2/10/02……… The continuing saga of Mike McLaughlin’s attempt to get into this season’s Koolerz 300 season opener at Daytona is getting to be old hat. He had signed to race the No. 03 Ford for Angela’s Motorsports, but the team folded due to financial difficulties (that’s old hat too!). McLaughlin thinks he’s got to win the Daytona 300 Busch race, and he doesn’t even have a ride.

The guy has had a rough time of it since getting booted from Joe Gibbs Racings No. 18 Pontiac at the end of the season to make way for Gibbs’s son Coy. Racing for a new team has lots of ups and downs. When Angela’s hired Harold Holley to crew chief for the new team, everyone was up, they figured they had a sound chance with the 2000 championship winning crew chief leading the way. Then the bottom fell out. Holley has since been hired under a long term agreement to work with Team Amick Motorsports in a management type position to start out with. McLaughlin, on the other hand, is still holding the empty bag….

The Busch Series continues to be in a troubled state. There are lots of teams looking for solid sponsors, and lots of drivers looking for solid teams with sponsorship. The list is to long to enter here in this article, and situations come and go so fast in these troubled economic times that they change before an article can be published.

One amusing factor in all of the Busch Series problems these days is the fact that RJ Reynolds has alluded that they are planning on leaving NASCAR and that the sanctioning body needs to begin a serious search for a new series sponsor. Anheuser Busch has been mentioned as being a replacement for the Winston cigarette brand. I find this amusing because they can’t seem to keep the Busch Series afloat with their Busch beer brand. If they were to take over the Cup series, would it too end up in dire straights like the Busch Series?

The Busch Series has been struggling for a number of years now, and as every season seems to go by, it gets much worse. The expenses for the series to operate climb annually, just like everyone else’s expenses do, but the series doesn’t pay more to make up for the trouble economic times. They have been at a standstill for several seasons and this year may end up making or breaking them. The purses and sponsor support for the teams aren’t even close to a realistic figure. The teams that are also involved with Cup racing are really the only ones that are keeping their heads above water. The only reason for that is that they are creating excess from the Cup series by cutting costs, in order to keep afloat in the Busch Series. We all know that it will catch up with them sooner or later. One of these days the fiddler has to be paid.

Be sure to come back next week for a run-down on the Koolerz 300. It ought to be an interesting race. There are a few entries that are only slated for that one race, so the impact on the series championship may end up being negligible. It’s kind of like I was reading the other day, a guy was comparing the NASCAR season openers to the Super Bowl, which is something that NASCAR itself started to attract more attention. NASCAR’s series openers have nothing what-so-ever in common with the Super Bowl. The NFL finale is used to decide the championship, whereas in NASCAR, February Daytona restrictor plate racing isn’t any different than that of the rest of the season, nothing but a lot of hot air and hoopla, not really racing at all. Take away the plates and let them race. Thirteen gallon fuel tanks to break up the field? Who are they trying to kid?

Update 2/12/03…… Mike “Magic Shoes” McLaughlin lived up to his moniker Wednesday at Daytona Busch Series qualifying. The team that was put together with a little help from his friends is now sitting in fourth position for the start of the Koolerz 300 this coming Saturday.

McLaughlin put the No. 139 XM Nation Ford on the outside second row, solidifying the confidence his friends and associates have in him. Even former Winston Cup Champion and FOX TV commentator Darryl Waltrip invested in McLaughlin in order to get him a ride for the Daytona race.

McLaughlin’s speed of 185.452 was only the fourth slowest from the pole. Dale Jr. had the pole with a speed of 185.586 with Kevin Harvick in second place with 185.468. Then along came Front row Joe Nemechek with a speed of 186.050, knocking Jr. off of the pole and moving every one back a position. McLaughlin was nearly last to go out, and his good fortune was not only a surprise, but a vindication as well.

Jimmy Vasser was another surprise. He’ll start from the fifth position with a qualifying speed of 185.281. Sixth place qualifier Matt Kenseth was the last driver to make the 185 MPH speed range with a 185.098. Michael Waltrip, Ron Hornaday, rookie Chad Blount, and Mike Bliss round out the top ten. This will be a classic race for the “Buschwhackers” with six drivers in the top ten having Winston Cup experience.

2/16/03……… Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued on his winning streak at Daytona with a decisive victory in the Koolerz 300. A caution came out as Jr. was taking the white flag and NASCAR let the race end under caution as there was only one lap remaining when Todd Bodine got into the rear end of rookie Jimmy Vasser causing a wreck that took out four cars.

Bodine was called on the carpet for running into Vasser, but to his defense, he claimed that he had no choice, Vasser had gotten off of the pace and Bodine didn’t know it until he was right on top of him.

Earnhardt has won back to back February Busch races at Daytona, the first time the feat has been accomplished since his late father did it back in 1994. There was talk of a sweep of all of the Daytona races, and it was mentioned that no one has ever done it. The fact is, Fireball Roberts swept all of the February Daytona races back in 1962. I believe that they are referring to the fact that it hasn’t been accomplished during the modern era that is believed to have started in the early 80’s.

