4/7/03……….. Rookie Casey Mears is moving his way up in the 2003 rookie standings. His top ten starting position at Talladega is a good sign that he is a serious contender for the 2003 Raybestos Rookie of the Year crown.

Mears, the son of former Indy winner Rick Mears, was hired by Chip Ganassi racing to pilot the No. 41 Target sponsored Dodge when Jimmy Spencer got the boot at the end of last season.

Mears finished 28th in points with his 2002 Busch Series debut, and was a runner-up for the Indy Lights Championship in 1998. Going into the Talladega race he was third in rookie points, just eight points down from leader Jamie McMurray and just three points down from second place Greg Biffle. Although it has been speculated that the main rookie race will be between McMurray and Biffle, it appears that Mears is injecting a little excitement into the pot.

With a little less than thirty races left in the season, it’s possible that Mears may end up moving up the ladder at any given time. As we all know, anything can happen during any race in any given season. These variables have been known to catapult the unsuspecting drivers to the top without the fanfare that they deserve. Let’s keep a close eye on the young gun Mears; he has great equipment and a great opportunity to succeed in Cup racing. For a complete, and the best, rundown on the rookie standings, go to Jakski.com .

Aaron’s 499…….. The event turned out to be a typical “not so typical” Talladega restrictor plate race. At least it wasn’t boring! The dreaded “big one” came much too early for most of the competitors, taking out 27 cars on lap four.

After all of the cautions for debris on the track for junk falling off of the previously wrecked cars, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally took the checkered flag winning a race that was roiled in controversy. It was Earnhardt’s forth consecutive win at the track, breaking a previous record of Buddy Bakers that Earnhardt tied last fall.

When the dust settled, and even before Earnhardt finished with his celebrations in victory lane, crews were lining up outside of the NASCAR Big Red Trailer to complain about the discrepancies in NASCAR’s handling of the rules.

Several articles have been written since protracting the driver’s and crew’s feeling about NASCAR’S inability to create a fair playing field for its competitors. Many have taken it upon themselves to label NASCAR’s penchant for haphazard rules interpretations as “selective officiating.”

In other words, the way NASCAR’s interpretation of the rules in an issue that you are involved in depends on your name or team. If a driver comes from a mediocre team that isn’t among the big names, then he is screwed. Or if he isn’t a big name and comes from a top team he may also find himself screwed, like Steve Park for instance. NASCAR black flagged Steve Park for driving below the yellow line while in the process of passing, even though he was forced down there, but they didn’t black flag Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for doing the same thing in the same race. It’s getting so that a bad odor surrounds names like Darby, Hunter, and Helton; the would-be impresarios of NASCAR.

To be quite honest with you, I doubt that anyone saw Jeff Gordon go beneath the infamous “yellow line.” It happened while, or as, Michael Waltrip was performing his usual on-track fiasco. All eyes were glued on the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet and not Jeff Gordon’s foray beneath the yellow line as he passed the out of control Waltrip.

Kevin Harvick finished in a well deserved second place followed by Elliott Sadler who got his career best Talladega finish of third. Ricky Craven, one of the drivers who were incensed with NASCAR’S rules calls and the way the teammates back each other against the field, came in forth. Terry Labonte got his first top five finish since the 2000 season rounding out the top five finishers.

Sterling Marlin, Ward Burton, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Robby Gordon finished in the top ten respectively.

Matt Kenseth is still the point’s leader over second place Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 129 points. Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon round out the top five with Ricky Craven, Michael Waltrip, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, and Elliott Sadler rounding out the top ten. Sadler was the biggest mover in the point’s standings jumping from 20th to 10th due to his top five finish. Other big movers were Sterling Marlin who moved up seven spots to 16th, Terry Labonte moved up seven spots to 24th, Robby Gordon moved up six spots to 13th, and Ricky Rudd lost seven spots down to 19th.

Next week race No. 9 is the Virginia 500 at the Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia. The event is scheduled to be aired live by FOX at 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, April 13th. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the SPEED channel on Friday, April, 11th at 3:30 p.m.

Last season’s winner of the event was Bobby Labonte. He was followed across the finish line by Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton, and Kurt Busch.

Jeff Gordon won the Bud pole on the .526 mile short track with a speed of 94.181 miles per hour. There were 14 cautions for 104 laps out of the 500 lap event.

