5/5/02……… DEI Changes……… Lots of things have been happening with Dale Earnhardt Inc. lately. The news hit the wires that DEI and Steve Park may be parting ways at the end of this month. Park has not impressed the DEI organization since he returned to the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet after his long healing process from his devastating wreck in the Busch Series race at Darlington last September. Since his return at Darlington six races ago, his average finish has been 27th with his best finish at 20th.

Kenny Wallace has been mentioned as Park's replacement, although there has been no concrete statements to that effect coming from DEI sources. Wallace is noted to have done a great job with the No. 1 Chevrolet in Park's absence and he had excellent chemistry with the DEI personnel.

Another piece of news out of the DEI garage is that Michael Waltrip's job isn't exactly written in stone either. Waltrip's contract is up this season, and depending on how the team's stats add up in June, NAPA may ask DEI for a new driver for the No. 15 Chevrolet that they are shelling out sponsorship dollars for. Along with this piece of news comes the revelation this past week concerning Elliott Saddler's future plans. He is reported to be on the move from driving the Wood Brothers Racing's No. 21 Ford, looking for greener pastures. There is speculation that he may be a future candidate to fill the seat of the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet. He and DEI both have alluded to the fact that their has been a rapport between them.

Even more news from the DEI garage centers around former Haas/Carter Motorsports driver Joe Nemechek. Nemechek won a race with Andy Petree Racing last fall at Rockingham and is eligible for the Winston All-Star race this month at Charlotte. Petree lost the Oakwood Homes sponsor and Nemechek moved to what he thought was greener pastures to the No. 26 K-Mart sponsored Haas/Carter Motorsports Ford. With K-Mart's filing for bankruptcy and Haas/Carter out of business at present, Nemechek found himself out of a ride to compete in the Winston. DEI is picking up the slack and is putting Nemechek in a No. 81 DEI Chevrolet with his regular crew chief, Brian Pattie, calling the shots for him. Now, how's that for a class act? Way to go DEI!

DEI later called reports about Park being replaced in June completely false. DEI executive vice president Ty Norris claimed that they were victims of irresponsible reporting. They also claimed that any talks that they have had with prospective drivers was entirely centered on the 2003 season and had nothing to do with present circumstances. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't see Steve Park in a Winston Cup car in 2003. He may very well be relegated back to a Busch Series ride for a while, as is what happened to a few former Winston Cup drivers this season.

Pontiac Excitement 400…… Mother Nature spent some time away from messing with the Busch Series and played havoc on the Saturday night Winston Cup event. After nearly a two hour track drying period because of afternoon rains, the event got under way and was rained out by 9:30 P.M. The competitors had run 66 laps and were taking part in a caution period at the time NASCAR threw the red flag to stop the race until noon the following Sunday.

With no rubber on the track and a freshly applied sealer to contend with, drivers had a tough time advancing through the field. There was only one racing groove on the slippery surface until the race wore on as they gradually got some rubber laid down spreading out a narrow upper groove. Sunday as the race got underway; it was evident that the heat of the day was going to be the track's downfall. The racing surface was like an ice skating rink. There were a record tying 14 cautions and more wrecks and mishaps than the law of averages allows. NASCAR should have had on their thinking caps and held the race on Sunday night instead of in the heat of the day. The people at the Richmond track had applied the sealer prior to the two night races that were scheduled for the weekend. They did not plan to have the track raced on in the heat of the day. A lot of the sealer came up due to the hot tires which will cause the track to need repairs again.

As the demolition derby on the ice skating rink came to a close, Tony Stewart emerged as the sorry event's winner. This was Stewart's 14th win in the fourth year of his Winston Cup career, and his second win of the 2002 season, tying Sterling Marlin and Matt Kenseth. The Pontiac people were thrilled to see a Pontiac win the Pontiac Excitement race!

Rookie Ryan Newman, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, and Jeremy Mayfield rounded out the top five finishers. Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Steve Grissom, Craven, and Spencer rounded out the top ten finishers.

Sterling Marlin still reins as the driver's point's leader with 1645, and is 132 points ahead of Matt Kenseth. Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, and Rusty Wallace are the top five. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, and Ricky Rudd are in the top ten.

No race next week. Happy Mothers Day!

5/12/02……… Soft Wall Technology……… The soft wall technology that was in the news so much after the death of Winston Cup legend Dale Earnhardt is now a reality. It is expected that various racetracks around the country will incorporate them as needed. Some of the larger super-speedways with high banking and wide sweeping turns will have no need of the technology. Whereas some of the smaller tracks that have sharper turns with less banking and still produce fairly high speeds will make use of the new safety tool.

