Motorsports

Junior's slams irk Gordon

By BRANT JAMES
Published July 4, 2006

Pepsi 400 winner Tony Stewart said the level of "slam drafting" decreased markedly Saturday night from previous races at Daytona International Speedway, but there was action to be found and complaints to be heard.

One particularly high-pitched protest came from 10-time restrictor-plate track winner Jeff Gordon midway through the race, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. (seven wins at Daytona and Talladega) came rapping on his bumper. Earnhardt is renowned as one of the most aggressive bump-drafters, but he is also one of the smartest. He knows whom to bump and where, and he obviously had enough respect for Gordon to think he could bump him anywhere, including the corners. Gordon, however, was not amused, especially when he was racing up front.

Gordon pleaded with crew chief Steve Letarte over his team radio to ask NASCAR to enforce the rule it imposed against aggressive driving before the Daytona 500.

"If they're going to have a freakin' rule, tell them to have a freakin' rule," he said. "The 8 car is driving into people every freakin' corner."

Letarte passed along the message but no penalties were assessed to any driver.

Gordon eventually was caught up in a late wreck that ruined a top-five run and dropped him to 12th in driver points.

PLEASE DRIVE THROUGH: If Bill Lester lands a Nextel Cup ride in the future - he has only two starts, both this year, but drives for Bill Davis Racing, which has two open seats for its Toyota program in 2007 - he may already have met his sponsor: Tampa-based Checkers/Rally's.

Lester, who has a partial sponsorship deal with the official drive-through of NASCAR for his BDR Truck series program, is well-liked within the company. This season he became just the sixth African-American to qualify for a race in NASCAR's top series.

"He helped us secure the deal (to become a NASCAR sponsor in 2005)," said Checkers vice president of marketing Rich Turer. "Bill participated in our final meeting with our franchise advisory council two years ago at Homestead-Miami (Speedway). Bill was our invited guest and NASCAR brought him in specifically to talk about this match. We have 800 restaurants, and some of them are very urban and are more minority-driven in the customer base, and we had some franchisees that were concerned about our investment against that.

"Bill was able to come in and talk to them and have dinner and spent a lot of time. He's great. We're not a huge sponsor of Bill - we sponsor a few races for him a year - but he remains near and dear to my heart because he really helped make secure some of the important franchise votes we needed to get the deal done."

Turer said the company is in discussions with two teams about a full-season Nextel Cup sponsorship for 2007. Turer did not name teams, but noted the company's right to use race-winners' images in its advertising reduces the pressure to sign a high-profile driver.

[Last modified July 4, 2006, 01:17:19]