NASCAR WCUP: Dale Earnhardt Jr. prepared for Martinsville this time
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 3, 2001Dale Jr. Quotes: "The team had never raced at Martinsville before this event last year, so we really didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it, but we ran pretty well until we had a problem with the battery going dead. Considering the time it took us to change batteries, I was pretty happy to finish where we did.”
“I think I crashed about 50 times in the fall race there. We hit just about everything — including a tow truck that was in the way in the garage area. It was actually pretty fun out there! It was wild – I felt like I was doing some crazy stunt show stuff, like flying though the air (after running over the tire of another race car). The last hit into the wall was the one that finished that car off. It even bent the steering wheel about four or five inches forward on one side.”
Dale Jr. at Martinsville
- Winston Cup Starts: 2
- Best Start: 22nd (Spring 2000)
- Best Finish: 26th (Spring 2000)
Notable: The Martinsville oval is the shortest and slowest track on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. It most closely resembles the Saturday-night short track roots of many of the Cup drivers. With the speeds slow, good brakes are more important here than at almost any other track, and there is always a liberal use of the “bump-and-run,” where the drivers use their front bumpers to move their competitors aside… The pit lane is newly widened, but will still be relatively crowded versus many of the modern speedways. This also usually results in some extra-curricular contact and heated tempers.
- What: Virginia 500 / 500 Laps, 263 miles / .526-mile oval / Race #8 of 36
- Where: Martinsville Speedway / Martinsville, Va
- When: Sunday, April 8 / 1:00 pm Eastern
- Watch: Fox-TV / Pre-race: 12:30 pm Eastern
Bud Pole Qualifying:
Bud Pole qualifying will be seen live on the Fox Sports Network Friday at 3:00 pm Eastern Time. The Winston Cup Happy Hour will also be seen on the FX Network Saturday at noon.
What to Watch
Last week's interview of Dale Jr. with Darrell Waltrip of Fox Sports lasted for well over an hour. Fox was only able to show slightly more than five minutes of the interview during Sunday’s pre-race show, so “Totally NASCAR” on the Fox Sports Net will be showing additional segments of the interview every day this week.
Text provided by J. Gurss
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