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Saturday Roundup Gordon down an engine after Happy Hour
Updated: Sunday February 18, 2001 11:55 AM
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Jeff Gordon hovered over his car Saturday evening, a worried look on his face. He wondered what a blown engine in the final practice meant for his chances in the Daytona 500. "They call it Happy Hour, but I'm not real happy right now," said Gordon, a two-time race winner and one of the favorites in Sunday's season-opening event. The engine in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo blew between turns 1 and 2, forcing him to scrape the outside wall to avoid getting hit by a pack of cars. Gordon and his crew weren't too concerned about putting in a new motor and knocking out the dents. They did want to make sure there was nothing in the setup that caused the problem. "We'll see if we've got anything in there that will make it happen again," Gordon said. "Good thing it happened today instead of tomorrow." Defending 500 champion Dale Jarrett had an uneventful session, taking a few laps around the track before calling it a day. He didn't want to risk a repeat of last year's final practice, when he crashed. "You just never know," said Jarrett, who also wrecked in Thursday's qualifying race. "The car felt good. There was no reason to keep running it just to keep running it." Unlike Jarrett, Jeff Burton stayed out a long time to see how the temperature, which decreased significantly after an afternoon thunderstorm, would affect the way the cars ran. The forecast Sunday calls for a high of 65 after temperatures in the 70s and 80s all week. "We ran a lot of laps just to confirm our suspicions about the weather," Burton said. "We got about what we thought we would get." Burton said his Ford was set up almost identically to the way it was last July, when he won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. "That setup seemed to work for us," he said. "We messed around with other stuff, but we didn't find anything better, so that's what we've got."
No ordinary choice for JoeFor the record, Joe Nemechek says he would have tried to ace his teammate, employee and prized investment out of a victory Saturday in the NAPA Auto Parts 300."Oh yeah, ain't no question," Nemechek said. "Ain't nobody going to give a race away." Nemechek and Randy LaJoie, who drives a car Nemechek owns, were running first and second going into the final two laps of the Grand National season opener, when Nemechek got tapped by the oncoming Matt Kenseth and spun out. The yellow flag came out, LaJoie held onto his lead and turned Nemechek into a winning owner in the first race of the season. Nemechek the driver finished 32nd. Was he disappointed? "Very," he said. "But believe me, I'm happy because this is a two-car-team deal. We came here to win the race. We wanted to run one-two, and it didn't matter who was what. I thought I might have a little more form there at the end. We were going to wait until that last lap and ..." That showdown never came.
Another Foyt debutsLarry Foyt led a lap in his first race at Daytona International Speedway. "How many people can say that?" his father bragged. A.J. Foyt's 23-year-old son made his debut on the Busch Grand National series Saturday, finishing 19th in the NAPA Auto Parts 300. More important, Larry Foyt finished all 120 laps and brought the car safely back to the garage, having learned some important lessons in Superspeedway 101. "He held his own pretty good," A.J. said. "A couple of times I could see some things he was doing wrong. One time, he got down low and lost seven or eight spots." Never one to hold back his feelings, A.J. admonished his son via radio. "I told him, "Get up high and stay up high,'" the elder Foyt said. "I had to holler at him a couple of times." Larry, sharing his father's famous number while driving the No. 14 car, remained on the track during a caution period so he could lead a lap. He quickly returned toward the back of the pack, but still managed a respectable showing after starting 36th in the 43-car field. "I'll tell you what, that definitely was an experience," said the younger Foyt, who graduated from Texas Christian last year with a degree in speech communications. "I was trying not to get in over my head. That's what I did." Dodge done playing against the clockRay Evernham won't have to watch the clock anymore. The car owner used a sledgehammer Saturday to smash a 500-day timepiece that counted down Dodge's return to NASCAR Winston Cup racing after a 16-year absence. "We made it," Evernham said. "Everyone has done a good job. The ceremonial breaking of the clock was just for fun. We've got to get serious for tomorrow." Evernham Motorsports will make its debut from the pole Sunday. Bill Elliott was the fastest qualifier for the Daytona 500, while his teammate, Casey Atwood, starts in the 21st position. "We're still stitching that parachute," said Evernham, the former crew chief for three-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon. "But we're about to let the rip cord out." After destroying the clock, Evernham was desperate for some time away from the track. He wanted to put together a strategy for the biggest race of the year. "I feel like I'm pretty good at reading weather and track conditions and the adjustments we have to make," he said. "I've got to put a little playbook together for the guys to use. I'm going to have to find some time to do that. Hopefully, I can find some quiet time ... maybe barbecue with the family and make some notes." Evernham will start the race in Elliott's pits, but he'll be monitoring both drivers on his headset. "If I do a good job giving them the playbook and if everything goes right, they should be OK,' the owner said. 'If not, I'll be with whoever needs me most.'
Lug nutsThe 28 cars that finished on the lead lap of the NAPA Auto Parts 300 tied a Busch series record. ... FOX, criticized for selective use of sponsor logos last weekend, didn't use graphics of any cars during pre-race introductions for Saturday's Busch race. ... Bobby Hamilton, slowed this week by the flu, still managed to race in the Busch event. He'll also take part in the Daytona 500.
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