5/5/03……….. The Pontiac Excitement 400 was actually the Pontiac Excitement 393, they managed to fight off the rain until the end of the race and had to call it a day seven laps short of the designated 400 laps. That make it hard for some of the top contenders to swallow, they wanted a shot at Joe Nemechek, but due to cautions piling up one right after the other and then the race being called for rain during a caution, Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have a chance to finish it off. They had to settle for second and third respectively without a shootout for the checkered flag.

Robby Gordon rounded out the top five finishers followed by M. Martin, K. Harvick, Kenseth, Busch, J. Burton, and Rusty Wallace to round out the top ten. It was a good short track race for Richard Childress Racing, having two out of three drivers finish in the top ten, and also for Roush Racing, who had four out of its five drivers finishing in the top ten. Jeff Green, RCR’s other driver, came up behind an altercation between Ward Burton and Ryan Newman. He cut to the left down the track and drove in the path of his teammate Kevin Harvick who couldn’t slow down quick enough to keep from spinning Green out. Harvick was smart in more ways than one. If he’s slowed enough to keep from hitting Green, the car behind him would have hit him, spinning him out of the race. In stead, Harvick slowed all he could and took Green out of the race instead of himself. Green was furious with Harvick, and made statements that will lead to lots of dissention between the two teams in the future. Green even tried to force his way into Harvick’s pit to argue with his crew, but was stopped by Childress and finally taken off and scolded by Childress. It looks like Green has a lot of growing up to do, he is one that always seems to be the one who gets wronged and never admits to making a driving mistake, it’s always the other guys fault.

Update…5/6/03……. Jeff Green was fired Monday by Richard Childress Racing. There hasn’t been any indication yet of who will drive the RCR No. 30 AOL Chevy in The Winston in two weeks.

All of the competitors in the race had Jerry Nadeau’s wreck on their minds. Nadeau has been upgraded from critical on Monday to “serious but stable.” Our thoughts and prayers are with jerry and his family throughout their troubled times.

The top ten starters and how the finished:

1. Terry Labonte -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 21st
2. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy – finished 1st
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 3rd
4. Bobby Labonte -- No. 18 Chevy -- finished 2nd
5. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 39th
6. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 17th
7. Kurt Busch -- No. 97 Ford – finished 8th
8. Kyle Petty -- No. 45 Dodge – finished 28th
9. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 41st
10. Jimmy Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 19th

Dale Jr.’s top five finish moved him up to within 20 points of leader Matt Kenseth. Kurt Busch moved up ahead of Jeff Gordon to third with a -167. Gordon is now back -178, followed by Bobby Labonte who moved up three spots to fifth with a -243. Jimmy Johnson dropped down one spot as did Michael Waltrip. They are now -247 and -258 respectively. Kevin Harvick moved up one spot to eighth with a -291 while Rusty Wallace moved up three spots to ninth with a -345. Sterling Marlin moved into the top ten with a -360.

There have been a lot of stories in the media about the torrent of comments Steve Park made against the press after his first lap departure from the California race. He was also the first driver out of the Richmond race, whacking the wall at lap 44, what goes around comes around; he’s getting what he deserves. I don’t see Park with DEI by the time the end of the season rolls around.

Next week the Cup series had the weekend off for Mother’s Day. The following weekend they race The Winston All-Star race at Charlotte, then the following week, May 25th, they square off for the next point’s race, the Coca-Cola 600.

5/11/03……….. It’s hard to believe that two supposedly top Cup organizations have stooped to trading losers, but it seems that is the case here early in the 2003 season. Neither driver, Steve Park or Jeff Green, are worth writing home to mother about as far as their on-track performance is concerned, or they wouldn’t have been fired in the first place.

They’re both in the 30’s in driver’s points, a ways out of the top 25 paying positions. Green has one top ten finish and one top ten start with an average starting position of 26.8% and an average finishing position of 26.2% in 11 races. Park also has one top ten start and one top ten finish with an average starting position of 24.0% and an average finishing position of 26.5% in 11 races.

Actually, as far as career stats go, Park’s are a little better. In six full years of Cup racing, Park has two wins, 11 top fives, 32 top tens, and two poles in 146 races. Green has no wins, five top fives, nine top tens and one pole in 94 total Cup races.

You can bet that these two drivers will be under the microscope with their new teams, and it remains to be seen if they will last out the remainder of the season with their new rides. If they don’t produce, they’ll get canned. Green is only driving on an interim basis with DEI until September. I would assume that means that DEI will attempt to make a decision then whether they want to sign Green on full time or let him waft in the breeze.

No details have been forthcoming on Park’s tenure with RCR. I would assume that the hire was just for the remainder of the season in lieu of a firm contract if he performs satisfactorily or the boot if he doesn’t.

It’s possible that either or both of the traded drivers may spruce up their performance. This slap in the face that they received from their former teams may be what they needed for a wake up call. They both know now that they either have to perform or they’re done in Cup racing.

