DOVER, Del. – NASCAR officials altered their weekend inspection schedule in the NASCAR Busch series to reduce the advantage Winston Cup drivers have because of additional track time.
Beginning this weekend, NASCAR opened the Busch garage an hour early and advanced the start of inspections by an hour said Kevin Triplett, NASCAR’s managing director of business operations.
Although the move covers all drivers, Cup drivers entered in Busch races will be unable to make changes on their Busch cars following their Saturday morning Cup practice sessions.
Full-time Busch drivers have long complained Cup drivers received an added benefit by using information gathered in Saturday morning practice sessions to make changes to their Busch cars prior to Saturday’s races.
Changes can’t be made to cars once they have received their inspection sticker.
Notes
Joe Nemechek and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were involved in wrecks during Saturday morning’s practice session. Early in the session, Nemechek hit the Turn 2 wall in his No.25 Chevrolet. The session was delayed for about 15 minutes while oil was cleaned from the track.
At the end of the session, Earnhardt Jr. spun on the backstretch and backed into the wall. Both drivers will move to back-up cars and have to start today’s race from the rear of the field.
“I think that one I’ve got to chalk up to driver error,” Nemechek said.
“I ran down a car, ran him down real quick. I don’t know if he didn’t know I was there or what, but all of a sudden he was coming down, which is a typical thing at Dover.”
Sterling Marlin hopes today’s race doesn’t come down to a gas mileage gamble.
In the past seven races, Marlin has moved from 24th to ninth in points.
“The Roush (Fords) have always got good gas mileage. For some reason, the Dodges don’t get the gas mileage that the Chevys and Fords get,” he said. “We’ve got to work on our gas mileage somehow and get it better. We’ll have to work on the carburetors and make them more efficient. We generally have to stop six to eight laps before anybody else.”
Riagi Brothers Racing has received additional sponsorship to add 14 Busch series races to its schedule with driver Mike Wallace this season. The team is now scheduled to compete in 27 of the 34 races this year.
Nemechek wins Busch race
DOVER, Del. – Joe Nemechek took advantage of Matt Kenseth’s late-race blunder Saturday and became the first driver in 17 years at Dover International Speedway to win a NASCAR Busch series race from the pole. Winston Cup points leader Kenseth dominated the race, but missed a shift on a restart on the 155th lap of the MBNA 200. He was hit by Brian Vickers.
and tried to finish with rear bumper askew and left rear fender bent upward.
But Kenseth spun out on lap 179, giving fast-closing fellow Cup racer Nemechek the lead.
“That last run, I caught Matt and started to work him over,” Nemechek said. “He broke loose and got sideways.
“I said, “Whoa.’ It was almost like Christmas.”
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AP-NY-05-31-03 2023EDT
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