No team orders for Roush Racing drivers

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Posted 8:22AM on Monday, November 4, 2002

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - There's no such thing as "team orders" for the Roush Racing crew, proven Sunday when Kurt Busch wouldn't give teammate Mark Martin anything to help Martin's bid for the Winston Cup championship. Busch and Martin battled for most of the Pop Secret 400, appearing to be the only two cars capable of winning at North Carolina Speedway. With Busch leading, there was debate over whether he should allow Martin to pass him and attempt to earn the five-point bonus for leading the most laps and race for the win. The practice of team orders is sometimes used in Formula One racing and is heavily criticized. Martin admitted there was talk on the radio about it, but that the drivers were not involved. "There was something said, but not between us," Martin said. "I can tell you one thing, when Kurt got ready to go, he blew me off." Martin eventually passed Busch cleanly and led a race-high 144 laps to pick up the bonus. It pulled him within 87 points of Tony Stewart for the championship. However, his car failed inspection after the race and NASCAR will likely dock him 25 points when it announces its fines next week. Busch led 105 laps and finished third at North Carolina Speedway, where Johnny Benson passed both of them to earn his first career victory. "I drove my car harder than I wanted to and stay in front of Kurt so that we could try to get the most laps," Martin said. "Whether or not Kurt was patient with me or not, when it came time to go, he stepped on the gas and blew me off and drove out front." --- MORE ROOKIE STRUGGLES:@ By all practical purposes, Jimmie Johnson was eliminated from the championship chase with a 37th-place finish. That put him 219 points behind Stewart, too great a margin to overcome with just two races left. Johnson, who has had a handful of freak things happen to him this season to slow his tremendous rookie season, had a wheel come loose to hamper him Sunday. He had to make a lengthy stop to fix it and fell 12 laps down. "That's part of it," crew chief Chad Knaus said. "These guys are under a lot of pressure to do some fast pit stops and that stuff happens. Luck didn't come into play or anything like that. "Everybody says, `Oh, bad luck.' Well, it's not bad luck, we did it. You make a lot of your own luck in this sport and we're making a lot of our own bad luck." Realizing the team will have a hard time to win the title, Knaus said the season would still be considered a success. "We're a rookie team and we make mistakes and if we weren't in the top five in points, you guys wouldn't even care," he said. "It's all part of it, so we'll pack up and go to Phoenix." --- HANK'S FIRST RACE:@ Hank Parker Jr. was disappointed with his first Winston Cup race after finishing 33rd in a research and development car fielded by Ray Evernham. Parker, a Busch series regular, said he couldn't accurately describe to his crew the adjustments his Dodge needed over the course of the race, hurting his efforts. "I'm disappointed not knowing how to adjust the car, but that's something I'm going to learn," he said. "We had to make some decisions, we went the wrong way, and that hurt my finish. I'm not too happy about that." --- WHO NEEDS A TITLE?:@ There won't be an official crew chief change for Dale Earnhardt Jr., despite widespread speculation that Tony Eury would be replaced by his son. Ty Norris, vice president at Dale Earnhardt Inc., said there's been too much focus on titles and that Eury has the same responsibilities he's always had. Tony Eury Jr. is the car chief, but has some crew chief responsibilities because Earnhardt began speaking exclusively to him about the No. 8 Chevrolet in August. "There sometimes was confusion with Junior talking to both Tony Sr. and Tony Jr., so now he only talks to Tony Jr. about the car and it's up to him to take it to his dad," Norris said. "We haven't changed the titles, we haven't assigned titles, we've just defined the roles of the two Eurys." Norris credited the simplification for Earnhardt's late-season surge - he's got one win and six top 10 finishes since August, lifting him to 11th in the points. "The communication has been a lot better and that's why things have gotten a lot better lately," Norris said. Earnhardt finished 34th on Sunday. --- SPARK PLUGS:@ Stewart can clinch his first Winston Cup title by averaging an eighth-place finish in the final two races. .... There are seven drivers still mathematically eligible for the championship. The 39-year-old Benson became the first driver over the age of 31 to win in the last 11 races. ... Busch has climbed from 12th to fifth in the points standings in the last six races. ... Bobby Hamilton was overheard joking with driver Jamie McMurray before the drivers meeting, telling the youngster he just wanted to touch him to get some of his luck. It didn't work: Hamilton wrecked to bring out the first caution and finished 38th; McMurray was 15th. ... Greg Biffle finished 25th in a car owned by Petty Enterprises. His focus, though, is on the Busch series championship, which he can clinch next week at Phoenix.