit of a slump right now."
Sixty-year-old Geoff Bodine made his first start in the truck series since 2004, giving props to the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic bobsled program.
But his Bo-Dyn Bobsled Dodge wasn't nearly as successful as those sleds he helped design for the Vancouver Games. Bodine went out after 106 laps with a gear problem and finished 26th.
-- Paul Newberry