4/13/03……….. I’ve read a lot of articles this past week concerning the controversy surrounding Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s late race pass below the yellow line on Matt Kenseth at Talladega. Dale Jr. says he’s amused by all of the articles that have been written about the incident and is also amused by the different approaches to the incident that writers have.

I guess if I won a race that set NASCAR records that I’d be amused too. I wonder if Matt Kenseth is amused. I know Jimmy Johnson isn’t, he’s been pretty vocal about that, along with Sterling Marlin, who drew a penalty last season for doing the same thing Junior did.

In a way, its good to see Junior on top of the heap for a change, but not this way, not embroiled in controversy. It seems like a lot of his restrictor plate wins have drawn criticism from inside of the Cup garage. Usually there is a hint of jealousy involved in the beginnings of controversial remarks associated with a lauded driver’s success. Such may be the case here, but there are those who relate to facts surrounding the controversies that put the jealousy theory on the back burner.

If a driver gets to the top of the heap with a clean suit, then that’s the suit he brings with him. If there are stains on the suit, they are there for everyone to see, and you can rest assured that they won’t be forgotten, regardless if his name is Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, or Tony Stewart.

The Virginia 500 short track race at Martinsville was the setting for Jeff Gordon’s 62nd career win in the Winston Cup Series. It was Gordon’s first win of the season which made nine different winners in the nine 2003 races run this season. It was also Gordon’s fourth win at the Martinsville track.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 1st
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 3rd
3. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 38th
4. Ken Schrader -- No. 49 Dodge -- finished 10th
5. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 8th
6. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy – finished 15th
7. Jimmy Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 9th
8. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 6th
9. Kenny Wallace -- No. 23 Dodge – finished 12th
10. Jeff Burton -- No. 99 Ford – finished 4th

Matt Kenseth is still the point’s leader with 1330 points, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. holding a strong second with just a -51. Gordon’s win moved him into third with a -139. Jimmie Johnson is still in fourth with a -179 while Kurt Busch dropped two spots to fifth with a -205. Positions six thru ten are Harvick, Stewart, Waltrip, Craven, and Sadler.

4/20/03 ……….. With most of the racers taking the weekend off to spend with their families, this is an opportune time to cover other subjects. One of the subjects in the news this past week that is definitely of interest to me and probably to millions of other stock car enthusiasts is TRAC.

Team Racing Auto Circuit is due to begin its racing season in May of 2004. Recent news about the new upcoming racing series is refreshing. I was beginning to think that TRAC was biting the dust due to the impoverished economy. Apparently this isn’t the case, the new series announced this past week that they have secured a long term television contract with ESPN. This is a great break for the fledgling series, ESPN is the main pioneer of televised auto racing and the new series couldn’t have coupled with a better network. We may even see Eli Gold calling a race from the booth again, who knows ESPN could hire him, they’ll be looking for experienced race broadcasters!

As far as it can be determined at this time, the racing series will consist of six fur car teams which are hoped to be situated in major cities around the United States. They are planning to run all 24 cars in each race, but the win will go to a team, and not an individual. The proposed 13 races in the first season are going to be shorter than the usual Winston Cup variety hopefully fitting into a two hour program that will be ran mostly on Saturdays and Saturday nights.

The shorter races will be a plus in drawing audiences that will provide solid bases for the teams. Long 500 mile races, especially on short tracks, tend to be boring and more time consuming than they are worth. The modern racing series of our time are trying to attract the attention of a new younger fan base. They are resorting to hyping their events with the music, dress, and demeanor of the younger generation.

Other good news coming from TRAC is the announcement of the agreement with Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) to use their facilities. The series will race at all six of SMI’s tracks: Texas, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Bristol, Atlanta, and Infineon. You certainly wouldn’t expect them to be racing at any of the tracks owned by the France family’s International Speedway Corp., who also own NASCAR. The France’s, especially patriarch Bill France, has a long standing feud with SMI chairman O. Bruton Smith that isn’t expected to be resolved anytime soon, or within the next several decades.

I’ve heard a lot of my friends who are die hard NASCAR fans put the new racing series down. They claim that they doubt that it will ever get off of the ground, let alone be successful. This may be true, their actual start up has yet to happen and with the economic problems facing corporations these days, sponsorship may be next to impossible to secure. The top three series in NASCAR are facing uncertain futures as it is, let alone its lesser series. Then you have to consider other racing entities that are also struggling for their piece of the pie to survive.

