6/1/03……….. The 28th of May was the prescribed date for all NASCAR teams in the top three series to follow the mandated directive to install double tethers to the front wheels of all racing vehicles.

Earlier in the season, when Ryan Newman got into a wreck and lost a wheel at Talladega that sailed over the fencing and landed on a track employees vehicle, the sanctioning body mandated that all front tethers be doubled on tracks larger than 1.25 miles. The new mandate covers all tracks on the various NASCAR sanctioned tracks used in all three of its top series.

Previously, after a couple wheel were lost a couple of seasons ago and after spectators were killed at Charlotte when a wheel flew into the stands after a wreck during an open wheel Indy car race, NASCAR mandated that front wheels be tethered with a braided steel cable. The steel cables worked fine until the one broke and then the sanctioning body mandated carbon fiber tethers to replace the woven steel. Then they doubled the tethers on tracks over 1.25 miles, and now they have extended it to cover all tracks.

The MBNA 400 was won by Ryan Newman for his second victory of the season in his sophomore year and the third of his storied career. The 2002 Raybestos Rookie of the Year had to fight the steering wheel throughout the second half of the race as a result of losing his power steering. His car was smoking for slightly for quite a while and it was thought that his day may have been over early, but the smoke was coming from a faulty power steering box. When the power steering fluid burned away, the smoking stopped.

Jeff Gordon was a threat during most of the race, and managed to come in second place behind Newman. He ran over Sterling Marlin once again, punting Marlin into the wall and out of the race. Marlin is furious with Gordon’s actions, as Gordon has taken him out of two of the last three races as a result of his rough callous driving. It appears that Gordon has been taking some lessons from the Bodines, he’s driving just like them, if a car gets in his way, he just runs over it. Race No. 14 on the schedule is the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race is scheduled to be broadcast live by the FX channel on Sunday, June 8th at 12:30 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be broadcast with taped time delay by the SPEED channel on Friday, June 6th at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the Pocono 500 was Dale Jarrett. He was followed across the finish line by Mark Martin, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, and Dave Blaney.

There was no Bud pole awarded last season. Qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather, mandating the field to line up according to owner’s points. There were five caution periods for a total of 17 laps out of the 500 mile 200 lap race on the 2.5 mile tri-oval track

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 1st
2. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 6th
3. Jeremy Mayfield -- No. 19 Dodge – finished 21st
4. Matt Kenseth -- No. 17 Ford -- finished 7th
5. Jimmie Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 38th
6. Sterling Marlin -- No. 40 Dodge – finished 35th
7. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 15th
8. Terry Labonte -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 10th
9. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 2nd
10. Steve Park -- No. 30 Chevy – finished 32nd

Matt Kenseth is still sitting atop the driver’s points and has lengthened his lead over Earnhardt from 160 to 171 points. J. Gordon is still in third and is now listed with a -187. Bobby Labonte’s third place finish moved him up two spots to fourth with a -229 while Kurt Busch dropped one spot to round out the top five with a -247. Michael Waltrip moved up one spot to sixth with a -314 while Jimmie Johnson dropped two spots to seventh with a -339. Rusty Wallace moved up two spots to eighth with a -389 followed by Kevin Harvick who dropped one spot to ninth with a -406. Robby Gordon has moved up two spots to round out the top ten with a -472.

Next week race No. 14 on the schedule is the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The race is scheduled to be broadcast live by the FX channel on Sunday, June 8th at 12:30 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be broadcast with taped time delay by the SPEED channel on Friday, June 6th at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the Pocono 500 was Dale Jarrett. He was followed across the finish line by Mark Martin, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, and Dave Blaney.

There was no Bud pole awarded last season. Qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather, mandating the field to line up according to owner’s points. There were five caution periods for a total of 17 laps out of the 500 mile 200 lap race on the 2.5 mile tri-oval track.

I’m rather amused by the recent article where Jeff Gordon claims to own up to aggressive driving. He is reported to have also owned up to wrecking Sterling Marlin twice within the last three weeks prior to the Pocono race.

Of course, when a driver runs over another driver with a blatant move taken right out of the Bodine playbook, they always go back to Richmond, or Las Vegas where so and so ran into me umpteen season’s ago, thinking that they are justified in their rough driving because they too were victims of such once upon a time in the west…………

So if this is the case why do they say that the latest fracas on the track is forgotten and that they are now concentrating on the upcoming race? Yeah right. They have to say what they have to sat to appease NASCAR and that’s the only reason they say it. Who was it that never forgets? Was it Jimmy Spencer? Actually, Spencer has become one of the milder acting drivers on the circuit of late. Now that I’ve written that, just watch him run over every driver in sight like he used to. I remember a few seasons ago my son and I were watching a race and he made the comment that Spencer had hit everything on the track except the pace car. Not too long after that, Spencer whacked the pace car.

