11/04/02……… The big news this time of the year is numbers, especially numbers concerning the championship. Going into the Rockingham race, Tony Stewart had to have a 9th place finish in all three remaining races in order to clinch the Winston Cup Championship regardless of what the other contenders did.

This season brings us one of the closest championship races in history, and many NASCAR insiders believe that the championship battle will go right down to the wire in the season’s last race at Miami/Homestead on November 17th. Come back here to keep track of the championship numbers for the remaining two races this season.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Ricky Rudd lately. Seeing that he is losing his crew chief for the rest of the season, he has complained that his season might as well be over. He’s been fighting to stay in the top ten in driver’s points, but now he is complaining that he will probably finish farther down the ladder.

Lets face it folks, from what we’ve seen and heard from Rudd this season, it’s readily apparent that he isn’t a very bright person. Yes, I have to admit that he masterfully played the media for the first part of the season, but his game seemed to have backfired on him, and caused him to make a fool out of himself.

Rudd’s comments this week about falling in the points due to losing his crew chief are a direct slap in the face to Raymond Fox III who took over Michael “Fatback” McSwain’s duties this week at The Rock. Fox has been car chief for the No. 28 team and has been with Robert Yates Racing for a long time. He has lots of knowledge of team and driver. Rudd’s comments had to have placed a barb under Fox’s saddle prior to his first race as crew chief for Rudd. As it turned out, Rudd finished 20th at the Rock and is still 10th in driver’s points.

Pop Secret 400……… Johnny Benson finally won his first Winston Cup race after six years and 226 tries. Bless his heart, he has come so close so many times only to have it taken away from him because he races clean. He could have bumped several drivers out of the way for the win, but doesn’t want to be that kind of racer.

The big news following the race was the No. 6 Viagra Ford failing to pass post-race inspection. It was reported that the left front spring failed to meet the requirements of having the minimum number of coils. It has been speculated that NASCAR will levy the usual 25 point reduction in owner’s and driver’s points when the fines are handed down sometime during the first part of the week.

Tony Stewart had a junk car throughout the race and finished a paltry 14th, losing nearly half of the 146 point lead he came into the race with to Mark Martin. According to the figures that were available after the race, Martin had shrunk Stewart’s lead to 87 points. A 25 point fine for Martin will stretch that to 112 points in Stewart’s favor going into Phoenix next week. What was Martin’s crew chief, Ben Leslie, thinking of? A boner like that close to the championship finale is an unspeakable error. He may end up losing his job for it.

Speaking of losing a job, Jimmy Johnson’s rear tire changer lost his job during the race. The team got a tire changer off of the Hendrick Motorsports Busch Series crew to take over for the fired team member. The tire changer failed to tighten the lug nuts on the right rear wheel and it vibrated loose ruining the wheel hub causing Johnson to go 14 laps down, taking him out of championship contention. The No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy had to be taken behind the wall for repairs.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. *Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Ford – finished 23rd
2. Jamie McMurray -- No. 40 Dodge – finished 15th
3. Todd Bodine -- No. 26 Ford – finished 42nd
4. Mike Skinner -- No. 4 Chevrolet -- finished 6th
5. Mark Martin -- No. 6 Ford – finished 2nd
6. Jeff Green -- No. 30 Chevrolet – finished 10th
7. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 3rd
8. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Ford – finished 27th
9. Robby Gordon -- No. 31 Chevrolet – finished 11th
10. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 39th

Next week Race No. 35 on the 36 race 2002 schedule is the Checker Auto Parts 500k on the Phoenix International Raceway at Phoenix, Arizona. The event is scheduled to be televised live by the NBC network on Sunday, November 10th at 2 P.M. Eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the SPEED channel at 5 P.M. Eastern on Friday, November 8th.

Last season’s winner of the Phoenix race was Jeff Burton. He was followed across the finish line by Mike Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, Ricky Craven, Dale Jarrett, and Johnny Benson.

11/11/02……… The two battles engulfing the end of the 2002 Winston Cup season are making the long run thru the last weeks of November well worth the wait. Not only are we enthralled with a ‘down to the wire’ championship race, we are also witnessing a really close Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle.

NASCAR showed its teeth last week when it snarled at Mark Martin and took away 25 valuable drivers’ points while he was in a fight to the end with Tony Stewart for the brass ring. I’ve read lots of different statements about the way NASCAR constantly attempts to control the competition. Mark Martin alluded that NASCAR’s rules are designed to keep one driver from being dominant. Martin did not go as far as to say that NASCAR’s rules are fair. If you set up rules that keep one driver from dominating the rest of the field, there’s no way that ‘fair’ can enter the picture. There’s nothing fair about NASCAR or its rules.

When one looks closely at the rookie battle, they are reminded of all of the hype that swelled up earlier in the season around Jimmie Johnson. This hype was designed to get the fans rooting for Johnson, a Jeff Gordon protégé. Hype or no hype, Johnson has dropped the ball as the end of the season winds down. Johnson’s claim to fame is the three wins that he racked up this season, tying the rookie record set by Tony Stewart in the 1999 season. Those three wins aren’t really doing him a lot of good without the consistency of top five and ten finishes.

