2/1/04…….. The Bud Shootout is coming up this week, FINALLY! It’s been a long dry haul with no racing activity, and the dry spell between November and February seems to get longer every off-season.

From what I can gather from the news floating around the media outlets, there will only be 19 drivers in this year’s Bud Shootout. Geoff Bodine is eligible as a past winner of the Busch Clash, but he doesn’t have a ride.

Steve Park is in the same boat, winning poles at Daytona and California last season but doesn’t have a Cup ride for 2004. It seems that nary a Cup owner wants to be the one hearing “I told you so” when Park puts a car into the wall at Daytona during the Shootout. Park will be driving in the truck series in 2004 taking over for Brendan Gaughan in the No. 62 Orleans Dodge entry.

The third driver eligible for the Shootout who is sitting out of the event is Jeff Green, pole winner of last season’s Daytona 500. Green has a cup ride for the 2004 season, but the Petty Enterprises ride that Green has doesn’t carry the Budweiser decal on its side panels, which prohibits the entry from racing in the Shootout. I’m sure that by now you’ve all heard about the promise that Richard Petty made to his mother about not carrying any alcohol beverage sponsorship.

Be sure to watch the Bud Shootout this coming Saturday night, February 7th, at 7:30 p.m. on the TNT channel. ALSO please be aware that qualifying for the Daytona 500 is scheduled for Sunday, February 8th at approximately noon eastern time. I checked out the schedules for the NBC, TNT, and SPEED channels, but I couldn’t find any listing where the event was to be televised. You may have to catch it on MRN radio or keep up with the action via computer if you are a subscriber to Track Pass at NASCAR.com.

My new bible has arrived! I’m referring to the official NASCAR 2004 Preview and Press Guide. Any serious racing fan shouldn’t be without it. Actually, this is the first year I’ve gotten it in January. Some years I don’t receive it until the second week in February, just in time for the Daytona 500.

This years edition seems to go along with the advances reached in previous years in that the issue has progressed to be more user friendly as compared to those issued in the mid 90’s. One pleasing advance is the use of color coded backgrounds separating the various types of statistics listed on pages detailing the previous season’s races at the different venues. It makes it much easier to wade through the muddle when you can go to the color and find the information quickly.

As usual, the issue lists the complete statistical breakdown on the ten top NASCAR series. The main emphasis is on the Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck Series, and the venues that the Cup series use. The publication hasn’t changed much in that respect. If you haven’t got your issue yet, you can log onto WWW.umi.com and purchase it quickly. You can also wait a couple of weeks and find it at Wal-Mart. I’ve seen it there at a reduced price the past few years. It’s usually on the magazine racks anytime after the running of the Daytona 500, but there’s usually a limited supply so you have to act fast if you want to purchase one there. When they’re gone, they’re gone, Wal-Mart doesn’t usually get a second shipment of them.

2/8/04…….. The sleeper moved up from out of the pack to take the big prize Saturday night. Dale Jarrett started from the 15th position and stayed ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to become the only current three time winner of the Bud Shootout. The late Dale Earnhardt had been the only one in history to win the Shootout/Busch Clash more than twice with a total of six wins.

Dale Jr. lamented after the race that he was disappointed that no one would draft behind him to keep him up front in contention for the win. The race favorite failed to even lead one lap. If teammate Michael Waltrip had won a pole last season and had qualified for the event, then things would have turned out different, as the two would have no doubt stuck together like glue so one of them would have taken the checkered flag.

Junior would have had a teammate on the track if Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) had fielded a car for Steve Park, who won the pole at Daytona in July in the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet last season before being fired by the DEI organization. Park won two poles last season, also winning one in the No. 30 AOL Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing (RCR), but neither organization would put a ride under him for the race.

As mentioned in earlier articles, also missing from the event were Geoff Bodine and Jeff Green. Bodine isn’t presently an active driver in any NASCAR series and Jeff Green drives for Petty Enterprises, an organization that won’t place the Budweiser decal in the side panels of its racecars which makes them ineligible for the event.