New Hampshire International Speedway at Loudon, New Hampshire is slated to have the soft walls installed in its corners by the time the NASCAR circuit has its events there in July. Speedway President Bob Bahr claims the $300,000 cost is a small price to pay to prevent any more deaths at the speedway. Bahr attended a test of the soft walls at an airport in Nebraska and was impressed as a radio activated car slammed into the newly designed surface at over 140 miles per hour.

The technology is already being used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was reported that an incident occurred there this last Sunday where a car slammed into the soft wall at 220 miles per hour and the driver survived with minor fractures. Had it not been for the soft wall, he would have been killed.

In a diagram showing how the soft wall technology is constructed, it shows several foam strips behind a hollow tubular steel framework. As the tubular steel gradually collapses from the impact, the whole system absorbs into the several one inch thick foam strips. Instead of the car bouncing back onto the track from a sharp contact with concrete, the car spends more time with the wall as the impact is absorbed, softening the blow for the driver.

While we're on the subject of the New Hampshire International Speedway, the other news coming out of that venue is their newly configured track. The Busch Series were the first to race on it Saturday, May 11th. Some of the competitors lauded the changes and some of them scowled about it. You can take it to the bank, that the ones who did good were lauding the track, while the ones who have yet to figure it out are those doing the scowling!

What they did to improve the trace was to widen it in the corner areas by adding more asphalt to the inside. Of course, with the retaining wall on the outside, they couldn't do much in that area, besides, as stated above, they are going to be adding the soft walls there. Which, by the way, brings up another aspect of the situation. When they add the soft walls, there will not be as much room in the corners as there was when the Busch Series raced there. The soft wall technology will take up space on the track in the corners, so the track will not be as wide when the Winston Cup Series gets there toward the end of July.

Even though the track won't be quite as wide, drivers will have to search for new positions of entering the corners, called "lines" or "marks." They will be able to enter the corners much lower on the track than they have in the past and it will be a learning experience for rookies and veterans alike. They will have to find a different location coming out of the corners to gingerly accelerate to achieve maximum speed for the rather short straight-a-ways on the 1.058 mile track. With that in mind, it should be a great race in July with everyone starting out from square one.

Nadeau's Out…… A mutual parting of the ways sees Jerry Nadeau out of his seat in the No. 25 UAW/Delphi sponsored Hendrick Motorsport's Chevrolet. Nadeau's crew chief in the five plus years since he's been with Hendrick, Tony Furr, was released last month. Nadeau and Furr had good chemistry between themselves and their crew. When Furr left, Ken Howes, director of competition for Hendrick, took his place and apparently there was no chemistry between he, Nadeau, and crew. Things weren't going that well with Furr this season, and when Howes took over, things appeared to have gotten worse. As a result, Nadeau ended up being "odd man out" and is searching for a new ride rather early in the season.

The word circulating in the garage area is that Joe Nemechek is the driver who will be filling Nadeau's seat, but only on an interim basis. Hendrick doesn't want to make a driver commitment this early in the season. He has stated that he would rather wait until the season is over before he makes any permanent driver decisions. Choosing a new driver now out of those available may cause him to lose out on a better driver later on down the road. At this point in time there is no way to really tell which drivers may be available for hire next November or December.

Other news reports has Joe Nemechek filling in for Johnny Benson in next week's Winston all star race. Benson is reported to be planning on being back in the car in time for the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26th. Since losing his ride when Haas/Carter shut down their operations due to K-Mart's bankruptcy, Nemechek has been a busy guy!

Gordon Seeks Gag Order…… Jeff Gordon has petitioned the circuit court in Palm Springs to have all of those involved in his divorce case be required to sign an agreement of confidentiality. Reports claim that Gordon has attempted on two different occasions to have his estranged wife sign a similar agreement, but she has steadfastly refused.

Court records show that Gordon is attempting to keep his business and financial dealings confidential due to their sensitive nature. For one thing, driver's salaries and the fine print specifics of their contracts with their team owners have always been keep under wraps and not divulged to the media. If a gag order is not handed down, all of Gordon's personal financial information will become public when his assets are scrutinized by the court.

Gordon and his attorney, Donald J. Sasser, are trying to get the gag order to remain in effect even after the divorce proceedings are final. Brooke's and her lawyer, Jeff Fisher, have adamantly refused to agree to a gag order or any variation of confidentiality. It will remain with the court to decide in a future hearing whether a gag order will be in affect in the case or if the information garnered in the proceedings will be open to the public which is the case in Florida law.

