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The red Ram bellowed, then coughed..........


Daytona qualifying, the Budweiser Shootout, and an update regarding Tony Furr.





Daytona 500 Qualifying...........

First of all, I have to say that I am kind of puzzled by the inconsistency of the Dodges. How come Bill Elliott's and Stacy Compton's racecars were so much faster than the others were? What happened to the shared development among the Dodge teams? It appears that Ray Evernham is up to his old sandbagging tricks again, keeping some of his engine development strategies to himself.

At any rate, there's no doubt about it, the red Rams bellowed the loudest. The big heart breaker lies with Jerry Nadeau, being disqualified and losing the outside pole because of an unapproved rear shock absorber and spring shackle affecting the height of the racecar. How could the team make such a ridiculous error with so much at stake? And, the worst part of it is, the sanctioning body mandates the use of, and supplies, the rear shocks. There is something fishy in NASCARville. If I were Rick Hendrick, you can rest assured, some heads would roll with this gaffe for the use of the unapproved spring shackle, and maybe I would start with the crew chief......... There is talk of fines being levied? We haven't heard the last of this one...............

I have to think about what is going on in Jerry Nadeau's mind. There is a matter of trust involved here. A driver goes out onto the track and drives his heart out, crossing his T's and dotting his I's, only to find that his racecar is not acceptable. One thing that I noticed when drivers and owners were interviewed by the Fox crew, is that they all said that their teams worked real hard and everyone did a good job. It sounded like a repeating record, just like the end of a TV commercial, "Call now, don't delay, pick up the phone and call now!" It was like they all got together before the show, read the script, and practiced their lines. A packaged up bunch of nonsense. All of the teams might have worked hard, but not all of them did a good job. Some of the drivers that attempted to qualify would be hard pressed to see the back end of the little girl's bicycle that blew by Jeff Gordon in the infamous Pepsi commercial.

Speaking of TV commercials, I wonder how many times we are going to hear Dale Jarrett say this season, "I'm not going to drive that truck." He even said it during an interview after qualifying. Then there is the Havoline oil commercial that they plagued us with last season featuring the Yates team. I remember that during one particular long race last season, I don't remember which one, they aired that commercial 26 times. I have no doubt that DJ will be a strong force to be reckoned with next weekend in the big race.
The copyright of the article The red Ram bellowed, then coughed.......... in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish The red Ram bellowed, then coughed.......... in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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