7/7/02……… The fans were upset… with the ending of the Pepsi 400 Saturday night. They had gotten used to red flags stopping the field and creating shoot-out finishes when caution periods marred the ending of a race. With a caution coming out as the leader crossed the line at the flag stand which designated the beginning of lap 156, there were only three full laps remaining in the 160 lap race on the 2.5 mile super-speedway. Michael Waltrip, driving the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. took the checkered flag under caution.

After the cars left the track, the backstretch was covered with hundreds of Pepsi seat cushions, beer cans, and soda bottles. Drivers who were circumventing the track under caution for the last three laps of the race couldn't believe what they were seeing. Rusty Wallace, who finished a season best second place with the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, called it total fan insurrection.

Don't think for one minute that this type of behavior will go un-noticed by NASCAR. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the France families International Speedway Corp. will find some way to ban the cans and bottles, and also find some way to prevent seat cushions from being thrown over the safety fence onto the racing surface. Actually, I see this as a hazard for the race drivers. I would have thought that precautions would already have been taken to prevent foreign objects from being thrown onto the track. The fencing will have to be upgraded, and you can rest assured that the fans will cover the cost of this work with an increase in ticket and concession prices.

Personally, I don't think that a race should ever be red flagged just for the sake of the fans. To me, that takes away from the mechanics of the race, with the fans controlling the race's outcome. "That ain't racin'." The red flag is to be used only in case of the track being blocked where the racecars cannot make it through while circulating under caution. Or, if a driver has been critically injured or killed, the race should be stopped out of respect of the fallen driver while he is being extracted from his racecar. That was the norm in NASCAR racing for over 50 years, then with the new generation of would-be NASCAR directors and leaders, things changed. NASCAR racing today is all about promotion and satisfying the media, sponsors, and lastly, the fans. If the race directors can do something to make the fans happy, then they have done something to make themselves look good, and that seems to be their main goal these days. At any rate, the track was barely visible under the trash, after the fans showed their displeasure. That ought to tell NASCAR something, if they have the intelligence to listen and understand.

Point's leader Sterling Marlin followed Waltrip and Wallace across the finish line in the No. 40 Coors Dodge followed by his teammate Jimmy Spencer with the No. 40 Target Dodge. The finish left Chip Ganassi Racing both of its entries finishing in the top five and in the big money. Mark Martin finished fifth with the No. 6 Pfizer Ford. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth with the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet followed by Todd Bodine with a season best finish of seventh for Travis Carter racing with the No. 26 Discover Card Ford. Rookie Jimmy Johnson finished eighth with the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet followed by Ward Burton in the No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge and Geoff Bodine in the No. 9 Miccosukee Resort Ford. The top five finishers are eligible for the Winston No Bull Five million dollar bonus at the upcoming Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 at Richmond, Virginia on September 7th.

Next Week will find the Winston Cup circuit out in Chicagoland for the mid-season Tropicana 400 which is numbered as Race eighteen. The NBC television network takes over the broadcasting duties for the event on Sunday, July 14th at 2:30 P.M. Eastern. Those of us who will be watching the event on the TV will be listening to Benny Parsons, Wally Dallenbach doing the so-called color commentary, and Allen Bestwick doing the race "play by play." Gone are the sounds of "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity" until DW, Larry Mac, and Mike Joy return for next season's Daytona 500 next February.

Last season's winner of the inaugural Chicagoland race was rookie Kevin Harvick, followed across the finish line by Robert Pressley (now in the Craftsman Truck Series), Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, and Jimmy Spencer.

7/15/02……… Gibbs Switches to Chevrolet……… We heard the rumors, but they were just rumors until the press conference Sunday where the official announcement was made. Joe Gibbs Racing made it formal with the press release that they would be fielding Chevrolets for the 2003 season instead of Pontiacs.

According to the press release, they will run the Pontiac for the rest of the 2002 season. That may not be the case though. It was reported during the Chicago race that Joe Gibbs Racing was going to take two Chevrolets and two Pontiacs out to Indy to test. They could very well make the switch by the time they race at Indy in a couple of weeks on August 4th. One of the main problems that Gibbs reports with the Pontiac is its inability to move in traffic. In dirty air, the Pontiac's aerodynamic abilities are severely at a disadvantage. I alluded to that in an article earlier this season. When the four models were taken to the wind tunnel before the beginning of the season, the Pontiac got the poorest marks, and NASCAR knew it. They just decided not to do anything about it for reasons that they don't want made public. Were they fixing the field? It certainly appears that way……

The Pontiac people put on a good show concerning the announcement, stating that they were still going ahead with the Pontiac racing program, and hoped to attract a couple more teams to run their new model for the 2003 season. Now that Gibbs has defected to Chevrolet, there will only be three Pontiac teams left in Winston Cup, the No. 14 Conceco entry of A.J. Foyt Racing, the No. 36 M&M entry, and the No. 10 Valvoline sponsored entry. A.J. Foyt Racing has also been rumored to be thinking about switching models for 2003.

