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"We're a little disappointed in that, but things are looking up. We've got a good race car. The weather turned and we didn't make the right adjustments, but this is probably our best qualifying run this year." "This is a car that our team has worked on over a long period of time and I think we have it running like we want it to. I finished 12th at Michigan and had a pretty good run here at Atlanta last November in this car. I think you will see the same kind of finish today." Steve's pre-race thoughts

"It's almost as if something broke in the car," Steve radioed to his DEI crew after the first pit stop. "This car was pretty good and all of a sudden it went away."

"We just had to run hard and learn all that we can for next time. What we learn here we can take to Texas in a few weeks and certainly when we come back here in November." Steve's post-race thoughts

C L I C K   H E R E   T O   S E E   M Y   A T L A N T A   P I C T U R E S !

On a personal note, this race was a truly amazing experience for me. With less than two weeks until race day, I decided I was going to be there, even if it meant driving all the way from Tulsa Friday night. (I ended up getting an amazing deal on tickets from Dallas, only 4 hours away instead of 12, considering I bought them 2 days prior!) Every moment of the weekend was truly blessed, and perhaps the writer in me will sit down and pen my adventures in the near future. What I will share is that I finally got to meet Steve in person. And I got to spend a couple of hours with his wonderful parents. I was fortunate enough to meet many of the beautiful people who among the closest people on Steve's life. I got into the Winston Cup garage before the race on Sunday by a fluke of running into someone we knew who had nothing to do with Steve, and ended up hanging out at the hauler for the next couple of hours (after moving out of the actual garage). These are the warmest, kindest people I've had the pleasure of encountering. The good lord has certainly surrounded Steve with some truly good human beings. As promised, I have posted some pictures from the race. I wasn't there as a fan, so there aren't many from my time at the hauler. And because of that, my apologies to all the Dale Earnhardt fans out there, as he was standing not 2 feet from me. (one of the only people I wasn't formally introduced to.... ah, next time!)       The track too tough to tame was certainly true to her name on Friday, as many of the drivers finished the day with more than a little damage to their cars. The most serious of the crashes involved Bobby Labonte who broke the tip of his right scapula. Fortunately Steve was not among the drivers who crashed this weekend. There were two rounds of practice prior to the first round of qualifying. In the first session, Steve was quite impressive, achieving a fastest lap time of 28.936 (169.947 mph). By the second session, he was only able to get a top time of 29.145 (168.728 mph) which was the 30th fastest overall. He was the 32nd car to make a qualifying run, and ended up in 29th place with a speed of 28.852 (170.442 mph).       Saturday, Steve did decide to run again, and just barely missed out on a front row pit stall! He took the 29th starting spot by bumping his time up to 28.852 (170.442 mph). Prior to that in the am practice session, Steve had the 21st fastest lap time at 30.063 (163.576 mph). The team did well in the final session of practice Saturday afternoon as Steve was the 13th fastest, with a time of 30.054 (163.625 mph).       Sunday was an up and down day for the team. In the third lap Steve avoided being any bigger part of wreck that occurred when Rick Mast blew a tire and had to slow down, forcing many drivers to slow quickly. From there, he quickly moved through the field, moving up to 17th by the first round of pit stops. The team turned a respectable 20 second pit, but being on the back stretch put him back to 30th place. The ran was delayed for 3 hours due to ran as of lap 45, but Steve came back strong when they restarted. On lap 164 NASCAR threw the red flag for rain again, and Steve was sitting in 12th place, just ahead of race leader Jeff Burton. Shortly after they called the race, as it was evident there was too much rain to run any more laps. Steve was one of the few drivers who would have liked to continue, as with such a strong car he most certainly had the opportunity to get a career best finish in the top ten. His strong finish did put him in the top 25 in driver points, the highest he's ever been. To top things off, although it may have only come during pitting sequences, Steve led his first Winston Cup lap! Way to go! "Sure I'm frustrated we didn't get a chance to go longer and pass more cars, but today we had as good a car as anyone and that is a good feeling. I hope we have the same success at Texas and I hope the race lasts a lot longer." "Man, if it would have stayed green we would have had a top 10 for sure and probably even higher. I wanted the rain to go away as bad as Jeff wanted it to stay."       