|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Closer Look Tires the reason Earnhardt Jr. unable to catch Kenseth
Posted: Monday May 29, 2000 12:47 AM
By Steve Almasy, CNNSI.com CONCORD, N.C. -- Just when it looked like super rookie Dale Earnhardt Jr. was about to win his third race of the season, the other rookie took over. Earnhardt was left to curse the bad set of tires he got on his last pit stop while Matt Kenseth was left to take the checkered flag. Earnhardt had thoroughly dominated the third quarter of the race, stretching his lead to a gaudy 4.433 seconds at one point. But then oil was dropped on the backstretch and the lead pack headed to pit road on Lap 362. Of the top three cars, Earnhardt was the slowest out of the pits and he lost five spots positions when the race went green three laps later. While it appeared at first like that deficit would be no trouble to make up, the Chevy driver never gained any ground on eventual race winner Matt Kenseth. As it turns out, Earnhardt was riding on a set of uncomfortable tires. "You can look at codes and you still don't know what you're going to get," said his crew chief, Tony Eury Sr. "It wouldn't have mattered if we had had a green flag stop instead. They'd still have been bad tires." What's interesting is that during the rain delay, Earnhardt spoke of his car's chances but threw in a bit of what be called premonition. "I'm not running as hard as I can," Little E said. "I've got a lot more in me. The car is doing pretty good. "Matt is coming up through there. I think he's the guy you need to watch." When the bad rubber went on Earnhardt's car, the car stopped performing as it did earlier. After the race, he pointed to that set of tires as his Achilles' heel this night and also said that while he appeared to be dominating the race beforehand, he was still having to work hard "to keep the car under me." Eury also said that part of the reason that the last pit stop for the No. 8 Chevrolet was so slow was because the car hit the front tire changer as it left its place. "[The tire changer] is OK," Eury said. "It just got us all screwed up." Earnhardt finished fourth, one spot behind his father, Dale Sr. "It was good racing with him," the elder Earnhardt said. "I really hated not seeing his car up there in front at the end like he was all night."
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
