Darrell Waltrip / AllWaltrip.com
Posted: 2 days ago
With parity and the New Car, I thought the days of dominance and one driver winning 10 or more races in a season were over.
Jeff Gordon is on a trail to win a lot of races this year and run away with this championship. This New Car is playing right into the No. 24 team's hands. His car is red hot, and everybody else's is doodly-squat. It's a good thing for the rest of the field that there's a Chase for the Nextel Cup, which will reset the points. When Gordon is on a roll like he is right now, don't ever bet against him. It reminds me of the late 1990s when he won 40 races over four years.
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With 59 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson stepped on out in the lead, but he wasn't alone because Gordon was right behind him. As we well know, he's pretty good at Darlington Raceway with six wins heading into Sunday at the Track Too Tough to Tame. If the No. 24 didn't blow up or get too hot, Big Daddy was on the prowl. He overcame his overheating issues for his third win of the season.
With 32 laps to go, I thought Gordon never would have made it because steam was pouring out of the car. These cars have systems that allow them to run hot, but it wasn't a good sign so just getting to the finish was the call of the race. Crew chief Steve Letarte just talked to Gordon, and I love that guy because he is on it. There was a time when I didn't know if Gordon and Letarte would ever be on the same page. But now that they are, and woe be unto everybody else.
Can you imagine being a crew member on pit road as Stanley Steemer burned up the way that it did? Letarte didn't panic. He decided there was nothing they could do so they would run it, and if it blew up, it blew up. It was a great call not to make a pit stop during the ninth caution, and it really paid off. Gordon was out front in clean air, which was crucial for the engine to stay cool enough to make it to the end.
It's not often that smoke comes out of the tires and the radiator at the same time, but that's what happened when Gordon did celebratory donuts. Toward the end of the race, every car came down pit road with steam coming out the overflow in front of the windshield. Every car went into the garage with steam coming out of it. If your car ain't steaming, you ain't nothing.
That's a problem that we've had for years at Darlington. Whether you're driving the New Car or the old car, the sand, dirt and debris packs the radiator. Once it gets hot, about the only thing you can do is bring it down pit road and blow that stuff out of the radiator.
Posted: 2 days ago
With parity and the New Car, I thought the days of dominance and one driver winning 10 or more races in a season were over.
Jeff Gordon is on a trail to win a lot of races this year and run away with this championship. This New Car is playing right into the No. 24 team's hands. His car is red hot, and everybody else's is doodly-squat. It's a good thing for the rest of the field that there's a Chase for the Nextel Cup, which will reset the points. When Gordon is on a roll like he is right now, don't ever bet against him. It reminds me of the late 1990s when he won 40 races over four years.
Sign up now and create your free fantasy team and league.
Watch the Nextel All-Star Challenge on SPEED, Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
More NASCAR
With 59 laps to go, Jimmie Johnson stepped on out in the lead, but he wasn't alone because Gordon was right behind him. As we well know, he's pretty good at Darlington Raceway with six wins heading into Sunday at the Track Too Tough to Tame. If the No. 24 didn't blow up or get too hot, Big Daddy was on the prowl. He overcame his overheating issues for his third win of the season.
With 32 laps to go, I thought Gordon never would have made it because steam was pouring out of the car. These cars have systems that allow them to run hot, but it wasn't a good sign so just getting to the finish was the call of the race. Crew chief Steve Letarte just talked to Gordon, and I love that guy because he is on it. There was a time when I didn't know if Gordon and Letarte would ever be on the same page. But now that they are, and woe be unto everybody else.
Can you imagine being a crew member on pit road as Stanley Steemer burned up the way that it did? Letarte didn't panic. He decided there was nothing they could do so they would run it, and if it blew up, it blew up. It was a great call not to make a pit stop during the ninth caution, and it really paid off. Gordon was out front in clean air, which was crucial for the engine to stay cool enough to make it to the end.
It's not often that smoke comes out of the tires and the radiator at the same time, but that's what happened when Gordon did celebratory donuts. Toward the end of the race, every car came down pit road with steam coming out the overflow in front of the windshield. Every car went into the garage with steam coming out of it. If your car ain't steaming, you ain't nothing.
That's a problem that we've had for years at Darlington. Whether you're driving the New Car or the old car, the sand, dirt and debris packs the radiator. Once it gets hot, about the only thing you can do is bring it down pit road and blow that stuff out of the radiator.