With only 19 drivers entered in the event, there weren’t many of them inclined to help Junior, as opposed to a full 43 car field in a regular race. Drafting is a two edged sword, drivers will draft behind someone who has a faster car just to get them up front in contention for the lead, then ditch them when they get there, as Junior quickly found out Saturday night.

The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Jeremy Mayfield -- No. 19 Dodge -- finished 18th
2. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 5th
3. Jamie McMurray -- No. 42 Dodge -- finished 17th
4. Dave Blaney -- No. 23 Dodge -- finished 19th
5. Kevin Harvick -- No. 29 Chevy – finished 3rd
6. Terry Labonte -- No. 5 Chevy – finished 8th
7. Mark Martin -- No. 6 Ford – finished 4th
8. Boris Said -- No. 01 Chevy – finished 10th
9. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 12th
10. Bill Elliott -- No. 91 Dodge – finished 14th

Greg Biffle won last season’s rain shortened Pepsi 400 due to a fluke in the weather, and now he’s managed to take the pole for the Daytona 500 with a speed of 188.387 miles per hour because they claim the wind died down to a lower speed when he made his qualifying run. Be that as it may, Biffle won the pole, giving Jack Roush his first Daytona 500 pole position.

Elliott Sadler will share the front row with Biffle, with the two leading off the Gatorade 125’s this coming Thursday. As most of you know, only the first two qualifying positions are locked in for the Daytona 500, with the next 30 positions determined with the results of the 125’s, and the remainder of the 43 car field set by the qualifying speeds of those who didn’t make the cut in the 125’s.

The starting positions for the 125’s are determined by the qualifying time trials. Those who qualified with odd starting positions will race in the first 125 mile race with those qualifying in the even positions racing in the second race. The qualifying positions also determine the starting positions of each race with those with the best time starting first followed in descending order by the rest of the qualifying field.

Be sure to prepare to sneak away from work this coming Thursday, February 12th, to watch the Gatorade 125 qualifying races on the TNT channel starting at 1 p.m. eastern. I’m sure there will be a number of race fans calling in sick that day!

Next week brings us race No. 1, the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The event will be televised live by the NBC channel on Sunday, February 15th at noon eastern.

Last season’s winner of the rain shortened event was Michael Waltrip. He was followed across the finish line by Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jeremy Mayfield, Mike Wallace, and Dale Jarrett.

Jeff Green won the Bud Pole with a speed of 186.606 miles per hour. There were five caution periods for a total of 23 laps out of the 109 laps on the 2.5 mile superspeedway.

2/16/04…….. Like it or lump it, with Whoopie Goldberg unceremoniously sticking the green flag out over the track starting the Daytona 500, the 2004 NASCAR season officially began. What? Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning a restrictor plate race? Who would have thought?

The victory was Dale Jr.’s 10th, most of which were on restrictor plate tracks with the exception of his first win at Texas in April of 2000 after starting from the fourth position, and his win last season at Phoenix after starting from the 11th position.

Maybe I should have entitled this article, “Guess Who Didn’t Win.” Junior’s teammate, Michael Waltrip, who by the way had won the last two out of three Daytona 500’s, got caught up in the “big one” caused by Johnny Sauter’s rookie mistake, and ended up having to be cut out of his car. (The way I saw it, the rookie Sauter can be accredited with two wrecks in that race.) Waltrip was pinned in the car for several minutes after it landed upside down in the grass. When interviewed after coming out of the infield care center, Waltrip was extremely irate with the safety crew because they wouldn’t follow his instruction and flip the car over so he could get the car’s weight off of him. Instead, the safety crew began cutting away at his safety cage which allowed more of the car’s weight to rest on him. If the car had been on fire, Waltrip wouldn’t have been able to survive. This is just another flap in a long list of inabilities of rag tag safety crews which are furnished by each individual track. Several owners and drivers have been trying to get NASCAR to hire a professional safety crew to travel with the circuit, such as the IRL and other racing series have. A good share of these safety people at various NASCAR sanctioned tracks are just volunteer firemen who don’t really have the training and knowledge needed in emergency racing situations.

