It was a different series and a different car, but it was the same old Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he won the GNC 300 NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Dale Jr. drove a car built and prepared by Richard Childress Racing, and was serviced during pit stops by the crew from his No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) Budweiser Winston Cup team. Earnhardt Jr., a two-time Busch Champion (1998 and 1999) grabbed his 14th career Busch victory with a dominating performance, leading four times for 59 laps in the 120-lap event. He will attempt to sweep the weekend's big races as he starts from the fifth position in tomorrow's Daytona 500.
The Key Moment: The team chose to only take fuel on their final pit stop, which meant Dale Jr. raced on the same set of tires for the final 63 laps of the race, holding off his Winston Cup teammate Michael Waltrip at the finish by less than two-tenths of a second. This is his second victory at Daytona, following his dramatic win in the Bud car last July. He will try Sunday to become only the third man to win both the Busch and Winston Cup races on the same weekend at Daytona. (The previous two were Bobby Allison in 1988 and Darrell Waltrip in 1989.
Daytona Dominator: It has been six races since Dale Jr. has finished worse than second at Daytona. In those six races, his finishing average is 1.6.
2001 season
Twin 125-mile qualifier: 2nd
Daytona 500 2nd
Pepsi 400 1st
2002 season
Budweiser Shootout 2nd
Twin 125-mile qualifier 2nd
Busch Series GNC 300 1st
He has not finished worse than sixth in any race at Daytona since July, 2000.
Dale Jr's Quotes: "I cannot tell you how awesome it is to win at Daytona. Just coming off of that last turn and seeing the finish line on the pavement. It looks cool and then the flagman waving the checkered flag. It's incredible."
I really like this race track and I put a lot of emphasis on every lap I run here. If I could run here every week, I would. It's a beautiful place. It's a great town. And the track itself has so much history. It's probably the most perfectly built race track I've ever been on. I like it. And I've been real fortunate, more so to be with teams that put the same emphasis on their race cars as I do the laps I run here. So we've been real fortunate to be with some good race cars and good teams and that's why we (win) sometimes."
Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser, have sponsored the NASCAR Busch Series for more than 20 years.
Thanks to Jade for this Budweiser Race Report!
www.Budweiser.com |
