w/Tony.
David Hoots & Mike Helton should outlaw Bump-Drafting at all times, with appropriate repeat-offender penalties, up to and including, yanking the miscreant's hard-card.
"They're talking about the tribute to Dale Earnhardt, well, five years from now, we're going to have to do another tribute to another driver because we're probably going to kill somebody [next week]," Stewart barked. "It could be me, it could be Dale Jr., it could be anybody out there.
"We're going to hurt somebody really, really bad next Sunday [in the Daytona 500]. We've got to find some way of calming this down."
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second to Hamlin, was less critical of the conditions, chalking up much of the aggression to the nothing-to-lose mentality of the Shootout. With the Daytona 500 title on the line next Sunday, Junior said he believes the event will be less treacherous.
"Tony's got a point, it was dangerous in a couple of spots," he said. "It's just hard racing, but it's only going to happen in the Shootout. In the 500, it will not be like that. Everybody will be a lot more calm."
Hamlin sided with Earnhardt in the safety debate.
"There was some major hitting going on out there, but I wasn't complaining because when I was getting it I was out front," Hamlin said. "It's the nature of the race. I don't think you'll see that in the 500 because guys won't want to tear up their cars like that."
WOW
Johnson's qualifying run disqualified MORE Burton and Gordon cars also being looked at: on Speed Channel's Victory Lane show, Bob Dilner reported that #48-Jimmie Johnson's Daytona 500 qualifying run has been disqualified due to an illegal traction control adjuster on the right rear of the car. Johnson had qualified 5th on Sunday with a speed of 188.762mph and the rear tires were rubbing and smoking during his run. So Johnson will not have his speed to fall back on if he has a bad run in the Gatorade Duel race on Thursday, but since he is in the top-35 2005 owners points, he is guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500. Could be a fine and/or points penalty coming.
AND Jimmie Johnson qualified 5th on Sunday in Daytona 500 time trial runs. He has been disqualified. Johnson had an illegal off-set track bar adjuster in the right rear of that car. If you remember during his time trial run, the #48 was smoking out on the racetrack in the left rear. With this illegal adjuster, it boosted up the back glass and actually made the left rear rub a little bit so that time has been disallowed by NASCAR. There are a bunch of other issues in the garage area. In fact, some issues with the #31 team of Jeff Burton. That's right. Your Daytona 500 polesitter. Those issues have to do with the engine, and that's being hotly discussed in the garage area right now. In the media center after the Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR said it is researching several things from post-500 qualifying tech, including Burton's car as well as the #24 car of Jeff Gordon.(FoxSports), see qualifying results on my Daytona 500 Qualifying/Grid page.(2-12-2006)
Jayski.com
w/Tony.
David Hoots & Mike Helton should outlaw Bump-Drafting at all times, with appropriate repeat-offender penalties, up to and including, yanking the miscreant's hard-card.