Following Dale Jr. across the finish line was his drafting partner of the day, Tony Stewart. Rookie Scott Wimmer finished third, placing him on top of the rookie standings to start out the season. Kevin Harvick finished fourth followed by Jimmy Johnson, Joe Nemechek, Elliott Sadler, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Jarrett to round out the top ten. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Greg Biffle -- No. 16 Ford – finished 12th
2. Elliott Sadler -- No. 38 Ford – finished 7th
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 1st
4. Sterling Marlin -- No. 40 Dodge -- finished 37th
5. Tony Stewart -- No. 20 Chevy – finished 2nd
6. Jimmie Johnson -- No. 48 Chevy – finished 5th
7. Jamie McMurray -- No. 42 Dodge – finished 36th
8. Mark Martin -- No. 6 Ford – finished 43rd
9. Michael Waltrip -- No. 15 Chevy – finished 38th
10. Kevin Harvick -- No. 29 Chevy – finished 4th

Daytona is known for being unkind to rookies, and a lot of the 2004 rookie class had never raced on the tracks surface. It was phenomenal to see Scott Wimmer finish in the top five in the Bill Davis Racing’s No. 22 Caterpillar sponsored Dodge. The next highest rookie finisher was Brendan Gaughan, who finished 19th, one lap down, in the No. 77 Penske Racing’s Kodak/Jasper Engines Dodge. The embattled rookie Johnny Sauter finished 26th, seven laps down, in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 30 AOL Chevrolet. Scott Riggs, rookie driver of the No. 10 Valvoline Chevrolet was out of the race on lap 109 while rookies Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers were also out of the race after being caught up in the “big one” along with Riggs.

Now that the celebrity laced mundane media spectacle at Daytona is over with for another year, we can hopefully get down to some long awaited “real” racing at tracks like Rockingham, Las Vegas, and Texas.

Next week the second race of the 2004 season makes its way, as per usual, to the North Carolina Speedway at Rockingham, North Carolina. The event will signal the return of the FOX network with good ol’ DW back in the booth along with former crew chief and truck series team owner Larry McReynolds. Catch the pre-race show for the Subway 400 on FOX this coming Sunday, February 22nd at 12:30 pm eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised by the SPEED channel on Friday, February 20th at 3 pm eastern.

Last season’s winner of the spring Rockingham race was Dale Jarrett. He was followed across the finish line by Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven, rookie Jamie McMurray, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Elliott Sadler, and Dave Blaney.

Dave Blaney won the Bud Pole with a speed of 154.683 miles per hour in the No. 77 Jasper Engines Ford. There were seven caution periods for a total of 46 laps out of the 393 lap race on the 1.017 mile tri-oval.

2/22/04…….. Predictions are the norm this time of the year, we hear them on TV broadcasts and the print media is chocked full of them. Last season it was all “Jeff Gordon.” Over 90% of the print media was holding Gordon up to the light at the beginning of the 2003 season, although they were singing a different tune last fall. I decided last January that Ryan Newman was going to be the man to beat. I didn’t say he was going to be champion, but I did write an article entitled “New-man to beat” In a way I wasn’t wrong, Newman took the most wins and the most polls of the season, and unfortunately, he also ended up with the lion’s share of DNF’s.

This season the print media is extolling Jimmy Johnson like he was some kind of Tibetan idol that had been ordained to save the world. Uh huh…… Yeah right….. Could be, but we’ll know more about it come next fall. The majority of the media is banking on Johnson to win the championship with Dale Jr. right on his heels. What happened to Jeff Gordon? Where did Ryan Newman go? How about a match race for the championship between Larry Foyt and Kyle Petty? They’d both be a lap down within the first few laps. How does Ken Schrader sound for champion? Uh huh, that’s what I thought.