Boris Said, who acts as an interloper in the Cup Series at The Glen and Sonoma road racing courses, got himself into hot water in the Trans AM Series. It was reported that he was suspended for a 45 day period of likening series owner Paul Gentilozzi and his sons to Saddam Hussein and his sons. He was also fined a total of $10.5k for his remarks. It seems that Said and the Gentilozzi’s have been feuding for quite a while over the family’s dictatorship of the series, similar to that of the France family in NASCAR.

It’s expected that Said will join the other main interloper, Ron Fellows, on the road courses in Cup this season, as they have during the past several seasons. Both drivers are considered to be specialists on the road courses due to their vast sports car racing experience. Fellows has already been contracted by the DEI organization to drive the No. 1 Pennzoil entry this season at both road racing venues, much to the chagrin of newly hired driver Jeff Green. It remains to be seen which team will hire Said to run the road courses. Last season Said finished 13th at The Glen in the Jasper Eng. & Trans. Sponsored No. 167 Ford and finished 41st at Infineon in the same entry.

Next week The Winston is scheduled to be broadcast live by the FX channel on Saturday, May 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern. The race purse for this season’s Winston has been elevated to $3.5 million with $1 million going to the winner. The 25 eligible drivers for 2003 are winners of races during the 2002 season and up to The Winston in 2003. Former winners of The Winston within the past five years are also eligible along with this season’s winner of The Winston Open race.

Segment one will include all eligible drivers, while segment two will only include 20 drivers this year. Segment three will include 14 drivers, up from 10 last season. The mandatory pit stop will have to be made under the green flag and before the last lap. If a driver doesn’t pit before the white flag, he will be disqualified. The inversion for the final segment will still be carried out, but the exact number of cars that will be inverted is not yet known.

The Winston Open will be split into two segments of 20 and 10 laps. The field will be pared down to 14 cars following the first segment. The yellow flag will signal a caution at this time and those pitting will lose track position for the final ten lap shootout that will determine the one and only transfer spot into The Winston.

Last season’s winner of The Winston was rookie Ryan Newman. He collected a $750k purse for his win. Newman was followed across the finish line last season by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Craven, and Bill Elliott.

It’s a possibility that this season’s Winston all-star race may be the last one with the Winston name in the title. If NASCAR is successful in locating and signing a new series sponsor for Cup, then Winston will be a thing of the past. Next season’s all-star race may be named The Coca-Cola, or The Visa.

5/19/03……….. Regardless of all of the hoopla on the Internet sites about the all-star Winston event, people that I’ve talked with tend to think that the whole show was one equal to that of a professional wrestling event. In other words, the word on the street is that the whole show was orchestrated.

People are really talking about the fact that Jimmie Johnson was picked to win, FOX had a special “crew audio hookup” in Johnson’s pit stall, plus there was a pit reporter stationed there throughout the event. Add that to the fact that Lowe’s sponsors Johnson’s ride and that he ran away with the final segment by several car lengths against the best drivers in the business. People are adamant to the fact that it just doesn’t add up.

Well, I’m not going out on a limb with this one way or another, but I’ve always believed in the old maxim that if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

At any rate Johnson left the track with the majority of the winnings of over $1 million compared to just over $250k by second place finisher Kurt Busch.

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that R. J. Reynolds is backing out of its sponsorship of the Cup Series and that NASCAR is looking seriously into contracting another series sponsor. There have been lots of rumors along the lines of who and when, but nothing concrete has been revealed. The last news to come out of the sponsorship search was this past week when NASCAR released a statement alluding that a deal was in the making and that a new sponsor may be revealed by mid summer.

Considering that Winston won’t be sponsoring the Cup Series next season, where does that leave “The Winston” all-star race? Hopefully it will leave it someplace else for a change, with a different name. A lot of NASCAR fans tend to be wrapped up with tradition. NASCAR.com had one of their infamous polls this past weekend asking if the all-star race should be moved around to different tracks or should it remain at the Charlotte facility. Over 70% stated in the poll that they would prefer to abide by tradition and keep the race in Charlotte with nearly 50k votes counted at that time.

Understandably, not all fans feel that way. I for one, have always thought that the race should be moved around to different sized tracks with different formats each year. When it comes right down to apples and oranges, there are some drivers and team owners that would just as soon forget about the all-star race altogether. Tony Stewart, this season’s reigning champion, alluded that he would just as soon not race in any future exhibition events, tearing up equipment for nothing. Team owner Chip Ganassi echoed the same sentiments after this season’s fiasco. You can rest assured that if there are two that are speaking out publicly, then there are lots more that feel the same way that aren’t speaking out. It’s not mandatory that the participants race in the all-star event, and in the future you may see some of them pass on it and take the weekend off or else race somewhere else in another series.

Next week race No. 12 brings us a quarter of the way into the 36 race 2003 season. The Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled to be televised live by FOX on Sunday, May 25th at 5 p.m. Eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be televised live by the SPEED channel on Thursday, May 22nd at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Last season’s winner of the 600 was Mark Martin. He was followed across the finish line by teammate Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven, Ricky Rudd, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, rookie Jimmie Johnson, Michael Waltrip, Bill Elliott, and Rusty Wallace.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson won the pole for the 2002 event setting a track record with the speed of 186.464 miles per hour. There were nine caution periods of a total of 48 laps out of the 400 lap 600 mile race on the 1.5 mile Charlotte track.

