3/03/03……….. How much money would you pay to ride around a race track with your favorite driver? Would you pay $100, $1000, or maybe $5000? A charity auction was held at Las Vegas for a ride around the track with the top bidder’s favorite driver. Tony Stewart won the bidding show, a fan paid $6,400 to get a ride around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the current Winston Cup Champion.

The best part of this is that Tony outdid four time champion Jeff Gordon. Gordon was tied with Kyle Petty at a bid of $5,500. The next highest driver bid was Bill Elliott with a bid of $3,500. I was somewhat astounded during the off-season that Gordon was getting twice as much press as the Champion, and I still don’t know for what reason, other than to build the former champion’s image back up after all of the negative publicity surrounding his divorce. I wonder how much Gordon had to pay for all of that publicity, which hasn’t seemed to do him much good on the racetrack.

To be quite honest with you, I wouldn’t pay 15 cents to ride around the track with any of them. Now, if they’d let me drive, it would be a different story. You have to remember, when you are riding in one of those two seated racecars, you’re up against the wall! I can think of a lot of places that I’d rather be.

Matt Kenseth emerged to the front of the pack near the end of the race to take the honors at Las Vegas. His top rated crew got him out of the pits first and he capitalized on it in fine fashion. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who led the most laps, finished second followed by his teammate Michael Waltrip. Both drivers hope that their great finishes will quiet the voices of their critics who claim that they can only do well on restrictor plate tracks.

Bobby Labonte was fourth followed by his teammate Tony Stewart to round out the top five. J. Burton, Newman, Marlin, Nemechek, and Park rounded out the top ten finishers.

Michael Waltrip moved up four spots to take the driver’s points lead with 461 points. Matt Kenseth’s win moved him up four points also and put him in second just -3 points behind Waltrip. Jimmie Johnson remains in third with a -14. Jeff Burton moved up three spots to fourth with a -49 while Tony Stewart moved up four spots to fifth with a -62.

Kurt Busch took a big hit in the points losing five spots to sixth with a -62. Keven Harvick moved up three spots to seventh with a -89 while Ricky Rudd moved up four spots to eighth with a -99. Johnny Benson was the biggest gainer in the top ten, moving up seven spots to ninth with a -104 while Dale Jarrett was the biggest loser in the top ten dropping eight spots to tenth with a -107.

Next week race No. 4 on the 2003 schedule is the Atlanta 500 from the Atlanta Motor Speedway at Hampton, Georgia. The event is slated to be broadcast live on the FOX channel Sunday, March 9th at 12:30 PM EST. Qualifying for the event will be televised on the FX channel at 8 PM EST on Friday, March 7th.

The winner of last season’s Atlanta spring race was Tony Stewart. He was followed across the finish line by Dale Earnhardt Jr., rookie Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven, Rusty Wallace, Ward Burton, Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin, and rookie Ryan Newman.

Bill Elliott won the pole for last season’s event with a speed of 191.542 MPH. The qualifying record for the track was set in 1997 by Geoff Bodine with a speed of 197.478 MPH which is a far cry from last season’s speed. Last year there were seven cautions for a total of 37 laps out of the 325 lap race.

3/10/03……….. The Atlanta Motor Speedway is considered to be one of the fastest tracks on the NASCAR circuit. Sure, they claim that Talladega is the fastest track, but with restrictor plate racing prevalent these days, the speeds there are a far cry from those at Atlanta.

The track was built in 1960, the third of seven superspeedways on NASCAR’s racing circuit at the time. Actually, it’s one of only four remaining tracks of the original seven, the other three being Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, and Daytona.

The 1.54 mile track with 24 degree banking, which sits on 870 acres of land near Hampton, Georgia, approximately 30 miles South of Atlanta, was reconfigured in 1997. The back and front stretches were switched around and the corners were widened for entry and exit at faster speeds. Geoff Bodine set the track record in the fall of 1997 after the reconfiguration at 197.478 MPH.

When the newness of the pavement wore off, so did the really high speeds. The following 1998 season saw qualifying speeds of 192.841 in March by Todd Bodine and 193.461 in November by the late Kenny Irwin. In 1999, Bobby Labonte qualified at 194.957 in March with Kevin Lepage qualifying at 193.731 in November.

As the track surface wore, the speeds came down. In March of 2000 Dale Jarrett qualified at 192.574 and Jeff Gordon set the mark of 194.274 in November. In the 2001 season Dale Jarrett once again set the mark, scoring a 192.748 in March with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the November pole with a 192.047.