Getting back to Gordon’s aggressive style, we must be aware that his style of driving isn’t anything new. The fact that he has decided to try out his Earnhardt bump and run style on Marlin may be something that will eventually teach him a valuable lesson as to where the bear went through the buckwheat. If anyone out there can show Gordon where that particular path is, it’s Sterling Marlin.

I’ve always liked Sterling, and will openly admit that I was once a member of his fan club. Sterling is a compelling sort of guy with his laid back good ol’ boy demeanor, but when it comes down to apples and oranges, he’s a guy who knows his way around a race track in more ways than one. Sterling is known for his non-aggressive subtle moves that sometimes put people into the wall in such a way that they end up in a hospital , or maybe even worse, but I won’t get into that, what’s done is done. Sterling doesn’t say he’s going to get anyone, he just grins, maybe says something like how disappointed he is, then just walks away. I assure you though, Sterling is also one who never forgets, and when the time comes for the payback, it’s usually one that takes the unfortunate receiver out of the race. Gordon needs to be careful, he may be fixing to learn that when you mess with the bull, you get the horn……… Come to think of it, Gordon’s been lucky, he hasn’t had the opportunity to “pay his dues” with a trip to the hospital that will take him out of racing for a few weeks or months. One of these days he’s going to find out what Ricky Craven, Steve Park, Bill Elliott, and lots of other drivers have learned, those racecars can hurt you!


The Fine Print……

There’s still a lot of hoopla surrounding the much publicized split between Dodge Motorsports and Bill Davis Racing. I assume that the story will remain in the media for many months to come as the professed case wafts it’s way through the court systems.

I made a comment in my former article about Bill Davis either being dumb about his contract, or that he just didn’t care. After more thought on the subject and after reading more material on the matter, I think maybe Davis and his attorneys were on top of the game from the beginning.

When I say beginning, I mean when the whole thing started to take shape, which was no doubt sometime in 2002. Davis was reported to have taken the Toyota truck to the wind tunnel in Georgia some time in February, which means that he would have had to have been working on the vehicle for quite a spell before it was ready for that type of advanced testing.

At any rate, maybe the fine print comes into play here. After reading what a lot of owners had to say about their contracts with the manufacturers who support them, I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole thing boils down to interpretation of words, which is actually the basis for contract law to begin with. What I’m getting at is simply this: In the mainstream of contracts with manufacturers, team owners are forbidden to aid or support any manufacturer who is competing against the manufacturer who is supporting them. Toyota isn’t competing in NASCAR, it’s as simple as that.

Yes, they are slated to enter into the Craftsman Truck Series next season, but that is just conjecture at this point in time. There is no actual guarantee that this is going to happen. At this point they are not competing against Dodge Motorsports per say. I’m not going to go out and bet the farm on it, but I feel that this is where Davis is basing his confidence going into a court battle with Dodge Motorsports.

When it comes right down to the apples and oranges of the situation, Davis may very well end up the victor when the final curtain falls. He didn’t help a competitor because they aren’t competing, and Toyota is just as advanced, or more so, in automotive technology as is Daimler Chrysler’s Dodge Motorsports. Davis may really be looking a gift horse in the mouth by being a key member in the forefront of Toyota’s entry into NASCAR racing. I know for a fact that the Asian business community takes care of those who take care of them. I’m acquainted with a man who started racing and selling Japanese motorcycles back in the 50’s and 60’s when they weren’t popular. Today, this fellow is one of the wealthiest men in the business.


Pocono 500…………. Tony Stewart

The current Cup champion finally racked up his first win of the season with a victory in the Pocono 500. It was Stewart’s first win at the Pocono track and his 16th overall victory in his fifth year of Cup racing. His last win was at Watkins Glen last August 11th.

Mark Martin followed Stewart across the finish line under caution marking his 17th top five at the Pocono facility. Point’s leader Matt Kenseth widened his lead over Dale Jr. by finishing third ahead of Dale and Ryan Newman who rounded out the top five. Positions six thru ten were taken by Sterling Marlin, Terry Labonte, Ward Burton, Elliott Sadler, and Ricky Craven.

The Pocono track didn’t disappoint the action seekers as there were two spectacular crashes that marred the day’s activities. Early in the race, Ken Schrader lost his brakes going into turn one at nearly 200 miles per hour. Instead of taking a chance on hitting the turn one wall head on, he spun the car out intentionally, causing it to smash into the wall backwards, busting the fuel cell and causing a fireball as he spun down into the infield. Schrader made a safe exit out of the burning vehicle, although with all of the required safety equipment, it seemed to take him forever.

