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By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
March 29, 2003
10:23 AM EST (1523 GMT)
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Greg Zipadelli was pretty blunt with his assessment of Friday's of his No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet's failure to get through NASCAR's initial inspection for Sunday's Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
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| Tony Stewart and Greg Zipadelli seem unbothered by NASCAR's penalty against them Friday. Credit: Autostock |
"I'm disappointed with the people at the shop, because it's a measurement that's pretty cut and dried," Zipadelli said after NASCAR confiscated the car, which did not meet one of the body measurement rules. "We've done well with it this year -- we haven't had any issues or anything like that."
Both the car that NASCAR impounded and the backup that Stewart qualified 22nd were new chassis that had not been used this season. The team immediately loaded the car Stewart ran at Atlanta at its facility in Huntersville, N.C., and began driving it to Texas.
"It's something that they check back on the (surface) plates as we're building the car," Zipadelli said. "Obviously, they didn't check it close enough. When they put the back window in, it seemed to change the measurement an awful lot.
"There's a rule on it, so I don't have much to stand on. It's nobody's fault but our own (and) this was just as big a shock to me as it was to the people at NASCAR.
Stewart was nonplussed by the events of the day.
"The cars all look the same from where I'm sitting," Stewart said. "I've got three things that I'm in control of: A steering wheel, the shifter and the pedals (and) I've got everything I need to do the job I need to do with the car we've got now.
"All of our cars are good, whether they're a primary or a backup."
Owner/driver Brett Bodine thought he had a top-10 car in practice, but the Robert Yates Racing engine in his No. 11 Hooters Ford blew and he posted the 18th-best lap in practice. Bodine, who was among the lowest on the owner point chart of the teams at Texas, was relieved to come up big in qualifying.
"It was unfortunate with the engine going in practice, and then the 30 car (Jeff Green) blew up ahead of us (in qualifying) and everybody slowed down so much," Bodine said after locking-in the 25th position. "Man, I was scared to death (because) we're looking at going home if we don't get a lap down, but we just sucked it up and got it in.
"Thankfully, the motor Yates gave us was good and those guys did a great job getting it changed. Our guys did a great job getting this car prepared and we were so fast in practice beforehand that I really felt like we had an honest top-10 car here.
"We're gonna start last on Sunday because of the motor change. Hopefully, we'll be able to race up through there."
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| An oil leak gave Ricky Rudd problems Friday. Credit: Autostock |
Ricky Rudd's No. 21 Motorcraft Ford was a smoker early in pre-qualifying practice, bringing out the session's first yellow flag. Rudd cited the missed practice runs as the biggest reason for his 16th-place qualifying effort.
"I wish we had a couple of more practice laps -- we kept freeing it up and it got faster and faster, so we were a couple of changes away," Rudd said. "I'm not sure what it (oil leak) was, but we lost a good bit of practice and took away our chance to try a couple of things on the car.
"It ended up it wasn't a terminal thing -- it was something pretty minor like a hose -- so it didn't really affect us too much other than shorten the practice time."
NASCAR has long had a policy of displaying illegal and confiscated parts either on a table outside its office trailer or on one of its inside counters. When Tony Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet was confiscated due to a body irregularity in its initial inspection, it was placed next to the hauler behind a retractable barrier tape.
"I'd like to think it is (a message to other teams)," NASCAR president Mike Helton said. "The parts and pieces we confiscate are put on the hauler and displayed for all the teams to see.
"This fits that case, but it's just too big to put on the counter."
Matt Kenseth's Busch Series No. 17 Ford will carry a "Get Well Ginger" decal in Saturday's O'Reilly 300. A team representative said the message was for a long-time Bayer Consumer Care employee in the New Jersey corporate office who is having a tough bout with cancer, named Ginger Burns.
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Friday morning, officials from Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse and Hendrick Motorsports announced they are joining forces with the United Service Organizations (USO) to carry out the 2003 Power of Pride program and implement "Operation USO Care Package."
The partnership between Lowe's and the USO will allow Americans to support U.S. servicemen women deployed overseas through personal messages and care packages specially requested by the military. Lowe's launched its support by donating $100,000 to the cause.
The No. 87 Chevrolet driven in the Busch Series by Joe Nemechek will have to drop to the rear of the field before the start of Saturday's O'Reilly 300 due to an engine change. The crew changed engines Friday morning after finding water in the oil. Nemechek qualified seventh.
Officials from UPS and Robert Yates Racing unveiled a new look for the No. 88 UPS Ford at a news conference Friday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. The look features the new UPS logo, which was unveiled by the company earlier this week, and will be used on the car, Jarrett's driving suit and the team's uniforms.
"We're excited that they've chosen us to be the showcase of this new look," Yates said. "For NASCAR, UPS has been one of the best sponsors (and) we're fortunate to be the team to have their money and funding to work with."
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