When it comes right down to apples and oranges, I think some competition in the stock car racing arena would be a welcome addition to the sport. NASCAR has had the idea that it has a monopoly on stock car racing, discounting the existence of ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) and ASA (American Speed Association) racing as second rate would-be stock car racing. The existence of TRAC is bound to help legitimize stock car leagues and series other than those sanctioned by NASCAR.

Another item that caught my eye recently was the federal prosecution of a NASCAR fan who ended up pleading guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of damage to a protected computer system. The New England fan could face a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison.

It seems that in the spring of 2001 during the beginning of NASCAR’s infamous TV contract, some of the FOX broadcasting affiliates had a penchant to disregard NASCAR races in favor of airing live baseball games. A tape recorded version of the race would be shown later on in the evening.

I can remember it well, as a DishNet subscriber who had purchased the satellite system in order to be able to view the races. One Sunday in particular, the FOX East affiliate out of New York City opted to air a live Yankees baseball game instead of airing the race. Needless to say, I was furious. I remember staying on the phone to DishNet for over two hours in an effort to purchase FOX West. Apparently, there were hundreds of thousands of other fans who were attempting to do the same thing, the DishNet phone lines were jammed, and I ended up dejectedly hanging up with a sore ear. I was finally able to purchase FOX West the following day, and I still watch NASCAR races from that affiliate instead of the one out of New York.

It seems that the same thing happened to this fan who lived in the Boston area. The Boston FOX affiliate decided to air a Boston Red Sox game instead of the race. The infuriated race fan happened to be a computer professional, and quickly wrote a computer program that was used to flood the FOX website with over a half million copies of six different angry emails. The flood of emails caused the site to shut down. The FOX network cried foul and claimed a loss of over $35k, which led to the federal prosecution of the fan. I say more power to him!

Apparently NASCAR sat FOX down and had a discussion about not providing live race coverage like their contract called for. In turn, FOX laid the law down to their affiliates and required them to offer their customers live race coverage instead of taped versions. It remains to be seen what will end up happening to the fan, chances are he’ll get off with probation, although it’s my opinion that he should be awarded a medal! p> Next week the racing activity starts back up with race No. 10 at the California Speedway. The Auto Club 500 is scheduled to be televised live by the FOX channel at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, April 27th. Qualifying for the event will be aired live by the SPEED channel on Friday, April 25th at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson got his first Cup victory at last season’s Auto Parts 500 on the California Speedway. He was followed across the finish line by Kurt Busch, Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Rusty Wallace, Dave Blaney, and Michael Waltrip.

Rookie Ryan Newman won last year’s pole starting position for the event setting a track record of 187.432 miles per hour. There were only five caution periods for a total of 24 laps out of the 500 mile 250 lap race on the 2 mile D shaped oval track. This will be the seventh Cup race at the venue. Jeff Gordon is the only driver with two wins, 1997 and 1999. Mark Martin won the second event in 1998, Jeremy Mayfield won in 2000, and Rusty Wallace took the checkered flag at California in 2001.

4/28/03……….. Earlier this year NASCAR and R.J. Reynolds both announced that the 30+ year Winston cigarette brand sponsorship of NASCAR’s top division was coming to a close. The cigarette company has faced a huge downturn following the tobacco settlement of 2001 and all of the negative advertising about smoking that caused people to quit smoking by the hundreds of thousands.

Since this announcement last winter NASCAR executives have been working to find a replacement for Winston. The size and scope of the sponsorship makes it difficult for any corporation to assume such a vast economic commitment. Winston has been pumping millions of dollars into NASCAR every year for a third of a century. Every year it has increased its financial participation. This year alone, as they are reported to be leaving, they are pumping at least 17 million into driver’s championship points fund with at least 4.25 million going to the 2003 champion. Those are going to be hard shoes to fill. The annual outlay from Winston has been between $30 and $60 million, depending on the individual fan contests and driver award programs running in a particular season

To be quite honest with you, I don’t see it happening. I don’t think the NASCAR executives are going to find another sponsor in the corporate world that will be willing to dedicate that much capital annually into stock car racing. Companies mentioned in speculation to take over from Winston are Anheuser-Busch, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Visa.