Next Week…… There will be no point's race next week. The Winston Cup Series will have its all-star race, The Winston, at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 18th at 7:30 P.M. The event will be telecast live by the FX network. Jeff Gordon won last season's Winston in a back-up car because of a big wreck on the opening lap that took out a total four cars. NASCAR allowed the teams of the damaged cars to switch to back-up cars during a lengthy rain delay. Check out the competitors list and all other info about The Winston at Jayski's Winston Page .

5/19/02……… The big show is over for another year. The Winston has nothing to do with the championship points system that relates to the season. It's purely an exhibition race with no meaning to the season as a whole. The all-star event started in 1986 as the Atlanta Invitational at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. That first year resulted in a disappointing turnout so it was renamed and moved to the Charlotte Motor Speedway where it has been held ever since.

There has been talk of moving the race to another venue for the past several seasons. The subject always seems to come up every year, but somehow Humpy Wheeler, president of Charlotte Motor Speedway, and track owner O. Bruton Smith, always seem to win out and keep the race in Charlotte.

Smith owns Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) and is in competition with the France family who own the International Speedway Corp. (ISC). Bill France Jr. bought out Roger Penske's race tracks a couple of years ago which bumped up the amount of Winston Cup venues that the France family now controls. ISC controls 12 tracks compared to the six tracks which are owned and controlled by SMI.

It is believed by NASCAR insiders that the race will be moved to an ISC owned track and that it will be a cold day in Hades before it ever sees an SMI venue again. The impending lawsuit involving a race date that NASCAR promised Bruton Smith for Texas Motor Speedway has intensified the hard feelings between the two corporations that already suffered from a strained relationship. The France family would just as soon see NASCAR's hub revolve around the Daytona, Florida area and have always been skeptical of the sport being centered around Charlotte, North Carolina. Most of the competitor's race shops are located around the Charlotte area, and always have been. Even when team owners build new shops, they try to locate in that area if at all possible.

2002 Winston……… The big show was won this season by a rookie. Ryan Newman made it into The Winston by winning the No Bull Five Sprint qualifying race. He managed to survive the first two segments that were won by another rookie, Jimmy Johnson. He took the checkered flag after a fierce battle with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished second after working his way up through the pack. Earnhardt fans were upset that Junior was held back from the win, but their driver won the respect of everyone in NASCAR by racing the rookie driver clean. Junior didn't have the horsepower to make it around Newman's Penske racing's Ford. Her was beside him on a couple op occasions but just couldn't make the pass. He would have had to spin Newman out in order to have won, and there was no guarantee that he may not have wrecked himself during such a maneuver.

The fact that Ryan Newman has been a success in that he has been a competitive factor in races this season, leads one to surmise about his possible future fate. Remember Jeremy Mayfield? Jeremy used to be a teammate of Rusty Wallace at Penske Racing. When Mayfield started racing better and making a name for himself, the relationship between him and Rusty Wallace became strained. He was taking the limelight away from Rusty, Penske Racing's supposedly number one man. As Rusty is one of the owners of Penske Racing, it wasn't long before Mayfield was brother-in-lawed out of the organization. The hot "young gun" rookie had better watch his step or he will be following Mayfield down the road. We've already seen dissatisfaction from a number of the veterans about the amount of media exposure that the "young guns" are getting compared to them.

Then you have Jimmy Johnson, and the fact that Jeff Gordon hasn't won a race since last September. When Gordon moved into Hendrick Motorsports, Terry Labonte was kind shoved aside and it was thought that he wasn't getting the top flight equipment that he was used to using. Even though Labonte won a championship after Gordon's joining the multi-car team, lots of folks thought that Gordon was getting its best. That idea was of course denied my Hendrick, as it is in the present with rumors that Johnson is getting the better equipment away from part owner Jeff Gordon. It does however seem rather strange that Hendrick can only have one car at a time that is successful. There must be some truth to the rumors, there's the old saying, "where there's smoke, there's fire."

Next Week………. Race No. 12 on the Winston Cup schedule is the Coca-Cola Family 600 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. The event is slated to be telecast live by the FOX network on Sunday, May 26th at 5 P.M. Eastern. Qualifying for the event will be telecast live by the SPEED network on Friday, May 24th at 8 P.M. Eastern.

Last year's winner of the 600 mile 400 lap event was Jeff Burton. He was followed across the finish line by rookie Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Jimmy Spencer, Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett, Ward Burton, and Jeremy Mayfield.

