6/2/02……… From a King to a Jack…… That's the way it happened for Matt Kenseth. The pole was sweet for the return of team owner Jack Roush, but the blown engine that caused Kenseth to start the race from the back of the field wasn't so sweet. Just call it a nifty little snag thrown into the works this season by the brain trust of NASCAR. IF, there is such a thing as a brain trust in NASCAR?

Kenseth won this season at Texas after going to the rear of the field due to an engine change, and Sterling Marlin and Tony Stewart both won after starting from the back of the pack. The back of the pack isn't so bad at some tracks, but Dover is one of those tracks where it can be impossible to gain that many positions up through the field.

Kenseth's teammate, Kurt Busch, will also start at the back of the pack. Busch was involved in an altercation with Jerry Nadeau during Saturday's practice. Busch and Nadeau were both top five starters. Nadeau, subbing for Johnny Benson in the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac, was slated to start from the third position with Kurt Busch slated to start fifth in the No. 97 Rubbermaid Ford.

With drivers who held the one, third, and fifth positions moving to the rear, the new starting order will bring former seventh position starter Ricky Rudd to the pole with ninth position starter Jeff Gordon right behind him in third. Kyle Petty, who was slated to start 11th, will be starting on the inside in the third row. A great break for both of the veteran drivers! It would stand to reason that the positions would move up in numerical order, but with NASCAR, nothing works in a reasonable fashion. Second place stays second and seventh place moves to first? Oooooooooooookay………

MBNA Platinum 400………

Jimmy Johnson took the checkered flag to win his second race in his rookie season. It was also the first time the rookie raced at the Dover track in Winston Cup competition. Two wins in 16 starts isn't doing too bad for a rookie who is leading the rookie points and has his sights set on the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title.

Ahhhhhhh, but wait. According to reports, the brash young rookie also has his sights set on the Winston Cup championship. In reality, Johnson is only 136 points down from championship point's leader Sterling Marlin. Some reports state that Johnson has a long way to go, but I think that's a crock! In only 13 of a scheduled 36 races, a 136 point spread is nothing. Both Johnson and Marlin have tow wins each, and Jimmy Johnson has just as good a chance at winning the title as does Sterling Marlin. It is very possible folks, a rookie could win the title this year! Johnson is on track to break Tony Stewart's rookie record of three wins in 1999, and it is very realistic for him to do it, given his performance in the first third of the season.

Bill Elliott finished third, followed by Jeff Burton, rookie Ryan Newman, and Dale Jarrett finishing in the fifth position. Finishing positions six thru ten were: Jeff Gordon, Ricky Craven; Robby Gordon; Bobby Hamilton; Elliott Sadler.

Next Week………. Race No. 14 on the Winston Cup circuit is the Pocono 500 from Pocono Raceway at Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The event is scheduled to be televised by FOX at 12:30 P.M. Eastern on Sunday, June 9th. Qualifying for the Pocono event will be televised by the FOX Sports Networks at 3 P.M. Eastern on Friday, June 7th. Last season's winner of the June Pocono event was Ricky Rudd. He was followed across the finish line by Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Ken Schrader, and Jeff Burton.

6/10/02……… What a mess……. is what most of the fans attending the Pocono race were saying. Over eight inches of rain in seven days made for a muddy mess for fans who camped in the infield and also for those who parked in the rough open field parking lots. Three inches of rain fell Thursday, June sixth, the day before qualifying was postponed due to water seepage up through cracks in the track.

Tow truck operators were making a fortune pulling fan's vehicles out of the mud by the hundreds. Lots of people spend hours trying to get out of the antiquated facility that doesn't have any paved parking lots. They want to make the money, but they don't want to invest any of it back into the business. If you lived in the area and didn't bother to go to the race, you were smart. I only live 75 miles North of Long Pond (Pocono), and I knew what the mess was going to be like in advance, from being there previously. We have gotten a tremendous amount of rain in the Northeast during the last couple of weeks. Only an idiot would consider driving in an open field, but I guess there were lots of idiots on the scene. One thing for certain, it was evident on the TV that there was only half the amount of campers in the in-field area, compared to other races.

Junior tells it……. like it is. Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't as shy about telling the truth as is Ty Norris, vice president of competition for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Junior said Saturday at Pocono that DEI is indeed looking for replacements for Michael Waltrip and Steve Park. Word was out that their jobs were secure until the end of the season when their contracts ran out. But, according to Junior, that may not be the case.

