Possible Engine Failure Terminates Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Night in Charlotte
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s night in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway went drastically haywire after engine issues, during the latter stages, prohibited him from competing inside the top dozen.
Earnhardt Jr., who’s never won the famed Memorial Day event at Charlotte, finished 19th, two laps down, after nursing his machine to the checkered flag with a sour engine an intense vibration.
“(The car) was trying to blow up. We had a lot of real high water pressure and a real bad vibration,” Earnhardt Jr. explained. “The vibration was so bad I was afraid to hold it wide open because it would just get so bad at the end of the straightaway. I thought we were about to break the motor. “
“We came in (to the pits) and knocked the pressure out of it and the vibration slowly got better and never completely went away. Something (was) wrong with the car.”
Hendrick Motors – which supplies for multiple teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – will have to return to shop and diagnose the problem this week, according to Earnhardt.
‘We don’t know (what happened). We have to find out,” Earnhardt Jr. further expressed. “They’ll take it back and see what’s wrong with (the car). I’m glad we tried to keep going. I don’t know what’s wrong with it but we’ve got a little problem with that car. But it was very fast. I’m very happy with the speed.”
‘June Bug’, who won the Daytona 500 earlier this season, told reporters he felt fortunate to finish the race rather then in the garage, making his night easier to cope with.
“I’m real happy with the speed in the car. We were able to at least finish 19th tonight. We could have blown up and finished in the back. We had a really good fast car and I’m really excited about all the races coming up,” Earnhardt added.
Though, after having a disappointing result, Junior understands that teams struggle on occasions, however, he wants to dismiss the negative and begin exploiting the positives heading into the summer months
“You’re going to have some bad weeks and you’ve got to be able to roll with them. This was one of them and we just have to look at the positives and try not to dwell too much on what happened,” Earnhardt concluded with. “We just need to go home and find out what it was and see if we can learn something.”
Jeff Gordon Tussles Through Back Spasms at Charlotte
Jeff Gordon battled through rigid pain throughout the weekend and into the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, though, the four-time champion proved his toughness, leading eight laps en route to a seventh place finish.
Gordon, 42, was irritated with back spasms on Saturday forcing him from competing in on-track action and also making him call-up, if needed, replacement driver Regan Smith.
However, being the fierce competitor he’s become, Gordon received therapy before NASCAR’s longest race on Sunday and strapped into his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet without regret and proved his toughness.
“I don’t want to give up an opportunity to win,” Gordon explained. “We still need to go out there and try to win races. It’s nice to have a backup plan and I appreciate having Regan Smith being there. But I had no intentions of ever getting out of that car unless I was in excruciating pain and going to cause myself long term effects.”
Gordon, who could have taken a medical exemption if unable to compete, felt it was necessary to compete and earn more respect from his organization.
“If anything, me staying in the car going through what we went through is only going to earn more respect with this team,” Gordon expressed. “It was my job to get myself better and in position to go and run that whole race.”
Regardless of toughness or earning respect, Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports, realized that Gordon was in pain, and admitted some apprehension towards his driver and long-time friend.
“I know he was in a lot of pain,” Rick Hendrick said. “I was worried. Alan (Gustafson) and I’ve talked and the team’s talked about it.”
Gordon, who’s earned 89 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories, including one at Kansas Speedway three weeks ago, explained the pain worsened when he was tense, like on a qualifying lap; he credits the flare up due to bulging disks in his back.
“When I went to make that real aggressive qualifying lap, those tense tight muscles in me, pushing the brake and turning the wheel, it just flared up,” Gordon added. “I certainly have some things going on in there with some slight bulging disks and things like that.”
Dover International Speedway now approaches, giving Gordon four-days to tend to and re-energize his back, which should be an ample amount of time, according to the Vallejo, California driver.
“Now having some rest and being able to take it easy and do my normal therapy, I should be fine by Dover,” Gordon concluded.
*Quotes from Bob Pockrass, Sporting News
Matt Kenseth Serene Following Third at Charlotte
Matt Kenseth remained tough while running or blocking, machines to the apron, while attempting to maintain the race lead in the closing laps. However, Jimmie Johnson coasted around him in the remaining moments handing the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion another thrashing.
Kenseth, who’s been unable to win this year after having seven triumphs last season, posted his season-best finish, third, in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. Though despite being in an era that focuses on winning, he remains serene.
“That’s (was) a little bit disappointing. I feel like we’re gaining on it,” Kenseth explained about his team’s competitiveness tonight. “Certainly we’re not where we were at this time last year, all of us there leading a bunch of laps and being in contention to win. I feel like we had a top-five car tonight and finished third with it.”
Johnson, who went on to score the win and Harvick, who ended up second, both, according to Kenseth, had more speed then the remainder of the field.
“They were just really, really fast tonight,” Kenseth expressed. “(Harvick) was really fast tonight, it seemed like. There were a group of them that seemed to have a little bit more speed.”
However, regardless of the current circumstances at Joe Gibbs Racing, Kenseth isn’t alarmed. He’s even more determined to figure out the issue, whether it is adjusting to the new packages or rule changes.