We'll watch this one closely, if Pontiac can't attract any new teams before 2003, it will be hard for them to support a racing program for just three teams. Although, there are some Pontiac teams in Busch Series racing that they may use to fall back on. We also saw that the Busch Series uses more Pontiacs on the restrictor plate tracks at Daytona and Talladega. The Busch Series isn't held to one model like the Winston Cup Series, they can switch and change models within the season to their hearts content.

There are normally three Pontiac teams in the Busch Series, one of which is the No. 18 MBNA entry driven by Mike McLaughlin, and fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing. It would seem logical that Gibbs would also switch his Busch team to Chevrolet, leaving only two regular Pontiac teams in the series.

Tropicana 400……… Kevin Harvick finally took a checkered flag this season after all of the problems that plagued him early on. This was his first win since the Cup circuit's visit to Chicagoland last season. That means Harvick is the only Cup driver to have won at the track, successfully defending his track champion's title. It was Harvick's third career win, and also the first win for Richard Childress Racing this season.

It was thought by many that Harvick was washed up for the season, and maybe for his career in Winston Cup the way NASCAR came down on him earlier this season by suspending him from the Martinsville race. Couple that with the fact that he lost his team and crew chief, along with the racecars that he was used to driving. His team owner, Richard Childress has forbidden him from driving in the Busch or Craftsman Truck Series because of all of the trouble he got himself in. He inherited the cars and team that were Robby Gordon's and previously Mike Skinners when they had the Lowe's sponsorship. A lot of positive things can be said for a driver who can rise above all of those negatives to become a winning driver again.

Harvick was followed across the finish line by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and rookies Jimmy Johnson and Ryan Newman to round out the top five. Sterling Marlin still sits atop of the driver's point's standings with a 49 point lead over second place Mark martin.

Next Week……… Race No. 19 on the Winston Cup schedule is the New England 300 from the New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, New Hampshire. The 300-lap event is scheduled to be televised by the TNT network at 2 P.M. Eastern.

Last year's winner of the July New England race was Dale Jarrett. He was followed across the finish line by Jeff Gordon, Ricky Rudd, Jimmy Spencer, Tony Stewart, Steve Park, Bobby Labonte, rookie Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Mike Wallace.

7/22/02……… The Rudd saga continues……… with reports from Robert Yates that crew chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain and Ricky Rudd are fighting like two year olds. What are they fighting about? It seems that the team had a victory party after Rudd's win at Sonoma earlier this season without Rudd being present. Rudd was with his family in Florida when the team had the party and that apparently hurt his feelings. Even though he was invited, he feels that the team should have waited to have the victory celebration with him, apparently according to his schedule.

Do Winston Cup drivers have over-inflated egos? I think that question answers itself. At any rate, this adds a really weird twist to reports that Rudd was upset that he wouldn't have McSwain for a crew chief next season if he elected to stay with Robert Yates Racing. I think it's kind of like I stated in an previous article, either here or at Suite101.com, that Rudd is just playing the media game to get some attention away from the "young guns" that he and some of the other veterans have been carping about.

Rudd was reported to have made the infamous "decision" as to whether he was going to retire or continue racing on Monday, July 15th. It isn't any surprise that a decision wasn't announced. Rudd's decision was reported to be holding up the whole scheme of things in the Silly Season game of drivers switching teams. Nothing was supposed to happen throughout the whole Winston Cup circuit until team owners and drivers were privy to Rudd's plans. It appears to me that the more that Rudd fools around with this, the worse he is making himself look. It makes sense that team owners and sponsors can also see through his charade.

While we're on the subject of Robert Yates Racing, Robert's son Doug is reported to be developing his own Winston Cup team. The exactly "when" is still up in the air. He's like to have everything in place for 2002, but it all depends on a lot of variables. One variable includes Ricky Rudd's long awaited decision. The rumors about Elliott Sadler moving to Yates still persist. If Rudd stays with Yates, Sadler may be in the driver's seat of a new Doug Yates team with the M&M sponsorship that is being wrestled from MBII racing and Kenny Schrader. If Rudd leaves Yates, Sadler may end up in the No. 28 Havoline Ford and Doug Yates may end up waiting for another opportunity to start up his new team. Doug is the engine builder for Robert Yates Racing and will remain in that position, regardless of any future endeavors he may enter into.

