 | | Sterling Marlin and Dale Jarrett tangled under caution during the first qualifying race. Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
February 16, 2006
09:41 PM EST (02:41 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It remains to be seen how former winners Dale Jarrett and Sterling Marlin will do in the Daytona 500, but at least they'll get the chance to compete in Sunday's Great American Race. Twenty-five other drivers won't get that opportunity after a wild pair of Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying races Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. Mike Skinner, who had a string of nine consecutive 500s snapped, former 500 winner Derrike Cope and newcomer Chad Chaffin were the most notable non-qualifiers after a wild ending to Thursday's first Gatorade Duel. Coincidentally, the second Duel also had a late caution that enabled another green-white-checker finish; and in a much less dramatic conclusion, Scott Riggs, Kenny Wallace and Scott Wimmer were the big losers. Riggs was the most dejected of the non-qualified group, as the driver made his first attempt at the 500 for a new team fielded by owner Ray Evernham. Last year for MBV Motorsports, Riggs finished fourth in the season opener. "There's nothing negative I can say about anybody on this Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge team," Riggs said. "Everybody put in a great effort [and] I've got to thank everybody at the fab shop and the motor shop and chassis shop. "Everybody at Evernham Motorsports gave me what I needed. That's the kind of risk you take when you come down here with no points. I think without the gear failure in qualifying we wouldn't be in this situation. "I hate it, but that's racing and we'll regroup and go on from here." Riggs' No. 10 Dodge Charger was in and out of a qualified spot throughout his 60-lap qualifying race. But on a final restart he lined up third among the cars that had to race their way into the 500, and he was unable to make it happen. Late in the qualifier, Wallace was racing his older brother, Mike, for the final transfer spot, and in the final restart shuffle his No. 78 Chevrolet ended up two positions behind his sibling. He was able to grin through the disappointment. "It would have been a helluva story -- me and Mike going for the transfer spot -- but it was too bad the caution came out," Wallace said. "We were looking good, the caution come out and that was it -- it all ended." Wallace held his fingers a quarter-inch apart to show how close he missed making the race. "You know why I'm disappointed -- because it was that damned close," he said. "You know what I mean? If that caution hadn't have come out, we would have had a barnburner -- we probably would have wrecked." As it was, Wallace made contact with Kevin Harvick and scuffed the back of Riggs' car in Turns 1 and 2 on the last lap, but said despite NASCAR President Mike Helton's admonishment not to bump draft, he had no choice. "My brother Mike did a helluva job -- he had no tires and he was holding us all off," Wallace said. "We were like flies on s--t, all over him. I had Harvick's rear tires lifted up off the ground and at the same time I'm thinking about Helton.  | 
 | TAKE THE CHALLENGE | Give the right side of your brain the day off as you juggle a field of NASCAR drivers while staying under a salary cap.
For Reese's, it's all about the Cup. Pick the best drivers from each group and walk away with the top prize. Build your point total week after week! Earn great prizes! Are you ready to make the hard choices?
Streak to the Finish challenges you to guess a top-10 driver in next week's NASCAR race.
Who do you want to make a superstar? The Superstar Fantasy Cap Challenge gives you that power. Just don't use the same driver twice this year.
Play the Ultimate Fantasy League. Draft, trade, add, and drop drivers throughout the season. Dominate your opponents with the best team of drivers you can assemble.
|
|
"But, I mean, there's nothing you can do. I mean, it's the most incredible feeling trying to make the biggest race in the United States, and you don't want to lift off the gas. I had to go." The first race's ending had more than one person in the garage shaking their head. An accident under caution that badly damaged Jarrett's No. 88 Ford and forced Marlin's MB2 Motorsports team to go to a backup No. 14 Chevrolet also brought on a green-white-checkered finish that knocked Skinner out of what seemed to be a sure qualified spot. Chaffin's No. 92 Chevrolet blew a right front tire and smacked the frontstretch wall on the 59th lap, causing the race's third caution to fly. The impact of hitting the wall tore virtually the entire right side off Chaffin's Front Row Motorsports car, and left the frontstretch strewn with shards of sheet metal. When the leaders came back to the start/finish line and saw the debris, they abruptly checked up. Marlin, who was running near the 10 spot, was reaching to shut off his rear-end cooler in preparation for the final restart and heard no warning about debris from his spotter. "I didn't see nothing," Marlin said. "We was cutting the oil cooler off and I was looking down to look at the temperature and reached to cut the switch off -- I looked back up and they was dead-stopped." When the six cars in the upper line slowed, Marlin had to jerk his car to the middle of the racetrack. When he did he ran into the left rear of Jarrett's car -- spinning the 88 and caving in the front of Marlin's car. "Nobody ever said a word -- stop or whoa or anything," Marlin said. "They didn't say nothing and I didn't hear nothing. I was making sure the temperatures were OK before I turned off the coolers, and when I looked back up -- the way the brakes are here, you can't stop -- you just slide the tires." As the second Gatorade 150 took the green flag, Marlin's crew was pushing its backup car into the inspection area. Jarrett's Robert Yates Racing crew, however, had its machine in its garage stall, with no plans to go to a backup despite significant frame damage. Outside, crew chief Slugger Labbe was fuming. "It bent the rear clip down, but that's part of racing so we'll just leave it there and go on with it because there ain't much you can do about it," Labbe said. "We won't put a frame machine on it because it'll just get knocked in again, anyways." Labbe was most upset that the accident occurred nearly a full lap after the caution had waved. "It's just kinda stupid to get wrecked when the yellow flag's out," Labbe said. "It ain't very good. The racing's so tight and they weren't even racing back to the yellow -- they were just being stupid. "I don't understand it, because Sterling's a veteran driver, but we were going to finish seventh and now we ended up 13th. I just don't understand it." Asked if he'd heard any warnings from spotters, Labbe said he had not. "No. I didn't hear anything on the radio," Labbe said. "The 92 [Chaffin] car hit and they had a whole lap to come around and slow down, and they didn't, so it's stupid. We rely so much on our spotters and they can't do their jobs." | 
© 2001-2012 NASCAR | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NASCAR.COM is part of Turner Sports Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network.