The other wreck happened at the end of the race when Terry Labonte ran over Jeff Green. Labonte ran straight up under the rear of Green’s car spinning him out into the infield coming out of the short chute heading for turn three. Green hit the wall head on at better than 140 miles per hour, with the car bouncing back and spinning off into the grass. It was one of the hardest hits I’ve seen in quite a while. While watching the replays, it became apparent that the safety devices implemented since Dale Earnhardt’s death are what saved Jeff Greens life. The forward motion of the car hitting the wall head on and the snap back effect of the car bouncing backward would have snapped a driver’s neck without a head and neck safety device. A special thanks to Mr. Dale Earnhardt, for saving another life!

Believe it or not, the top nine positions in the driver’s points standings remain the same. Matt Kenseth now has 2115 points and is 176 points ahead of second place Dale Jr. Jeff Gordon follows with a -233 with Bobby Labonte behind him in fourth with a -287. Kurt Busch still rounds out the top five and is now listed with a -362. Waltrip -370, Johnson -377, Rusty Wallace -444, and Harvick -485 hold positions six thru nine with Sterling Marlin moving up one spot to tenth with a -492. Honorable mention goes out to Mark martin who moved up four spots to 11th with a -513. The biggest mover in the points was Ward Burton who moved up five spots to 20th. The biggest losers were Robby Gordon who dropped five spots to 15th and Joe Nemechek who dropped five spots to 18th.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Jimmie Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 12th
2. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 5th
3. Bobby Labonte -- No. 18 Chevy – finished 17th
4. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy -- finished 1st
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 4th
6. Mark Martin -- No. 6 Ford – finished 2nd
7. Dale Jarrett -- No. 88 Ford – finished 42nd
8. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Ford – finished 19th
9. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 9th
10. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 36th

Race No. 15 on the 2003 schedule is the Sirius Satellite Radio 400 on the Michigan International Speedway. The event is slated to be televised live by the FOX channel on Sunday, June 15th, at 12:30 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the event is slated to be telecast via time delay on the SPEED channel, Friday, June 13th at 3 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the event was Matt Kenseth. He was followed across the finish line by Dale Jarrett, rookie Ryan Newman, Michael Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, Johnny Benson, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin, and Kurt Busch.

Dale Jarrett won the Bud Pole award with a speed of 189.071 miles per hour. There were 4 caution periods for a total of 16 laps out of the 200 lap race on the two mile D-shaped oval track.

Newsbytes…….

It’s good to hear that wonder boy Gordon and his beloved Brooke have finally settled their differences and are heading their separate ways. The news reports were vague on the actual details of the settlement, which isn’t really a surprise. Who cares anyway?

Brooke is reported to have ended up with a little over the paltry sum of $15 million that is due to come from selling their Florida home and additional property held in that state by the two former love birds. Now, maybe she’ll be able to pay for the new $1.8 million dollar house she was reported to be building in North Carolina. Whoop-dee-doo………..

The dreaded news finally hit the airwaves on the 2004 Cup schedule re-alignment. Folks in the Carolinas are no doubt upset that Rockingham is definitely losing a race date. Some see it as a “handwriting on the wall” kind of omen of things to come as the sport wafts its way out of the Carolinas on to the more lucrative markets of the north and west. Tradition means nothing when the almighty dollar is involved, and there’s hardly anything happening these days that don’t involve money in some fashion or other.

The recent move takes the number of Carolina races from eight in 1996 down to five on next season’s schedule with three in North Carolina and two at Darlington in South Carolina. You can rest assured that Virginians will be the next in line to suffer financial loss in the future when they lose a Martinsville race. With the sanctioning body steering its course to appease the TV networks, the Martinsville facility had better install lighting for night racing or face the dire consequences.

The last owner/driver in Cup racing is reported to be hitting the skids after the Michigan race. I’m really not surprised, and I doubt that anyone else is either. With sponsorships hard to garner these days, its no surprise to see a losing team lose its sponsors support. Let’s face it, Bret Bodine hasn’t really been a boon for his former sponsor, the Hooters restaurant chain.

The handwriting was on the wall last winter when Bodine’s estranged wife Diane was arrested for making threats against a female Hooter’s employee due to her supposed closeness with her husband Bret. Not only was the bad press from that incident a detriment to Bodine’s sponsorship, his lack of performance was probably the main factor.

Being associated with a losing driver like Bodine compared to the successful years with Davy Allison had to be a major letdown for Hooters. Of course, they wanted to renew their association with stock car racing, and they may again dabble with sponsorship in the future, but hopefully the company will choose a team that has some promise of success.