Last season’s March pole winner was Bill Elliott with a speed of 191.542 with the November pole set by owner’s points due to inclement weather. The 2003 pole for this week’s Atlanta spring race was set by Ryan Newman at 191.417.

The next fastest track on the Cup circuit is Michigan International Speedway, a two mile D shaped oval located at Brooklyn, Michigan. The qualifying speeds there average in the neighborhood of 189 MPH. It’s sister track, California Speedway, another two mile D shaped oval, has a qualifying average slightly lower at 187 MPH.

The Atlanta Motor Speedway was the site of Bobby Labonte’s 20th Winston Cup Series win in the 11th year of his career. After sparring with Jeff Gordon in the waning laps of the race, Labonte nudged Gordon out of the way after the final restart to take the lead for the final time. It was Labonte’s fifth win out of the 12 races that have been run since the track was reconfigured in the summer of 1997.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 10th
2. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 39th
3. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 6th
4. Bobby Labonte-- No. 18 Chevy -- finished 1st
5. Jimmy Spencer -- No. 7 Dodge – finished 7th
6. Michael Waltrip -- No. 15 Chevy – finished 27th
7. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 15th
8. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 5th
9. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 40th
10. Jeremy Mayfield -- No. 19 Dodge – finished 22nd

The driver’s point’s standings have changed again as they will do every time the boys take to the track, Mat Kenseth’s win last week and his fourth place finish at Atlanta has moved him up one spot and has given him the lead with 618 points. Tony Stewart moved up three spots to second place, just 49 points down from Kenseth.

Michael Waltrip dropped two spots to third with a -75 while Jimmy Johnson dropped one spot to fourth with a -99. Bobby Labonte’s win moved him up eight spots to fifth with a -108. The other big mover in the points was Jeff Gordon who moved up 12 spots to eighth with a -141 due to his second place finish, his best so far this season.

The big news coming out of the Cup race at Atlanta was engine failures. This is a fast track, and with the new engine rule that started up last season, the one engine is used from the time they unload the cars off of the haulers until the checkered flag flies signaling the end of the event. The high continuous speed keeps the RPM’s up to a high level which tends to cause the engine to fail with just a miniscule part that isn’t quite right.

Nine engines failed altogether, four Fords, four Dodges, and one Chevrolet. The Chevrolet, the No. 48 Lowe’s sponsored Hendricks/Gordon Motorsports entry driven by Jimmie Johnson, lasted the longest up until lap 308. The Roush Racing Fords took the biggest hits in the Ford camp with the only one surviving. That was the No. 17 DeWalt entry driven by Matt Kenseth which finished fourth.

The Dodges driven by Ken Schrader, Larry Foyt, Jamie McMurray, and Bill Elliott were among those who were forced out of the race with engine failures.

Next week ………. Race number five is the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway. The event is scheduled to be televised live by the FOX channel on Sunday, March 16th at 12:30 PM EST. Qualifying for the event will be televised live by the FOX Sports channels on Friday, March 14th at 2:30 PM EST.

Last season’s winner of the event was Sterling Marlin. He was followed across the finish line by Elliott Sadler, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., rookies Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, and Bill Elliott.

Ricky Craven sat on the Bud pole with a speed of 170.089 MPH. There were five caution flags for a total of 40 laps out of the 400 mile 293 lap race on the 1.366 mile egg shaped oval track.

3/17/03……….. Inclement weather has been plaguing NASCAR this season to the degree that the race participants are not wondering “if” it will rain, but “when.” Such was the case when the teams rolled into Darlington, South Carolina Thursday for their upcoming weekend activities. No sooner had the racers been unloaded off of the haulers, than the threat of rain multiplied to a natural fact.

The Busch Series qualifying along with the Craftsman Truck Series qualifying was rained out. This made the second race in a row for the Busch Series where they had to line up according to last season’s owner’s points. Then, as they prepared for the racing activities Saturday with the Darlington 200, no sooner had the cars taken to the track did it begin to rain. The cars make some warm-up laps in anticipation of the green flag, only to be parked as the rain began to fall harder. The Busch Series race was postponed until Monday morning at 11 a.m.

Getting on to Cup news, when the track finally was dried off Saturday to get in the final Cup practice, No. 97 Ford driver Kurt Busch found that he would have to start the race from the back of the pack due to engine failure. Busch’s sixth place starting position quickly reverted to a 43rd place starting position, taking him out of the top ten starters. This is a continuing saga from last week’s engine failures in the Roush Racing camp.

