Failed to Qualify..............
As always, there's someone that just doesn't get up to speed and misses the race. There's been a lot of that this year. The thing that's changing about the "Failed to Qualify" list, is the names of the drivers. It used to be that the rookies and wannabe's made up the list, but with all of the new teams coming into the picture every week, the list is being made up of regular drivers. Take this week for instance: Robert Pressley (that's no surprise); Derrike Cope; David Green; and Dave Marcus (no surprise there either). Actually, none of these drivers are known for having banner years of late, and they've all been on the list before. The rookies made the race! They didn't. It's just as simple as that. One thousandth of a second tells the story these days, about who races and who goes home to watch it on the TV.
It wasn't crew chief Scott Eggleston's fault, he tried. Actually, he tried a little too hard, according to NASCAR officials who found an illegal intake manifold insert at the pre-race inspection last Saturday for the Pepsi 400. Marlin ended up with a 12th place finish, and Eggleston got fined $50,000 with probation until Oct, 20th.
This is the ninth season that the Winston Cup series has visited NHIS. Two drivers have won three races there since the inaugural race in 1990. Jeff Gordon, and this years Jiffy Lube 300 winner, (pulling off a three-peat) Jeff Burton. This was the forth win for Burton this season, and the ninth of his career. Believe it or not, Jeff started from the 37th position. The win paid $139,490.00, bringing his season total winnings up to 2,911,251.00. That's not a bad total for just 18 races.
The race turned out to be a gas milage rout. Tony Stewart put on a fantastic performance, along with Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, and John Andretti. The smarter, more seasoned crew chiefs, knew that they would have to pull their cars in for a "splash and go" because there wasn't enough fuel in the 22 gallon tanks to finish the race. Most of the drivers came in for fuel, but leader Tony Stewart stayed out there and gambled. He lost. He ran out of fuel with just four laps to go, and second place driver at the time, John Andretti, came into the pits for fuel. That left the third place driver, Jeff Burton, in first place, and he had topped off his tank at the end of a long caution, when every one but a couple of other drivers had elected to stay out and keep their track positions. Jeff Burtons team knew that track position wasn't going to do them any good if they didn't have the fuel to compete for the win, they took the chance and gave up track position, and worked their way back to third, when the win fell into their hands.
Marlin Didn't Win......... But...................
Jiffy Lube 300........... New Hampshire International Speedway
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