Earnhardt obeys orders, wins
Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost the argument but won the race.
Earnhardt’s crew chief ordered the driver to stay on the track and pass up a tire change late in Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.
Following orders reluctantly, Junior still pulled away from Jeff Gordon in a pair of overtime laps to win the race. His 15th career victory tightened up the championship chase with two races to go.
Kurt Busch overcame a couple of mistakes to finish 10th and held on to the series lead. But the top four drivers are separated by just 48 points heading into next Sunday’s event at Darlington. Busch leads Gordon by 41 points.
The victory came a week after Earnhardt lost ground in the title chase by crashing due to his own carelessness late in the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This time, he was steady when it mattered most.
Earnhardt, who had a dominant car through most of the Checker Auto Parts 500, leading a race-high 118 laps, was in third place, trailing Gordon and Casey Mears when a caution came out on lap 282 of the race scheduled to go 312.
Junior argued with crew chief Tony Eury over the radio, lobbying to pit for tires, but Eury made him stay on the track and maintain his position.
Eury, known as Tony Sr., said he insisted Earnhardt stay out because it was so hard to get past lapped cars on the 1-mile oval and “it was just better to keep track position.”
Earnhardt was a bit sheepish when asked about the verbal battle with his crew chief.
“Yeah, I was just getting worried man,” he said, grinning. “I cannot control myself inside a race car. I want tires, this that and the other. I didn’t want to lose.
“I told Tony Sr., ‘The car’s covering the field the best we ever did.’ We’ve had good race cars and won races but nobody could run with this car today and I didn’t want to lose this race.”
He didn’t. And, after reaching Victory Lane, Earnhardt also was careful to watch his language after the use of a curse word during a live TV interview after his last victory — Oct. 3 at Talladega — cost him $10,000 and, far more important, 25 points.
“I was really scared that I might slip up because I have a lot of bad words in my vocabulary,” Earnhardt said. “I will always from here on out be nervous about that. Tony Sr. came up to me before I got out (of the car) and said, ‘Now, don’t cuss.’ I was glad he reminded me because you get excited.”
Bourdais wins Champ Car title
A nervous but dominant Sebastien Bourdais overcame a spin and a sticky gearbox to win his first Champ Car title, beating teammate Bruno Junqueira with a flag-to-flag victory in the Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City.
“I’m really, really, really glad its over,” said the new champion from LeMans, France. “It’s a whole lot of pressure on a 25-year-old guy.”
Bourdais managed to win despite sliding on the 42nd lap. The slip cost him about 12 seconds of the lead he held over Newman/Haas teammate Junqueira.
The Brazilian was runner-up in the standings for the third year in a row and wound up second in the race, more than 5 seconds behind.
Bourdais started on the pole and never trailed, charging to his seventh victory of the season even though a ninth-place finish would have guaranteed him the championship.
“At some point it becomes a question of honor,” he said. “You want to win the race so badly.”
Bourdais scored 369 points to 341 for Junqueira. In addition to the $750,000 championship money, he also won the $100,000 Corona Cup for most points in the year’s two Mexican races.
Rookie of the year A.J. Allmendinger was third in the race, just ahead of rookie Justin Wilson.
Patrick Carpenter wound up sixth and held off Forsythe teammate Paul Tracy to finish third in the points chase. Tracy, who won the title last year, wound up 10th in the race.