Jarrett sprints to victory in Bud Shootout

By RICK MINTER
Cox News Service

Daytona Beach, Fla. -- Veteran Dale Jarrett took advantage of drafting help from his closest challenger, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to take the lead, then outran Earnhardt to the finish line on Saturday to win the 26th Budweiser Shootout and the first event in NASCAR's Nextel era.

Jarrett, who suffered through a miserable 2003 season, took the top spot with an outside pass of Kevin Harvick off Turn 2 on the final lap. He then fought off Earnhardt and Harvick to earn his third career win in the Shootout, a 70-lap, non-points event at Daytona International Speedway for pole winners from the previous season and previous Shootout winners.

Earnhardt finished second, ahead of Harvick, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.

Earnhardt said he gave Jarrett the critical push because it was his best option at the time.

"I knew the outside lane would be best at the end," Earnhardt said. "But Jarrett was at the head of that line, so all I could do was push him to the front and try to make a move on him later."

Jarrett, who started the final sprint in ninth place and led only on the final lap, said he felt that once he got the lead he could win.

"I knew when we got our car to the front and in clean air, nobody could pass it," he said.

Jarrett said his Shootout win, combined with the fast laps he and teammate Elliott Sadler have run in practice, are signs that a massive reorganization at their Robert Yates Racing team was a success.

Leading Jarrett's crew this season is Mike Ford, who prepared the cars that Bill Elliott used to dominate the late stages of the 2003 season.

The final seven-lap dash to the checkered flag was set up by a crash involving Jeremy Mayfield and Dave Blaney.

Mayfield and Blaney sped off Turn 2 battling side-by-side for the lead, but Mayfield, in the bottom groove, lost control and slid up into Blaney, taking both drivers out of contention.

"I got a little sideways and couldn't gather it back in," Mayfield said. "I just lost it."

While track workers repaired a gate damaged in the crash, teams were allowed one final opportunity to tune their cars for a seven-lap sprint to the finish.

Elliott ran the Shootout, his only Daytona appearance this year, but was not a factor. He finished 14th.

Overall, it was an outstanding night for NASCAR's veteran drivers. Terry Labonte led three times for 17 laps, more than any other driver.

Harvick led twice for 10 laps and appeared to have a winning car, but erred by choosing the low groove at the finish.

"I just picked the wrong lane and that 88 car [Jarrett's] came steaming by on the outside," he said.

Rick Minter writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Notebook: Biffle grabs Daytona pole

By RICK MINTER
Cox News Service

Daytona Beach, Fla. -- Pole qualifying for Sunday's Daytona 500 seems to be proof that it's better for two to work together as one.

Ford car owners Jack Roush and Robert Yates, who once rarely even spoke to each other at the track, merged their engine programs last fall in an effort to compete with the "one team" concept used by Dodge (and soon by Toyota).

Roush's driver Greg Biffle grabbed the coveted 500 pole with a lap around Daytona International Speedway at 188.387 mph, while Yates' Elliott Sadler took the outside spot at 188.355 mph.

Fords dominated the day. Ricky Rudd, whose Wood Brothers team works closely with Roush and Yates, had the the fourth-fastest time, while Yates' other driver, Dale Jarrett, had the fifth fastest. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was third, was the only non-Ford in the top five.

However, only Biffle and Sadler locked in starting spots. The rest of the lineup for the 500 will be set after Thursday's twin 125-mile qualifying races.

"You put [Roush and Yates] together and we're going to have a team to be reckoned with week in and week out," Sadler said.

It also helps that Ford, which struggled in 2003, was given a new body for the Taurus. In addition, the Fords have a new cylinder head, which is still under development and has yet to appear at the track.

"I really applaud Ford for getting both of the two Ford giants together and working together," Sadler said. "We're already reaping the benefits."

Biffle, now beginning his second full year on the Nextel Cup circuit, was considered a long shot to win the pole. Although he won the Pepsi 400 in July and was second and seventh in the two practice sessions, he'd never qualified better than 27th at Daytona.

After posting his speed, he had to watch nervously as driver after driver tried to knock him off the pole.

"I was sweating it out," Biffle said. "This pole means a lot. It's not like winning the 500 certainly, but this is the biggest pole of the season."

He said being fastest on pole day doesn't necessarily guarantee speed on race day.

"This car, I really did not like in drafting trim when we were down here in preseason testing," he said. "It was kind of loose."

Roush said he expects to hear grumbling from the GM and Dodge camps that NASCAR gave Ford too much, but Robbie Loomis, crew chief on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevy, said it's too soon to tell.

"I don't really want to say until we run a few races and see where everybody is," he said.

