Daytona 500 2000 - Daily Dish: DJ bummin' after bump

Daily Dish: DJ bummin' after bump
by Ron Buck, ESPN.com


	Dale Jarrett listens as Jeff Gordon explains why he hit the back of Jarrett's car Saturday during Happy Hour.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It could have been worse -- much worse. Still, a multiple-car incident during Saturday's "Happy Hour" involving Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart and others still created some tense moments in the Daytona International Speedway garage.

The "minor altercation," as Earnhardt called the afternoon's action, left the crew of the pole-sitter for Sunday's Daytona 500 scrambling to fix damage to the right-side bumper and left-side fender. For Jarrett, it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It all started when Kenny Wallace's car disrupted the air flow of Mike Bliss' car, forcing the rookie to slide onto the apron in Turn 2. As Bliss tried to correct his mistake, a pack of drafting cars including Jarrett, Earnhardt, Gordon and Stewart checked up. The chain reaction left minor damage to Earnhardt's rear bumper, a few holes in Gordon's grill and a small crack in the right fender of Stewart's Pontiac.

"It was a minor altercation, nobody got hurt," said Earnhardt.

Tell that to Jarrett, who was the only driver not talking immediately after the cars all pulled into the garage together. And for good reason. His car took the brunt of the the damage. The No. 88, however, is in no danger of losing its spot at the front of the field. But how it handles after a night of hammers and new sheet metal will be interesting when the green flag flies at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Fri, January 28
Dale Jarrett's crew is going to go through that car with a fine tooth comb. They are going to go through every inch of that car -- and it will probably be better than it would have been because they are so focused right now. They got freaked out after the incident in Happy Hour.

They will take the A-frames off that car and replace them; they'll the tail pipes off and replace them; they'll put a new drive shaft in the car; they'll put a new rear-end gear. I don't care what any of those guys say, I know how they work. They came here to win and they came here to set themselves up for the championship.

I expect them to even put a new engine in the car. They'll do that because when Jeff Gordon hit him, the rear end came up and the rear wheels were spinning. They don't know how many RPMs the engine was turning during that time. So, there is a chance they might have gotten a valve out of line or something like that.

These guys qualified with the very best engine and it was obvious it was good enough to run up front all day. Now they are putting a NEW one in the No. 88. Look out.

Jarrett finally talked with reporters about an hour after entering his trailer. He said there was no suspension damage to the car and that his crew would just "work like the devil to fix it."

"Somebody (Bliss) got off on the apron in the front of Sterling (Marlin) and the guys right in front of me checked up and I checked up," Jarrett said. "I guess Gordon had a run and he tried to avoid me. But he caught me and spun me down off the track and then I went back up the track.

"The worst damage was done when I came back off the track the last time. I was trying to keep it off the wall and when I let off the brake finally it shot down the track and (Bill) Elliott clipped the front-left of it. Then I came off the track and bent it up."

Things happened way to quickly for Gordon to avoid hitting Jarrett. Oddly enough, Gordon (193.640 mph) and Jarrett (193.494) were the two fastest cars in Saturday's final practice.

Gordon said he saw Bliss down on the apron, but there was no way to avoid contact once everyone hit the breaks. When the trouble started, Gordon was leading a pack of cars behind the group being dragged along by Bliss.

"We were catching one group and Jarrett was a the end of that group," Gordon said. "We came in there pretty hard on him. I'm thankful that DJ didn't hit anything or anybody hit him (harder). You're out there in those packs and you know it's just a matter of time before it happens. (Jarrett) knows there wasn't anything I could do.

"I think since they can repair the car he's a little happier, too."

Earnhardt was surprisingly candid about the whole affair.

"It's all cosmetic. We could actually race it like that," said Earnhardt while surveying his dented bumper. "It might have made it faster."

Earnhardt had a good view of what happened to Bliss as well.

"He was trying to stay down and cook the apron, and got a little sideways and then got on the apron," Earnhardt explained. "Jarrett checked up and got hit by the No. 24 (Gordon). He checked up. I went on the outside of (Gordon), checked up and got hit by (Stewart)."

Earnhardt's teammate Mike Skinner avoided the mess, but still wonders how Jarrett saved his car.

"I seen Jarrett's car up in the air. It looked like it was four, five feet up in the air," Skinner said. "We slammed the breaks on. Next thing I know, he was coming down. We were real fortunate.

"I don't know how in the world (Jarrett) could have saved it. When I seen it, I thought, 'This is big.' I thought it was going to be real big. How he saved that car, I'll never know."

Jarrett said he shouldn't have put himself in the situation. Still he felt lucky to escape with the amount of damage his car took.

"When it happened and I started back up the track, I thought I was going head-on into the wall," Jarrett said. "Maybe this was our bad luck for week. We haven't had much.

"I guess if I was smart I wouldn't have been in there to start with. We were ready to go. We were just trying one last thing and I wanted to see what it was gonna do behind cars. That's why I hope I can stay out front and stay there (Sunday)."

Just for the record: The four drivers whose cars sustained damage have 11 Winston Cup titles and five Daytona 500 wins between them. Talk about a star-studden affair.

Hoping for $1 million
Melissa Brown figures she has an edge over the other four millionaire wannabes at the Daytona 500.

A random drawing in a promotional event brought her to the race in search of a dream payday. Then she drew Dale Jarrett, and if he wins Sunday both get $1 million.

She says her faith is bolstered by more than having Jarrett on her side, and points to a button worn by her husband, Bill. It's the tree of life in commemoration of those who died -- including his brother -- in a jet crash near Pittsburgh in 1994.

"We've gone through some hard times in the last five years financially and emotionally since his death, and we feel in our hearts that Ron's with us and watching over us," she said. "And I told everybody before the drawing that whoever gets Dale Jarrett is going to win."

Between them, the couple from Pittsburgh has three jobs. If Brown wins, their first priority is to buy a house. They also would like to have children.

Unlike many participants in the promotion held five times each year, Brown has no deals to split her payoff with the other contestants should she win.

"It's all or nothing," she said.

Daytona warning
Like every other driver, Ken Schrader wants to do all he can to keep from being passed on the track. So Schrader, driving his first Winston Cup points race Sunday for MB2 Motorsports, has posted an alert for the competition in the Daytona 500.

Red, the comic-striplike M&M's character painted on the rear of his Pontiac, is holding up a sign that reads: "Stay back, new driver."

"If the rest of the field is looking at the rear of the car, that means I'm in the front," Schrader said.

ESPN.com news services contributed to this report.

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