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Jarrett Won't Take Issue With Penske's Move

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - Three-time Daytona winner Dale Jarrett hasn't qualified for Sunday's race yet, and his safety net - a former champion's provisional - may not be there because Penske Racing pulled a switch to get rookie Sam Hornish Jr. in the race.

Although Penske clearly circumvented the spirit of the rule that creates a starting berth for a former champion who hasn't otherwise qualified, Jarrett isn't complaining.

"They did what they needed to do to ensure all of their cars being in the race, and you can't blame them for that," he said. "As in a lot of cases around here, people move things around to make it work for their best interest."

Team owner Roger Penske added a third car this year for three-time Indy Racing League champion Hornish, and to guarantee that Hornish would be in the field for the first five races, Penske transferred the eighth-place owners points from Kurt Busch's team to Hornish's.

Busch has a former champion's provisional, and because he is a more recent champion than Jarrett (2004 versus 1999), Busch would get the provisional if he needs it.

Both Busch and Jarrett will have a chance to qualify by conventional means in today's two 150-mile qualifying races. Busch is in the first race and Jarrett the second, and the top two finishers in each race among drivers who don't have a front-row spot or top-35 status earn "transfer" spots into the 500.

"I need to stay positive with it, that we're going to be able to race our way in," Jarrett said.

Jarrett is racing against teammate David Reutimann, Patrick Carpentier, Jacques Villeneuve, Eric McClure, Ken Schrader, John Andretti and Stanton Barrett. Busch's competition is a little tougher: Boris Said, Brian Vickers, A.J. Allmendinger, Kenny Wallace, Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin and Carl Long.

ENGINE MYSTERY: A rash of engine problems affecting powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports and two Toyota teams had engine specialists scrambling Wednesday to find the common denominator. Speculation centered on a coating used on the lifters that may have come from the same vendor.

All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers - Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears - will have to start from the back of their qualifiers today because their teams have swapped out engines. Johnson, however, gets to retain the pole position for Sunday's race.

Joe Gibbs Racing also was replacing the Toyota engines in Tony Stewart's car and the Hall of Fame Racing Toyota of J.J. Yeley, who has had two engine failures in the last few days.

The problem also affected Furniture Row Racing's Joe Nemechek and Kenny Wallace and Haas CNC Racing's Scott Riggs. Their cars are powered by Hendrick engines.

"We don't have anything apart yet; we just have assumptions based on some early signs we saw in some check overs," said Jeff Andrews, Hendrick's head engine builder.

TOUGH SPOT: Zephyrhills' Reutimann is guaranteed a spot in the back of the field Sunday because he posted the fourth-fastest speed in Sunday's qualifying. He can start higher if he earns one of the two transfer spots today.

But getting one of those transfer spots has been made more difficult by the fact that Jarrett is in his race. Team owner Michael Waltrip said that if it comes down to Jarrett or Reutimann getting the last transfer spot, he'll expect Reutimann to let Jarrett have it.

Reutimann said he understands the team comes first.

"We need to have all three of our cars in the Daytona 500, that's the bottom line," he said. "Whatever we got to do to get that done, I'm prepared to do. We'll see how the first race pans out.

"If Kurt Busch runs up to the front like we all know he's capable of doing and gets himself in like that, then obviously we go out there and worry about the race."

Tony Fabrizio

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