“Panicking has never helped anything. Like I said, I feel like we’re gaining on it,” Kenseth added. “We’ve just been off a little bit all year. I don’t know if it’s the aero, rules changes. We just have been off a couple 10ths at all these tracks. We’re digging hard trying to figure it out. We’re just not quite there yet.”
Kenseth, who sits second in the points standings following NASCAR’s longest-race, isn’t insistent on getting victories; he’s accepting defeat, claiming he can’t change the outcome.
“You hate it when you can’t hold on and win it. There’s no more I can do about it,” Kenseth said. “We were in position. I did everything I possibly could do and got beat. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Kenseth, now, is more focused on a building a solid arrangement and expecting his team to keep persevering and concluding the, rather short, but long from his view, winless streak.
“I think you just got to keep working on it the same, as hard as you can each and every week.” Kenseth concluded with. “It’s not like you can try harder and work harder and make it happen. You just got to keep digging at it, keep trying to get better.”
“It’s not like we’re way off. It’s not like we’re terrible. Like I said, it was a good, solid night. Just disappointed that we were in the front and couldn’t win.”
Johnson Reclaims Charlotte Glory with Superb Coca-Cola 600 Performance
From lap one to lap 400, Sunday Night at Charlotte belonged solely to Jimmie Johnson. Johnson and his No. 48 team dominated as they perfectly executed a game plan en route to their first victory of the year.
The victory was Johnson’s 67th career series win which places him eighth on the all-time wins list. It was his seventh points win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, breaking a tie with Bobby Allison for most wins at the track and his fourth Coca-Cola 600 victory. Only Darrell Waltrip has won more 600s, with a total of five wins.
Rarely does this team go too far into the season without scoring a victory. However, the team wasn’t fazed by the somewhat slow start. This was demonstrated in the race as Johnson once again proved why he’s a six-time champion.
After the race, Johnson was asked about the significance of the win.
“It means a lot,” he said. “Through the years a lot of references (have been made) to this race as one of our majors. I certainly agree with that. 600 miles around here is no easy task. To deal with all the things that are thrown at a race team through the evening with the track changing, the mechanical obstacles that you have to overcome, keeping an engine alive, tires alive, all of it; it’s a serious team effort to finish 600 miles. And then win here, especially as hard as we had to run throughout the night, the pace we had to keep up, certainly proud of that.”
Throughout the race, it was typically one of three drivers leading the field. Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Matt Kenseth all had fast cars and found themselves leading for large portions of the event.
Harvick was first to take the top spot away from Johnson on lap 76. He maintained the lead until the ensuing restart after the second caution when Johnson soared back by.
Brad Keselowski was another driver who stuck his nose out front at different points in the race as he and Paul Wolfe worked out a different pit strategy. The strategy was successful in getting the No. 2 car out front; however it did not work out in their favor at the end as they placed tenth at the end of the night.
Unlike last year’s Coca-Cola 600, only one multi-car incident occurred throughout the race. On Lap 235, Marcos Ambrose spun off turn four. As drivers attempted to slow and avoid the accident, Josh Wise came in hot and hit the back of Landon Cassill which started a chain reaction. Brian Scott and Danica Patrick were also involved.
Kenseth made his way to the top spot on Lap 271. He was able to hold the position for a majority of the race’s second half.
Kurt Busch’s attempt at the Indianapolis-Charlotte double was going fine until Lap 273. Busch had placed sixth in the Indianapolis 500 earlier, but would finish 40th in Charlotte after blowing his engine 906 miles into his attempt at completing 1,100 throughout the day.
Despite the disappointing end, Busch was upbeat and satisfied about the day as a whole. “A day I’ll never forget,” was how Busch described his attempt at the double to FOX.
The eighth and final caution of the night came with 22 laps remaining. Jeff Gordon was the leader on the ensuing restart; however Kenseth would quickly regain the spot.
Johnson made the winning move with eight laps to go when he passed Kenseth. He then cruised to victory as he frequently did prior to the repave of the track in 2006.
Harvick came home second after being a threat early on and cited issues on pit road that thwarted their efforts.
“We had a fast car all night,” he said, “just kind of fumbled again on pit road, got behind, got a lap down. We needed a 700-mile race to get back to where we needed to be. All in all, they’re doing a great job of putting cars up on the track; we just have to clean up on pit road.”
Kenseth couldn’t get the job done and ended up third. He still has yet to score a victory in 2014. He was generally satisfied with the team’s efforts but said the car lacked the necessary speed.
“Overall for the weekend, I thought it was a step in the right direction,” he said. “I thought we were more competitive tonight. I didn’t think we were quick enough to win unless everything fell exactly our way. Even then I couldn’t quite hang on. Overall I thought it was a step in the right direction. I thought we had a top-five car all night. Great pit stops, great adjustments, just couldn’t hang on to it at the end.”
Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top five, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively. Brian Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Paul Menard, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski complete the top 10.
Jeff Gordon, who finished seventh, retains the series points lead followed by Matt Kenseth who is 11 points behind in second place. Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards are tied at 24 points behind the leader for third and fourth in the standings and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell one spot to fifth place.
NASCAR’s two home weeks concluded with the waving of the checkered flag. Now, all three series head to Delaware for a battle with the Monster Mile at Dover next weekend.