Joining the “not surprised” column this week is the firing of John Andretti from Petty Enterprises. One amusing aspect of the whole thing is this, “Who’s going to fire Kyle Petty?” Has he done any better than Andretti has? Certainly not of late, by any means.

In 25 years with a total of over 660 starts, Petty has eight wins, 21 top five finishes, 168 top ten finishes, has won eight pole starting positions, and is currently 38th in driver’s points going into Michigan. In roughly ten years with around 313 starts, Andretti has two wins, 13 top five finishes, 37 top ten finishes, has won two pole starting positions, and was 33rd in driver’s points when he was fired before the Michigan race.

With the young guns holding their own in Cup racing its fitting that Petty has chosen Christian Fittipaldi to occupy the seat of the No. 43 Cheerio’s sponsored Petty Dodge. His only other starts in Cup racing this season have been in the season opener at Daytona where made the field to start 34th, and finished the race 35th and at Texas where he started 38th and finished 28th. The new young driver qualified on his time in the last spot of 36th for this week’s Michigan race where he made his debut replacing Andretti.

It’s sad but it’s true, Andretti was shaken up quite a bit by his release. The shock wore off during the week and he reluctantly made an appearance in the garage area at Michigan half way expecting to be treated like he was stricken with the plague. To his surprise and relief, he was supported by the NASCAR family to the extent that the harshness was immediately removed from the reality of his circumstance. This NASCAR family atmosphere will help him seek employment with another team with his head held high. I’m sure we all wish John all of the luck in the world. Who knows, maybe the right set of circumstances will bring about the chemistry for him to be a big success one of these days.

The most popular vehicle manufacturer in NASCAR racing? NASCAR.com had a poll Sunday that asked which manufacturer would be sitting in victory lane after the Michigan race. With over 40k voting when I last looked at it, over 70% had chosen Chevrolet over the Dodge, Ford, and Pontiac models. Starting the Michigan race were 15 Chevrolets, 13 Dodges, 11 Fords, and four Pontiacs.

The soft wall technology subject came up during the pre-race TV show at Michigan and Darrell Waltrip was stating that there wasn’t any viable reason why the technology wasn’t being used at more tracks seeing that it had been around now for a couple of years.

NASCAR President Mike Helton was on the scene being interviewed by Mike Joy. He stated that testing was still needed to assure that the right sized system was used at different tracks. I’m not sure how many people buy that lame excuse, but I can assure you that I don’t buy it for a second. The Safer technology is what it is, with the foam and collapsible hollow channel steel inserts held by steel cables. The technology wasn’t designed to be changed for different tracks and for different locations. This excuse is just a ploy to make people believe they are working on something that they aren’t even seriously bothering with. The whole thing revolves around spending money in a soft economy for safety, when they have done without it for all of these years. They are trying to take the time to work it into their annual track budgets, and they are finding it extremely difficult to do. The just can’t come right out and say that they can’t afford to save lives because it will eat into their profits, but the truth is, that is actually what is going on. You can take that to the bank!

Sirius satellite radio 400…….

Kurt Busch smoked the field in the waning laps with the Roush Racing No. 97 Rubbermaid/Sharpies sponsored Ford, giving the Ford Motor Co. a win on their 100th anniversary. It was Busch’s third win of the season, making him the top multiple Cup race winner up to this point for 2003. The victory also marked the 25 year old Busch’s 7th career win in his third full year in Cup racing.

Following Busch across the finish line were Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, and Terry Labonte.

The top the starters and how the finished:

1. Bobby Labonte -- No. 18 Chevy – finished 2nd
2. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 8th
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 7th
4. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford -- finished 1st
5. Terry Labonte -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 10th
6. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 3rd
7. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 17th
8. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 41st
9. Michael Waltrip -- No. 15 Chevy – finished 5th
10. Kevin Harvick -- No. 29 Chevy – finished 18th

The driver’s points race is still led by Matt Kenseth. As a matter of fact, with a total of 2275 points, he now commands a 185 point lead over second place driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. This development may not have had to happen. I’m sure that Dale Jr. is somewhat miffed with his teammate Michael Waltrip. Here we have Dale Jr. trying to whittle down Kenseth’s point’s lead, racing in the final laps in the race for position over Kenseth, and Waltrip enters the fray, trying to pass his teammate. I’ve seen Waltrip make some stupid moves over the years, especially when he was a loser in the No. 21 Wood Brother’s Racing’s Motorcraft sponsored Ford. Getting up to the front racing your teammate who is in a points battle with another competitor that he’s also racing, is a stupid move. I’m sure he will be dressed down at DEI for his thoughtless immature actions. His entering into the group allowed Kenseth to get ahead of Dale Jr. and when Kenseth slid up in front of Dale Jr. they made contact which caused Jr. to drop back from fifth to seventh, losing valuable points, with stupid teammate Waltrip and point’s leader Kenseth both finishing ahead of him. Waltrip deserves drip of the week acknowledgement for that move… Even Steve Park had more brains and loyalty that that!

