Smoke Signals: Tough day at the “Monster Mile”
Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR/Tom Pennington |
Sunday’s racing action didn’t fare much better for the team, as “Smoke” led the three cars with a 20th-place finish. Stewart went two laps down early on in the race after pitting two laps before the caution came out for J.J. Yeley’s accident on Lap 69. Stewart, who took the wave around to get within one lap of the lead cars, got caught again after his second pit stop was followed closely by another caution. Unable to make up the laps, Stewart settled for a 20th-place finish.
“We just got caught behind the eight-ball there,” said Stewart on the SHR website. “We got a lap down and the next run we pitted, and we came back out and the No. 36 car (Yeley) crashes. It was just a domino effect. Every time you’d try to get a lap back, it would run all the way to the end. And as soon as we’d pit, the caution would come out again. So I don’t know what we’ve got to do to change our luck, but that’s just the story of the day for us. It was the best car I’ve had here for a long time.”
Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR/Tom Pennington |
Patrick’s debut at Dover in the Sprint Cup Series yielded a 28th-place finish. “I was a little bit slow to start,” said Patrick. “The car was pretty tight to get going. That is a pattern, for sure, but it is better off that I start out a little tight and comfortable and we free it up rather than the other way around. We worked our way through it. The last run was decent. We made it better most every stop. That is a good starting place for next year when we get here, and that is the point of these races.”
Patrick’s next Sprint Cup start is scheduled for Kansas Speedway on Sunday, October 21.
Stewart dropped one spot to fifth in the Chase, 32 points back of leader Brad Keselowski. Newman dropped back one spot as well to 15th, 40 points behind 13th-place Kyle Busch.
Smoke Signals: Tough day at the “Monster Mile”
Reviewed by Paula
on
Monday, October 01, 2012
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