Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tony Stewart Is Rolling at Talladega: Beats Junior Saturday, and has Front Row for NASCAR Sunday
Now THAT’s a burnout: Tony Stewart finally breaks through at Talladega Saturday
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
TALLADEGA, Ala.
Pick a Chevy. That’s the obvious bet.
But then at Daytona, the last plate race, that would have been a loser.
So pick Tony Stewart – he has yet to win for Toyota, he has yet to win a Cup race here. But he’s had six second-place Cup finishes at Talladega Speedway, so he clearly has a knack for getting to the finish line here.
Stewart made some brilliant moves in the final miles to beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win Saturday’s Nationwide 312.
And Stewart starts from the front row in Sunday’s Sprint Cup event, next to pole winner Joe Nemechek, in a Chevy (187.286 mph).
“I didn’t think leading going into the last lap was the way to win, and even though I did, I still don’t think that was the right place to be,” Stewart said after his first-ever win at NASCAR biggest, fastest track.
“I backed off to get a run, and get the guys behind me to give me a good push, and I thought I had it time right,” Earnhardt said. “But I didn’t get quite as good a run as I needed...and Tony was just that strong.”
The Saturday race was Stewart versus Earnhardt down the stretch, with Greg Biffle and David Stremme in the mix too.
But Stewart was awesomely strong....and backing up all the talk he’s been dishing out the past several days about his future. One potential issue for Stewart and team owners Joe and J. D. Gibbs—reports, unconfirmed so far, that Home Depot, their long-time sponsor, may be ready to pull out of NASCAR.
Tony Stewart (20) beats Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Saturday’s Nationwide race at Talladega
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
However it’s not the winner of Sunday afternoon’s Aaron’s 499 that is the real story, up till now at least. It’s NASCAR’s new winged car, which hasn’t been all that it was cracked up to be.
In fact drivers are still quite critical of it. Stewart himself says that Carl Edwards, with his three wins so far, is the only driver who has positive things to say about this ‘car-of-tomorrow.’ “And all the rest of us can’t be wrong,” Stewart snaps.
Tony Stewart’s crew: Will they finally get to celebrate in Talladega’s victory lane?
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
Consider Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, an engineer by degree, who understands vehicle dynamics rather well. One key point about this new car that Newman says needs to be changed is the high center of gravity. That CG, Newman says, probably played a role in Michael McDowell’s flipping crash at Texas a few weeks ago.
Yes, the integrity and safety characteristics of the new car showed up well in that McDowell walked away relatively unscathed.
But….
“He hit the wall and flipped over 10 times and went back across the track,” Newman said of that crash, which occurred during single-car qualifying runs. “If that were racing conditions, he could have gotten T-boned on the roof, on the door, anything could have happened.
“If you look at my crash here in 2003 going into turn one, when I blew out a left-rear tire, it took out like 26 cars or so. It was virtually an identical crash (to McDowell’s), where I got loose and went up into the wall.
“My car didn’t flip. It almost flipped; but I had a car hit me and straightened me out.
“I don’t think Michael’s crash was a good crash. I don’t think his car should have ever flipped.
“Whether it was the car’s fault or the wall’s fault, all he did was hit the wall.
“Why he flipped… is not ideal. That shouldn’t happen.
“Whether the (new) car’s center of gravity is too high or the wall has an angle to it, I don’t know. I’m just saying his car shouldn’t have crashed at Texas.
“The center of gravity in the (new) car is higher than any driver or crew chief would like. It makes it that more difficult to drive. It makes it that much more difficult on the right-side tires, because when you raise the center of gravity, you put more load on the right-side tires. The left- side tires don’t do as much work, so it puts more demand on Goodyear to have a better right-side tire than left-side tires because they mean less.
“When you raise the center of gravity, it’s like a monster truck – it’s prone to flipping over. It’s not ideally what you want for a race car.
“So ‘Is it too high?’ Possibly yes.
“Any center of gravity that’s below the ground, and the car will never flip. You just can’t build one like that.”
Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman says Michael McDowell’s flipping crash at Texas shows the new NASCAR stocker has too high a center of gravity, which NASCAR should remedy, for more safety
(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Stewart, who has been a ball of fire this week, says drivers are having so much more run in Saturday Nationwide races than in Sunday Cup races “because the Nationwide cars actually handle good…and they’re built to handle good.
“They’re designed to handle good, so for at least for 50 percent of the weekend you get to drive a car that feels like a race car instead of a car that feels like a dump truck.
“I think everybody—with the exception of Carl Edwards, who thinks we’re all speaking out of turn when it comes to the car-of-tomorrow – feels these (Saturday cars) things are at least fun to drive because they still have downforce and they still have grip and still feel like race cars.
“We’re all still trying to figure out what the car-of-tomorrow wants. This is a totally different car package, and with that comes a learning curve.
“Will we ever get to the point where we all as drivers like it? I don’t know.
“This year is going to be a big learning year from that standpoint.
“In the back of our minds we keep telling ourselves that this car was designed to not drive as good as the cars that we were in….but you work hard your whole career to get to a national level like this and you want to drive cars that drive well and respond well and feel like they showcase your talents.
Tony Stewart, after six runner-ups finishes here, is overdue at Talladega
(Photo credit: Toyota Motorsports)
Newman, the surprise Daytona 500 winner, says this 500 miler should be considerably different than Daytona: “The track is entirely different from the aspect that you don’t have to handle very much here. Daytona was a handful to drive the cars around.