Jeff Gordon is still third in points, now with a -223, followed by Bobby Labonte who is now listed with a -277. Labonte has six top finishes out of the last seven races. If he keeps this up he will become a strong contender for the top spot in the last half of the season. Kurt Busch still rounds out the top five with a -342. With the top eight positions remaining the same in the points, Waltrip is sixth with a -375 followed by Johnson with a -422, and Rusty Wallace with a -477. Sterling Marlin moved up one spot to ninth with a -492 followed by Mark Martin who moved up one spot to round out the top with a -535.

Next Week…….

Race No. 16 on the 2003 schedule is the Dodge/Save Mart 300 at Infineon Raceway at Sears point, California. The event is slated to be the last race FOX will air this season, and will be televised live on Sunday, June 22nd at 3:30 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the road racing event will be televised via time delay on the SPEED channel Friday, June 20th at 6 p.m. eastern.

Last season’s winner of the event was Ricky Rudd. He was followed across the finish line by Tony Stewart, Terry Labonte, Kurt Busch, Jeff Green, Elliott Sadler, Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, rookie Ryan Newman, and John Andretti.

Tony Stewart won the Bud pole with a speed of 93.476 miles per hour. There were only three caution periods for a total of nine laps out of the 110 lap race on the 1.99 mile road course.

Hired Guns?

When the road races come up on the Cup schedule, there are usually two or three teams who resort to hiring a road racing specialist to bolster their chances for a good finish or maybe even a win. Usually a couple teams substitute their regular driver for the services of the hired gun and another team may field an extra ride for that particular race with a hired gun at the wheel.

Before this season’s race at Infineon, there had been 14 races at the Sonoma, California facility, and none of these prior races have been won by a hired gun. They have all been won by established Cup race drivers:

• Jeff Gordon – 1998, 1999, 2000
• Rusty Wallace – 1990, 1996
• Ricky Rudd – 1989, 2002
• Ernie Irvan – 1992, 1994
• Davey Allison – 1991
• Dale Earnhardt – 1995
• Geoff Bodine – 1993
• Mark Martin – 1997
• Tony Stewart – 2001

This season for the Sonoma race, six teams used “hired guns” to race their entries. Out of the six teams, who resorted to using ringers for the race, only four of the hired gun drivers qualified for the event. P J Jones tried unsuccessfully to qualify the No. 14 Harrah’s sponsored A J Foyt Racing’s Dodge, while Paul Menard failed to qualify the No. 33 Turtle Wax sponsored Chevrolet.

The ever insistent Boris Said, who would do just about anything for a permanent Cup ride, won the Bud pole with the No. 01 US Army Pontiac usually driven by Jerry Nadeau, and set a track record of 93.620 miles per hour in the process. Ron Fellows, the other insistent road racer who is always on the hired gun list qualified DEI’s No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet in the third position. Scott Pruitt was hired as a fourth entry for Chip Ganassi Racing and qualified 18th in the No. 9 Target sponsored Dodge and Johnny Miller, who is currently leading the points in the Trans Am Series, qualified the No. 4 Kodak Pontiac in the 36th and final position on his time.

It remains to be seen how Boris Said’s Bud pole win will affect the 2004 Bud Shootout for pole winners of the previous season. It may come to pass that some team owner will put him in a car for the event. It would be a big plus for said to be able to race in Cup competition other than the road races. MB2 Motorsports, owner of the No. 01, may put him in that ride for the shootout if Jerry Nadeau fails to win a pole this season. At this point, it’s a hard call as to when and if Nadeau will be back in the driver’s seat before the season finale in November.

Rookie Roundup ………..

As the season is just about half way in the books, it’s time to review the rookie standings. When the season was first getting under way, it seemed that Greg Biffle was going to run away with the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title battle, but his luck didn’t hold out. Jamie McMurray’s consistency finally got him into the lead, but only by a few points going into the road racing event at Sonoma. The following are the standings after 15 races:

1. Jamie McMurray – 162 pts.
2. Greg Biffle – 157 pts.
3. Casey Mears – 136 pts.
4. Jack Sprague – 134 pts.
5. Tony Raines – 126 pts.
6. Larry Foyt – 77 pts.
7. Hideo Fukuyama – 11 pts.