Another unfortunate driver in Saturday’s practice was Michael Waltrip, driver of the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet. Waltrip does good on the fast easy tracks, but falls down on the hard “driver” tracks. He got the infamous “Darlington Stripe” on the side of the No. 15 hard enough so that he was forced to revert to a back-up car and also started the race from the back of the pack, reneging his top ten starting spot.

Of course the bad luck of those two put a smile on the faces of the rest of the top ten from sixth place back to tenth, moving them up two spots. Waltrip’s debacle put smiles on the faces of Jeremy Mayfield and Matt Kenseth, when they were moved into top ten starting spots from 11th and 12th respectively.

Greg Biffle was the highest starting rookie in the race at 17th (15th) followed by Jamie McMurray, starting 19th (17th). Casey Mears started 24th (22nd) while Jack Sprague started 34th (42nd). Tony Raines and Larry Foyt started back in provisional land at 41st and 42nd. They had the slowest qualifying speeds along with the domestically plagued Bret Bodine who ended up with the 43rd provisional spot.

Carolina dodge Dealers 400……. Give the bone to Ricky Craven! Ricky somehow managed to get two inches (the Pontiac’s nose) on Kurt Busch to take the checkered flag on the “Track too Tough to Tame.” Craven became the 40th different winner at the 53 year old track in the 100th Cup event.

It was Craven’s second cup win in his 221st Cup start in a career that started full time back in 1995. Both wins came while driving for Cal Wells PPI Motorsports. Craven used to drive the No. 32 Tide sponsored Ford, but this season the team switched to Pontiac and they have been doing quite will with it.

The photo finish was one of the closest and most dramatic finishes in NASCAR’s history. If any of you happened to have missed the race, never fear, you’ll see the finish more than once in upcoming film clips. This will be one for the record books.

Craven’s Pontiac was attached to Kurt Busch’s No. 97 Rubbermaid sponsored Roush Racing Ford as they crossed the finish line. Craven had caught Busch with three laps to go and passed him, but Busch used the old “bump and run” tactic to get back around him. Craven got it back together and then chased Busch down as they were taking the white flag with one lap to go. Craven’s strong point on the track was the third and fourth turns, and that’s where he moved up beside Busch to attempt to take the lead and win.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 7th
2. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Ford – finished 14th
3. Jerry Nadeau -- No. 01 Pontiac – finished 35th
4. Jimmy Spencer -- No. 7 Dodge -- finished 20th
5. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevrolet – finished 33rd
6. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 2nd
7. Ward Burton -- No. 22 Dodge – finished 29th
8. Sterling Marlin -- No. 40 Dodge – finished 39th
9. Michael Waltrip -- No. 15 Chevrolet – finished 5th
10. Todd Bodine -- No. 154 Ford – finished 43rd

The top three positions in the driver’s points standings remain the same. Matt Kenseth finished eighth and is still the point’s leader with 760 points. Tony Stewart finished 10th and is in second place with a -57 while Michael Waltrip finished fifth and is still in third with a -62. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s sixth place finish moved him up six spots to fourth with a -126 followed by Ricky Craven, whose win moved him up 11 spots to fifth with a -143.

The second place finish of Kurt Busch moved him up eight positions to sixth with a -143, tied with Craven. Jimmie Johnson’s 27th place finish dropped him down three spots to seventh with a -156. Dave Blaney’s third place finish moved up seven spots to eighth with a -157 and Joe Nemechek’s 13th place finish moved him up two spots to ninth with a -159. Elliott Saddler rounds out the top ten moving up nine spots due to his seventh place finish and is -185 points down from leader Kenseth.

The big losers in the point’s standings were Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Gordon. Burton blew another engine, copying last week’s performance at Las Vegas, dropping 13 points to 22nd after finishing 42nd. Kevin Harvick dropped 11 points to 18th after finishing 36th while Jeff Gordon dropped seven points to 15th.

Next Week ……….. race number six on the 2003 schedule is the ever popular Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The event is scheduled to be televised by the FOX network on Sunday, March 23rd at 12:30 PM EST. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be televised by the FOX Sports Networks on Friday, March 21st at 3 PM EST.

Last season’s winner of the Food City 500 was Kurt Busch. The first time winner was followed across the finish line by Jimmy Spencer, Ricky Rudd, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Jerry Nadeau, Rusty Wallace, and Kevin Harvick.