Junior related that Michael Waltrip had been notified by DEI that they are looking for a possible replacement for him to finish out the season. Junior said, "His job is in his hands. It's been a tough situation over the past several weeks for us. We tried to deal with it as best we can."

Waltrip, 39, has only one win in 511 Winston Cup starts over a period of 18 years. That's not a very good record. Personally, it's my contention that he wouldn't have that win if the late Dale Earnhardt hadn't have blocked the field for him, keeping Sterling Marlin off of his heels. If Earnhardt hadn't have done that for Waltrip, he's probably still be alive today, but that's another story, we won't go there. At any rate, Waltrip had better get his ducks all in a row and do it fast, or he's out at DEI. His top ten Pocono showing did him some good, and he's now only one position behind Junior in driver's points.

Steve Park hasn't exactly been setting the track on fire either. Junior says that the team can't get the cars where they need to be. Park missed most of last season, and the first four races this year recuperating from a head injury that he received last spring at Darlington mainly because he didn't attach his steering wheel correctly. Park was 39th in driver's points after Dover. Waltrip, on the other hand, was 17th. Park may be the first one to take a walk, time will tell on that one. But, I look for changes to be made at DEI before Labor Day. After Pocono, Park still remains 39th in driver's points. He finished Pocono in 23rd, two laps down.

Speaking of changes…… Ricky Rudd has let it be known that he is upset with Elliott Sadler's attitude in forcing something to happen with driver changes. Sadler has been given the go ahead to seek employment elsewhere from Wood Brothers Racing. I don't see where Rudd has anything to complain about. He's just as bad as Sadler in that respect, if not worse. Rudd has contended that he will make a decision by July 15th as to whether he will stay with Robert Yates Racing for another year. Why does he have to wait until July 15th? If he doesn't know now what he is going to do, then he never will. Rudd is just stalling to make things harder for Sadler, and then he has the audacity to complain about Sadler? Go figure……….

Pocono 500……… Dale Jarrett was sitting in the right place at the right time, the cat bird seat. Ricky Rudd succumbed to tire problems with just a few laps to go and Jarrett was right there, ready to climb into Rudd's spot. Rudd eventually whacked the wall and ended up finishing in the 17th position.

Mark Martin finished second, but was still somewhat miffed with the outcome. He figured that he had the win due to gas mileage. The last caution on lap 159 allowed him to be able to finish the race without making another fuel stop. The caution on lap 169 which Martin calls the "mystery caution" allowed everyone to come in and get fuel, negating the necessity of their making a splash and go stop for fuel before the end of the race.

Pocono is not known for being kind to rookies. Jimmy Johnson is the exception. Johnson is the only rookie, and the only young gun, to do well at Pocono, especially finishing third with another top five notched in his belt. Point' leader Sterling Marlin finished fourth, followed by Jeff Gordon, who surprised everyone with a top five finish even after one of his infamous screw-ups. Gordon had tried to make an entrance onto pit road toward the end of the race under the green flag and hit the area too fast causing him to spin out losing valuable track position.

The driver's point's spread at the top is the same as it was previous to Pocono. Sterling Marlin now has 2064 leading points while rookie Jimmy Johnson is still at a -136 with 1928. Jeff Gordon also remains in third with a -165, while Mark Martin's second place finish moved him up two spots to fourth with a -212. Rusty Wallace remains in fifth with a -238. Point's positions six thru ten are: +1 Tony Stewart, -244; -3 Matt Kenseth, -270; +2 Ricky Rudd, -336; +2 Jeff Burton, -358; -2 Kurt Busch, -365.

Next Week…… Race No. 15 is the Michigan 400 from the Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Michigan. The event will be televised live by FOX on Sunday, June 16th, at 12:30 P.M. Eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the FOX Sports Networks at 3 P.M. Eastern on Friday, June 14th.

Last season's winner of the June Michigan race was Jeff Gordon. He was followed across the finish line by Ricky Rudd, Sterling Marlin, Jeremy Mayfield, Ryan Newman, Hut Stricklin, Jeff Burton, Dave Blaney, Bill Elliott, and rookie Kevin Harvick.

6/17/02……… Pattie back with Nemechek……. Brian Pattie has joined Joe Nemechek on the No. 25 UAW/Delphi Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports. Pattie has been working at NEMCO Motorsports, Nemechek's Busch Series operation since 1997. He will remain at Hendrick until the end of the 2002 season under the same type of deal that Joe Nemechek has.