For a full rundown on the rookie standings there’s only one place on the Internet that has it all and more. Visit Jayski’s for a full rundown on the race by race rookie stats, plus an in-depth explanation of how the rookie point system works.

Where was Tony?

It seemed to me that there was someone missing from the big NASCAR sponsorship announcement this past week. If anyone was wondering whether NASCAR played favorites among its drivers, there should be no question as to the answer to that one. Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were invited to participate in the Cup Series sponsorship announcement at Times Square in NYC, but the current Cup Series Champion was not there.

I guess if your name is Jeff Gordon and you win the championship, it becomes a big deal. Or, if your father was a seven time Cup champion, you’re automatically a big deal. If your name isn’t Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr., you may as well not even think about winning the championship because you will be ignored, like Tony Stewart is……. I wonder how they will treat Matt Kenseth if he ends up with the brass ring this season.

A New Series Sponsor….

The new Cup Series sponsorship is already causing concern among teams who have wireless sponsors and also those who have associate wireless sponsors who are planning or have set plans in motion to move up to full team sponsorship in 2004. The sanctioning body has shown many times in the past that it puts itself far above the teams that make up its existence. NASCAR has competed with and taken sponsorship away from teams on more than one occasion just to sponsor one race at the France families International Speedway Corp. tracks.

The major sponsorship of the ALLTEL and Cingular wireless companies will be allowed because they existed at the time the series sponsorship deal was consummated. There are other wireless company associate sponsorships that are in question. It’s expected that associate wireless sponsorships will be allowed in the future if they are in place now, but the associate sponsorships that have plans to move to full team sponsorships for the 2004 series will be running into problems.

While Winston was sponsoring the Cup series there weren’t any other cigarette companies with major team sponsorships. As far as what has been reported, R. J. Reynolds wouldn’t allow it, although there were smokeless companies like Skoal and Timber Wolf that were allowed to assume major sponsorships.

It seems that Roush Racing and DEI are competing for A T & T wireless sponsorship and that BAM Racing, which already has associate A T & T sponsorship, was planning on A T & T to move up to full sponsorship for the 2004 season. The CITGO company is leaving the No. 99 Roush Racing Ford driven by Jeff Burton, and apparently Pennzoil is also leaving the No. 1 DEI Chevrolet at the end of the season. Both Roush Racing and DEI were in negotiations for A T&T sponsorships, but NASCAR has negated the move because of the new series sponsorship. You can rest assured that there will be continued bickering and maybe even some legal battles in the works because of the exclusivity of the wireless sponsorships in NASCAR because of the new Nextel series sponsorship.

There are a lot of wireless companies on the market these days, with Verizon and A T&T leading the way. Sprint, Cingular, ALLTEL, and Sprint are just some of the main players. The A T & T company is my wireless provider and Verizon is also big in the northeast. It remains to be seen if the Nextel organization will benefit as much as they think they will with NASCAR partnership. I’m remembering the problems that the NBC television network had its first year or so and all of the bickering that it did about what they had to do in order to maintain its contract with NASCAR. Maybe Nextel has made a deal with the devil and doesn’t know it yet.

Not to put Nextel down because they have lots of competitors. The Winston division of R. J. Reynolds had lots of competition for the thirty or more years that they were the main sponsor of the Cup Series, but that didn’t deter them any. Winston had lots of cigarette brands competing against them but they still held their own until the attorneys generals of several states put a crimp in their advertising methods with the major cigarette deal of 1998.

Infineon …….

Robby Gordon hung on to best a hard charging Jeff Gordon to win his second career Cup race on the Sonoma Infineon road course at Sears Point. Jeff Gordon would have punted him out of the way to take the win, but he couldn’t catch Robby Gordon to get a bumper on him to steal the victory. It was a good day for Richard Childress Racing as his teams finished first and third.

There were a lot of spin-outs during the race, with a lot of contact in and out of the tight corners, but no serious debilitating wrecks. It was apparent that some of the stock car racers weren’t ready for the road course. Kyle Petty certainly wasn’t, he hit everything on the track except the pace car, and Kurt Busch wasn’t far behind. Christian Fittipaldi was also in the dirt a lot along with Jeff Burton. Some of these people just can’t run road courses, but with Fittipaldi, it had to be inexperience in the big heavy stock car more so than the problem with the road course.

