Top Row Seat - Darlington
Dateline: 03/25/97Dale Jarrett Slams The Door
Jarrett used his experience and slammed the door on a faster Ted Musgrave in the closing laps of the TransSouth Financial 400 to hold on to the win last Sunday. DJ appeared to have more horsepower and was faster down the straights but Musgrave was handling better and overall had the faster car. I'm not going to condemn DJ for doing some heavy blocking and racing for the win...... Yet.... I'm just going to file this incident away and see if he does it again.
Musgrave could have easily taken Jarrett out of the race and gone on to claim the first win of his career. But Ted opted to race him clean and settle for second. Congratulations Ted! You've again shown the world that you are a first class gentleman on the race track.
One more note about the finish of this race. I'd like to send a videotape of the last 20 laps of this race to the #24 team so that they can study Ernie Irvan's actions at the end of this race. Ernie caught the leaders with fresh tires and an obviously faster car. However Ernie (2 laps down) just rode behind the leaders and let them race for the win. I've been critical of Ernie this year because of his overly aggressive style, however I must thank him for the respect he showed his fellow drivers and the fans by letting the leaders battle it out unhindered at the end of the race. I believe #24 could learn something from him about respect.
"The Track Too Tough To Tame"
Darlington has historically given us some of NASCAR's toughest wreck fests and she was well on her way to reclaiming that title this week. Just 58 laps into the event we were already sitting through the 6th caution flag of the afternoon.
PosterBoy and Dale Jarrett both tested out the 3rd turn wall within about 15 laps of each other to make sure it was sturdy.(apparently DJ is quite concerned about his fellow racers' safety because he gave up the Winston Million last September to verify the stability of the same wall).
PosterBoy Does It Again
This week #24 added another of his fellow drivers to the PosterBoy Fan Club. Robert Pressley now joins the list of drivers who have had a run in with PosterBoy in 1997. That list includes Ernie Irvan, Rusty Wallace, and Dale Earnhardt. (Did I forget anyone?)
In case you missed it, On lap 36 PosterBoy displayed all of his wonderful maturity and patience and put a firm bumper on Robert Pressley to take the lead. That was completely uncalled for. Come on PosterBoy, I can't think of any reason to hit the leader that early in the race.
A sad note
The NASCAR family lost one of it's own this week. Friday morning John Nemechek passed away as a result of injuries sustained in the Craftsman Truck race the previous week. I join the entire racing community in offering my condolences to the Nemechek family.
Next Up...
Next week the Winston Cup regulars have the week off for the Easter holiday while the Busch cars head to Hickory, NC. The Winston Cup cars will be using this extra week to prepare for the inaugural race at Bruton Smith's newest NASCAR showcase, Texas Motor Speedway.
Go Fast, Turn Left, Stay Safe!
