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Race Recap
 Ask any driver about the key to success at Talladega, and they'll
give you the same advice. "It's a long race. You have to be patient,
make good decisions in the draft and anticipate when the Big One is
going to happen."
This weekend, the Harrah's Racing Team started pretty deep in the
field and I did my best to be patient and make good decisions in the
draft; unfortunately, the Big One occurred before anyone was ready
for it – just 14 laps into the race.
More than half of the field was running two-by-two at nearly 190 mph
out of Turn 2 as the leaders headed for the backstretch. I was
concentrating on following the line of the car in front of me, and
the next thing I knew was looking at the bottom of Johnny Sauter's
car as it got airborne down the straightaway. My spotter, David
Green, made the call to go high past the spinning cars in the middle
of the track and we were almost through cleanly when Todd Bodine
clipped the left-front fender and sent me into the wall. The impact
tore apart the left-front corner of the Harrah's Chevrolet and
forced the right side hard against the wall.
By the way – thanks to the Harrah's employees that voted for the
bright yellow car design before the season. Although the purple
scheme won out for the season, we're running the yellow car the
Superspeedways and it sure made it easy for David to see me through
all that smoke.
We sustained enough damage in the accident to remove us from
contention for the win. Fortunately, Jon Wolfe and the Harrah's crew
were able to tear off the left side sheet metal over the front wheel
and patch up the car so we could return to the track without a visit
to the garage. Although we couldn't run with the leaders, we were
able to turn enough laps against the remaining cars to post the best
finish of my career, 8th – our second top-10 of the season.
Prior to the 27-car pileup, our car was running really well (moving
up 12 spots in the first two laps) – which was pretty surprising. We
hadn't been able to work on the car much since Daytona and our
qualifying run was pretty disappointing (32nd). During the final
practice, we weren't able to run many laps in traffic to determine
how the car would perform in the draft, so it was astonishing to
hook up with an experienced driver like Randy Lajoie and move
through the field so quickly. Before the race, Jon made the decision
to change quite a few things on the car, and it paid off.
While the emergency crews tended to the cars and pieces of cars that
were scattered all over the backstretch, NASCAR put out the red flag
and stopped the field for about 40 minutes. It was so hot I felt
like I was baking in the car. The pit road temperature was 93
degrees, so you can imagine what it felt like inside our race car,
buckled into a uniform and a helmet.
Once we finally started racing again, I could only ride by myself.
Every now-and-then I jumped behind a group of two or three cars to
try to pick up some speed in the draft, but the damage to our car
was too severe for me to ride with them for very long.
Although it was frustrating to make laps out there while just three
cars (Jason Keller, Stacy Compton and Kenny Wallace) battled for the
win, we'll certainly settle for our second top-10 finish – it moves
us up two spots in the standings, to 15th.
After the race, I ran for a plane back to North Carolina so I could
have a little personal time before kicking off a busy week in
California on Tuesday morning. Check your television listings for
FOX Network's "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," as I'll be
visiting the show this week to unveil a really sharp paint scheme
that we'll be running in Charlotte promoting the DVD-release of the
movie "Behind Enemy Lines." Co-hosts Tom Arnold and John Salley have
a full day of off-the-wall activities planned – so it should be an
entertaining week.
California Speedway is wide, smooth and fast – and it's not supposed
to rain – so, we're excited to see how well our Texas car runs when
weather isn't a factor in the finish.
FAST FACTS:
1. The People Have Spoken ... Prior to the 2002 NASCAR Busch
Series season, 45,000 Harrah's employees cast their votes for to
decide on a yellow or purple paint scheme for the No. 14 Harrah's
Racing entry, designed by renowned motorsports artist Sam Bass.
Although the purple prevailed, Harrah's will pay homage to the
minority vote at the Superspeedway events in Talladega and Daytona
by running the yellow scheme.
2. Applied Science ... Larry Foyt returns to Talladega for the
second time in his NASCAR Busch Series career. The Harrah's Racing
Team is banking on the information gathered during their January
testing session and the Daytona 300 to give them the insight
necessary to top Foyt's 2001 performance – a 17th-place qualifying
effort that the Harrah's team parlayed into a season-best 12th-place
finish.
3. Familiar Territory ... Crew Chief Jon Wolfe has experienced
the perfect day at Talladega. In 1998, as assistant crew chief to
Jimmy Makar at Joe Gibbs Racing, Wolfe's driver Bobby Labonte
grabbed the pole and drove to victory lane 500 miles later. Wolfe
returns to Talladega knowing that Foyt earned the best finish of his
rookie season at the 2.66-Mile Superspeedway – and is looking
forward to directing his young driver to familiar territory after
the checkered flag falls.
Larry Foyt... "We haven't made many changes to the
Superspeedway car since Daytona. Our 36th-place starting spot there
showed that the car didn't run that well all by itself; however, our
15th-place finish was a pretty good indication of how well we raced.
I'm expecting more of the same in Talladega. We'll do the best we
can on Thursday, and then focus on being patient and working our way
through the field on Saturday. It's a long race and in order to
finish well, you really have to be patient and be able to anticipate
which line to join. Ultimately the decisions you make late in the
race will determine if you go to the front or fall back in the
Talladega shuffle that occurs in down the stretch."
Jon Wolfe... "After a disappointing weekend in Nashville, the
Harrah's Racing Team is looking to get back on track – and I think
Talladega might be the answer. Racing at Talladega is all about the
how the car reacts in the draft. The driver needs to be patient,
make good decisions and avoid the wrecks that happen when others
don't. Larry did just that last year, ran a fairly consistent race
and was rewarded with a top-15(12th) finish – our best on a
Superspeedway."
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