Somewhere in Florida Thursday morning, Michael Waltrip had to explain to his daughters why the press was calling their daddy a cheater. As a noted Michael Waltrip fan, just listening to his press conference was a painful, almost saddening experience. Waltrip is one of the good ole boys in the sport, and despite what his team did to their car, you couldn’t help but feel that Michael was telling the truth. Truth or not, the substance was there, and Waltrip was punished accordingly. Accordingly if by accordingly you mean “using a sledgehammer to kill a cockroachâ€.
The fallout from the Michael Waltrip incident was swift and ugly on Thursday. Just hours before the start of the Gatorade Duel 150s (which Waltrip had to race in if he was to get into the 500), Michael was informed by NASCAR that he would be allowed to compete in the Duels, after fears arose that he may be suspended from the event. Waltrip wasn’t suspended, but his crew chief David Hyder and his team competition director Bobby Kennedy were. Indefinitely. Oh, and you can tag on a $100,000 fine to the indefinite suspension that Hyder received. Plus, Hyder will shortly be fired as well. Anything else… yes, Waltrip was docked 100 points in the Nextel Cup Championship Standings, while Buffy Waltrip was docked 100 Owners Points, thus amounting to the stiffest penalty for a single race team in NASCAR history.
And you thought the first slew of penalties were rough.
Daytona seems to be a breeding ground for controversy these days. Back in the good old days, the most interesting tidbit from Speed Weeks would revolve around the attempt by a seventy-two year old veteran who last raced Cup in 1993 (back when North Wilkesboro was still on the circuit and Riverside was only two years removed from its conversion to a shopping mall). Now, however, you’re lucky enough just to get through a week without having some sort of feud or controversy crop up. When you think about it, all of NASCAR’s most embarrassing controversies have been going on during practice days! We finally get to a legitimate day of racing on Thursday, and yet we’re still dealing with the fallout from “WaltriGateâ€. At least with the Duel 150s today, we could concentrate on the real business of stock car racing: racing, right? Ha, you silly goose! Or, if you prefer – silly, silly rabbit. You’re spirit shall be broken faster than Tim Hardaway runs from the Blue Oyster Bar!
You see, just when you thought that Mike Helton and Robin Pemberton had finished paddling all the bad little boys for breaking the rules and whatnot, along comes Jeff Gordon of all people to make life more interesting for the folks watching at home. And to think that at this point in time last week, the rubes among us were wondering whether or not Krusty Rusty and Erik Kuselias could manage to talk about NASCAR long enough to justify taking over the PTI and Around the Horn slots ALL WEEK. Just another example of ESPN plotting to take over the world, one idiot at a time.
As it turns out, our old buddy Jeff Gordon (who won the second Gatorade Duel 150 race on Thursday) failed a post-race inspection when his quarter panels were found to be too low, thus giving him… wait for it… an unfair advantage! My God in Heaven, what a shocking revelation! NASCAR bigwigs say that the gaffe was probably unintentional, so Gordon’s punishment will only see him dropped 38 positions on Sunday, from 4th down to 42nd Position. Since NASCAR has been turned upside down by the rampant outbreak of cheating here lately, we’re going to honor the sport by covering the second Gatorade Duel first, since the goings-on in the first race are of secondary concern to the primary concern of the day, that being the #24 team’s drop from fourth to forty-second after finishing first in the second Duel 150 race. That way, the article builds up to the first Gatorade Duel 150, since it was the more exciting race anyways. Well, not exactly more exciting, but the storylines were better during the race.
The one major theme that existed heading into the second race (aside from the obvious “Which long shots will earn the right to race?†thread) was the NASCAR debut of Juan Pablo “Don’t Call me Indigo†Montoya, who is making the jump from open wheel racing (specifically CART and F1) to stock car racing. And for a good while during the Duel, he was making the field his personal plaything (R-Rated Version: he made the field into his bitch for eighteen laps). Of course, Murphy’s Law is predestined to kick in whenever something good happens to a driver at Daytona in February of 2007, so Montoya would end up finishing last in the duel after some equipment failure ended his day early. The actual race, like any Gatorade Duel, was remarkably competitive, even up at the front where the big stars were going through the motions. Jeff Gordon made the pass of the year to date on Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch (using the see-saw/slingshot maneuver that you should only see in Days of Thunder) to take the lead on the final lap. With the restrictor plates, the cars are always going to be bunched together. You take that, and combine it with the “Duel or Die†mentality, and you have nail biting finishes that are decided by mere feet, not car lengths or seconds.
