NASCAR Cup

Wally Dallenbach Darlington Preview

Dallenbach ready to deliver at Darlington Veteran crew chief Tony Furr figures a top-five finish in the fifth race of the season isn't out of the question for driver Wally Dallenbach and the No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet racing team on Sunday ...

Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM

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Dallenbach ready to deliver at Darlington

Veteran crew chief Tony Furr figures a top-five finish in the fifth race of the season isn't out of the question for driver Wally Dallenbach and the No. 25 Budweiser Chevrolet racing team on Sunday in the TranSouth 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at Darlington Raceway. Following last week's disappointing 39th-place finish at Atlanta after running in the top five early in the race, Furr says Dallenbach and company are ready to deliver at Darlington. "We've had a real good car the past two weeks," Furr said. "We got caught by a caution flag in the pits at Las Vegas, went a lap down and ended up 13th. Last week we probably had a top-five car at Atlanta. We had a top-10 car for sure, but we cracked an exhaust valve. "We just can't seem to buy a break, but I've got a feeling we're going to have Lady Luck on our side at Darlington. Everyone's got to have some luck at Darlington to have a good finish. That track's so tough, you just can't do it on your own." Dallenbach dropped eight spots to 17th in the series standings after last week's finish, but Furr says it's too early to be concerned about the standings. "This team is solid," Furr said. "They were all upset after what happened last week, and I'm glad they were upset. It shows they're serious about what they're doing. "You've just to got to accept it as part of racing and get ready for the next one. This is a top-10 team. It may be a top-five team before it's all said and done. We haven't had a lot of success because we're growing and we're experiencing some growing pains. "We've got some experienced people and they're responsible people. Some of them have been on my side of the fence, and they know what it takes to build a winning team. We're solid. At this point in the season, you bounce around in the points, so we're not going to worry about that. After 10-12 races, we'll see where we are and hopefully we'll be back in the top 10 pushing for a top- five spot. "If you can be seventh or eighth in the standings after 12 races, then you're set for the season if you can stay consistent. That's the key. We're gearing up for races at Texas and Martinsville, and we've got two new road course cars we're taking to test at Sears Point. We're really going to go after that one." Right now, Furr is focused on Darlington. And the first race at Darlington starts Friday in Bud Pole qualifying. Mark Martin won last year's Bud Pole with a lap of 168.665 mph at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track. Dallenbach will be making his 10th career start at Darlington, and his best career finish is 11th in the 1993 Southern 500. "Wally ran good at Darlington last fall," Furr said. "He qualified 34th and that put us on the backstretch, but he had worked his way up to fourth place. Then we had a bad pit stop and left some lug nuts loose. He had to come in and get it fixed, and we ended up losing six laps. "You can't make those kind of mistakes in the pits and get a good finish, but we think we've corrected those problems. We've been giving Wally a good car all year. We just need a few breaks, especially at Darlington. You've got to have everything going your way there. "Qualifying on Friday might be the biggest race of the week. Some teams will be scrambling to make the show and others will be scrambling to get one of the front stretch pits. The bottom line is you've got to qualify in the first round so you don't have to worry about the pits and you can work on your race setup all day on Saturday. "That's our goal. We want to qualify up front and run up front all day on Sunday. If we can stay out of trouble, I think we can come through with a real good finish at Darlington."

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