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Ask Dale Jarrett. He knows.
Jarrett, who in his ninth season at Robert Yates Racing would have no luck if it weren't for bad luck, finished 11th in the Subway 500 Sunday at Martinsville after starting 39th and spinning out twice.
"It was a tough weekend for us, for sure," Jarrett said. "It's nice to finish a day and have it finish on a pretty good note. We've got five weeks left to try and right this ship and end this year on a good note."
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| Jarrett spun in qualifying and had to take a provisional to get into the field. Credit: Autostock |
Only once in his tenure at RYR has Jarrett finished outside the top 10, and never has he finished worst than 13th. He is currently 26th in the 2003 championship standings, which is one position higher than he entered the weekend.
After qualifying, it seemed there was no way he would gain points. Trying to put up a quick lap, Jarrett lost control in Turn 3 during qualifying. He totaled the machine and was forced into a backup car.
Of the speedway variety.
"The car that we ran here is nowhere near a short track car, but we just kept working on it in practice yesterday and making adjustments today, and never did get it right," said Jarrett, whose car was built specifically for Chicagoland Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval.
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"But we did get it where I found something I could do -- drive the hell out of it into the corner, because we couldn't get it tightened up off (the corner).
"So I had to make my time up getting into the corner and in the center. They did a good job of adjusting and a good job of planning in the pits.
"We were in a really good position there, I thought, then I spun out. For the second time."
Jarrett's first spin came on lap 106, when Derrike Cope hit him in the rear in Turn 2 to bring out the day's third caution. The second spin came in Turn 4 on lap 374.
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"That was my fault," Jarrett said of the second spin. "The 23, or somebody, had a problem up high and I had a run on the outside. Elliott was down there and the 54, so I went to the inside and just got into Turn 3 too hard, because I really wanted to clear the 23 to keep my momentum. Just driver error."
As bad as the day seemed until the fruitful ending, it could have been worse. Jarrett nearly went a lap down at one point, but received the "Lucky Dog pass" to return to the lead lap.
"I think we used that to our advantage," Jarrett said. "We stayed out one time and got ourselves up in there. Even though we restarted third, we fell back maybe only 10 spots.
"That got us in position and then we were able to adjust on the car in sequence with the leaders. We finally got the car adjusted to where I could drive it.
"I thought we'd have a hard time running in the top 20. It was just an interesting day, but we were able to have a good enough car on old tires that we could stay out there towards the end and that worked in our favor.
"If I hadn't spun the second time, I think we had ourselves in a really good spot to try to make a top 10 out of it, but we came close. I'm pretty happy."
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