“I don’t think you’ll have the handful here. The ‘handful’ is going to more from a mental standpoint.
“I think you’ll see a big group of cars, like you did for a while in last fall’s race. You’ll see some drivers single-filing out and riding around for a while. I don’t think it’s good, but if we have to do that to make it to the end to make it a good show, that’s what we’ll have to do.”
So most of these drivers will simply be in survival mode for most of the race? “Part of it is the cars themselves,” Newman says. “When we go to the high side when we get in line, you get one guy that peels off and he can go down to the bottom but he can’t do anything. He can’t get back in line; so he’ll lose spots.
“In the past, you didn’t have that as much. The guy who went to the bottom, he could hold his own.
“The way the (new) cars draft now, it’s a little bit different. Just enough difference that we can’t do that. And we’re more apt to stay in single-file.
“I remember last year the spring race I was so frustrated: I had a good car, sitting 12th or 14th , and if I made a move I’d lose two or three spots. If I made another move, I’d lose another two or three spots.
“It becomes frustrating. You almost want to give up. You almost say ‘Let’s just ride and wait until it all happens in front of me.’”
Chevy’s Richard Childress comes into Sunday’s Talladega 500 with the top team in the Sprint Cup standings.
(Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Edwards, Ford’s top driver so far this season, says the new asphalt here “is so smooth you can put the cars wherever you want.
“If we can just make it out of this with a good points-finish….The reason I say ‘points’ is because it’s 500 miles, and you can hurt yourself in so many ways here.
“But I’m telling you what, that last lap is always exciting.”
Maybe if Tony Stewart were winning as many races as Carl Edwards, he might like the car-of-tomorrow
(Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK
Kevin Lepage triggered a big crash late in Saturday’s Nationwide race when he came off pit road and pulled up in front of the lead pack in turn one, and 16 cars were heavily damaged.
Lepage insisted he just followed the pre-race rules about where to blend in.
But Carl Edwards was very hot: “I’m just glad I didn’t get hurt in that thing, that a piece of metal didn’t come up through the floorboard. Things like that can get you killed.”
On the Sprint Cup circuit, Carl Edwards may be hot but Ryan Newman is not.
Winning Daytona hasn’t carried over: “It’s more a mentality thing with the team,” Newman says. “We know we can get the job done. But we’ve really suffered in the points.
“We’ve had a couple engine issues that really hurt us (at Bristol and Phoenix).
“Car-wise, and performance-wise, we’re better than average…but we’re not where we want to be. We’re not dominating, we’re not leading.
“So it was nice at Phoenix to win the pole, and I think we led 37 laps. That’s not bad, but not where we want to be.
“We’ve gotten better with our intermediate-track program. At California and Vegas we were so-so. At Texas we finished fourth and had a competitive car; our lap times showed that.
“So we look forward to going to Darlington and Charlotte. Those tracks will be good for us. We’ve always done well at them.”
For Jon Wood, the third-generation, things may be looking up. He’ll start 12th. Immediately after qualifying he flew to Kansas City for the Truck race; he’ll return for Sunday’s run here. “The way I’ve been looking at it, if the day didn’t go well I could at least say ‘I’ve got Kansas to go to.’
“But this is obviously the important thing. It’s not about sitting on the pole; it’s about making the race.”
Jon Wood finally gets a break
(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Dodge drivers stole the show at Daytona, the last plate race, surprising the favored Chevys and Toyotas, and Ryan Newman and Penske teammate Kurt Busch beating Toyota men Stewart and Kyle Busch.
But here, well, drivers are predicting a follow-the-leader race….again. It looks like drivers have generally decided there’s not much point to racing each other here the first 400 miles, because no one can get any significant advantage. So they’ve usually simply stayed in line most of the time, done a few passes for the crowd, and then waiting for the final 10 or 20 laps.
“Stay out of trouble, that’s what it’s all about,” Dodge’s Kasey Kahne says. “And getting the car to draft well.
“As far as sucking up, you can do a little bit here and there. Then you just have to wait until the end of the race – It’s all about the last couple of laps. Getting in the right line with the right drivers behind you.
“But you just never know who they’re going to be. I’ve tried to go with Junior a couple times, and it hasn’t worked. Then I’ve gone with Junior sometimes and it has worked.
“The thing we (Dodge teams) did at Daytona is most of the Dodges got together. We don’t have the four-car teams like Gibbs and Hendrick.
“What we did was get six or seven or eight Dodges together and ganged up on the other cars. It worked out because we were working as a team.
“It worked in Daytona. Whether that happens again, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Can Kyle Busch avenge that Daytona loss with a Talladega win?
(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Robby Gordon finished up the Dakar Series’ Central Europe Rally Saturday, and was to fly immediately to Talladega for Sunday’s 500.
The substitute Dakar run, after the original 16-day safari through Africa had to be cancelled because of terrorists threats, wasn’t all Gordon was hoping for.
On the last day Gordon had more bad luck, when a rear wheel came off. He recovered enough to finish the day’s run eighth, which gives him a 10th-place finish overall for the rally.
Teammate B.J. Baldwin had the better run, with a fifth-place finish on the stage, and he came in seventh overall.
“We did not meet our overall objective, but this team was strong,” Gordon said. “I think the international off-road community knew we were here.
“These are the best race teams in the world, and to go door to door with them says a lot about our program.
“BJ did such a fantastic job of representing Team Dakar USA and he really made a name for himself.”
Next season’s Dakar Rally will be a longer tour, through South America.
Robby Gordon hopes Talladega goes better than Dakar
(Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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