NASCAR WCUP: Nemechek Scores Seventh-Place Finish at Dover
5 June 2000
Posted By Terry
Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Dover, DE--After struggling through a frustrating string
of twenty-something finishes, the luck of the Oakwood Homes team took a
dramatic turn for the better this weekend at Dover Downs International
Speedway. The car that the team brought for the MBNA Platinum 400 was
strong all weekend, consistently running the first or second quickest laps
during practice.
Joe Nemechek qualified tenth for the event, and never dropped any lower than the tenth position on the racetrack. The car performed flawlessly all afternoon. At one point Nemechek was in second place, challenging Dale Earnhardt for the lead.
Due to long green-flag runs, fuel mileage became an issue toward the end of the race. A late-race, green-flag pit stop to change two tires and top off fuel dropped Nemechek from fourth to eighth place. This was the only time of the race that luck wasn't with the Oakwood Homes team, for as soon as Nemechek pitted, a wreck brought out the caution. Since most of the rest of the field hadn't pitted yet, they were able to do so under caution, resulting in Nemechek going two laps down.
However, once he was back on the racetrack, Nemechek began to blast his way through the field once more. He wound up seventh, and said that if it were not for that one piece of bad luck, he's certain he would have finished in the top five.
"We should have finished better than that," Nemechek said after the race. "We deserved to finish better than that. Man, if we keep bringing racecars like that, we're going to get (a win.) It feels pretty good. Dover's been one of my good racetracks in the past, and I thought we were going to be in the top five in that deal. Then we got caught on gas mileage. The fuel pressure went down to zero, and we had to pit, and then the next lap the caution came out. That's just our luck right now, but overall though the Oakwood Chevy was good all day, and we've been good since we unloaded off the truck. That's important. I've got a good racecar, and we didn't tear this one up. We'll be looking for some good things at Michigan."
The Dover finish was Nemechek's first top ten since Las Vegas, where he finished ninth in the same car. The team plans to run this same car at Michigan Speedway next weekend. The Kmart 400 is scheduled for Sunday, June 11, at 1 PM EST. CBS will televise the race, and MRN will have the live radio broadcast.
Text provided by Tiffany Ricardo
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