DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 DIET MOUNTAIN DEW/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET – FORCED TO THE GARAGE ON LAP 51 TO FIX A TRANSMISSION; RETURNED TO COMPETITION ON LAP 68.
WHAT HAPPENED? “We don’t have third or fourth gear, so we’re going to have to change the transmission. I know the guys in the transmission shop at Hendrick are disappointed. We don’t have parts so we put it in yesterday and during qualifying it was fine and when we restarted it was kind of aggressive and then a bit of a vibration and the car was just really out of time and it just kind of started missing some shifts and difficult to get in gear and things like that and then finally in third and fourth coming out of the tunnel, it didn’t didn’t have any fourth. And then I went to third and I didn’t have third. We had a good run going. This Chevrolet was pretty fast. Jimmie (Johnson) is the quickest car out there. But we felt like we might be able to work on ours and get a little better. We were pretty tight and I thought we could make it a lot better than it was. But it was one of those things. I’m sorry for all the guys in the shop.”
HOW DOES IT LOOK OUT THERE AS FAR AS THE FIELD WHO LOOKS LIKE THE ONES TO BEAT YOU’VE BEEN RUNNING UP FRONT ALL DAY? “All the Hendrick [Motorsports] cars are the fastest cars here. I think one of them will win. We should win. That’s who I’m pulling for.”
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