After running in the top-25 during Sunday's UAW-Dodge 500, a late race accident ended Dale Jarrett's race relegating the #44 Team to a 39th place finishing position at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS).
Jarrett started the race from the 16th position after a strong qualifying effort on Friday at LVMS. A 60-lap green flag run opened the race following the first caution flag on lap eight for a spin by the #26 car driven by Jamie McMurray. During the long green flag run, Jarrett fell one lap behind the race leader after fighting a slight loose handling condition with his #44 Toyota. When the second caution flag dropped on lap 68, only 16 cars remained on the lead lap due to a dominating run by leader Carl Edwards, who had lapped over half of the field.
Although a lap off the pace, the #44 Team did not relent as they continued to tweak the handling of the UPS Toyota. Sunday's temperatures proved to be the coolest of the weekend with gusty winds. As the sun began to slip behind the grandstands at LVMS, a tight condition replaced the lack of grip Jarrett had battled in the early laps. Regardless, the #44 proved to be one of the quicker cars on long green flag runs allowing Jarrett to break into the top-25.
As the laps ticked away, Jarrett appeared to have a solid finish on lock. Unfortunately, the #44 Toyota would make hard contact with the outside wall of turn two on lap 233 to bring out the ninth caution flag of the race. The damage to Jarrett's Toyota was too severe for the team to fix with less than 35 laps remaining in the race forcing the #44 Team to retire from the race before its completion.
"It's just a tough ending to what was shaping up to be a decent run," Jarrett said after climbing out of the #44 Toyota. "We got behind during the early laps and ended up a lap down. There were so many cars went a lap down early on that it made it tough to get your lap back because you were racing some pretty good teams. We made small adjustments throughout the race and were decent on long runs but the finish just wasn't what we wanted."
For the second week in a row Carl Edwards took his Roush Fenway Ford to victory lane as he posted the win in Sunday's race. Edward's was the class of the field as he easily pulled away from Dale Earnhardt, Jr. during a green-white-checkered finish. Edward's teammate Greg Biffle finished in the third position behind Earnhardt followed by a pair of Richard Childress Racing teammates to round out the top-five as Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Jarrett's MWR teammates, David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip, also had their challenges on Sunday at LVMS. Reutimann ran into trouble in the opening laps of the race as another made competitor made contact with the #00 Toyota, shooting Reutimann up the track to brush the outside wall. While able to continue, the damage to Reutimann's ride was enough to force him to pit road for repairs, eventually resulting in a 37th finish for the #00 Team while Waltrip finished in the 31st position, two laps behind the race winner.
Next week Dale Jarrett and the #44 Team look to rebound at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the running of the Kobalt Tools 500. Television coverage is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 9th at 1:30 p.m. EST. Radio coverage will be broadcast by the Performance Racing Network (PRN).
