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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Ragan glad
to be leaving
Las Vegas
By DON MONCRIEF
ENI NASCAR Editor
Leaving Las Vegas - and
none-too-soon for Unadilla
native David Ragan.
As they say: It just wasn’t
in the cards, and let’s hope
he stayed away from the
Blackjack tables because
his luck this past weekend
just was not there.
He came into Las Vegas
fifth in the standings for
the Chase for the Cup. He
left 19th.
From Busch qualifying to
Sunday’s Nextel finale, it
was all snake eyes.
He qualified 41st for that
first event on Saturday and
finished 24th - five laps
behind the leader.
That was at least respect
able compared to the UAW-
Daimler Chrysler 400 the
day following.
He qualified better - 36th
- but saw his day take a
spin in the wrong direction
just two laps in. He lost
the handle, backed into the
wall and finished the day
37th - this time 31 laps off
the pace.
“I just messed up there
on the second lap,” he
said. “I got up high and
got where there wasn’t any
grip, in the loose stuff. I
just couldn’t hold on, really.
That really put us in the
hole for the rest of the day
and we went back out and
rode some.
“It’s certainly not what
these guys deserve. They
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David Ragan speaks with Fox 5 reporter Les Krifaton
during a AAA Teen Driver Safety event held Thursday
at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He said it
“Last weekend was a tough one. The season has
been a tough one, but last weekend we were really
disappointed in the outcome because we never gave
ourselves the opportunity to make the race. The good
news was, of course, that our 360 OTC Toyota Camry
was quick enough to make the show, so all is not lost.”
- Jeremy Mayfield
"It’s always nice to get the first one under your belt. To
start the season, performance-wise, Daytona was not
what we wanted, but at California and Vegas we were
real proud of how the car performed and they are a
group of guys who are dedicated to doing whatever it
takes to win. We’re not exactly where we wanted to be
at the start of the season, but we really can’t complain
too much. We’ve got room to improve, but we're off to
a decent start.”
- Jimmie Johnson
“Wow, those guys are just awesome on pit road. The
U.S. Army crew has really been a big part of our success
so far this season. If they can keep that up, I hope I can
help get them to Victory Lane really soon.”
- Mark Martin, on his pit crew scoring its third straight
win in the pit crew challenge
“Our intermediate program has improved so much since
2006 and it has shown in a big way over these last two
races.we’re not upset about how the season has gone
so far. We just know that we can turn things around
starting this weekend."
- Ryan Newman
“We’re excited Atlanta is the next stop on our
schedule. It’s one of my favorite tracks. It has
multiple grooves, so you can run high, low or in the
middle. I like to move around on the track during
the race, searching for a different and faster line.
The track is wide and fast. It’s the perfect place for
our team to get back on track and challenge for
our first win of the season.”
- Kasey Kahne
“The sun is a huge issue at Atlanta. Entering turn
one, you get to where you can't even see the wall.
The visibility is way down and the groove is up by
the wall. You are trying to use every inch of the
race track but you can’t see it so it creates a huge
challenge.”
- Jeff Burton
deserve a lot better and
that’s what I’m going to
do. I’ve got to work on that.
We’ve got a lot better race
car and a lot better race
team than that.”
Subsequently, he left
California with a nine
point lead over Juan Pablo
Montoya in the Raybestos
Rookie of the Year points
battle - he had won honors
for Rookie of the Race in
the first two races - and
left Las Vegas with it being
only seven, 37-30.
It might even have been
worse if not for the fact
Montoya had problems, too.
He qualified fourth and ran
extremely well until David
Gilliland and he got togeth
er slightly.
“From there on, the grill
broke and we just went
backwards from then on
and the car just became
undriveable,” he said.
Nevertheless he fin
ished 22nd and turned
up the heat on Ragan a bit.
But, Ragan added, he felt
he still had a decent car
- even after the wreck.
“We felt like we could get
up there and race with 'em
but we couldn’t afford to
race with 'em too hard,”
he said. “We were better
off to cruise around and
make some laps and pick
up some points. We’ve got
to regroup and go get 'em
at Atlanta.”
The odds of that are at
least in his favor.
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Jon Wood talks to media during the race at Las Vegas Sunday.
Jon Wood joins the
family business
Special to the Journal
He started 41st
and finished 29th
- three laps off the
leader’s pace.
And the dozens - perhaps
hundreds (definitely thou
sands in regard to fans)
cared: Not one iota.
The main thing was that
he started.
The Wood Brothers race
team has been in existence
for 57 continuous years. For
the last 25, there seemed to
be an unspoken goal within
the family. And at 4:49 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time on
Sunday it became a reality.
