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NASCAR WCUP: Nemechek Has Up and Down Weekend at The Brickyard

8 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

Indianapolis, IN --In light of the Oakwood Homes Racing Team's recent stellar performance in testing at Indianapolis, it is understandable that they were somewhat disappointed with the Brickyard 400 weekend. Joe Nemechek ended up starting 35th when he fully expected to grab his first pole of the season. He finished 18th despite the fact the team was certain he had a top-ten car.

Nemechek and the crew a spent most of the day battling tight conditions, but Nemechek managed to pick up several positions in a relatively short time all day long. He went from 35th to 28th in the first six laps of the race. It seemed early on that everyone on the racetrack was having similar problems.

"Everybody's complaining about bad push. Everybody," said Andy Petree over the radio.

Each pit stop brought another air pressure adjustment in order to fix the car's tendency toward tightness. After this early pit stop, the car performed flawlessly. Nemechek moved into the 16th position by lap 31, and then ran in the top ten for a good bit of the middle portion of the race. Nemechek's lap times were often faster than those of the leader.

On a later pit stop, the team decided to take only two tires. They had observed other teams take on two on the pit stop before and performing well. Unfortunately, the car did not seem to respond the way the team expected, and Nemechek lost some of the track position he'd gained.

"We've just got to figure out how to make some things better," said Nemechek after the race. "We were hoping for a better finish than that. We'll just have to move on and hope for better things next week."

The next race for the Oakwood Homes Chevrolet will be the road course race at the Watkins Glen International Raceway on August 13th. The Global Crossing at the Glen airs at 1:00 P.M. on ESPN. MRN Radio has the live radio broadcast.

Text provided by Tiffany Ricardo

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