NASCAR stated earlier that they have fears about partnering with a beer company because of what happened with Winston. The tides could turn against beer sales in the future just as they did for cigarette sales in the past. That leaves Coca-Cola and Visa as viable candidates. McDonalds has had a lot of financial uncertainty in the past, and has taken a beating with its foreign escapades while trying to branch out world wide.

Don’t be surprised if the climate of sponsorship changes for the Cup Series with a partnership of different sponsors entering into the fray. I have serious doubts that NASCAR can find one valid sponsor to fill Winston’s shoes. It’s really doubtful with today’s economic climate the way it is, that any corporate structure will commit that much money annually for as long a period of time as the NASCAR executives are shooting for. Just because Winston stayed with NASCAR for over 30 years, doesn’t mean that another sponsor will do the same. I think at this day and age, they’ll be lucky to get a contract signed for a five year period. I believe that after Winston makes its exit, the series will change dramatically compared to the way we know it now.

Auto Club 500 ……… The California race could have tied NASCAR’s record of ten different winners in the first ten races of the season, but it didn’t happen that way. Kurt Busch became the first repeat winner, racking up his sixth career victory. He was followed across the finish line by B. Labonte, R. Wallace, Elliott, McMurray, Dale Jr., Waltrip, Andretti, Marlin, and Kenseth.

The race produced nine cautions, and nine different leaders with 18 lead changes. Tony Stewart led the most laps (100), followed by R. Wallace (54), J. McMurray (41), K. Busch (27), B. Elliott (12), and B. Labonte (11). The 500 mile 250 lap race on the two mile California track took three hours and thirty four minutes.

A lot of hoopla was made when Steve Park won the pole starting position. His job has been speculated to be at risk for the past year, and his paltry performance so far this season has fueled even more speculation about him being replaced in the No. 1 Pennzoil sponsored DEI Chevrolet. The pole win was a breath of fresh air for the team, but it gave the troubled driver too much confidence. He must have been “California Dreaming” because drove into turn two too hard on the first lap and ran out of racetrack when he careened toward the wall taking Ryan Newman out of the race when he smashed him into the wall. Newman, driver of the No. 12 ALLTEL sponsored Penske Racing’s Ford was visibly dejected and upset with his lot as he was seen working on pounding out the dented fenders in the garage. Speculation will again surround and hound the DEI No. 1 team, which may very well cause it to sink deeper into the doldrums due to the unsettling rumors breaking down the team chemistry.

The top three positions in the driver’s point’s standings remain the same in status, just the points have changed. Matt Kenseth leads Dale Jr. with 1473 points to Jr.’s 1429, a 44 point difference going into next week’s night race at Richmond. Jeff Gordon is now at a -152 points down from Kenseth. Kurt Busch’s second win moved him up one spot to fourth with a -168 while Jimmy Johnson lost a spot to fifth with a -207. Positions six thru ten have Michael Waltrip moving up two spots with a -239 followed by Ricky Craven also moving up two spots with a -268. B. Labonte’s finish moved him up three spots to eighth with a -272 followed by Kevin Harvick in ninth dropping three spots with a -300. Elliott Sadler remains in tenth with a -324. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Steve Park -- No. 1 Chevy – finished 40th
2. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 4th
3. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 41st
4. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge -- finished 42nd
5. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 23rd
6. Jerry Nadeau -- No. 01 Ford – finished 14th
7. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 3rd
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 6th
9. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy – finished 32nd
10. Jeff Burton -- No. 99 Ford – finished 19th

Next week…. race No. 11 on the Cup schedule is the Pontiac Excitement 400 from Richmond International Speedway, Richmond, Virginia. Broadcast activities for the first night race of the season will begin at 7 PM Eastern via the FX channel on Saturday, May 3rd. Qualifying for the event will be televised by the SPEED channel on Friday, May 2nd at 3 PM Eastern.

Last years winner of the event was current Cup Champion Tony Stewart. He was followed across the finish line by rookie Ryan Newman, Virginia native Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, Jeremy Mayfield, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Steve Grissom (No. 44 Georgia Pacific Petty Enterprises Dodge), Ricky Craven, and Jimmy Spencer.

Virginia native Ward Burton won the Pole starting position last season with a record setting speed of 127.389 miles per hour. There were 14 caution periods for 103 laps out of the 400 mile 300 lap race on the ¾ mile short track.