Daytona 500 2000 - Around-the-clock operation gets job done for Jarrett

Around-the-clock operation gets job done for Jarrett
by Ron Buck, ESPN.com

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The clock was ticking in the Dale Jarrett garage Sunday morning.

As a steady stream of cars rolled into the inspection line for the 42nd running of the Daytona 500, the No. 88 Quality Care Ford remained on blocks. Jarrett's pole-sitting Ford was without wheels, in need of a paint job and surrounded by a team of fabrication specialists and mechanics who were still working feverishly to repair damage sustained Saturday in a "Happy Hour" crash.

Remarkably, about four hours later, the exact same car pulled into Victory Lane with Jarrett's third win in the Daytona 500.

"Man these guys did such an incredible job on this race car," Jarrett said from Victory Lane. "From where we were yesterday afternoon at about 4 o'clock, to get here? It's just unbelievable. They worked their tails off. Who knew if we were going to get it back right. Things just went great."

It had been nearly an around-the-clock operation in the Jarrett garage. As soon as the incident happened at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday, repair work began. It lasted until 10:15 p.m., when crews were mandated by Winston Cup officials to leave the garage area.

It started again at 5 a.m. Sunday morning when officials allowed the Jarrett team to enter the garage area (that was one hour before the scheduled opening). The crew still had plenty to do at 8:30 a.m., when cars where scheduled to leave the garage and line up for inspection.

But the job got done and Jarrett's car finally rolled out of the garage to the end of the line at 10:30 a.m.

"The range of emotions in about a 24-hour period has been pretty incredible," said Jarrett, who after two cautious laps to start the race flexed the muscle his car had shown all week in winning the pole and Bud Shootout. "Todd (Parrott) checked the chassis over and when we saw that the chassis was OK, he was pretty confident that he could get his people here early this morning and they could rebuild the front end basically. That's where the credit goes, to those guys for getting it back. The car drove just like it had been. It was as good as it was before (the accident)."

Winston Cup officials said Jarrett's team was given no deadline of when the car needed to be in line with the rest of the field. But the cars took the track for the parade laps at approximately 12:15 p.m.

"We knew we had a lot to do in a short amount of time," said Robert Hancock, one of three fabrication specialists flown into Daytona from Charlotte on Saturday night. "But it wasn't hopeless. It wasn't bad enough to pull out the backup car."

Aside from the body work, team owner Robert Yates said the team had to rebuild the exhaust system on both sides of the car.

Hancock and two other specialists were on an airplane at 7 p.m. Saturday. The first time they saw the incident, which involved Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart, Bill Elliott, Mike Bliss and Kenny Wallace with just minutes remaining in the final practice session for the Daytona 500, was on replay during the plane ride. When they arrived in Daytona, the trio met with Jarrett's race-day team and worked until 1 a.m. outside the garage area on sheet-metal pieces they would use in the morning.

"We had three hours to get the job done (in the morning). Normally, we'd take two days to fix the amount of damage that was done. But we took advantage of a lot of bondo on the left front fender," Hancock said. "When you have a deadline, no matter how (little) time you have, that's how long it takes. We didn't want to go to the backup car, so we had three hours to get the job done."

By 9:30 a.m., Hancock's team had finished the body work. Jarrett's right rear bumper had been pounded back into shape by 8 a.m. Bondo hid most of the other dents in the same piece of sheet metal that had been mangled.

The real work was needed on the left front fender, which Elliott clipped at the end of the incident. It was replaced Sunday morning and painted by 9:15 a.m. At that point, all that was left was a new paint job, balancing the car and adding the decals.

"Aerodynamically, it's as good as new," Hancock said. "It may not look perfect, but it looks good enough to put in Speedway USA for the year."

And after taking the checkered flag, Jarrett's car indeed will replace Jeff Gordon's '99 winning Chevrolet in the speedway's museum for the rest of the season.

With aerodynamics playing such a large part in the 500, crew chief Todd Parrot was prepared for such an emergency.

"We just have an incredible amount of templates," said Ray Gidlurd, one of Jarrett's mechanics. "NASCAR has their templates. But Todd (Parrot) has even more templates, so that if we ever had a problem with the speedway car we could duplicate it. We should be good to go."

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