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| As Bud Shootout winner, Dale Jarrett, led coming off the fourth turn on the final lap, Sterling Marlin's car slid up the track slightly and bumped Bobby Labonte's, which spun into the frontstretch wall, then bounced off and hit Ricky Rudd's Ford. Rudd's car spun into the wall, then flipped on its roof, while Ken Schrader's Pontiac wound up scraping along the wall. |
The Dale Jarrett juggernaut rolled on unabated at the Daytona
International Speedway. And to think, he wanted to skip Sunday's
program in favor of golf. Instead, the 1999 NASCAR
Winston Cup champion won the Bud Shootout qualifier and the Bud
Shootout. The first race was for last year's fastest second-round
qualifiers, the second for its pole-winners. Each race featured a
multicar incident: on lap 1 of the first race, then an even-more
spectacular crash on lap 25 of the second race.
"Bobby helped me win the race," said Jarrett, whose sister,
Patti, is married to Labonte's crew chief, Jimmy Makar. "We
agreed before the race to pit together and that worked out
good. Then, he pushed me into the lead on the outside in turn
4. I wouldn't have won without him."
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| Dale Jarrett won't have to worry about winning the Shootout's preliminary race the way he did on Sunday when Speedweeks arrives in 2001. He's already eligible to defend the title after winning the pole for next Sunday's Daytona 500. "It's nice to get that out of the way," Jarrett said. "We didn't concern ourselves last year that we didn't have a pole. You always want to give it every effort and we do that week-in and week-out to qualify up front as far as we possibly can. "You benefit more from winning this pole in a lot of ways. It gives our guys an immediate reward for the efforts they've put forth for the past two months in getting the car prepared. …Plus, the sponsor gets a lot of mentions for a whole week and they're happy. We've got things started off right. If you're going to win a pole, this is definitely the one to do it." |
Mark didn't have enough
brakes to stop in his pit Sunday in the Bud Shootout.
Moments later, he was burning rubber again - into the
garage area and hurrying to the Daytona International
Speedway infield care center. Mark hit jackman Michael
Ehret when Mark turned his car into his pit too late to
make it straight in the stall. Ehret already had jumped
on the track and was running in front of the car to get
around, expecting Mark to make his usual pit turn.
Instead, Mark made a late turn and ended up only halfway
in his pit box before hitting Ehret. "Usually, you get
to a point, he'll come in and put the big stop on it,"
Ehret said. "This time it obviously didn't stop.
I figured on making it around the car. "I had just
jumped and made about two steps. Usually that gets you
at least on your way of being clear."
Ehret was treated at the
infield care center for a lower right leg contusion. He
did not suffer a fracture. "I didn't have enough brakes;
the car wouldn't stop," Mark said. "I couldn't miss Mike.
He was trying to do his job, trying to get out around the car.
"I didn't really come in the pit stall, but he was trying
to get around the car and I was just helpless. I had to
just sit there and watch it." Mark and crew chief Jimmy
Fennig got to the infield medical center before Ehret
arrived by ambulance. "I felt worse for Mark because I
just hurt a little bit," Ehret said. "He felt bad, and
there wasn't anything I could tell him to make him feel
better. It will be all right." Ehret has been Mark's
jackman since 1998. "You do it so many times, it's just
like routine," Ehret said. "He gets to the spot that you
need to jump from and you go. It just didn't work out
this time.
It all happened so fast, I
just knew I was on the hood. I thought it was gonna hurt
when I fell off because it's a pretty big drop. The hood
had a little give to it, but the ground didn't."
Standing in the team hauler on crutches, Ehret said he
hoped to perform his duties Thursday in the 125-mile
qualifying race. The team is making contingency plans
to replace him in case he isn't fully recovered.
The 33-year-old Ehret said he will jack the car Sunday
for the Daytona 500. "They've got somebody lined up to
do it, but I'm going to try and do it," Ehret said. "If
I don't get back on Thursday, I'll be back for Sunday."
Mark later was in no mood to talk about his car or what
he learned about the new Taurus. "I hurt Mike, that's
what I learned," Mark said.
"I was devastated," Mark said. "My guys trust me with
their lives and I breached that trust, in my mind."
"I knew for a long time that I was going to hit him, and he continued on like a
soldier doing what he was supposed to do," Mark said. "I just felt like there
needed to be something else I could have done, so I ran that over in my mind
over and over again. What could I have done or what should I have done?
"If I would have turned left instead or right and hadn't been able to stop, then I
would have rolled up and ran into the back of the car that was pitted in front of
me, which would have been a disaster.
"I don't really blame myself for what happened, but I take responsibility. I was
sick about it and it took me a while to feel better."
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