Ken Howe, director of Competition for Hendrick, will return to that role after serving as interim crew chief on the No. 25 for seven weeks following the departure of Tony Furr, who had been Jerry Nadeau's crew chief on the No. 25.

Junie Donlavey hired Gary Bradberry to drive the No. 90 Sauer's sponsored Ford at Michigan. Rick Mast, the regular driver for the No. 90 is still seeking an explanation for the mysterious illness that has kept him out of the racecar since May 18th.

Hermie Sadler was supposed to be subbing for Mast, but he was committed to his sponsor to drive his own No. 20 Little Trees Chevrolet in the Busch Series race at Kentucky, so he couldn't manage to be in both places at the same time. Junie had previously contacted Ed Berrier to drive, but that deal apparently fell through.

Atwood Serious with Sirius……. How's that for a play on words? At any rate, Stacy Atwood hasn't exactly been setting the track on fire since he managed to stay alive in Ray Evernham's organization.

Evernham was disenchanted with Atwood's performance last season, even though he knew from the beginning that Atwood was a rookie. He hired a more experienced driver, Jeremy Mayfield, to team up with Bill Elliott for 2002, but kept Atwood in his stable by branching out to buy a piece of the No. 7 Ultra Motorsports team and put Atwood behind the wheel of the Sirius Satellite Radio Dodge.

In 14 races this season, Atwood has only had two finishes in the top 15. His average start is 27.2 and his average finish is 27.0. Atwood was 29th in the driver's point's standings going into Michigan. Evernham hired Tony Furr to crew chief on the No. 7, hoping that Furr's experience would help Atwood to do better. If it has, it certainly hasn't shown up yet. Atwood wrecked during qualifying for the race and had to start with a provisional in the 39th position.

The race didn't end up any better for Atwood, his back-up car was un-tunable and crew chief Tony Furr speculated that they may have brought the wrong back-up car to the track. As an example, a short track car is set up primarily in it's construction to run on the short tracks, and there isn't much that a team of mechanics can do to it to get it competitive for a super-speedway, especially one of the fastest ones like Michigan. Atwood had wanted to make a good showing for his sponsor Sirius in the race that they were sponsoring, but ended up a disappointing 39th. If Atwood keeps up that kind of performance, he'll be looking for work soon.

France wants to take points…… instead of money for penalties incurred breaking NASCAR's rules. The NASCAR chairman feels that taking money doesn't bother the well to do drivers, and that they just shrug it off. He thinks that taking points away from the drivers would affect everyone equally.

Well, everyone has their own ideas about what is best, and seeing that Bill France owns the show, I imagine that his ideas will be the ones that will be incorporated into the rules. There's more than one way to look at France's idea. To begin with, there are over 40 teams competing in Winston Cup, and only the top 25 points positions pay out at the Winston Cup banquet held in New York City's Waldorf Astoria hotel every December.

What will stop a team who is 35th or worse in points from breaking the rules intentionally? What will be their incentive to follow the rules to the letter? They aren't in the picture to make any money out of the points to begin with, so why shouldn't they cheat every chance they get. It won't make any difference to them if NASCAR deducts points that aren't going to pay them anything. I assume that there will have to be some sort of melding of penalties between taking the points and levying monetary fines.

Sirius Satellite Radio 400………. Matt Kenseth held off a furious charge from Dale Jarrett to win the 200 lap Michigan race. This was Kenseth's third win of the season, and the fourth of his career. Kenseth drove a masterful race with the No. 17 DeWalt sponsored Roush Racing Ford. Dale Jarrett also drove his heart out in the No. 88 UPS sponsored Robert Yates Racing Ford.

The end of the race was another one of NASCAR's "controlled finishes." Elliott Sadler conveniently whacked the wall with only six laps remaining, which brought out the yellow caution flag. They red flagged the race with the six laps remaining, and then were lax enough to allow pit stops before throwing the green flag with only three laps remaining. The one who suffered the most by NASCAR's foolishness was Jimmy Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet. Johnson was running a hot second before the caution came out, and was in contention to make a charge for the win. The red flag cooled down the cars and their tires, and took away Johnson's chance to vie for his third victory in his rookie season. Apparently, NASCAR didn't want Johnson to win.

Rookie Ryan Newman finished third in the No. 12 Alltel Ford followed by Michael Waltrip in the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet and Jeff Gordon in the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet. Johnny Benson finished sixth in the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac, the only Pontiac to finish in the top ten or fifteen. There were seven Fords, two Chevrolets, and one Pontiac in the top ten. Does that tell you anything about equal racecar parity on super-speedways?