A little history lesson….. A friend of mine wrote and said that his son had heard on the broadcast of the Daytona truck race that a foreign make hadn’t won a NASCAR race since the early 1950’s. Apparently the announcers had been conversing about the Toyota brand entering the truck series and were discussing the possibility, or probability, of a foreign make winning a NASCAR race.

That idea peaked my curiosity and I began digging and scratching around through my books until I came up with the answer. It seems that on June 13th of 1954, a driver by the name of Al Keller won a race on the two-mile road course at the Linden Airport in Linden, New Jersey. Not only was it the first road course race in the history of Cup racing other than the Beach & Road Course at Daytona, it was the first time a foreign automobile had won a NASCAR race. Keller took his victory behind the wheel of a Jaguar. Also that year, for the second year in a row and for the third and final time in NASCAR history, no races were held on short tracks.

The previous year, 1953, was the first time a foreign make won a NASCAR pole. A driver named Lloyd Shaw won the pole driving a Jaguar for the International 200 race at the one mile dirt surfaced Langhorne Speedway. The only other models of cars that won races or poles that year, or next, were Hudson, Oldsmobile, and Dodge.

A good friend of mine is a Packard collector with a pristine 1955 model sitting in his garage, so I checked the books before he asked me because I knew he would. I couldn’t find any record of a Packard in any of the NASCAR races in the 1950’s when the Packard model was prevalent. It seems they may have been too heavy or cumbersome to race, even though they had really powerful V8 engines and seemed to follow the aerodynamics of the 50’s era.

Matt Kenseth started his season out with a bang, winning the Subway 400. Kenseth led over 250 laps of the 393 lap race, dominating the event. The victory was the 2003 Winston Cup Champion’s eighth in his fifth full season in Cup racing. It was delightful to see some real racing for a change!

The big surprise for many was rookie Kasey Kahne. Kahne finished second to Kenseth in a really close photo finish. Although rookie Scott Wimmer finished third last week at Daytona, he’d better watch out for the masterful driver Kahne, who has tons of racing experience in open wheel and karts, along with a couple of seasons in the Busch Series. I watched Kahne win a USAC race last August at Nazareth Speedway and can’t say enough about his abilities. Ray Evernham made a solid choice in hiring Kahne to replace Bill Elliott.

The third place finisher, Jamie McMurray wasn’t any surprise, he won the Busch Series race on Saturday, for the fourth consecutive time, and was a heavy favorite to win the Subway 400, but he just couldn’t match the heavy Cup competition.

Following the top three across the finish line were Sterling Marlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, Ward Burton, and Jeff Gordon. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Ryan Newman -- No. 12 Dodge – finished 6th
2. Jamie McMurray -- No. 42 Dodge – finished 3rd
3. Kasey Kahne* -- No. 9 Dodge – finished 2nd
4. Rusty Wallace -- No. 2 Dodge -- finished 7th
5. Jeff Gordon -- No. 24 Chevy – finished 10th
6. Jeremy Mayfield -- No. 19 Dodge – finished 11th
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- No. 8 Chevy – finished 5th
8. Jeff Green -- No. 43 Dodge – finished 28th
9. Dale Jarrett -- No. 88 Ford – finished 40th
10. Greg Biffle -- No. 16 Ford – finished 23rd

With his Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. started out with enough points to retain his points lead with his fifth place finish. Matt Kenseth’s win moved him up seven positions to second place with a -7 point deficit from Earnhardt’s 340 points. Kevin Harvick moved up one spot to third with a -46, while rookie Scott Wimmer lost a spot down to fourth with a -52. Jeff Gordon’s tenth place finish moved him up two spots to fifth with a -54 while Tony Stewart’s poor showing cost him four positions down to sixth with a -75. Kurt Busch’s eighth place finish moved him up nine spots in the driver’s points to seventh with a -83. Elliott Sadler remains in eighth with a -85 while Ward Burton moved up eight spots to ninth with a -90. Joe Nemechek lost four positions and rounds out the top ten in points with a -115. Kasey Kahne’s second place finish moved him 20 positions to 21st in points with a -130. Just for the heck of it, Jimmy Johnson, who is favored by many to win the first Nextel championship, dropped 20 positions to 25th in championship points with a -140.