This is where Johnson’s nemesis comes into the picture. Ryan Newman only has one win going into the Phoenix race, but his consistency had him 20 rookie points ahead of Johnson before the running of the Checker Auto Parts 500. A lot of times we see rookies missing races, unable to qualify for all of the events. This isn’t the case with Ryan Newman; he has qualified for all of the races this season, and has, including Phoenix, a rookie record six Bud poles. He had previously tied Davy Allison’s rookie pole record of five poles set back in 1987. Going into the Phoenix race, Newman had racked up 14 top five, and 19 top ten finishes. He had 15 top five, and 23 top ten starts in 32 races, was fourth in driver’s points, plus winning well over $3.3 million dollars in purse money. Newman has only used two provisional starts this season.

Johnson has also tied Davy Allison’s pole record with five poles, and has three wins, six top five, and 20 top ten finishes. He has 14 top ten starts and has won over $2.5 million in purse money in 32 races. Going into Phoenix, Newman was third in Driver’s points. It will certainly not be easy for the NASCAR executive panel to assess rookie bonus points at the season’s end that will determine the Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner.

The Checker Auto Parts 500 is in the books. NASCAR has breezed in and out of Phoenix for another season. This year, they left with Matt Kenseth claiming title to his fifth win of the 2002 season, which makes him the win leader this season for the Cup Series. Jimmy Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Tony Stewart each have three wins, but they can’t touch Kenseth with only one race remaining in the season.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. *Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Ford – finished 18th
2. John Andretti -- No. 43 Dodge – finished 14th
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevrolet – finished 5th
4. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevrolet -- finished 3rd
5. Dave Blaney -- No. 77 Ford – finished 7th
6. Kenny Wallace -- No. 23 Dodge – finished 11th
7. Mark Martin -- No. 6 Ford – finished 4th
8. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevrolet – finished 33rd
9. Robby Gordon -- No. 31 Chevrolet – finished 27th
10. Jimmy Spencer -- No. 41 Dodge – finished 23rd

Matt Kenseth was luckier than Dale Earnhardt Jr. They both ran out of gas, but Kenseth has a crew, with an excellent crew chief named Robbie Reiser, who made the race winning call to just install two tires on their last pit stop near the end of the race. That’s been Dale Jr.’s problem throughout the whole 2002 season, he doesn’t have a crew with defined leadership. I hope Dale Jr. makes some serious changes to his approach to Winston Cup racing during the off season, and hires some leadership within his organization. Just because someone is your cousin, doesn’t make them the best choice to lead a crew to success.

The championship chase will continue down to the wire at Homestead next weekend. Tony Stewart still sits atop of the heap, but Mark martin whittled down Stewart’s lead by 23 points. Stewart is now leading Martin going into the last race of the season by a mere 89 points. It’s possible for either of them to end up with the championship at the end of the Homestead event, although Stewart definitely has the edge.

Kurt Busch moved up two spots to third and is now listed with a -230. There will be a lot of jockeying around Busch, because the fourth and fifth positions are tied by Jimmie Johnson and rusty Wallace, and they are both just 8 points behind Busch with a -238 each. To make matters even more interesting, Jeff Gordon is now in sixth place with a -239, just one point behind the fourth and fifth place tie. To make matters even more interesting yet, Ryan Newman is just 14 points behind Gordon in seventh place. A good finish by any of the drivers listed between third and seventh could propel them into a lot of money at the end of the Homestead race.

Next Week………. Unfortunately, depending on how one looks at it, the final race of the season is upon us. The Ford 400 is scheduled as race No. 36 on the Winston Cup slate for 2002. The event will be run at the Miami/Homestead track outside at homestead, Florida. The Ford 400 will take place at 12:30 P.M. Eastern on Sunday, November 17th and will be televised live by the NBC network. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the SPEED channel at 1 P.M. Eastern on Friday, November 15th.

Last season’s winner of the Pennzoil Freedom 400 Homestead race was Bill Elliott. He was followed across the finish line by Michael Waltrip, rookie Casey Atwood, Jeff Burton, Sterling Marlin, Dave Blaney, rookie Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Green, and rookie Jason Leffler.

11/18/02……… The 2002 Winston Cup Series is the books for another year. Multi-facetted race driver has won another championship to add to his impressive resume. The 1999 Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year has always been a threat to win the top spot. He placed fourth in driver’s points at the completion of his rookie season, while setting the rookie win record that year at six. He finished sixth in points for his sophomore season, and was runner-up to Jeff Gordon last season, vowing to come back in 2002 with a vengeance. He has done just that.

Stewart won multiple karting Championships, multiple USAC Championships, and the Indy racing League Championship before wending his way to the circuits of NASCAR. He has always been an exceptional race driver, from the time he first took control of a go-kart at age seven. Stewart has also won a championship as a car owner, fielding Danny Laskoski’s 2001 World of Outlaws Championship team. He knows what it’s like to win the top spots from both prospectives, so he knows what Joe Gibbs feels like by winning his second championship in NASCAR.