It was kind of apparent that a caution was needed at the end of the race to give Robby Gordon a challenge for the win. The Japanese rookie driver Hideo Fukuyama slowed on the track claiming that he had blown his engine. The car crawled slowly off of the track onto the pit road and stopped. This caused a caution flag to stop the racing action, something that Robby Gordon stated on his radio that he didn’t need. As soon as the caution flag flew to stop the action, Fukuyama started up his supposedly crippled car and drove it off without a problem. As soon as the green flag waved to restart the race, there was Jeff Gordon challenging Robby Gordon for the lead. Did that smell or what? You can’t make me believe that NASCAR doesn’t control the racing action to the best of their ability. I got a phone call at the time of the caution asking me if I had any idea how much the rookie Fukuyama was paid for that little stunt. It is more obvious this season than it ever was, legitimate racing has given way to sports entertainment.

Jeff Gordon was upset with Robby Gordon after the event. He had to have been upset that he couldn’t get close enough to Robby to bump him out of the race so he could win; it had to have gotten his goat really bad. NASCAR had set the stage for another Jeff Gordon victory, and he couldn’t deliver! In retaliation, Jeff Gordon chastised Robby Gordon for passing his teammate while racing back to the caution flag. The whining Jeff Gordon stated that it was a bunch of crap and that Robby wouldn’t and shouldn’t be respected by his competitors for that move. Jeff Gordon was livid that Robby broke the so-called gentlemen’s agreement not to race back to the caution flag for safety reasons.

Jeff Gordon is just whining because he lost the race that NASCAR had given him. The gentlemen’s agreement has been broken at nearly every race on the circuit, and it’s mainly set up for oval tracks, not for road courses where there’s no room for racing to the line to get laps back. Who make Jeff Gordon the track policeman for NASCAR? The different ways that wonder boy can find to make a fool of himself never cease to amaze me! Drag that one through your teeth, Jeff Gordon fans!

The road course interlopers or “Ringers” as people like to call then didn’t win, as per usual, but they did put on a good show to insure their hire for the next road course fiasco at The Glen. Boris Said and Ron Fellows finished sixth and seventh respectively. Johnny Miller finished 24th and Scott Pruitt finished 34th.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Boris Said -- No. 01 Pontiac—finished 6th
2. Robby Gordon -- No. 31 Chevy – finished 1st
3. Ron Fellows -- No. 1 Chevy – finished 7th
4. Matt Kenseth -- No. 17 Ford -- finished 14th
5. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 28th
6. Kevin Harvick -- No. 29 Chevy – finished 3rd
7. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 8th
8. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 2nd
9. Ricky Rudd -- No. 21 Ford – finished 15th
10. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 12th

Matt Kenseth managed to hold on the his drivers points lead and is now listed with 2396 points, followed by Jeff Gordon, who’s second place finish moved him up one spot to second with a -174. Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped back one spot to third and is now listed with a -176, just two points off of Gordon’s back bumper. Bobby Labonte is still in the fourth position and is now listed with a -260. Michael Waltrip moved up one spot to round out the top five with a -372.

Kurt Busch dropped down one spot to sixth and is now listed with a -384. Jimmy Johnson and Rusty Wallace are still seventh and eighth with a -431 and a -456. Kevin Harvick moved up two spots to ninth with a -495 while Sterling Marlin dropped down one spot to round out the top ten with a -504.

For those of us who are usually relegated to watching the racing competition on the TV, we all know that this was the last broadcast from FOX until next February at Rockingham. There will be a weekend off next week, and then the NBC network will take over the broadcasting duties with the Pepsi 400 from Daytona on July 6th.

This work was previously published at Suite101.com

A Dark Horse?..........

There are a lot of “ifs” and “ands” associated with NASCAR’s new series sponsorship deal with wireless provider Nextel. First of all, I have to admit, living in the northeast, I had never heard of Nextel, and was really surprised that they were chosen to sponsor Cup racing. When it comes right down to it, Nextel is mainly known within a realm of a few southern states. This is also kind of puzzling, as the sanctioning body has consistently stated that it wanted to expand out of the south to markets in the north and west. Why then would they pick the sixth rated wireless company in the United States that mainly serves customers in one demographic area?

The Winston Cup Scene (a name which is bound to be changed) had a few articles about Nextel in their latest edition. One of their articles lists the market shares of wireless companies. The Scene listed the source of these statistics as coming from Technology Business Research’s Mobile Operators Benchmark Report for April, 2003:

1. Verizon = 22.9%
2. Other = 16.9%
3. Cingular = 15.4%
4. A T&T = 14.7%
5. Sprint = 10.4%
6. Nextel = 7.5%
7. T-Mobile = 7.2%
8. Alltel = 5.0%

It kind of makes one wonder what companies make up the “Other” listing of 16.9%. It’s also interesting to see that Cingular, Robby Gordon’s sponsor on the Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 Chevy, does more than twice the business than Nextel does going into the big sponsorship deal. Alltel, down at the bottom of the heap is bound to gain business just from the fact that Nextel is moving into NASCAR. Cingular will also gain more customers due to the news of wireless sponsorship.