Third-generation driver
Jon Wood finally took the
wheel of the No. 21 Air Force
Ford in a NASCAR Nextel
Cup event. Glen Wood start
ed the race team in 1950 and
won four races in what has
become the NASCAR Nextel
Cup Series and his son,
Eddie, has continued the
family business as co-owner
with his brother, Len.
Now it’s Jon’s turn to
carry on the family tradi
tion.
He won’t step back into the
car again until next month
in Texas but that’s OK.
A legacy continued at Las
Vegas.
Drawing, he said, on his
grandfather Glen Wood’s
advice, he took care of him
self and said he accepted
what the racecar was willing
to give him.
He even admitted he was
having a “lot of fun” in par
ticular on the restarts, often
blowing by three to four
cars on the outside when
the green flag flew.
Other than that, he report-
Nemechek sets personal mark
By DON MONCRIEF
Journal Sports Editor
I tell you, I don’t get no respect.”
Rodney Dangerfield?
Nope. Nemechek.
While the media have been stumbling
and bumbling all over themselves to
get at Nextel Cup points leader Mark
Martin - and that is straight from
Martin’s public relations people - Joe
Nemechek, his teammate, had been qui
etly setting a new standard for himself.
“Had been” because he took a major
hit Sunday at Las Vegas. Things started
out well enough. He qualified ninth and,
“We had a great car,” he said. “We were
fast in every practice. I was running the
high line, the tires were coming in and
everything was right.”
Everything was right with him - not
with Clint Bowyer.
Bowyer hit Nemechek on lap 17.
Nemechek hit the wall. He returned on
lap 102 and finished 38th.
The significance?
Coming out of California, Nemechek,
in his 13th year in the series, was the
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Wood leads several competitors at Las Vegas Sunday.
ed early on that the car was
good and it became notice
able to the crew that all of
the pre-week race nervous
ness was no longer a factor.
He ran a fairly conservative
race, well aware that the
team’s current point position
is precariously near the 35th
place cutoff point for auto
matic entry after the next
two subsequent race events.
He dodged several accidents
and managed to stay out of
any kind of trouble all day
- save for sliding partially
through his pit box during
his third stop of the day.
Instead of it being a hard
lesson, Jon Wood protected
NEMECHEK
got Mr. Popular, Martin, in his corner.
That - the latter - has helped all along,
he said.
“Mark has been a huge asset to the
Ginn Racing team,” Nemechek said.
“He has assisted all of us in many ways,
including his valuable input with the
car setup.”
“Our No. 13 and Mark’s 01 - are off to
strong starts and the plan is to keep it that
way. And the No. 14 (Sterling Marlin’s
team) has had good performances, but
bad luck has hurt them.”
Bad luck and bad jokes are something
Nemechek and Marlin can’t afford.
the No. 21 Air Force Ford
and brought the car home
in one piece, with all of the
fenders on it.
Which turned out to be
the second piece of advice
his grandfather had given
him.
All in all, “He did exactly,
probably for the first time
ever, he did what he was
told to do,” said father Eddie
Wood. “We told him to just
take it easy and to race the
track and not to race people
and to get some points. We
need some points because
we haven’t finished the first
two races, and he did exactly
what we told him to do.
highest he had ever
been in the points
race. He was seventh.
Leaving California
last year, he was 32nd.
Now he is 20th and
feeling like he’s taken
the brunt of a bad
Dangerfield joke.
The good news is
they’re only three
races in and, he’s still
THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2007 ♦
“We had to pull him back,
I have to be honest with you,
and we had to keep pull
ing him back all day long. I
apologized to Ernie (Cope,
crew chief) with 10 laps to
go, ‘l’m sorry if I keep tell
ing you to tell him to be
patient.’ Because where we
were in the lineup, we really
couldn’t advance a lot, so
the thing we had to gain
was staying out of trouble,
and he and Ernie really did
a good job together. We got
some points, got his first
race out of the way, and now
it’s over.”
Well, actually just begin
ning.
Because both are part of new teams
with Ginn Racing - Nemechek drove
the 01 Army car that Martin is in from
October 2003 to the completion of the
2006 season - they have to qualify their
way in.
Think that doesn’t have him grab
bing at an imaginary necktie like the
long-time comedian? At Las Vegas
there were 16 drivers vying for seven
available spots.
“Once you qualify, it’s like winning
a race,” he said. “The pressure is
immense - no other way to say it.
There is so much effort and money put
into the program that you never want
to let down your teammates and spon
sors. Never.”
The bottom line is he’ll gladly deal
with a lack of respect if it means the
best year of his Cup career.
Plus, the alternative is about the
equivalent of this Dangerfield joke:
“I remember I was so depressed I was
going to jump out a window on the
10th floor. They sent a priest up to talk
to me. He said, ‘On your mark
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