MOORESVILLE, N.C. ----- After so much work dedicated to the debut of the Car of Tomorrow (COT) at Bristol, Dale Jarrett was hit from behind and forced into the turn two wall. The team felt confident going into the race with a car that was fast enough to qualify on time, but an unfortunate incident that is commonplace at Bristol cut their day short. With their short-lived COT debut last weekend, the team is now focused on Martinsville to gain more knowledge about the new car design.
"Last week was extremely disappointing," Jarrett said. "We all felt good about the weekend. We made the race on our qualifying time and didn't have to use a provisional. Matt Kenseth just got real impatient and knocked us out of the race. It was unnecessary but that's pretty typical of Bristol. We're now where we didn't want to be in the points, but we'll just keep working hard like we have been."
The Goody's Cool Orange 500 is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. EDT start this Sunday.
Dale Jarrett Discusses Racing at Martinsville Speedway
What did you learn most about the Car of Tomorrow last weekend?
"I learned two things really. I learned that overall the new car is pretty good and it can take a hard hit. The handling was a little tighter than we prefer at Bristol. All weekend we just fought with it in the middle of the corners and on the exit, but we were fairly happy with the handling overall. The car is fine. It does its job, and I think the racing was pretty good, up until the point where we got taken out. But I'm happy with the new safety features in the car, especially the new Dow Automotive foam inserts in the doors. We took a really hard hit after we got spun. The #38 couldn't avoid us and hit us directly in the driver's door. I think those new inserts really helped to cushion that hit and I'm glad we had them."
Are you excited about going to Martinsville?
"Yeah, I'm always excited about going to Martinsville. It's a fun track. You really have to work on the handling a lot, and it's a track where, as a driver, you have to make a trade-off on your handling and work to find the best compromise. The car is usually not going to be great through the entire corner so you have to figure out what's most important between the entry, middle and exit and go from there. And then brakes are always a big factor here too. If your car is handling good that tends to help you from wearing your brakes out too bad. So as a driver, how you finish is determined a lot on how well you communicate the kinds of changes you want on the car and how well you can take care of your brakes. Being that it's a short track though, you have to be aware of the guys around you all the time and not get caught up in something stupid."
UPS Racing Team Notes of Interest
- Jarrett has been running at the end of every Nextel Cup race at Martinsville since 1999, a period spanning 16 races. During that span, he has completed an incredible 98.66 percent of the laps run.
- This weekend's Goody's Cool Orange 500 marks Jarrett's 41st consecutive start at Martinsville Speedway.
- 2001 was Jarrett's best year at Martinsville, with a victory in the spring race and a second-place finish in the fall race.
- Since his win in the spring of 2001, Jarrett has four top-10 finishes, with his most recent one coming in the spring of 2004.