Bad tires didn’t’ seem to be a factor during the race as was predicted earlier as a result of the truck race. The different set-ups in the race cars must have prevented it. Stacy Compton was the only one who blew a right front tire, causing him to hit the outside wall hard, resulting in the fuel pump getting knocked off causing a dangerous fire that endangered Compton’s life before he was able to emerge from the burning car.

The wreck at the end of the race caused when Todd Bodine got into the back of Jimmy Vasser also caused a bad fire in Jason Keller’s No. 57 Albertson’s Ford. Keller was finally pulled from the car and was taken to a local hospital for observation and a head scan for a possible concussion. His ability to race next weekend isn’t known at this time. Remembering what happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr. last season, racing most of the season with a bad concussion, NASCAR may decide to order tests on Keller before they allow him to compete again.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Joe Nemechek -- No. 87 Pontiac – sick, not in race
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevrolet – finished 1st
3. Kevin Harvick -- No. 21 Chevrolet – started 1st, finished 3rd
4. Mike McLaughlin -- No. 139 Ford -- finished 29th (wreck)
5. Jimmy Vasser -- No. 30 Dodge—finished 28th (wreck)
6. Matt Kenseth -- No. 17 Ford – finished 2nd
7. Michael Waltrip -- No. 99 Chevrolet – finished 34th (wreck)
8. Ron Hornaday -- No. 2 Chevrolet – finished 15th
9. Chad Blount -- No. 19 Dodge – finished 11th (highest rookie!)
10. Mike Bliss -- No. 20 Pontiac – finished 33rd

Next Week the Busch Series travels to the North Carolina Speedway for the Rockingham 200. The second race on their schedule will be televised live by the FX channel on Saturday, February 22 at 12:30 PM EST.

Last season’s winner of the February Rockingham race was Jason Keller. He was followed across the finish line by Greg Biffle, Randy LaJoie, Scott Riggs, Mike McLaughlin, Jack Sprague, Jimmy Spencer, Ashton Lewis Jr., Tony Raines, and Larry Foyt.

2/24/03……….. The Rockingham 200 was finally run after a two day delay. The Winston Cup Series would put on a better race at The Rock if it were to just race 200 laps instead of the boring 400 lap tire wearing fiasco that they usually end up putting on for the disappointed race fans. There were hundreds of empty seats for the Cup race, the fans are getting wise.

Jamie McMurray ran away with the race, leading all of the laps except for the five laps led by another Cup driver, Michael Waltrip. McMurray showed us what kind of ride Jimmy Spencer has had with the No. 1 Yellow Freight entry owned by James Finch. Even though they switched to Dodge, the No. 1 is still as much, or more, of a competitive entry than it was when Spencer drove it to victory.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. David Green -- No. 37 Pontiac – finished 2nd
2. Jamie McMurray -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 1st
3. Scott Riggs -- No. 10 Ford – finished 16th
4. Kasey Kahne -- No. 38 Ford -- finished 26th
5. Jason Keller -- No. 57 Ford – finished 5th
6. Michael Waltrip -- No. 99 Ford – finished 18th
7. Ron Hornaday -- No. 2 Chevrolet – finished 12th
8. Kevin Harvick -- No. 21 Chevrolet – finished 10th
9. Todd Bodine -- No. 92 Chevrolet – finished 3rd
10. Scott Wimmer -- No. 23 Chevrolet – finished 11th

McMurray won at The Rock last fall making this his second consecutive win at the track and his third Busch Series win in the last six events that he’s entered. He managed to score a top five finish in Sunday’s Cup race, and there’s no denying at this point that he’s on a roll starting out the 2003 season.

McMurray moved up four spots to take the Busch Series driver’s point’s lead with 340 points. Third place finisher Todd Bodine also moved up four spots and is now in second place with a -25. Cup driver Kevin Harvick is still in third place with a -36 while second place finisher David Green moved up 14 spots to fourth with a -61. Randy LaJoie rounds out the top five moving up 10 spots to fifth with a -62.

Next Week The Busch Series travels to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Race No. 3 on it’s 34 race 2003 schedule. The Sam’s Town 300 will be televised live by the FX channel on Saturday, March 1st at 3:30 PM EST. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the SPEED channel on Friday, February 28th at 4:15 PM EST.

Last season’s winner of the race was Winston Cup driver Jeff Burton with a 8.428 second margin of victory. He was followed across the finish line by Michael Waltrip, rookie Johnny Sauter, Kevin Lepage, Jeff Green, Jack Sprague, Randy LaJoie, Kenny Wallace, Greg Biffle, and Stacy Compton.

Jeff Burton had the pole last season with a speed of 169.168 MPH. There were 5 caution periods on the 1.5 mile oval for a total of 31 laps.