There were a record 22 cautions (one turned into red) during the Coca-Cola 600 last Sunday. One flew after Dale Earnhardt Jr. tagged teammate Michael Waltrip from behind. Tony Eury Sr., Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s director of competition, was not happy. Clearly. “I don’t know what his (Junior’s) problem is with Michael,” Eury said, “but it will be fixed tomorrow–I guarantee it. He acts like he’s friends with him, but every time he gets near him on the racetrack, he ends up wrecking him. DEI has enough problems. We don’t need that.”(Sporting News)(5-30-2005)
UPDATE – comments from Dale Jr.: “There’s no problem between me and Michael,” he said. “There’s no problem between me and Michael and I think Michael understands that. Hes definitely not the person I wanted to run into tonight. Its unfortunate. Hopefully everybody can come to terms with it one way or another. I know some guys on Michaels team are probably upset and dont really know. I mean, if youre not in the race car, you dont know what the hells going on out there, so I cant expect anyone to understand what exactly was going on at that moment and time, and how we all came together and wrecked. The people that understand, theyll move on and well try to get better next week. (Me and Michael) dont get into the habit of running into each other. And we dont really race each other that hard. We actually try to work together most of the time. Its just unfortunate. Were out there racing, and he happened to be the guy. It couldve been anybody else. Hes the last person I wanted to run into, but we were all going for the same piece of real estate.(Dale Jr Pitstop/Budweiser PR)(5-31-2005)