5/25/03……….. With a quarter of the season in the books, it’s easy to see that Robert Yates made a good decision when he opted to put Elliott Sadler in the No. 38 M & M’s Ford. When comparing Sadler’s performance against his teammate Dale Jarrett, it’s also easy to see who is carrying the torch for Robert Yates Racing this season. You can rest assured, it certainly isn’t Dale Jarrett in the No. 88 UPS Ford.

Yes, going into the Coca –Coca 600 Jarrett has one win this season, but alas, it’s the only top five finish he’s got, and one of two top ten finishes. Sadler, on the other hand, doesn’t have any wins, but he has two top five finishes and five top ten finishes. The driver’s points tell the story of track performance. Pitting Jarrett’s 23rd position against Sadler’s 16th position shows who is putting out on the track.

While Jarrett fans will be quick to say that he has had problems with his team this season (and last season), they should be aware that Sadler’s new to his team this season, since it’s the first time they have worked together. Jarrett should be the one with the upper hand at Robert Yates Racing, but it has turned out jus the opposite. The veteran on the team has slipped tremendously this season while the new addition has been carrying the flag.

In 11 starts Sadler’s average start is 13.7 and his average finish is 19.7 while using one provisional start. Jarrett’s average start is 26.6 and his average finish is 22.2 while using 4 provisional starts.

While we’re examining these two Robert Yates Racing drivers, lets look at the performance of the driver that left Robert Yates at the end of last season. Ricky Rudd is now driving the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford for the Wood Brothers. In 11 starts this season, Rudd has one top five/ten start and one top five/ten finish of fourth at Bristol. His average start is 27.1 and his average finish is 21.4 while using three provisional starts. Rudd was 22nd in driver’s points going into the Coca-Cola 600.

Comparing Rudd’s performance to Sadler’s performance with the Wood Brothers last season up to this point we see that Sadler had one top five and four top ten starts coupled with two top five/ten finishes of second place in 11 starts and was listed in the 25th position in driver’s points. The Wood Brothers didn’t get any gem with Rudd, and I’m sure that the majority of us could have told them that when they hired him.

5/26/03 ……… Dale Jarrett was the best finisher of the above mentioned drivers crossing the line in the ninth position as the caution flew for the last time in the rain shortened Coca-Cola 414. Elliott Sadler was down a lap and on his way to beat the leader to the line when a caution came out. He ended up whacking the wall after getting into oil left by Ricky Craven, whose blown engine was the reason for the caution. Sadler ended up in the 36th position. Ricky Rudd ran out of fuel and slid through the water and mud inundated grass separating the track’s dog leg from the pit area, much to the mirth of all onlookers. I guess he was befuddled with running out of fuel because he tried to enter the pit area too hot, missing put road entirely. He had to be pushed to the pits and ended up four laps down finishing in the 33rd position.

After the race was red flagged for the second time for rain, NASCAR decided to call it a race. They revealed that it would take at least three hours to dry the track due to the previous constant downpour along with the five inches of rain in two days that soaked the ground. There was another storm headed that way within 90 minutes and it would have hampered track drying efforts pushing the completion of the race into the wee hours of the morning. This was NASCAR’s excuse for allowing Jimmy Johnson to take the win, giving him a sweep of the May Cup events at the Charlotte track. There are those who contend that it’s strange that the Lowe’s sponsored driver ended up with all of the glory considering the problems at Charlotte last season when FOX wouldn’t mention the Lowe’s name on the air because they failed to purchase advertising time from the network. This season provided quite a NASCAR controlled pay-back for last season’s FOX and NASCAR oversight. Anyone interested in watching professional wrestling?

Regardless of how it came about, Johnson now has four career wins in his sophomore season. He was followed across the finish line by point’s leader Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte, Jimmy Spencer, Ryan Newman, Michael Waltrip, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Ward Burton.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 5th
2. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 36th
3. Mike Skinner -- No. 4 Pontiac – finished 20th
4. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy -- finished 8th
5. Jack Sprague* -- No. 0 Pontiac – finished 22nd
6. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Pontiac – finished 40th
7. Joe Nemechek -- No. 25 Chevy – finished 11th
8. Dave Blaney -- No. 77 Ford – finished 14th
9. Michael Waltrip -- No. 15 Chevy – finished 6th
10. Johnny Benson -- No. 10 Pontiac – finished 24th

Next week race No. 13 is the Armed Forces Family 400 from Dover International Speedway. The event is scheduled to be televised by the FX channel on Sunday, June 1st at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. Qualifying for the event is scheduled to be televised with tape delay by the SPEED channel on Friday, May 30th at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Last season’s winner of the June Dover race was rookie Jimmie Johnson. He was followed across the finish line by Bill Elliott, Jeff Burton, rookie Ryan Newman, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Craven, Robby Gordon, Bobby Hamilton, and Elliott Sadler.

Matt Kenseth won the Bud Pole with a speed of 154.939 miles per hour. There were seven caution periods for a total of 40 laps out of the 400 laps on the one mile concrete oval.