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No Luck In Vegas For Many
Sunday, 02 March 2008 19:00
By: Jay W. Pennell Sprint Cup Correspondent HardcoreRaceFans.com Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon all hope the saying ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ is true. The three Cup Series champions all had tough luck in the desert during Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400. Strong runs for Stewart and Gordon ended with destroyed race cars, while Johnson could never find the handling on his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet. Johnson struggled all weekend to get his car to hook up just right. The defending champion was attempting to win his fourth race in a row at Las Vegas, but was never a threat. Johnson started off the weekend by qualifying in the 33rd position, and was never able to rally from there once the Green Flag dropped. Crew Chief Chad Knaus did all he could to fix the woes, but the team was only able to salvage a 29th place finish two laps down. What looked like another strong run for Tony Stewart and his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team, turned sour in an instant when a right front tire blew going through Turn 3. The tire failure sent the Home Depot Camry hard into the wall tearing up the race car. For Stewart, it was his second hard crash in two days. Stewart was shaken up in the incident, was slow to exit the car and had to be helped to the safety vehicle by two track workers. \"It kind of worried me because my legs from my hips on down were just tingling, and I had pain in my lower back. That kind of scared me for a minute,\" Stewart told reporters after being released from the infield care center. \"It\'s just that you hit hard. You hit all the padding in there for the leg braces. I\'ve never had my legs tingle like that. I was kind of worried like, \'What\'s going on here?\' It wasn\'t just like one of them was doing it; they both were.\" Jeff Gordon’s day was not much better. Gordon also had a strong car all day, staying in the top-5 much of the afternoon. Challenging Matt Kenseth for second following a botched restart by Dale Earnhardt Jr. with just six laps to go, Gordon’s No. 24 Nicorette Chevrolet slid up the hill and into the rear end of Kenseth. The four-time champion took avaisive action to miss the spinning No. 17 of Kenseth and shot down the race track towards the inside wall. Gordon hit the wall head-on at an access point for safety vehicle, sending his car spiraling out of control and throwing his radiator and other debris across the track. The hard crash left Gordon shaken up, but alright. After being released from the infield care center, Gordon argued changes need to take place. Gordon urged owner Bruton Smith to install a safer barrier around the inside wall, as well as fix the opening where Gordon made contact, explaining, “That was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever had.” This bad luck in Vegas dropped Tony Stewart eight spots in the points standings to 11th, while Johnson and Gordon fell 14th and 22nd respectively. These champions and their teams will have to look past this setback and rally towards the front next week in Atlanta in order to stay in the hunt.
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