There isn’t any race next week, the racing continues the first week of March at Las Vegas. Please check back next week for a run down on last season’s Las Vegas race along with an article about NASCAR’s direction coinciding with sports trends.

2/29/04…….. We have all seen how NASCAR has ridden rough shod over the team, sponsors, and fans during the last several seasons. As time progresses, their dominance, dictatorship, and unequivocal crass, becomes even more apparent.

When the sanctioning body made it’s much ballyhooed point’s system change this winter, people were aghast that they had the crass to do so. NASCAR even had the crass to say that even though they knew the majority of teams, sponsors, and fans didn’t like it, that they would learn to in time, and that NASCAR knew what was best for everyone.

When they made their big point’s system change, they alluded that they were just following the lead of other major sports entities in the national sports spectrum. This attitude of following the lead may end up turning around and biting them where they sit down.

If they want to follow the lead of other major sports then they are going to have to deal with unions one of these days. All major professional sports entities have players unions. These unions allow the players, the ones who actually make the money for the owners, the right to collective bargaining. Collective bargaining allows the players to get their fair share of the television money and gate proceeds collected from the games that they play.

If the competitors had a union; NASCAR wouldn’t be able to dictate to them so harshly, they would have to meet the drivers, teams, and owners half way. The problems arising from this idea are many, but none that couldn’t be worked out. In most major sports, the owners are considered management and on the side of their prospective leagues. I’m not so sure it would be that way in racing, the owners are having just as much of a problem collecting TV and gate receipts from NASCAR as the players are from the owners in other major sporting leagues. I wouldn’t be surprised if the owners had their own union, as well as the team members.

When I mention drivers, teams, and owners unions, I’m talking about the whole spectrum of NASCAR racing, from the Goody’s Dash Series on up to the top with Cup racing. This would encompass all drivers in all series, as well as the team and owners union. Different series would have different branches or locals of the unions.

I can hear a lot of your thoughts as I’m writing this, the unions would ruin stock car racing, there would be strikes, and yatta yatta yatta. Yep, that’s a possibility, there would be a time when the sanctioning body would get stood up on its ear for a while and have to learn to share the wealth or bite the dust. What do you think they would do, share the wealth or throw in the towel? I can pretty much guarantee you that avarice would prevail and NASCAR would concede to a smaller piece of the pie rather than no pie at all.

One of the first things we heard after the big TV deal a few years ago, I believe it was from the Richard Childress Racing organization, was that NASCAR wasn’t sharing the TV money with the teams by a fair percentage. If any of you think that was wrong, how about the Forbes list of billionaires last year featuring both Bill and James France as first time billionaires. Any guesses here as to where the majority of that money came from? Bill France Sr. started the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing to insure that the owners/drivers would get an even shake from race promoters and to insure that they got the money they deserved for their efforts. What happened?

What is happening is that NASCAR is hoarding the money and forcing the sponsors to spend theirs. The sponsors have reached their limit. NASCAR keeps making ridiculous rules changes that costs the teams a small fortune and is expecting the sponsors and owners to foot the bill while they pocket their money with a big grin on their faces.

Last season we saw NASCAR offering incentives to teams to show up and enter races, and this season, according to published reports, NASCAR is offering incentives of up to $40k to teams to enter events with mediocre purses.

