It looked like it was going to be a good day for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He started in the front row and held the lead for 41 laps of the Price Chopper 400 on Sunday, until a loose lug nut turned into a monkey wrench for the number 88 car. As Junior pulled away from a routine pit stop, the NASCAR official in the pit pointed emphatically to the tire left behind in pit row. The crew had not reattached one of the lug nuts on the left rear tire. In short order, the black flag came out and Junior’s chances in the race suddenly greatly diminished.
Junior made a showing of it from then on, until he had the misfortune of pitting just before a caution came out, costing him a second lap. He was already out of contention when a belt mysteriously fell off, cutting power to his vehicle and officially ending his day.
Are there any lessons to be learned from Junior’s bad day? Well, of course, there are.
#1 – NASCAR is a fascinating combination of individual and team sport. The driver is out there all alone, one man (and his machine) against other individual men (and, natch, their machines). But that one man can’t do it alone. The pit crew is absolutely essential to success in car racing. That’s not just the moral of the Pixar movie Cars, it is true in real life.
#2 – The Price Chopper 400? Really? That sounds like the setting for the sequel to Taledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I know there’s big money in naming rights, but what’s next? The Tidy Bowl 500? (NOTE TO PRICE CHOPPER’S MARKETING PEOPLE: I watched the whole race, and I still don’t know what Price Chopper is. Maybe you should rethink how you’re spending those marketing dollars. Just a thought.)
#3 – Some days, you just have bad luck. Ask Mario Andretti about being the best driver with the best car and the best crew. He’ll tell you that some days that isn’t enough. (DISCLAIMER: I don’t actually know Mario Andretti. Actual results may vary if you do ask him. He may well say something more like “What are you doing on my lawn? Go away, you freak.”)