New England 300………… Ward Burton was the lucky one at Loudon, New Hampshire. The New Hampshire International Speedway ended up being the pits. The track broke up for one thing, which was the cause of a lot of good cars wrecking out of the race. Compound that with a sorry tire compound that seemed to easily scuff off on the newly paved surface. That in itself is an abnormality, tires usually scuff off on the older rougher track surfaces, not the newly paved surfaces. What I fund to be rather bothersome was the attitude of Bob Bahre, the track owner. Bahre contends that there isn't anything wrong with the track that he recently spend $200k to repave. Bahre also contends that he plans to do nothing more to the track before the Winston Cup race coming up in September. Many drivers, including Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton contacted NASCAR during the event and asked them to stop the race because the track was too dangerous. Gary Nelson, a long time high ranking NASCAR official, ventured out onto the track in the safety car and made the decision that there wasn't anything wrong with the track except for a lot of rubber build-up. Isn't it strange how people can be directed by greed and monetary gain over common sense?

I've written about Bahre before, his blatant egotistical attitude isn't anything new to the Winston Cup circuit. I've received emails from people in the New England area who claim that Bob Bahre is the next thing to God. Well, good for them, everyone has their own opinions, but I'm afraid that I have to believe what I recently read in emails that I received after the 2002 New England 300 from some fans who attended the race. They agreed that the track definitely broke up during the Winston Cup race. A couple of people claim to have witnessed a track that was beginning to break up during Saturday's truck race. I also received emails that claimed that there was a really bad problem with Goodyear's tires. The rubber was peeling off of the tires in a phenomenal fashion, the chucks of rubber were actually stinging fans who were sitting in the front rows near the fences. I believe the people who where there watching it. They have nothing to lose or gain by lying about it. They don't own the track and they have no monetary investment involved with the situation, like Bob Bahre does…………

The win was the second of the season for Burton with the No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge, his first was the seasoning opening event at Daytona.

7/30/02……… Mid season reviews……. tend to abound this time of the year, recapping what we all know, some of which we try not to remember. At any rate, the media is full of those reviews, from print to broadcast. When it comes right down to it, the only review that is worth its salt is the review at the season's end. We can recap what has happened in the late winter, spring, and early summer, but what will happen in the rest of the season as a result of it is only mere speculation.

Of course, the main speculation concerns the Winston Cup Championship. Lots of folks think it's odd to have Sterling Marlin sitting atop of the standings for the first half of the season. Those folks need to remember just how close to the championship Sterling has gotten in the last few years. Just last season alone, he was third. The combination of Dodge coupled with the experience and competitive level at Chip Ganassi Racing appears to have been Sterling's big break.

Mark Martin, who sits in second position prior to the Pennsylvania 500 is another "non-surprise." Martin has been knocking on the championship door for years, and it's highly possible that he'll enter it before his storied career comes to an end. The surprise so far this season has to be rookie Jimmy Johnson. At the completion of 19 races, he sits in third place, just 92 points down from leader Marlin, and only 37 points out of second place. With two wins, 12 top tens, 5 top fives, three pole positions, and purse winnings of more than $1.5 million in only 19 Winston Cup starts in 2002, Johnson has been a definite surprise.

Rusty Wallace, who sits in the fourth position in the championship point's standings, is another non-surprise. Rusty has been there before, winning the coveted title in 1989 after finishing second to Bill Elliott in 1988. Rusty has finished the season in the top five seven times and finished in the top ten 15 times during his 18 year Winston Cup career.

Jeff Gordon sits in the fifth position and is only the third person in NASCAR's history to win the championship more than three times (4), the other two being Dale Earnhardt Sr. (7). and Richard Petty (7). Gordon has finished in the top five in driver's points five times and in the top ten eight times up to this season in his Winston Cup career that started in 1993.

Pennsylvania 500………. Special mention has to go out to "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville," who won a season high fourth pole at Pocono in the No. 9 Dodge Dealer's Evernham Motorsports owned Dodge. He won back to back poles two weeks in a row, after taking the pole position last weekend at New Hampshire. The 45 year-old veteran has tied Ken Schrader record of five career pole position starts at Pocono Raceway, and has set his own record for the most wins at the track by one individual driver, (5). Elliott was also the first driver to win from the pole this season, taking the bonus that has been building up to make his winnings total over $193k.

I haven't seen any reports where Elliott's win at Pocono has caused any controversy. Writing or reporting unkind words about NASCAR these days must be considered politically incorrect. Although it hasn't been made into an issue, I heard a few people declare today that they thought NASCAR races were fixed. They could not see any reason why Sterling Marlin just all of a sudden laid back and let Elliott pass him on the outside like he was standing still. It just didn't make any sense to them. Couple that with the fact that Marlin didn't make any radio contact with his crew offering up an excuse, or complaining that he was having problems with his racecar. That wasn't the case, according to their feelings, and his own inability to address a problem in post race interviews, Marlin just laid back, doing what he was told, letting Elliott win the event.