NASCAR Trucks: Many Ford drivers still struggling in 2001
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
June 3, 2001JASON WHITE-86-National Wild Turkey Federation Ford F-150 (Finished 29th, Retired Lap 73) - WHAT HAPPENED? "At first we were tight, and we were hoping that an early caution would allow us to make some changes. We ended up going a lap down early, but when the caution came out we came in for tires and loosened up the truck. The thing was awesome after that and we were running pretty decent. Then, the motor just let go. It's tough when you spend and extra day at the track and don't get to finish the race." HOW WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS? "The track was great. The track was dry and we didn't have any early problems, which shows we were ready to go racing. The track personnel did a great job of getting the track dry with what little time they had."
NATHAN HASELEU-99-Roush Performance Ford F-150 (Finished 21st) - YOU WERE SPUN PRETTY EARLY IN THE RACE AND YOUR TRUCK WAS NEVER THE SAME . "The truck today was good, real good. We started 13th and held our own and moved up there. The caution came out and we moved into ninth place and we went down into the corner and there were some lapped guys down there. The 43 checked up a little bit and I went to go to the bottom of him and someone must have been down there or pushed up on me a little. I'm not real sure what happened, but around I went and collected the back end pretty good. The truck was pretty loose all day long after that, so we were just running around trying to complete laps. It's just tough when you're racing up front and get caught up in accident. We definitely had something for the guys in the top 10, and maybe even the top five."
CHUCK HOSSFELD-50-Eldon Ford F-150 (Finished 23rd, Retired Lap 145) - "This was a tough weekend for the Eldon crew. It was a long weekend with the weather and the race seemed even longer. I got bumped in the rear early in the race and the truck's handling seemed to go away after that. Then, we didn't have time to check up and I ran into the back of somebody and that pretty much ended our day. The radiator was gone and we didn't have enough time to make the change. We just need to move on, and I think we'll have a better weekend in Texas. We just need to leave this wet weather behind us and try to get as much practice time as possible."
RICK CRAWFORD-14-Milwaukee Electric Tools Ford F-150 (Finished 14th) - YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE TRUCK TO BEAT EARLY IN THE RACE. "We did. The Milwaukee Electric Tools crew worked hard, but we don't have a lot to show for it today. We did have the truck to beat. Unfortunately on a pit stop, and these guys work too hard for that to happen, I didn't see the black line the black line on the pit lane. We had a left-side tire change and I was trying to give the guys enough room to do their duty on the left side and try to make up some spots that we lost on the stop before. That was my fault. We had a great truck all day. We stood tough in the face of adversity. We were trying to put an end to the Dodge party, but we're going to get them one day. They know that now. This was our race and we lost it for ourselves." WHAT ABOUT THE CONTACT WITH THE 29 TRUCK? "I don't think that was something that needed to happen, but if we weren't racing to try to get back on the lead lap that wouldn't have happened. We needed to stay on the lead lap, and then that wouldn't have even happened because we wouldn't have put ourselves in that position."
TERRY COOK-29-K Automotive Ford F-150 (Finished 11th) - YOU FINISHED 11TH EVEN AFTER THE ONE-LAP PENALTY THAT YOU WERE ASSESSED MIDWAY THROUGH THE RACE. "We didn't have a very good truck in practice and in qualifying we were pretty bad. We worked on it in Happy Hour and got it to the point where we were in the top 10 on the sheet and had a real good truck. We were confident going into the race even though we were starting back in 25th because we saw Kurt Busch win this thing starting last in last year's race, so were knew 200 laps would be enough to work our way up front. The first half of the race was going good. We tried to get in the top 10 and found ourselves avoiding wreck after wreck after wreck. We got some front-end damage trying to get out of one wreck, and on our pit stop on lap 80-something, we were a little bit through the pit box. They penalized up one lap, but if were on our toes we could have avoided that. We could have pushed the truck back before working on the truck, and then we would have been OK. At that point we were doing everything we could to get back on the lead lap. We had a quick caution and jumped them on the start and got back on the tail end of the lead lap. Then we got together with the 14 truck in Turn 2. I don't know if I went up into him or he came down on me, but it was just one of those racing incidences. That was a tough deal there, but we kept charging. We probably kept adjusting on the truck too much after that because it was free in and tight off the corners all day. We still finished in 11th and that's two races in a row. That's not what we want by any means but it's a lot better than going away on the hook." WHAT ABOUT SOME OF THE PENALTIES ASSESSED ON PIT ROAD? "NASCAR has been a little more strict the past couple of weeks. It was our fault. We learned at Pikes Peak that NASCAR wasn't going to let teams slide in the pits. They started being more stringent and set the precedence then. We were only over by a couple of inches, but those are the rules. I like NASCAR doing it. What's fair is fair, as long as they do it across the board. They caught three or four of us doing it. If we all have to play by the rulebook, then what they did was fair. It was our fault for not capitalizing on that situation to fix our mistake." HOW WAS THE TRACK AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE? "It was ready for racing. It was plenty dry, but it was green and changed a lot of the day. The first half of the race, it was tight and it loosened up as the race went on. When we got marred back in traffic, we developed the dreaded aero-push that you get when you follow people, and we couldn't make up the ground we lost."
Text provided by Greg Shea
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