The news is full of reports of “shrinking fields” on a level much higher than last season. As a rule, you can expect an average of five sponsors to leave the sport during any given season, following a trend which began near the late ‘90’s. Don’t be surprised if you see that average rising in 2004.

Everyone knows that the series that is continually having the most financial problems is the Busch Series. The small purses haven’t risen to coincide with the rising costs associated with racing, a lot of which was created by NASCAR’s constant rules changes. The sponsors have really balked in this series and a lot of them have already moved on to a more lucrative series or got out of racing altogether.

In the last few years the mainstay of the Busch Series had been the Cup drivers. They drive in the series mainly at the behest of sponsors who want successful Cup drivers associated with their products, rather than no-name up-and-coming beginners in the series. Big popular names sell products, while no-name drivers don’t; it’s as simple as that. The sponsorship money lures the successful Cup drivers to become either Busch Series drivers or owners.

The Cup owners/drivers are mainly the only ones who are making money in the Busch Series, a lot of the regular Busch teams with the Busch Series drivers are struggling to make races and to compete with the wealthier teams who have the mechanical and technical advantage over them.

Over the past couple of seasons there have been meetings between NASCAR and the Busch Series owners to discuss ways to alleviate the financial problems faced by the series. On more than one occasion, NASCAR has vowed to help the series owners prevail. They have come up with ways to cut costs for the teams, but they certainly haven’t shared any more money with them. A union is badly needed in the Busch Series to allow for collective bargaining so that the teams will get their fair share of NASCAR’s pie.

Get a Life….. I’m sure you’ve all heard that one before! Well, some of these media people need to do exactly that. This business about not addressing the former Cup series as the “Winston” Cup series is hogwash.

I’ve heard some of the TV announcers refer to the 1999 Nextel Cup Champion or events happening back in the 1990 Nextel Cup Series. There was no 1999 Nextel Cup Champion; there wasn’t any Nextel Cup in the year 1999 or 1990. It was known as the Winston Cup back than and everyone knows it. That champion doesn’t have a “Nextel” Cup sitting in his trophy case, he has a “Winston” Cup sitting in there. No one has won the Nextel Cup yet, and won’t, until the championship point’s fiasco is settled at the end of this season.

This business about not allowing the “Winston” name to be uttered in conjunction with Cup racing anymore is ludicrous. Credit should be given where credit is due. Forcing network and print media to ignore Winston is a blatant miscarriage if justice. If these people only knew how stupid they look trying to do it, they’d curb it, and curb it quickly.

Some of the media have managed to get around the problem by just referring to the former days of the series as simply the “Cup” series. I can live with that, it’s what I have also done in a lot of cases. I don’t feel that I should have to write Nextel every time I’m referring to the Cup series, Nextel gets enough advertising without getting anymore from me. Early last summer when the change in series sponsorship became official, I started to use just plain “Cup” in a lot of my work, and will continue to do so. But, I’m not doing that to deny Winston the recognition they are due, I’m doing it just to make life simpler.

I, along with a lot of other fans have no idea how long the Nextel wireless company will hold onto the Cup sponsorship. Nextel is far from being the top wireless company in the United States, and with the recent takeover of A T&T by Cingular Wireless, they may even find themselves further down the totem pole as far as national market share is concerned. Who is going to come along and forcefully take over Nextel? Therefore, I’m taking a “wait and see” attitude about the longevity of the Cup series sponsorship before I get into the habit of writing the words “Nextel Cup Series.”

Next week the Cup Series travels to Las Vegas to compete in the UAW – Daimler Chrysler 400. The event will be televised by the FOX network on Sunday, March 7th, at 2:30 pm eastern. Qualifying for the event will be televised by the SPEED Channel on Friday, March 5th, at 6 pm eastern.

Matt Kenseth won the 2003 UAW – Daimler Chrysler 400 last March 2nd. He was followed across the finish line by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Michael Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek, and Steve Park.