Jeff Gordon sat on the Bud pole with a record setting speed of 127.216 MPH. There were 14 caution flags for a period of 101 laps out of the 500 laps on the .533 mile concrete oval.

3/23/03……….. The big story coming out of the pre-race festivities at Bristol Motor Speedway was the lightning speed of young gun Ryan Newman in setting the new pole speed qualifying record. Newman became the first driver in the track’s history to drive a lap around the venue in less than fifteen seconds.

Last year in his rookie season Newman won a series high five pole starting positions. If he can turn them into wins like Matt Kenseth did last season, he’ll be the new man to beat in Cup racing.

Food City 500 …….. Tempers flared and sheet metal suffered indignantly during the 500 laps on the half mile bull ring. That’s the usual genre for Bristol, everyone knows it going in there, but it doesn’t make a lot of difference to the drivers after they have been smashed against the wall by another driver’s careless actions.

The best part of the whole deal was that no one got hurt seriously, although Kyle Petty seemed to have suffered some serious bruising and some possibly broken ribs. He was taken to a medical facility for further evaluation and observation after being checked out in the infield medical care center.

After the dust settled, it was Kurt Busch who donned the ear to ear grin in victory lane for the second time in two years. Busch made a late race call to stay out and keep track position with the No. 97 Rubbermaid sponsored Roush racing Ford instead of coming in for fuel as advised by crew chief Jimmy Fennig. After the win, Busch made a patriotic run around the track holding the American flag out of his driver’s window. He tried to drive up the steep Bristol banking to do donuts on it for the fans, but found out that it was too steep for his shenanigans.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Ford – finished 22nd
2. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 9th
3. Ken Schrader -- No. 49 Dodge – finished 37th
4. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Ford -- finished 13th
5. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 18th
6. Mike Skinner -- No. 4 Pontiac – finished 41st
7. Jimmy Spencer-- No. 7 Dodge – finished 12th
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 16th
9. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 1st
10. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 25th

Matt Kenseth widened his point lead in the driver’s standings, remaining atop of the list with 935 points. Kurt Busch’s win moved him up four spots to second with a -138 while Tony Stewart dropped down one spot to third with a -144. Michael Waltrip turned in his usual performance and also dropped down one spot and is now positioned in fourth with a -152. Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed suit and dropped down one spot to fifth with a -186.

Jimmie Johnson moved up two spots to sixth with a -192 while last week’s winner Ricky Craven dropped back two spots to seventh with a -200. Bobby Labonte’s third place finish made him one of the big movers as he gained six spots to eighth position with a -203. Ricky Rudd was the biggest mover in the top ten by moving up eight spots to ninth with a -240 followed by Jeff Gordon who moved up five spots to the top ten with a -241.

Next week race No. 7 on the 2003 schedule is the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The event is slated to be televised live by FOX on Sunday, March 30th at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be televised live by the FOX Sports channels on Friday, March 28th at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Last season’s winner of the event was Matt Kenseth. He was followed across the finish line by Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd, Tony Stewart, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, Bill Elliott, and Terry Labonte.

Bill Elliott set the track qualifying record last season with a speed of 194.224 miles per hour. There were seven caution periods taking 41 laps out the 334 lap race on the 1.5 mile track. There have been six races at Texas with six different winners. Roush Racing has had the best luck with wins in Fords by J. Burton ’97, M. Martin ’98, and M. Kenseth ’02. The other Ford winner was D. Jarrett in 2001. The other two races were won by Chevrolets driven by Dale Jr. in ’00 and T. Labonte in ’99.

3/31/03……….. NASCAR is plum full of surprises these days. They pulled an unprecedented stunt Friday when they impounded Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Home Depot Chevy for not passing inspection before practice.

The sanctioning body can be pretty blatant with their actions, they have the upper hand and they want everyone to know it. The Joe Gibbs Racing team wanted to use parts off of the car that was impounded for the race, but they were unable to. They had to resort to backup tactics and order another back-up car to be immediately sent from their shop in North Carolina.

Apparently, the No. 20 car that was impounded was so far off the specified legal measurements in a way that the NASCAR people decided to send it up to their research and development center. This move was made to investigate whether the irregular back window placement was designed to give the racecar an advantage, and if so, what type of advantage would be derived from it.

It has been speculated that by moving the back window over to the left twisting the roof section a little bit, more air could pass over the right side of the body of the racecar to the rear spoiler creating more downforce while cornering. If this proves to be correct, Joe Gibbs Racing could be in for a substantial fine and Stewart may suffer a large point deduction in the process. You can bet that there will be some type of fine levied in this case

Samsung/Radio Shack 500 …….. The one and only Texas race of the 2003 season continued to drape NASCAR with controversy. Still reeling for their ridiculous call during the previous Saturday’s Busch Series race, they made another completely stupid turnaround with their rules interpretations.

In Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 Busch race, they black flagged race leader Brian Vickers for “being in the act of passing to the left during a restart.” Vickers wasn’t even pulled evenly up beside the car he was accused of attempting to pass, and was slapped down, costing him the race.

In Sunday’s Cup race, rookie Casey Mears was faced with the same situation as was Vickers with a slowed car on the restart. Mears made a complete pass on the left before reaching the start/finish line during the restart and was not penalized for it. Go figure……

Later on in Sunday’s Cup race, a yellow flag came out and race leader Matt Kenseth slowed to allow a couple of his Roush Racing teammates to cross the start/finish line ahead of him to get a lap back. Jeff Gordon, running second at the time, passed Kenseth for the lead, not wanting to give the laps back to the Roush Racing drivers. We’ve seen a lot of drivers do this in the past, taking the race lead away from leaders who slow to allow lapped cars to get a lap back. There is supposed to be a gentlemen’s agreement not to race back to the line, but drivers break it consistently. One driver comes to mind here, Dale Jarrett has did it quite a few times last season as well as Jeff Gordon. They do now usually follow the gentlemen’s agreement, especially if it is close to the end of a race.

Sunday, NASCAR did a complete turnaround and took the lead away from Gordon after he passed Kenseth before reaching the start/finish line. They claimed that it was up to the race leader to set the pace for the race after the caution flag came out. If the leader wants to allow laps to be returned to lapped drivers, then that is what is going to happen. Jeff Gordon is upset about this, and is calling for a definitive ruling and clarification of the issue from NASCAR. Next week, NASCAR will decide the issue the other way, as per usual.

Ryan Newman strengthened his claim to be the new-man to beat by taking the checkered flag after passing Dale Earnhardt for the lead with ten laps remaining. This was Newman’s first win of the season and the second point’s win of his career, having won at New Hampshire last September. His win also marked the seventh different winner in the seven Cup races that have been held at Texas Motor Speedway.

The best part of the race was the battle for second place between dale Jr. and Jeff Gordon. Gordon bumped Earnhardt, trying to get him lose so he could take the second place position away from him, but it didn’t work. Gordon’s unsportsmanlike tactic backfired on him as Dale Jr. stayed in the throttle and fought the surprised Gordon to a neck and neck finish beating him by a nose at the finish line. What goes around comes around, and Gordon got his Sunday!

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Bobby Labonte -- No. 18 Chevy – finished 37th
2. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 41st
3. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Ford – finished 1st
4. Jimmie Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 8th
5. Jerry Nadeau -- No. 01 Pontiac – finished 4th
6. Bill Elliott -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 43rd
7. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 3rd
8. Kevin Harvick -- No. 29 Chevy—finished 15th
9. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy – finished 35th
10. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 14th

Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch are still sitting atop of the drivers’ point’s standings with 1090 and 935 points respectively. Busch is -155 down from Kenseth followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. who moved up two spots with his second place finish to third with a -166. Michael Waltrip is still in forth with a -192 followed by Jimmie Johnson who moved up one spot to fifth with a -205.

Jeff Gordon moved up four spots to sixth with a -226 followed by Tony Stewart who dropped four spots to seventh with a -241. Ryan Newman’s win moved him up seven spots to eighth with a -242 as Ricky Craven dropped down one spot to ninth with a -250. Kevin Harvick moved up one spot to round out the top ten with a -288. The biggest mover in the points was Mark Martin by moving up 10 spots to 13th with a -317.

Next week the first race in April brings up race No. 8 and the Aaron’s 499 on the Talladega Superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama. The event is scheduled to be televised live by FOX on Sunday, April 6th at noon EDT. Eastern daylight time means that the time will change at 2 a.m. on that April 6th Sunday morning, so be sure to set your clocks ahead one hour before you retire Saturday evening.

Last season’s winner of the Aaron’s 499 was Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was followed across the finish line by Michael Waltrip, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Sterling Marlin, Dale Jarrett, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Burton, and Kyle Petty.

Last season’s Bud Pole Award went to rookie Jimmie Johnson who circumvented the 2.66 tri-oval track in 51.337 seconds at an average speed of 186.532 miles per hour. There were three caution flags for a total of 19 laps out of the 188 lap event.