Next Week……… Race No. 16 is the Dodge Save mart 350 on the Sears Point raceway road course at Sonoma, California. The event will be televised live by FOX on Sunday, June 23rd at 2:30 P.M. Eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the FOX Sports Networks at 5 P.M. Eastern on Friday, June 21st.

The winner of last year's Sears Point road race was Tony Stewart. Following him across the finish line were Robby Gordon, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Ward Burton, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott, and Mark Martin.

6/24/02……… Changes, Changes, and More Changes…… That's the story this week at Sonoma. Sears Point Raceway is a thing of the past, in more ways than one. It appears that O. Bruton Smith has sold the name of another one of his racetracks. Sears Point is now known as "Infineon Raceway," pronounced "In-fin-e-in." The name change reflects the tracks association with Infineon Technologies, a German semiconductor manufacturer. Infineon's North American office is located in nearby San Jose. Automotive electronics, fiber optics, and wireless technologies are among the huge conglomerate's assets. Infineon is reported to have recorded 5.5 billion dollars in sales for the fiscal year 2001. The sears point facility has close to 350 events per year drawing over 500k spectators.

There have been a lot of changes to the track, which reflects a $50 million dollar investment in the restructuring of the facility. It would seem that Infineon Technologies paid most of the tab on that one, to have their name on the track. The 10 year renaming deal was similar to the one that Smith pulled off at Charlotte. After all, what's in a name? Money, that's what's in a name, and lots of it where Briton Smith is concerned. The dollar amount of the deal wasn't announced until Monday, June 23rd. It was reported to be in the neighborhood of $34.6 million dollars.

The track changes have made it really hard on the drivers, who rely on landmarks and permanent focal points around the course for shifting, braking, and accelerating. Even the overhead pedestrian bridge is gone, replaced with an underground tunnel. The only good thing about this is that all of the drivers will be in the same boat, at square one. The drivers who will benefit the most from the changes are the rookies who have never raced at the track. They will be on a somewhat even keel with the veterans who will be busy getting used to the track changes. It will not be business as usual for any of them. The drivers who had previously tested at the newly configured facility will have a little bit of an edge. The others who didn't, only had two hours to get used to the changes while attempting to set up their cars for the 112 lap event.

Hired Guns……… We've heard of the young guns since the beginning of the season, now with the Sonoma race at hand and the Watkins Glen race coming up the first part of August, we'll be hearing about the hired guns. Mainly Ron Fellows and Boris Said. They always grab onto those two when the road course races come around, but it hasn't ever done any of the owners and teams any good. The hired guns have never won a Winston Cup event at one of the road courses. They have managed to get near the top ten finishers a few times, but that's the best they can do. Not being used the heavy 3400 pound stock cars is one major disadvantage, and the one lap qualifying system is another major difference.

The sports car road course drivers are used to having 20 minutes to qualify, and the one lap run in the cars they aren't used to is really a handicap for the outsiders. This is one of the first road races where the hired guns aren't substituting for a major Cup driver. Boris Said managed to qualify 10th in the No. 167 Jasper Engines Ford while Ron Fellows didn't have that much luck qualifying Joe Nemechek's No. 87 Cellular One Chevrolet in the 19th position.

Dodge/Save Mart 350………. Boris Said? Forget it! That guy was one of the worst drivers in the race. He managed to cup John Andretti and Kevin Harvick off by crowding them in the corners when they had the preferred line, then he spun out twice, before finally spinning out for the third and final time connecting with the wall putting the "import ringer" out of the race. His forceful moves on Harvick and Andretti cost them lots of positions, and there's no telling how many others he did that too that the TV cameras didn't record. Hopefully his sorry performance will deter team owners from hiring him to run at The Glen this coming August, but that's very doubtful. Ron Fellows did a better job, finishing a respectable 25th, and didn't rain on anybody's parade while doing so.

Ricky Rudd won the Sonoma race, only because Jerry Nadeau who was subbing for Steve Grissom in the No. 44 Georgia Pacific Petty Enterprises Dodge, lost his rear end with only three laps remaining while leading the race with a solid run of over 30 laps.

