Engine trouble plagues Burton, Truex and Earnhardt
¦Jeff Burton and Martin Truex Jr. saw their Chase for the Cup chances go up in smoke Sunday in the UAW-Ford 500, while Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season of frustration continued with another potentially strong run ruined.
All three drivers blew engines, a curious occurrence considering they had the same engine package. They are on different teams -- Jeff Burton with Richard Childress Racing and Earnhardt and Truex at Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- but had the same engines since DEI and Childress merged engine programs. In all, DEI-Childress had four of seven drivers retire from the race because of blown engines. DEI did not have any of its four cars make it to the finish because Paul Menard got caught up in an 11-car wreck.
Jeff Burton was 43rd and 336 points out of the Chase lead, and conceded his title run: ''This about wraps it up for us in the championship,'' he said.
Reality also started to sink in for Truex.
''We can't get anything to go right for us and if you can't have good luck, there is no chance for a championship,'' said Truex, who is 318 points out of first place. Earnhardt, meanwhile, is frustrated by his team's nagging engine woes. It marked the sixth blown engine for Earnhardt this season and his fourth in the past 11 races.
''We have some sort of gremlin,'' Earnhardt (40th) said. ``It was a tough day.''
CREW GETS JUMP
Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., will get a head start on the move to Hendrick Motorsports at 10 a.m. today. Eury said Sunday he will take three members of the No. 8 team to Hendrick -- shop foreman Brian Cram, fabricator Tom Ryan and shop crew member Tony Barclay.
Eury and the entire team had a farewell gathering Wednesday at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
''We all kind of went into the break room, had a beer and talked about memories,'' Eury said.
``We're definitely going to miss being around each other.''
FEW COMPLAINTS
After drivers made dire predictions for weeks about the first race on a superspeedway in the Car of Tomorrow, the apocalypse never materialized. The first race in the boxier car did not receive rave reviews. The race wasn't wilder than a typical Talladega race, where three- and four-wide racing is customary.
Drivers complained that the new car produced too much single-file racing and made it harder to pass. Some drivers were unhappy with the car's performance in the final laps.
STRONG DEBUT
Former Indy 500 winner and Formula One champion Jacques Villeneuve avoided controversy in his Cup debut and finished 21st. Despite qualifying sixth, he elected to start at the rear of the field.
''Starting from the front or the back doesn't really change anything,'' Villeneuve said. `` I had more learning from the back anyway. Also, it was to show respect to the guys fighting for the Chase.''
INSPECTION TO COME
In a random postrace inspection of Reed Sorenson's 10th-place car, NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said officials ''may have found a problem'' with the front end of the Dodge.
NASCAR will further inspect the car early this week and decide whether to penalize the No. 41 team.
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