According to reports published in the Scene, the A T&T wireless giant won’t be able to move up to full sponsorship next season as it had planned with BAM Racing. The deal between Nextel and NASCAR was set up to forbid any major wireless sponsorship deals that were not already consummated. The A T&T wireless company will have to be satisfied to remain as an associate sponsor with the teams that it is already dealing with.

Getting back to some of the reasons why NASCAR decided to pick a small upstart wireless company instead of a corporate giant like VISA or Coca-Cola, I’ve heard a likely explanation from a couple of fans. The major corporations are too big for NASCAR to intimidate. Visa isn’t going to take any guff from NASCAR, and the executives at NASCAR know this. Whereas, a small upstart like Nextel isn’t in a position to disagree with the racing giant. Nextel is counting on NASCAR to make it a big name and a much bigger corporation with a lot more of the market share than what is listed above. Nextel needs NASCAR, where corporations like VISA and Coca-Cola have been on top of the heap for decades, and don’t need NASCAR to help them boost their market share or to increase their popularity.

The claim that Nextel’s profits surpassed it’s competitors who get much more of the market share is another concern that fans have. The days of corporate raiders haven’t left us even with the dilapidated economy. The raiders certainly don’t go after companies that aren’t making money, they go after companies that are making the most money and are holding their own in the business world. The new deal with NASCAR makes Nextel a prospective target for future raids. The small company that is hoping to grow by leaps and bounds may get forced to accept a future partner or partners on down the road. When a good deal is in the wind, all of the wolves are sure to get the scent…..

Next Week…….

It’s Pepsi 400 time again, we’ve ushered out the FOX broadcasting group and now we will be seeing and hearing the NBC team. No more boogity boogity boogity until next February at Rockingham. There’s one good thing about the infamous TV contract, at least we get different people to have to deal with half way through the season, instead of getting stuck with the same people all year. It doesn’t take long to get tired of the corn from either network, although I believe that most fans tend to be more partial to FOX than NBC.

NASCAR.com had a story about former Cup drivers returning to the series for the Pepsi 400. Of the most prominent is Stacy Compton, who had several starts in the Kodiak sponsored Ford for Melling Racing, and Buckshot Jones who piloted the No. 44 Georgia Pacific sponsored Dodge for Petty Enterprises. Both drivers were disappointments to their perspective teams and lost their Cup rides. Compton is scheduled to drive the No. 4 Morgan McClure Kodak Pontiac and Jones is scheduled to drive James Finch’s No. 9 Miccosukee sponsored Dodge that has previously been driven by Mike Wallace and Geoff Bodine.

Also in the story was Mike Bliss who will be attempting to qualify a third entry from Joe Gibbs Racing, the No. 8o Advair sponsored Chevy. The former 2002 Craftsman Truck Series has 30 previous Cup starts, but hasn’t attempted Cup since a one race deal last season. Also attempting to qualify for the Pepsi 400 will be Kerry Earnhardt and David Green. Both have attempted other starts this season. The other newcomer to Cup will be Shane Hmiel, who got the nod from Petty Enterprises to make his Cup Debut in the restrictor plate race at Daytona. Mike Wallace (subbing for Jerry Nadeau), Larry Foyt, and Jeff Green will be back in their regular Cup rides after giving up their seats to the road racing ringers/interlopers last weekend at Infineon.

Race No. 17, beginning the second half of the season, will be the usual Daytona Pepsi 400 night race. The NBC network will broadcast the event on Saturday, July 5th at 7 p.m. eastern. Qualifying for the event will be broadcast on the TNT channel Thursday, July 3rd, at 8 p.m. eastern.

Will we see continued dominance at Daytona by Dale Earnhardt Inc.? The possibility remains pretty high considering they’ve won the last four out of five restrictor races there with the exception of Ward Burton’s win in the Daytona 500 starting out the 2002 season. Not to mention Dale Jr.’s winning of the Bud Shootout this year and one of the Twin 125’s. DEI has also dominated the restrictor plate racing at Talladega of late with Dale Jr. winning four out of the last five Cup races held at that track. The exception being Bobby Hamilton’s win of the Aaron’s 499 in the spring of 2001. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the spring race in 2002 and 2003. Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the EA Sports 500 fall race at Talladega in 1999 and 2000 with son Dale winning it in 2001 and 2002.

Last season’s winner of the Pepsi 400 restrictor plate race was Michael Waltrip. He was followed across the finish line by Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Todd Bodine, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Ward Burton, and Geoff Bodine.