President plans to attend race

President Bush plans to attend the 46th annual Daytona 500 Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

Bush is the third sitting president to attend a race at Daytona. President Reagan served as grand marshal for the 1984 Pepsi 400 and gave the starting command from Air Force One. President Bush's father, George Bush, was grand marshal for the 1992 Pepsi 400.

The trip this weekend will be President Bush's second visit to the speedway. During his 2000 presidential campaign, he served as grand marshal for the Pepsi 400.

Third team's the charm

John Andretti, who once thought he might run only the Daytona 500 this year because of a lack of sponsorship, says his No. 1 Chevrolet team at Dale Earnhardt Inc. likely will run at least 20 races and possibly more than 30 if a sponsor can be signed.

Andretti said the new leadership team at DEI believes the benefits of having a third team to help gather information during races and test sessions far outweigh the costs.

Andretti, whose career stalled during a seven-year stint at Petty Enterprises, says he and crew chief Tony Gibson can perform well enough to lure sponsors.

"The team has been in an underdog situation for several years, and I've kind of fallen off the map because of really sticking to a program I believed in," he said.

"Now, it's about laying numbers up on the board. We look at this as a great opportunity to come out and show what we can do."

Earnhardt's new role

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (below) played a different role at Daytona on Saturday. He hosted a news conference to announce a sponsor for the No. 8 Busch Series car he co-owns with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt.

Bass Pro Shops will sponsor the team and its rookie driver, Martin Truex Jr., for 17 races this season. Other sponsors will back the car for the remaining races.

What kind of an owner is Earnhardt?

"He's been really easy to work with," Truex said. "He lets me go out there and do my thing, and if I have a question, I can ask him and he'll give me a straight answer."

Wimmer distressed over arrest

Nextel Cup Series rookie Scott Wimmer made his first public appearance late last week following his arrest for driving while intoxicated after crashing a truck owned by his employer, Bill Davis Racing, near the team's headquarters in High Point, N.C.

Wimmer, a polite, soft-spoken, low-key driver, was clearly distressed by his current predicament.

"I sat in my house for the past couple of days with my head buried in a pillow thinking about what was going to happen, and what was I going to say to everybody," he said.

NASCAR vice-president Jim Hunter said series officials are closely following Wimmer's case and could impose penalties of their own at the proper time, but he won't be kept out of races.

Safety worker killed

A safety worker was killed at Daytona International Speedway when a car struck him on the track in a IPOWERacing Dash series race Sunday.

Roy H. Weaver III, the supervisor of the speedway's track crew, apparently died instantly after being struck by a race car driven by Ray Paprota of Birmingham, Ala.

The accident occurred in Turn 2 during a caution period in the race for small sedans. Paprota, a paraplegic who drives a car equipped with hand-operated controls, apparently was accelerating to catch up to the rest of the drivers when Weaver was struck. The 44-year-old, seven-year employee of the speedway appeared to have died instantly.

Weaver's death was the 37th at the track since it opened in 1959, the 35th that occurred on the track, the third in the Dash Series but the first of a track employee.

Although Paprota ran three events with the series last year, Sunday's race was his first on a superspeedway.

The race was stopped for about an hour, then resumed to complete a shortened distance. Local authorities are investigating.

Jarrett's kindness repaid

It seems that airplanes and helicopters and favors the late Dale Earnhardt did years ago for Dale Jarrett all played a big role in Jarrett's victory in Saturday's Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.

Jarrett got the win largely because of a last-lap drafting boost from on-track rival Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second.

Why would Earnhardt Jr. pick Jarrett to push to the front?

"I'm one of only a few drivers in the sport -- in the top 15 or so -- that hasn't bought an airplane or a helicopter, nor will I as long as I've got friends like Dale Jarrett who are hauling me to places like Martinsville and back," Earnhardt said.

"I push him to the lead every once in a while or sign autographs for him at his dealership during his open house or whatever to return that favor."

Jarrett said he doesn't give Earnhardt a lift just to get help on the track.

"But I did tell him when he came to Victory Lane that he has a helicopter ride to Martinsville or wherever he wants to anytime," Jarrett said.

Why did Jarrett start giving rides to Earnhardt in the first place?

"I look at the spotlight he's been put in and the things that have been asked of him, and I just think he's a neat kid," Jarrett said. "I've known him since he was probably seven or eight years old and he and Jason, my son, were hanging out at the racetrack and in our van together.

"He's come to me before with questions, and I've tried my best to give him as good of advice as I could, because that's what his dad did for me, so I was just kind of repaying the favor."

Jarrett added that even if Earnhardt chose some other driver to help in the draft, he'd still be welcome on the plane or the helicopter.

"That wouldn't have changed, but it's nice to know those things do work out like that."

Rick Minter writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Published on February 9, 2004