Sunday, June 30, 2002
Hard-luck Nadeau can't seem to catch a break
By JENNA FRYER
AP Sports Writer
Jerry Nadeau sat inside his broken-down car for what seemed to be an eternity. With a victory in his grasp just seconds earlier, he could not believe he'd lost another race so close to the finish line.
In a one-race deal for Petty Enterprises last week, he drove the No. 44 Dodge to the front and had a commanding lead when a gear broke with two laps left. Unable to coast around the road course in Sonoma, Calif., he pulled over and sat dejectedly while Ricky Rudd led the rest of the field across the finish line.
He was near tears when he finally climbed from the car, a victim yet again in the waning moments of a race. That's just the way it seems to go for Nadeau, a hard-luck racer who never seems to catch a break.
“I think everybody knows that I won that race, I just didn't make it to the end, and that's a bum deal,” he said, his spirits considerably higher during a telephone interview while taking a break during a test session in Chicago.
“What am I supposed to do? I can't go home and beat my dog because of it. I can't get out of the car and kick the tires. It's just one of those things that I have to deal with.”
He's certainly had enough practice learning how to cope with frustration.
Nadeau ran out of gas while leading on the final lap of the season-finale in Atlanta last year, his car stalling out as Bobby Labonte coasted to victory. A few months earlier, he'd been dominant in the inaugural race at Chicago when he lost his motor.
He's been snakebit at least twice in Charlotte, N.C., once leading 115 laps of the Coca-Cola 600 only to blow an engine with 40 laps to go in 2000. A year later, he ran up front all night and was in second place when his car slipped out of gear and fell off the pace.
If Nadeau didn't have such bad luck, he'd surely have no luck at all.
“If I knew why it kept happening to me, don't you think I'd figure out a way to stop it?” he said. “Losing races has turned into the story of my life, so I think I've grown out of the "Get mad' part of it because of all the stuff that has happened to me. Now it just makes me stronger and more humble.”
This has certainly been a humbling year for Nadeau. Out of a full-time job since May when he was released from his contract with Hendrick Motorsports, he's been patiently waiting to see what his future holds.
Once a teammate to Winston Cup champions Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte and rookie phenom Jimmie Johnson, Nadeau is now trolling the garage area on a weekly basis looking for work.
He'll gladly take a string of temporary jobs while looking for something steady, and he understands that being at the track each week is the only way to make either happen.
“If you're out of sight, you're out of mind,” Nadeau said. “So you have to be at the track every week even if you aren't racing. I've done that and I've probably talked to every single car owner out there about possible opportunities.”
Since parting ways with Hendrick, he spent a few weeks as a fill-in for Johnny Benson in the No. 10 Pontiac when Benson broke his ribs. He had the one-race deal with the Pettys last week and he'll next drive at Chicago in July in a car owned by Michael Waltrip.
So for a driver with just one Winston Cup victory in his career, a win last week as a replacement could have done wonders.
Instead, he's left wondering what's next.
“I'm back fishing, I guess,” he said. “I just don't know what's after Chicago. But I'm fine, I knew I was going to have to sit out for some sort of time because nothing starts happening until the end of the year.”
Like many drivers, he's waiting for the puzzle to start taking shape next month when Rudd is expected to announce his future. Rudd could stay with Robert Yates Racing, leave for another team, or retire. His decision should start a frenzy of hiring and firing.
Nadeau is confident that decision will kickstart his job search.
It's unlikely he'll land with a team as good as Hendrick Motorsports, considered one of the elite operations in Winston Cup. But even the best teams aren't always enough to get a driver into the winner's circle — after all, most of Nadeau's disappointments came while he was behind the wheel of Hendrick's No. 25.
“The right situation will come along for me, I know it will,” he said. “I also know nothing is ever easy, nothing was ever handed to me in this deal. I've had to work hard for everything in my life and I'm going to keep working hard to change some of my luck.”
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Hard-luck Nadeau can't seem to catch a break
