Hey Richard!
I agree with you, but I don't know if DE intentionally left to bottom groove
to block Rusty. Granted, he was blocking in the previous few laps. My
thought is he was loosing control of his back end. Let me explain.
There were three guys directly behind him (across the track, not in line)
that created a wall of wind. Rusty and Schrader were creating an upward flow
while Marlin was drafting DE. I think when Rusty got sucked in between
Marlin and Schrader, that took the wind off of DE's car. DE had to correct
for it, which moved him in front of Rusty. While DE was fighting his car,
Marlin took the draft from DE's car and started to move inside of DE
(without changing his line as you stated). DE was still trying to gain
control of his car (without getting out of the throttle) when his back end
slid up, forcing his nose down and into the path of Marlin. Don't forget
that the wind was coming out of those corners which also hampered DE's car
from getting any down force. Then the rest is history.
This was a totally weird accident that I can only hope was a fluke (the
combination of three cars behind one with the aero package on the vehicles
and the wind traveling across from the outside of the turn). The moronic
fans that have placed death threats against Marlin are simply clueless.
There wasn't enough time left in the race for either of those three to pass
Waltip for the win, so I would hope that DE was not simply trying to finish
1, 2, 3. That's the only explanation I can come up with.
Looking forward to a great Dodge season though!
Sean
'92 RC Sport 3.9L 5spd - 250,000mi!
'01 CC SLT+ 4.7L 5spd 3.92 LSD Mobil-1!
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A Pyburn [mailto:rap777@juno.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 2:43 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: Re: DML: Re: Proud of Dodge
Sterling won the first 125 by passing low; if you saw it, Earnhardt
(actually trying to win the race himself) came down on Sterling and
nearly forced him into the grass. Fortunately, Sterling was strong enough
to get by and win that race. The problem Sterling had in the last 20 laps
of the Daytona 500 were that Schrader got between him and Elliot when
Sterling was in the upper groove. Schrader could not keep up with Marlin
in the corners and that kept Marlin from being able to get around the
Earnhardts and Waltrip. He finally got tired of wasting his time up top,
came down low and tried to get around the front three in the lower groove
that way. Earnhardt put an end to that when he came down on Sterling's
front quarter panel with his rear quarter panel. Sterling didn't screw
anything up or break the draft. If you watch the video, you will see that
Dale left the lower groove open for a brief time as he went high to block
someone else ( I believe it was Rusty, but may be mistaken). When Dale
realized that Sterling was moving into the spot he had vacated he came
back down (if you watch the overhead video you can see that Marlin's
position relative to the lower line remains constant throughout).
Unfortunately, two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time
and the way contact was made didn't favor Dale regaining his position.
This is a method police pursuit cruisers love to use to bring down a
fleeing vehicle, hit it from the side in the rear quarter panel. Spins
'em out every time.
Richard
On Mon, 19 Feb 2001 20:27:21 -0500 "Steve Owens"
<sowens01@rochester.rr.com> writes:
>
> I feel that Sterling (and therefore Dodge) could have won the race
> if he
> didn't
> try passing down low with 19 laps to go. That move blew the draft
> for
> both him and the #1 car (can't remember who it was), allowing the
> rest of
> the pack to make up the 3-4 car lengths lead the two had developed.
> If he had waited until lap 10 to try it, they would have had a good
> 1/2
> to 3/4 lap lead on the pack, giving them plenty of cushion to play
> games.
>
> But that's just MHO.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <SEMIHEMI01@aol.com>
> To: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
> Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 5:46 PM
> Subject: DML: Proud of Dodge
>
>
> > I am very Proud of Dodge at Daytona. I feel that if the
> accident had
> not
> > taken so many cars out of the race we would have seen Dodges up
> front in
> the
> > top 3 positions if not in first place. I also feel they would be 3
> or 4 in
> > the top 10. They proved they have what it takes to reach the
> winners
> circle.
> > They will many more Dodges in NASCAR in the future. Announcers
> were
> impressed
> > with the power that Dodge displayed in the heat of things. How do
> you guys
> > feel about it??? Bill
> >
> > SEMIHEMI01@AOL.COM (Bill C.) 2001 QC, 4.7L, 5spd. 3.55 LSD
> > K-N + Cool-Air, Quick-D TB, 10w-30 MOBIL 1, 180 T'STAT, SilBlades
> > GIBSON 3" Single Side-Swept cat-back, G-TECH, <A
> > HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/semihemi01/">"THE DAK"</A>
> >
> >
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:59:23 EDT