Joe Gibbs Racing……… is reported to be switching to Chevrolets next season. It appears that they have had their fill of the Pontiac people, and with NASCAR, who always has had a penchant for aligning the Pontiac with a "back seat" attitude. Pontiac is said to be beside themselves for the Gibbs switch, especially with the new model coming out for the 2003 season. A few other teams have abandon the Pontiac model in the last couple of years. The most prominent being Petty Enterprises, who didn't really have the amount of wins with the Pontiac that Gibbs has. This will be a big blow to the Pontiac division of General Motors.

The Winston Cup teams have a much deserved weekend off, the next race is the mid season restrictor plate romp at Daytona, the Pepsi 400.

6/30/02……… NASCAR's sex appeal? I was amused by the commentary written by Rea White in the Winston Cup Scene putting down the emergence of Brittany Spears on the NASCAR scene with her involvement in the new NASCAR movie. White goes on to complain about the way some female fans tend to scantily dress themselves while attending NASCAR events.

Maybe White never heard the old saying, "If you've got it flaunt it." Maybe White hasn't got it to flaunt and she's a tad jealous? Whatever the case, I don't see where NASCAR has anything to do with the way women dress in public these days. White would like you to believe that they only time women dress in low riding shorts and halter tops is when they attend NASCAR events, and we all know that's a crock of bull.

White goes on to say that the sex appeal marketing ploy of NASCAR is hurting the credibility of female wanna be race drivers like Shawna Robinson, Angie Wilson, etc. She claims that female race drivers are hounded by the media with questions about how their kids cope with their racing while their male counterpart drivers aren't asked such questions. Well Ms. White, that's simple, male race drivers aren't mothers!

I'm not setting out to be a chauvinist here, I'm just stating the facts the way I heard them from some female fans who aren't into the feminism movement. Most female race fans aren't concerned with feminism, they enjoy who they are, and enjoy attending the races without any hidden agendas.

I'm not at all surprised by Ms. White's way of thinking, the feminism movement has lobbed darts at nearly every aspect of the American way of life, so it's no surprise that they take exception of the marketing ploys of NASCAR. When any type of major business in this country wants to draw a certain crowd, they show that crowd what they want to see to attract them with their advertising.

Lots of race fans have taken exception to being put into the same category as professional wrestling. Fact is folks, NASCAR has done that intentionally, and they are going to continue to do it. Just look at the Stacker II commercials with Kenny Wallace and the female wrestler if you think I'm kidding. It isn't only NASCAR, it's also being spearheaded by the commercial sponsorships whose main goal to begin with it to make money. That's why they are involved with NASCAR. Racing used to be just good clean racing competition, but now it's "the show" sexist or not. Is this type of sexist advertisement ploy good for our sport? I think we all know that it isn't, but it's the money makers who control things, not us fans. We can either grin and bear it, or boycott their products, it's up to us.

Give and Take…… NASCAR has been in the giving mode for quite some time now is respect to making rules changes and concessions to teams who have been squawking for some relief. It has some to pass that the giving is about over. You can only add just so much to the race car before it begins to severely affect the aero stabilization of the unit.

In the future, look for the sanctioning body to take inches away instead of adding them. When you stop to think about it, over the past four or five years, and inch here and an inch there adds up. NASCAR doesn't want to have racecars fifty feet long with spoilers three feet high. Of course that's an outright exaggeration, but you get my point.

Once racecars get to a certain point, there's not much more that you can do in a given direction. Problem is, when they begin to take away from one model, it will affect that model's standing in respect to being competitive with other units, so a little tweaking on all models becomes necessary to obtain the correct status quo.

The humorous part of this concept is that they will be right back where they started from to begin with in some areas. Other areas will be different, as new models tend to make the racing scene every three or four years. The Pontiac Grand Prix is now the oldest model of racecar on the track, and it has a new model coming out for 2003 if there are Pontiac any teams left to race them.

Joe Gibbs racing is rumored to be switching to the Chevrolets for 2003, but rumors are just rumors. Don't believe it until Gibbs or General Motors releases the news first hand. The Pontiac teams were treated very badly this season, and it's going to come down to a showdown before it's all over with. Their much needed rules change to make them competitive gave way to politics and money, which is a ploy that may jump up and bite NASCAR where they least expect it.

Next Week…………. The Pepsi 400 is coming up next from Daytona. Last year Dale Earnhardt Jr. won on the track where his father lost his life just four and a half months earlier. There was a lot of controversy about Dale Jr's win, and especially the reversal of the role with he and Michael Waltrip coming in first and second for both Daytona races.