TBO.com - Live in the moment

AUTO RACING

Teamwork Not A Given In NASCAR

By TONY FABRIZIO The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 15, 2007

JOLIET, ILL. - They draw their paychecks from the same place, and they may even sit across from each other at the company Christmas party. But are NASCAR drivers who drive for the same team really teammates in the truest sense of the word?

After a Pepsi 400 last week at Daytona in which teammate relationships produced vastly different results, that question has generated a lot of conversation heading into today's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Veteran driver Mark Martin says teams in the same organization should help each other prepare the cars, but a driver's main responsibility is to get the best result he can for himself, his sponsor, his crew chief and the people who work on his car.

"Your teammates aren't really your teammates because if they were, they would only be on the track to make sure you won," he said. "Teammates is not the correct terminology. They've been called teammates for so long, that's what everyone calls them."

But others, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., say give and take among teammates on the track is beneficial.

"I mean, you work together as best you can," he said. "You cut each other breaks. If it's midway through a race and your teammate comes up and he's quicker than you, you let him have the exit of the corner so he can get down the straightaway.

"If you can't help, you just try not to hinder them in their attempt to have a good run. But when it gets down to the last 50 laps - I always say after the last tire change on a mile-and-a-half track - it's every man for himself."

At Daytona, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart were running 1-2 early in the race when Hamlin had to let off the gas momentarily and Stewart ran into him, causing both to crash. Stewart lambasted Hamlin on the national TV broadcast, and the tension between the two carried all the way into a meeting inside Hamlin's hauler Saturday with Stewart, Hamlin and team owner Joe Gibbs.

"If I had just kept my mouth shut like I should have, I wouldn't have to deal with it this week," Stewart said.

No team preaches teamwork more than four-car superpower Hendrick Motorsports, but teamwork was scarcely evident in the closing laps at Daytona, which concluded with Kyle Busch finishing second to Jamie McMurray by about six inches.

Busch lashed out afterward, charging that teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson avoided drafting with him because he's leaving Hendrick after this season. He also said he tried to congratulate Gordon on finishing fifth and was blown off.

Even after hearing Gordon say there was no basis for his charges, Busch said he no longer considers himself a teammate of anyone at Hendrick.

"I'm not helping anybody but myself and this team for winning races," he said. "And I'm not helping Jeff Gordon. I'm not helping Jimmie Johnson or Casey Mears. They are able to go back and see what I run [for setups] and that kind of stuff. But for me, it's just to go out there and to try to win races and keep winning with my name."

Roush Racing got a victory at Daytona with McMurray and placed all five of its drivers in the top 12 after what appeared to be coordinated teamwork. All of the Roush drivers lined up in the outside lane, and Carl Edwards was behind McMurray, helping him get to the line just ahead of Busch.

But McMurray says luck played into the Roush drivers being able to position themselves in an advantageous alignment.

"Typically, every time you leave a [super] speedway, you're usually disappointed with somebody because they didn't help you, or they did what was best for them," McMurray said. "When it works out for you it's great. I know Jack [Roush] has been really proud this week, and [team co-owner] John Henry called me to say how cool it was to see all of the Roush cars lined up on the outside row.

"It just worked out for us there, that Carl and Matt [Kenseth and Greg [Biffle] and David [Ragan] were able to get in the same line as me, and that they didn't get split and hung out."

Elliott Sadler, suffering through a difficult season with Evernham Motorsports, said the recent teammate conflicts are a reflection of the tight competition and pressure to make the Chase for the Championship.

He said he watched a video of the Pepsi 400 and saw that Busch didn't get any help from his teammates but that he didn't give any, either. He saw Stewart get steamed about having the fastest car at Daytona for the second time this year and again getting nothing to show for it.

"You see a lot of frustration," Sadler said. "You see guys that are used to winning that maybe haven't won a race this year, and this point system is just tough for everybody."