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Old 11 Feb 2001, 01:12 (Ref:64071)   #1
Joe Fan
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Joe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJoe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid

Surprise, surprise! Bill Elliott in his Dodge wins the pole with Stacy Compton on the outside pole in a Dodge too. The Dodges were the slowest makes during Daytona testing. Were they sandbagging all along or did they find some speed all of a sudden.
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Old 11 Feb 2001, 04:03 (Ref:64101)   #2
Lee
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Probally a little of both. I'm sure they didn't want to show their full hand during testing, but I'd guess they also found a few tenths of a second during to days between testing and the run for the pole.
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Old 11 Feb 2001, 17:29 (Ref:64215)   #3
Neil C
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Neil C should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
Although I'm happy to see Bill Elliot in the front of the grid, is it suspicious that so many of the new Dodges qualified so well?

Can a new car be that fast out of the box, or did NASCAR make sure the regs favored the new cars in order to generate fan interest?

They wouldn't do that, would they?
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Old 12 Feb 2001, 22:43 (Ref:64442)   #4
gomick
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gomick should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridgomick should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridgomick should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
why is this years pole time of 49 seconds, just on 2 seconds slower than jarretts 2000 pole time , was the track resurfaced, different weather conditions etc
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Old 12 Feb 2001, 23:24 (Ref:64452)   #5
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What a joke. Do you actually think that car was legal? I'm happy for that hick Elliott, but come on. A brand new car, they put it on pole and 3rd places, the Chevy in 2nd gets DQ'd, and suddenly in their first race, they're 1-2? (By the way, Elliott was 0.2 sec. faster than Nadeau, and 0.3 sec. faster than Compton. Quite a sizeable margin in NASCAR.)

NASCAR is famous for its underhanded deals. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Chrysler's financial situation isn't good and the Germans, the ones who control the purse, are seriously evaluating their motorsports programs. The Dodges were slowest in Daytona testing. Who's to say that some of the Dodge representatives went to NASCAR with this news, gave them several million deutchmarks and said "We need results now. Put us on pole for the 500, please?" I would not be surprise if this happened.

I'll quote my uncle here, who is a member of a top Busch team: "I don't care if those cars had two engines and eight tires, there was no way NASCAR was going to disqualify those Dodges."
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Old 13 Feb 2001, 02:12 (Ref:64473)   #6
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And just where do you have proof of the accuations that you are making? As to Nadeau being disqualified for collapsable jack bolts, this is nothing new. The late Harry Hyde got caught with collapsing jack bolts about 25 years ago, they disallowed his car's time too! There were several other discrepencies with Nadeau's car. Plus there were a couple of other stiff penelties for other teams/crew chiefs as well. Remember Mayfield's problem with illegal fuel additive last year, Jason Leffler's team got caught for the same thing, fined, crew chief suspended, time disallowed, what was he driving? A Dodge! Yes, I think the Elliott Dodge was legal. You have to remember a couple of things, Evernham, en compamy were not racing during the 2000 season, they had about a year and a half to develop the car. I'm sure there was some sandbagging going on in testing, Evernham is noted for not showing his full hand until it counts for all the chips, and due to the aero rules, all of the cars are a good bit slower this year. No suprise that he could win the pole. Now, the real test will come in the 500 itself. There have been questions on the Dodge engine's duaribility. Will it last 500 miles? My guess is that they will struggle for a while. They'll race well, but won't win till somewhere around mid-season.
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Old 13 Feb 2001, 23:05 (Ref:64624)   #7
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Um, Lee, notice I did not say that they were going to go out and win immediately. I just said that Dodge needed something to show the Germans (who control the money) they progress is being made.

Check out Ben Blake's notes on speedvision.com. The rival crews are saying the right things, like "Well, Elliott's a great driver here, they've got Evernham on their side, etc., etc. etc." But Blake even eludes to their eyes winking as they're talking. Refer back to the difference in qualifying times in my first post. 0.2 sec. faster than anyone else with a legal car? I don't think so.

And about the #01 Dodge being DQ'd, all that is NASCAR trying to show everyone that they're not playing favorites. Did you notice that the #01 car wasn't on pole or 2nd place?
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Old 14 Feb 2001, 01:35 (Ref:64645)   #8
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I noticed this, 4 cars were taken to the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Ga. I work very near there. This probally was not information that NASCAR wanted to be reveled, but the figures were leaked (I have a friend that works at the tunnel, and he confirmed it) on RPM2Nite, or Fox's Totally NASCAR (can't remember which one, I watched them both) and the drag coefficency showed the Dodge better than the other makes, and the Fords at a substancial disadvantage, (the complaining that the Ford teams are doing is appears justified!). The less drag, the faster the car. As to Nadeau being disallowed, it had nothing to do with favortism toward Dadge, they got caught, and had to pay, both figurativly, and literally, for their rule infractions! I wouldn't have mattered what car brand of car had won the pole.
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Old 14 Feb 2001, 09:44 (Ref:64674)   #9
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Joe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJoe Fan should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Jared, a couple of things that you are probably forgetting. First, although I can't remember where I seen or heard this, but Bill France supposedly made the comment along the lines that Chevy teams did one of the best sandbagging jobs in 1995 when they first introduced the new Monte Carlo. Guess who lead the new Monte Carlo effort then? Ray Evernham and Hendrick motorsports. Seems like old times huh?

Secondly, in my opinion, Ray Evernham is a pure genius and I would put his technical wizardry up with the best in the world of motorsports. In the tight constraints of NASCAR's rules, he virtually dominated a sport that is designed not to be dominated. This is one reason why I was peeved that Autosport left Ray out of their Hall of Fame for the 50th anniversary issue. Evernham has proven more to me than Adrian Newey since he didn't have a budget the size of some country's GNP to work with or the use of exotic compounds.

Remember what he told Jack Roush regarding the "tiregate" scandel? "Its all air Jack!" Evernham is way ahead of the game, has the right decisions made before they rear their head and can do more with simple air pressure changes. He is the elite category of motorsports personnel. Note Jeff Gordon hasn't been the same without him.
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Old 14 Feb 2001, 22:42 (Ref:64788)   #10
Jared
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Joe, remember that Evernham, while he is very good, has been caught cheating a few times, after Gordon "drove brilliantly" (according to the media) to a win.

And yes, there was a lot of sandbagging going on when the Monte Carlo was introduced in 1995. However, another leading Chevy team was the Childress #3 team, with Dale Earnhardt, hardly a man to sandbag. (Though he does whine quite a bit when the Fords have an advantage. But, then again, everyone does that.)

Lee, I know Nadeau being DQ'd had nothing to do with Dodge. However, I believe that they were not able (or allowed to) get something by the NASCAR inspectors, that the #9 Dodge was.

It's okay for NASCAR to tell us the figures from the wind tunnel, now that the Dodge of Elliott is on pole for the Daytona 500. Those numbers aren't going to disqualify him. I maintain that Dodge pursuaded NASCAR to give them a bit extra so they could get pole for the 500 and show the Daimler guys that they had a competitive car.
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