Everyone knows that Tony Stewart is somewhat of a loose cannon that travels to the beat of his own drum. There are those out there who don’t think that Stewart will make a good champion, that he won’t represent the sport as well as they think that Jeff Gordon and some other champions have. Well, that’s just too bad about what they think. Championships and champions are measured by on-track performance, not by the mamby pamby playing of political games just to make people happy. Tony Stewart is his own man, and he will he his own champion. He is no stranger to championships, people need to realize this.

The Ford 400 became the vehicle that provided Kurt Busch with his fourth win of the 2002 season. The fiery young driver is one of the few winners in 2002 that was able to win a race after starting at the pole. His third place finish in the points has insiders speculating that he will be a threat for next season’s championship.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 1st
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy—finished 21st
3. Jimmy Spencer -- No. 41 Dodge – finished 42nd
4. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy -- finished 2nd
5. Greg Biffle -- No. 44 Dodge – finished 25th
6. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Pontiac – finished 18th
7. Jeff Burton -- No. 99 Ford – finished 3rd
8. Kenny Wallace -- No. 23 Dodge – finished 23rd
9. Ricky Rudd -- No. 28 Ford – finished 19th
10. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 7th

The championship race ended up with Mark Martin finishing second again, for the fourth time in his career. This time he was off the pace by only a mere 38 points. One has to be glad that it is over the 25 point limit that he was fined by NASCAR, if he had been able to keep those points, he would have lost the championship by only seven points, and that would have been a true heartbreaker.

Ford 400 winner Kurt Busch finished third with a -159 followed by Jeff Gordon and rookie Jimmie Johnson. Ryan Newman (Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner), Rusty Wallace, Matt Kenseth, Dale Jarrett, and Ricky Rudd rounded out the top ten in the championship point’s standings.

Just because the off-season is beginning doesn’t mean that the teams are going to be loafing around. G M teams are scheduled to do a two day test with the 2003 Chevrolets and Pontiacs at Homestead beginning on Monday, November 18th. It makes it kind of handy for them, seeing that they are already at the facility to begin with.

The teams testing Chevrolets will be Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Haas/CNC Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and BACE Motorsports. With Tony Stewart winning the championship, JGR may have to come up with a substitute for him for testing.

MBV and MB2 Motorsports will be testing the Pontiac models along with Morgan/McClure and PPI Motorsports. The testing process will be especially enlightening for Morgan/McClure and PPI because they are both switching to Pontiac and need to get a handle on the new model as soon as they can.

There is no “next week” to bring you folks up to date on. The next week area will be on hold until next February when the 2003 season gets into full swing. Please check back weekly for news updates and commentary on what is happening during the off-season.

11/25/02……… The 2002 season was a strange one indeed! NASCAR has been trying for years to achieve equality within its racecar models. I think it’s odd that they couldn’t achieve equality when there were only three models racing, there was a lot less then to work with. But then again, the Dodge model was fashioned after the Ford, using its aerodynamic template for a building block.

Now that the 2003 season will be under common templates for the most part, they will have an easier time of adjusting aerodynamics according to the teams complaints about their models. The new rule is causing all teams to re-skin their cars and to readjust their car’s bodies on their frames. The new rule states that all car bodies have to be installed on their frames the same, regardless of the model. If I’m not mistaken, the new rule requires a measurement of 51 to 51.5 inches from the center of the roof at top of the windshield to the center of the rear end housing.

You can certainly expect the whining to begin as soon as the major testing begins in January. The new rules are certain to be challenged when a team representing one of the four models doesn’t get their set-up quite right and ends up with lousy figures for their tests. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some spoiler height adjustments as well as some possible spoiler width adjustments. If there are serious front downforce problems you may even see more adjustments done to the front air dams. course, NASCAR still controls the rear spring packages, so you may even see something different take place on that front as well.

Rusty Wallace is down in the dumps due to not continuing his streak of annual wins in the Winston Cup Series. He tied the mark of winning a race in 16 consecutive seasons set by Ricky Rudd in 2000. Rudd didn’t win one last season, breaking the sin streak, and Wallace failed to win one this season, although he came in second four times.

It’s a shame for Wallace and Rudd alike, but that’s the name of the game these days. Look what happened to Dale Earnhardt’s attempt for an eighth championship when Jeff Gordon came onto the scene. The same thing happened to Jeff Gordon this year with the young guns of Ryan Newman and Jimmy Johnson blazing loudly throughout the season. Coupled with Roush Racings Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth, they won the races and kept Gordon’s attempt for a repeat of his championship at bay.

So then one has to ask, “Can Tony Stewart repeat next season?” That’s the million dollar question. You’ll still have Johnson and Newman around next year, and Kurt Busch is ripe for the picking. Kenseth, who won a season high five races in Winston Cup, is always a threat. That’s the lowest race high winning number from any one driver wince the early 1990’s. NASCAR has done a good job of spreading out the field. It appears that the days of Jeff Gordon winning 13 races are a thing of the past. And speaking of next season, lets not forget about Greg Biffle emerging onto the scene as well as Jamie McMurray and Scott Wimmer. They are all proven winners, with McMurray winning his first race in Winston Cup before winning in Busch Series competition.