Dale Jr hits back at fixing claims

Dale Earnhardt Jr is steaming mad over allegations that his victory in last Saturday night's was fixed and that he may have had an unfair advantage over the competition in the Pepsi 400 when his car was able to do things that supposedly defied the laws of physics. The conspiracy theorists believe it was a way to write a storybook ending to have young Earnhardt win on the same track where his father was killed on the last turn of the last lap of the February 18 Daytona 500.

Tony Stewart had to make a sheepish public apology to a North Carolina sports writer for slapping a tape recorder out of his hand, then kicking it under a NASCAR team transporter after being questioned for a black-flag penalty in the closing stages of the Pepsi 400. That night, Stewart confronted NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson over the penalty and had to be restrained by team owner Joe Gibbs and crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

Stewart was fined US$10,000 for those actions.

And driver Jimmy Spencer has had to back pedal from comments made after the Pepsi 400 that the race had been rigged after apparently being strong-armed by NASCAR. Spencer had said on NBC that, in effect, the outcome of the race should come as no surprise, NASCAR had been doing things like that over the years and Earnhardt's victory had been preordained since February.

In NASCAR Winston Cup racing's first trip to Chicago as a big-time sport, the events leading up to Sunday's race won't even get top billing. That's because baseball's Chicago White Sox are playing the Chicago Cubs from Thursday through to Saturday at Wrigley Field, moving the NASCAR coverage to the back page of The Chicago Tribune.

For the record, Mark Martin had the fastest lap of the two practice sessions when he ran 183.867 miles per hour in a Roush Racing Ford Taurus on Thursday at the new 1.5-mile oval co-owned by the International Speedway Corporation and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.



As for Earnhardt, he continues to be upset that there is a shroud of uncertainty that he actually won the race without any suspicions involving NASCAR possibly giving the team a big restrictor plate for the competition. What has fueled that theory is the fact that in a restrictor-plate race, cars running in a group are always faster than one car running on its own.

Toward the end of Saturday night's race, Earnhardt was able to drive to the outside line by himself and easily drive past five cars. Earnhardt's Chevrolet was so strong, he led 116 laps of the 160-lap race. He believes he drove his heart out.

"I couldn't believe it," Earnhardt said. "I was in Seattle for the (baseball) All-Star Game and I was doing some interviews with the baseball media and this guy asked me like, `What do you think about people saying the race was fixed?' I literally cocked back just to knock the hell out of this guy. I didn't know what he was saying. It didn't register.

"It really bothered me pretty bad, it upset me. That was the biggest race of my career, my biggest win. Aside from the wins I had when my father was there, that's going to be the day that I will always remember. For somebody to question its credibility, to question my credibility, I feel like that's a slap in the face, a slap in my father's face and a slap in crew chief Tony Eury's face."

Earnhardt believes his crew "busted their butts" to give Earnhardt a dominant car, working hard on the race car than probably any other car that has been prepared at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

"I never drover harder in my life," Earnhardt said. "I went out there and got the lead. I was blocking all night long and making the moves to stay up front. We won the race so convincingly that it raised questions. It's a shame and it takes a lot away from it."



Earnhardt believes that with NASCAR already heavily scrutinized by the national media over what happened in his father's fatal crash, that this would not be a good time to orchestrate the outcome of a race.

"In my mind, if they would do something like that, why would they? They've got so much to lose and so little to gain by doing something like that," Earnhardt said. "NASCAR is now just getting into the markets and the areas that they want to get into. Why would they want to take a chance and risk everything they have? It was a great moment in NASCAR history and it got kicked in the groin."

Meantime, Dale Earnhardt, Inc team manager Ty Norris vented his thoughts on the rumors of a fix and said the victory was a result of a dedicated effort by the crew. He also made some strong comments about Spencer's comments.

"I'm furious, absolutely furious about it," Norris said. "Two years ago, Dale Earnhardt made the commitment to have a dedicated aerodynamic program and a restrictor-plate program with our engines. To have somebody come out and say that all this was fixed after we finished first and second at the Daytona 500, for someone who sits on his butt and can't get into shape to finish a race, that's infuriating to me.

"I'm tired of the innuendo," he added. "It's OK for the fans to say it was too perfect, but for a guy who is in that garage and knows what everybody has to do to be in this business at this level, I'm infuriated that somebody involved in this sport would say that. Everybody knows who it is."



While Earnhardt's crew is furious, Stewart was forced to publicly apologize to Mike Mulhern of the Winston-Salem Journal and take responsibility for his actions against Nelson after he ignored a black flag late in Saturday night's race. NASCAR dropped him from sixth place to 26th-place, which resulted in a loss of 65 Winston Cup points.

"While I still disagree with the black flag penalty our team received prior to the finish of the Pepsi 400, I accept the fine and probation that NASCAR has issued to me as a result of my post-race conduct," Stewart said. "Specifically, my treatment of reporter Mike Mulhern and Gary Nelson of NASCAR was inappropriate, and for that I apologize. By the time the first practice session gets underway Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway, I'll have met with Mike and I'll have apologized to him face to face. I will look for the same opportunity with Gary Nelson as well.

"For others I may have offended following the race, I regret that also. I will continue to work with all those people who support me on handling these types of situations better in the future. We've got a race this weekend, and that's what we're focusing on now. As frustrating as Daytona was for our race team, we're moving on and putting the past behind us."

And that's what NASCAR is attempting to do this week at Chicagoland Speedway, but the questions of the past keep overshadowing its future.