Official Results: Gatorade Duel 150 Race #2
01. Jeff Gordon #24 / Chevrolet
02. Kurt Busch #2 / Dodge
03. David Stremme #40 / Dodge
04. Kyle Busch #5 / Chevrolet
05. Matt Kenseth #17 / Ford
06. J.J. Yeley #18 / Chevrolet
07. Carl Edwards #99 / Ford
08. Ryan Newman #12 / Dodge
09. Joe Nemechek #13 / Chevrolet
10. Tony Raines #96 / Chevrolet
11. Mike Wallace #109 / Chevrolet
12. Sterling Marlin #14 / Chevrolet
13. Jamie McMurray #26 / Ford
14. Mark Martin #01 / Chevrolet
15. Paul Menard #15 / Chevrolet
16. Kasey Kahne #9 / Dodge
17. Kevin Lepage #34 / Dodge
18. Derrike Cope #74 / Dodge
19. Regan Smith #139 / Chevrolet
20. Frank Kimmel #171 / Ford
21. Elliott Sadler #19 / Dodge
22. Ricky Rudd #88 / Ford
23. Eric McClure #104 / Chevrolet
24. Kirk Shelmerdine #27 / Chevrolet
25. Scott Riggs #10 / Dodge
26. Brian Vickers #83 / Toyota (DNF)
27. Mike Skinner #23 / Toyota (DNF)
28. David Reutimann #00 / Toyota (DNF)
29. Kevin Harvick #29 / Chevrolet (DNF)
30. Juan Pablo Montoya #42 / Dodge (DNF)
Official Results: Gatorade Duel 150 Race #1
01. Tony Stewart #20 / Chevrolet
02. Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8 / Chevrolet
03. Jeff Burton #31 / Chevrolet
04. David Gilliland #38 / Ford
05. Denny Hamlin #11 / Chevrolet
06. Clint Bowyer #07 / Chevrolet
07. Martin Truex Jr. #1 / Chevrolet
08. Michael Waltrip #55 / Toyota
09. Casey Mears #25 / Chevrolet
10. Ken Schrader #21 / Ford
11. Jimmie Johnson #48 / Chevrolet
12. Boris Said #160 / Ford
13. Mike Bliss #49 / Dodge
14. Johnny Sauter #70 / Chevrolet
15. Jeremy Mayfield #36 / Toyota
16. Greg Biffle #16 / Ford
17. Kenny Wallace #78 / Chevrolet
18. Dale Jarrett #44 / Toyota
19. Stanton Barrett Jr. #130 / Chevrolet
20. Bill Elliott #37 / Dodge
21. Brandon Whitt #72 / Chevrolet
22. Bobby Labonte #43 / Dodge
23. James Hylton #158 / Chevrolet
24. Kyle Petty #45 / Dodge
25. Jeff Green #66 / Chevrolet
26. Ward Burton #4 / Chevrolet
27. Reed Sorenson #41 / Dodge (DNF)
28. David Ragan #6 / Ford (DNF)
29. A.J. Allmendinger #84 / Toyota (DNF)
30. Dave Blaney #22 / Toyota (DNF)
31. Robby Gordon #7 / Ford (DNF)
*Bold denotes drivers that qualify for the Daytona 500 based on their performance in the Duel 150s. [Credit: Fox Sports]
The first Gatorade Duel featured more star power than the second race, which is generally the case more times than not. The first Duel 150 also featured the most controversial driver in Daytona this week: Michael Waltrip. Now, we’ve gone over the stuff with Michael earlier on, but it bares mentioning again that Michael had to race his way into the Daytona 500 here, despite being a two time winner of the event (in this decade, mind you). Of course, he was far from being the only story of the day, although he didn’t help matters by spinning out Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a rather dumb (but humorous) way. James Hylton, the aforementioned 72 year old man who was cleared to attempt to qualify using a “hand-me-down†car on loan from Robbie Gordon (ponder that one and despair), was about five laps away from actually qualifying when he fell off the pace during one of the final restarts in the first race. As a result, this opened the door for David Reutimann (since Boris Said made the 500 based on his Sunday qualifying time) in the second Duel 150. All said, the 500 field is now set (barring any undiscovered penalties, which are starting to loom over the track like a hangover looms at the Courtney Love estate. When we can be absolutely sure that no more penalties will change the look of the field, we’ll bring you the final starting grid for Sunday’s race. Until then, we’ll see you tomorrow for the fifth edition of our “Countdown to Daytona†Series!
