How Could They Miss That?
David Gilliland is trying to get a jump on his steep learning curve. He and his Robert Yates Racing team know that the going will be tough until David gets a handle on what he needs in a Nextel Cup car.
The #38 team has struggled mightily since David became the driver of the M&M’s Ford for the Michigan race on August 20. In four races, they have finished no better than 32nd. On Saturday night in Richmond, though, it seemed as if they would post their best finish thus far.
The #38 team started in the 24th position in the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 and, after falling back a couple of positions on the start, began to make up ground on the cars they were chasing, and began moving up in the order. They were running in the 16th position when the first caution flag flew at lap 81. The Robert Yates “Chocolate Thunder” crew made up one position on pit road and Gilliland restarted 15th.
Again, the 38 car began to fade slightly on the restart before coming back to life once the tires came up to temperature. Gilliland moved back up to the 16th position and was posting lap times as fast or faster than the leaders when the yellow flag flew once again on lap 119.
Gilliland’s bright yellow Ford Fusion was pitted between the #96 of Tony Raines and the #48 of Jimmie Johnson. After another good stop by his crew, David pulled quickly out of his pit box. That’s when his night of possibly finishing in the top 15 came to an abrupt end.
The M&M’s and Lowes cars made contact on pit road which ripped the sheet metal completely off of the driver’s side of the 38 car, exposing the roll cage underneath. The team was forced to bring the car back in for repairs and Gilliland rejoined the race in the 41st position, three laps down.
“We really did have a good car tonight,” said Gilliland. “Todd Parrott and the entire M&M’s team did a great job setting up the car for this race and we only had to make minor adjustments throughout the night. It’s a shame that we had contact with the 48 car because our finish didn’t show how strong the M&M’s Ford really was.”
The 38 car continued to be strong, gained a few spots before the end of the race and finished 36th.
My question is, how did the television cameras miss this? I know they can’t bring us everything that happens during a race, but a car gets the entire side ripped off and the announcers say nothing? Usually they catch big things like that.
I guess the broadcast team was so focused on the Chase contenders that it was hard to put emphasis on other things going on in the race. Jimmie Johnson was locked in, so no real need to follow what happened to him on pit road unless he was contending for the win, and David Gilliland was obviously a non-factor in terms of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Here’s hoping Robert Yates Racing returns to it’s status as one of the preeminent teams in the Nextel Cup Series. A lot will hinge on who is named to pilot the #88 car next season. David Gilliland obviously has a long way to go before he will be a contender for race wins and championships. But, then again, maybe not.
He did beat all the Cup drivers and Busch regulars at Kentucky earlier this year in an underfunded effort. Could lightning strike twice? There is the wild race at Talladega coming up in October when anything can and does happen. Robert and Doug Yates aways put competitive cars in the field for that race. In fact, the last win for Yates came at Talladega, when Dale Jarrett took the win in the fall race of 2005.