5/27/02……… False Rumors…… A rumor was circulating last week that involved speculation of the possible impending sale of Dale Earnhardt Inc. The rumor was circulated by the Daily Scene mailings that go out in the form of a newsletter to race fans from Smith & Street's Winston Cup Scene magazine. The Daily Scene claimed that the story was reported by the Winston-Salem Journal out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

They reported that Teresa Earnhardt wanted to sell out and move to Florida and that Anheuser Busch, owner of Dale Jr.'s sponsor Budweiser, may be the buyer. The story also stated that Mike Mulhern, NASCAR columnist at the Winston-Salem journal, reported that Dale Jr. would like to have Matt Kenseth join the team amid reports of Steve Park and Michael Waltrip leaving at the end of the season.

The rumor was reported to be false by Ty Norris, DEI executive vice president. I looked all through the Winston-Salem Journal's site and couldn't find anything concerning the impending sale. It may have been printed in their newspaper, but it wasn't present in Mike Mulhern's columns online.

Steve Park claims that these rumors concerning his impending release from DEI are hurting the performance of his race team. Some of them are wondering if they should be looking for other employment opportunities, and are not concentrating on the success of the race team. I would assume that the same thing is happening to Michael Waltrip's race team, as he has also been reported to be on his way out of a driver's seat at DEI.

News is news, and rumors and false reports have always surrounded NASCAR racing. I have probably been guilty of unsuspectingly spreading falsifications myself, although I have always tried to write that an item is just a rumor or speculation, unless I read where the subject of the article has agreed to it. On the other hand, these rumors may very well be true, but are just future plans that these people didn't want known at this particular time, so when they surface, they are denied. I've see this happen a few times in the past. Rumors will be denied, only to become a reality in the future.

Coca-Cola Family 600…… The longest race of the season is over with for another year. Mark Martin came out of a 73 race slump to take the checkered flag for the 33rd time in Winston Cup competition, and the Winston $1 million dollar No Bull 5 paycheck along with $208k for the win. Not a bad afternoon for Martin, who hadn't won since April of 2000 when he took the checkers at Martinsville in the Goody's Body Pain 500. Martin was long due for a win!

Martin held off challenger Matt Kenseth during the waning laps with Kenseth crossing the line in the second position right on Martin's rear bumper. Ricky Craven was third, followed by the new "Iron Man," Ricky Rudd. Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five drivers that will be eligible for the No Bull 5 bonus at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July.

Humorously enough, Ricky Rudd managed to get the attention that he has been whining for during the past couple of weeks. He's been moaning and groaning lately about all of the "Young Guns" getting the media attention away from the veterans. The media made a big show of the "made for TV" iron man trophy that they showed being passed from former iron man Terry Labonte to Ricky Rudd. We were treated (?) to that exchange several times. I used to think that Jimmy Spencer was the ultimate media hound, but now I'm not so sure. It looks like Ricky Rudd has taken his place among the whiners, with the likes of Rusty Wallace and Jeff Burton.

When you look at the top ten for the race, it's easy to see that the young guns didn't fare very good in the Charlotte marathon. Positions six thru ten were: Tony Stewart, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Bill Elliott, and Rusty Wallace. The only driver in his 20's who managed a top ten finish was rookie Jimmy Johnson. Martin, Rudd, Elliott, and Wallace are in their 40's with Kenseth, Craven, Stewart, Gordon, and Waltrip in their 30's.

Haas/Carter Hanging On……… ARCA Racing star Frank Kimmel has been keeping Haas/Carter on the track lately, the best that he could, but now it's time for Frank to step aside. The Discover Card is sponsoring the No. 26 Ford for a six week stint with Todd Bodine in the driver's seat and Donnie Wingo calling the shots in the pits

According to Rick Lalley, vice president of advertising for Discover Card, it's a new ball game for them, and they aren't ready to commit themselves past the six race scenario. This could change if Bodine puts on a good showing for them between now and the race at Chicagoland. The ball in is the Haas/Carter park now, it's either do or die. These chances with major sponsors don't grow on trees.

This is going to be kind of a Bodine family affair. With Todd committed to the No. 92 Excedrin ride in the Busch Series, older brother Geoff will qualify the Winston cup car at Pocono and Michigan.

The Discover Card people are making the most of their six week commitment in NASCAR by putting an in-car camera in the car at each of the six races. They have bought commercial advertising space from both FOX and NBC, starting June 2nd, and will be the title sponsor of pre-race shows starting on July 14th. Discover Card goes NASCAR!

Next Week………… Race No. 13 on the Winston Cup schedule is the MBNA Platinum 400 from Dover Downs International Speedway at Dover, Delaware. The event is slated to be televised live on the FX channel on Sunday, June 2nd at 1 P.M. Eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be televised live by the FOX Sports Networks on Friday, May 31st at 1:30 P.M. Eastern.