Must have been something Dustin said
For those of you with memories that go back a year or so, you might recall Dustin Long's stories (I'm using the word loosely) that ran before last year's spring Martinsville week. These were the very cool "In Their Own Words" features, where three drivers (Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray) riffed on a bunch of topics mostly unrelated to racing.
Dustin's doing the same thing again this year. (The pieces will run next week, starting Friday.) Today, before qualifying, he did his sit-down with Elliott Sadler. Guess who's on the pole for Sunday's race at Bristol? Yep, Sadler. Another of Dustin's "In Their Own Words" subjects, Rusty Wallace, will start third.
And the third subject? That would be Dale Earnhardt Jr., who starts 19th. Well, maybe he would have qualified 32nd if Dustin hadn't interviewed him last week.
Other Bristol qualifying highlights:
Dave Blaney (!) has the outside pole.
Golden boy Carl Edwards starts 43rd. (He didn't have a qualifying time - have to see what happened.)
Pleasant Garden's Shane Hmiel made the race. (He'll start 32nd.)
And the Official Underdog of The Spotter, Carl Long, made the race, too. He's 38th.
Finally: Kevin Lepage and Robby Gordon will be watching at home.
The latter development is great news for Mike Wallace and Ricky Rudd, who are trying to grab on to a spot in the top 35. (Bobby Labonte has the past champion's provisional, so he doesn't have too much to worry about.)
But it's catastrophic for Reckless Robby, who has little shot now of ever making the top 35 and is faced with having to qualify on time each week. Not exactly what you're looking for if you're a single-car team.
Update, 8:45 p.m.: Carl Edwards crashed in qualifying before he took the green flag. Oops.
Comments (2)
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Robby made a great move starting his own team. Although the guy can get sponsors, I don't know how he does it. He has all this talent but is only a midlevel Cup driver. Robby has the worst engines you could want. Menard has NEVER produced quality engines. Back in the IRL, his engine program was a running joke. They were nicknamed "grenades" and that ain't a good thing. It's too bad Lepage didn't qualify. That team is the best field filler out there. At least they try to run the full race.
Posted on April 1, 2005 11:33 PM
Yeah, let's run the Busch race at 10 AM when everyone is in school/at work. Bristol has lights, so use them!
Posted on April 3, 2005 12:39 AM