#8-Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and #15-Michael Waltrip turned test laps at Kentucky Speedway to fine tune their intermediate track programs for upcoming races that will play a pivotal role in determining eligibility for the season-ending “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.” Earnhardt, Jr., owns superspeedway wins at Daytona and Atlanta and a total of six top-five and seven top-10 finishes, but his team has misfired at lower-banked tracks similar to Kentucky Speedway. His #8 Budweiser Chevrolet finished 35th at Las Vegas and 19th at California Speedway. “We missed something on the one-and-a-half-mile low-banked tracks for a year-and-a- half now,” Earnhardt’s Crew Chief Tony Eury said. “Our fab shop came up here a couple of weeks ago and said the track was real smooth. We decided to come and try some things we didn’t get to try last time we were here to see if we can improve this part of our program. We have Michigan, Chicago and Kansas City coming up and those are places we struggled last year. We’re struggling again. We went to Vegas and California and struggled. We thought we had the problem fixed after Vegas and we got to California and found out we didn’t. Something in this new tire is throwing us a curve on these flat racetracks and we just have to keep working at it until we can figure it out”
Waltrip, who enters the week 30th in the series standings and 190 points away from eligibility for the “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup,” predicted both DEI teams will benefit from today’s test. “We’ve had a good day,” he said. “We’ve been down some roads that didn’t go so well today with our set up and we’ve discovered some things that have been beneficial. I’ve enjoyed today and I think this test will pay off as we go forward.” Other drivers testing at Kentucky Speedway today included Kentucky Motorsports NASCAR Busch Series driver Stuart Kirby and Paul Menard, who drove with Evernham Motorsports. NEXTEL Cup driver #10-Scott Riggs will join Kirby and #50 Holigan Racing tomorrow and testing continues next Wednesday, April. 19, with NASCAR NEXTEL Cup drivers #77-Brendan Gaughan, #32-Ricky Craven, #25-Brian Vickers, #42-Jamie McMurray and #40-Sterling Marlin.
Kentucky Speedway Executive Vice President and General Manager Mark F. Cassis, on hand for today’s test, said consistently strong test activity may help in his track’s pursuit of a future NASCAR NEXTEL Cup date. “There has been a lot of discussion lately concerning facilities, market place and commitment to gain a NEXTEL Cup Series event,” he said. “Simply put, Kentucky Speedway is the largest non-Cup facility in the United States, is located in one of the top-five television marketing areas in the country and hosts, without question, more NEXTEL Cup testing than any other facility. We have proven ourselves through performance with three straight 70,000 plus crowds for stand-alone NASCAR Busch Series events. I feel stronger than ever we should go to the next level, and deservedly so. If it doesn’t happen in 2005, our team will keep digging for 2006.”
Racing continues at Kentucky Speedway June 18-19 with the NASCAR Busch Series ‘Meijer 300 Presented by Oreo’ featuring Waltrip, Robby Gordon, Kasey Kahne and other NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series stars. Tickets for all 2004 Kentucky Speedway events are on sale now and can be purchased in four easy ways: By phone at 888-652-RACE, ·On the World Wide Web at www.kentuckyspeedway.com, In person at either the speedway’s Ft. Mitchell ticket office or at the Kentucky Speedway Fan Center off Ky. Hwy. 35 in Sparta, Ky.(Kentucky Speedway PR)(5-12-2004)