Steve arrived in Texas early to attempt to qualify Wane Grubb's #83 Link-Belt Chevrolet. Wayne was injured in a crash in Atlanta, and had to be cut from the car in the same fashion as Steve did there after his crash. The opportunity to run in the Coca-Cola 300 would have given Steve some much needed experience at Texas where he only has run once before. It was Steve's idea to race for them, but they were thrilled at the offer. Read the press release for further information, and some of Steve's thought on such things as Winston Cup drivers driving in BGN races, and being a car owner. Friday in first round qualifying Steve had the 29th fastest time, but after Saturday's second round, the team just didn't have the speed or provisionals for Steve to be able to make the race.       Steve made his first Winston Cup start at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 28th. He missed the race last year, and DW was involved in a crash on lap 2, so even the team didn't have much to rely on from past experience. Steve ran here once in BGN in 1997, but was side-lined due to a crash that day too. Running for Wayne Grubb on Saturday would have helped give him some much needed experience, but it seems the team did just fine without it.       Friday morning the team took to the track for the first time, and turned the 25th fastest lap with a speed of 28.957 (186.483 mph). By the afternoon session they turned the 2nd fastest lap with a speed of 28.486 (189.566 mph)! On Saturday morning times didn't look as good, as they were only 33rd fastest with a time of 29.399 (183.679 mph). It was after the morning practice that Steve ran qualifying for Busch, not gaining enough speed to make the race. It was a tense time for Steve waiting to qualify, as he was the 43rd driver to go out. To make matters worse, while waiting his turn, he had to sit by and watch as Ken Bouchard was cut from his car after an accident. The configuration at Texas is very similar to Atlanta, and it was already proving to be a tough track to navigate. "My Adams apple felt like a softball when we went out to qualify because I was so nervous."       Maybe that was just the focus Steve needed, because he turned the 3rd fastest lap with a time of 28.520 (189.341 mph). It was the best start of his Winston Cup career. Even though Saturday's Happy Hour practice was canceled due to rain, the team was ready for a good run on Sunday. Things started out slow on Sunday morning, but that was mostly due to the decision to bide their time, and not push too hard too early. NASCAR decided to call a mandatory caution at lap 30 so that the teams could look over tire wear, and so that adjustments could be made where they didn't have the final practice to get familiar with the new configuration. Steve was in 8th place when the yellow flag flew, and the crew got him out in 18 seconds which pushed him up to 5th!       Things went instantly sour when Steve radioed to the crew, "I can't get out of first gear." His return to the pits next time around was the beginning of the end of his chances to race into the lead. After 2 stops on pit road it was obvious they needed to make major repairs, so Steve spent the next 30 laps on top of jack stands as the Pennzoil team replaced the transmission. No one gave up, knowing that there was still a long way to go that day, and if they could race clean, they had the potential to gain a few spots. Steve went back out and turned lap after lap, in fact many of them were consistently faster than most of the top 10 cars. . A few times the team had to tell Park to allow the lead cars to pass him because they weren't fast enough to pass him by themselves. Some of the top racers being taken out of the race after blowing right front tires and slamming hard into the outside wall, but the Pennzoil car continued on strong.       Late in the race Steve came in for a routine pit stop, and as he approached the pits and mashed the brake, the brake pedal went the floor. The Pennzoil Monte Carlo raced through the pits and struck one of the tires carried by tire carrier Gary Smith. The tires were knocked out of Smith's hand, but he luckily only suffered a bruised leg. They spent the next five laps in the pit repairing a broken brake line. Despite loosing even more laps, Steve still came out of the day with a respectable 32nd place finish; a finish much stronger than it looks in the standings. As frustrating of a day as they had, the team can also feel confident in the fact that despite the fluke problems they had, it was an awesome car that they put together that weekend. "We've been working real hard since the beginning of the year. The guys in the motor shop have been doing an awesome job, picking up the qualifying horsepower, the race motors too. It's just a combination, we're starting to come into our own. It takes about a good year or two years to build a Winston Cup team from the ground up. That's what Dale Earnhardt has done for us, giving us the best people and the best equipment. Now we just have to take the ball and run with it. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come." Steve, after qualifying "It was a weird day. We had a car that was definitely a top-ten car and maybe a top five car except we had all kind of problems. It's like we were snakebite. That can't last. We will get this bad luck behind us and starting finishing like we race." Steve, after the race More News LinkExchange Member Free Home Pages at GeoCities | Cup '99 | '99 WC Schedule | Cup '98 | Cup '97 | BGN | Modifieds | Biography | Links | F A N S | SITE MAP | AWARDS|