Stewart will be busy at Daytona
By Jim Utter
ThatsRacin.com,June 19,2002

Tony Stewart has added a race to his July Daytona weekend. Stewart will not only drive his No. 20 Pontiac in the July 6 Pepsi 400 Winston Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, but he has also signed up to drive the No. 2 Judd-powered Crawford with road racing veteran Elliott Forbes-Robinson in the Rolex Sports Car Series Jani-King Paul Revere 250.

The Jani-King Paul Revere 250 will begin shortly after the conclusion of Winston Cup qualifying on July 4.

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From the Infield: Commentary
NASCAR to announce moving of the Winston

Greg Engle
A&J Racing June 17, 2002

Now that the furor over the moving of “The Winston” from Lowes Motor Speedway has died down, let me kick up the embers and see if I can stoke the fire back up just a little bit. See, I think that NASCAR has to and will move the all-star vent known as “The Winston” and will announce this very soon.

Let me explain.

We all know that there was a time that NASCAR stock-car racing was a purely southern’, good-old boy, affair, whose fans rooted for men with names like “Fireball” and “Tiny” and “Junior” (Johnson). These men took cars and without too much done to them, went to race tracks all across the South and banged the hell out of each other for a few dollars every week and the joy of simply racing each other. A southern sport through and through. This was evidenced by the fact that one of the biggest events back then was the “Southern’ 500” at Darlington, an event which had as it ‘s mascot a Confederate Soldier waving a Rebel flag.

These men, the pioneers of the sport, were Southern born and bred and even the mere thought of racing anywhere outside of the South was heresy.(although NASCAR did try a race at Chicago’s’ “Soldier Field” once and notice I said “once”). The Lowe’s (Charlotte as it will always be known to some) Motor Speedway was one of those early tracks and in the, what was at that time the very center, of the stock car auto racing world.

But the times they were a changin’ and NASCAR began to try and shed this “good old boy” mode in the 1980’s in an attempt to make NASCAR stock car racing less of a southern sport and more of a mainstream American sport.

And in that they’ve largely succeeded.

Today we have drivers with names like, “Ryan”, another “Johnson”, this time “Jimmie” and Gordon, two as a matter of fact as well as Stewart and Harvick and this past Sundays winner, Kenseth.

Most of these drivers aren’t from the South, they’re California, Indiana, New York the mid-west, one even holds a degree in engineering, most have been champions in other racing series and none speak with a ‘drawl.

The tracks that NASCAR runs on have changed too. NASCAR tracks can now be found from California to New Hampshire, the southern tip of Florida to Kansas. And as NASCAR has evolved so has it’s fan base. The head honchos in Daytona Beach make no bones about it: They want their sport to be as big the NFL, the NBA, and major league baseball.

In order to do this, NASCAR has to emulate what some of the other major league sports have done so successfully: Muti-million dollar network TV contracts. Nationwide merchandising of it's products, so on.

And one thing that the other major league sports do that NASCAR doesn't; they have their all-star events in a different city every year. The Super Bowl, The NBA All-Star game, NHL, all these major league sports have different locations each year as a way to bring national exposure to all the markets across the country.

And NASCAR will do the same with "The Winston", eventually. . To do otherwise would be a “two steps forward, one step back” mentality and the top brass at NASCAR aren't that dumb.

Now of course all the folks in North Carolina will be, and are, upset over the move. And I understand that it's great for the teams to be close to home for a few weeks, but just as NASCAR as shaken off the past, we will all just have to get used to the fact that "The Winston" will rotate around the tracks every year. In order for this sport to truly reach major league status it will have to.

And while Tarheels will say that the Daytona 500 is our “Super BowL, the NFL’s Super Bowl is between league champions, used to crown a World champion, the teams having won their way to the top, so in that sense it’s really a “non-points “event so to speak, just like the “Winston”.

Don’t the other markets, those loyal to the sport deserve some of the attention and revenue that comes along with hosting the “Winston”? New Hampshire, Bristol, Pocono have long supported NASCAR and I’m sure they’d be eager to host an All-Star event..

Right now the weekend before the 600 makes it nice and convenient for the teams, Lord knows they deserve the break from traveling. But once the rotation begins, NASCAR will need to find a way to fit in an All-Star event. Perhaps it could be held during the week, "prime-time" of course, before the event to be held at the track where it is being staged. Like on the Thursday night at Bristol, before the Sunday race at the same track. Qualify the night before, race on Thursday.

Or better yet, have the Bristol race on Saturday night like now, but move the regular event normally held on Sunday to another day during the week, this is something that NASCAR has talked about doing, having an event during the week (Monday night to be exact) instead of Sunday. The teams would already be there for the event so this would eliminate the need for extra travel.

I know the teams enjoy being "home" so to speak at Lowes, being able to invite friends and family to the track, but there are two events held there each year now so at least that opportunity won't go away. And as for the crews, the spotlight during the "Winston" need no shift away from them. They deserve the cheers and adulation they get every year. So why doesn't NASCAR consider having the Union 76 World Pit Crew competition held in conjunction with the "Winston". Like the different events the NBA holds during it’s All-Star weekend every year. Wouldn't that make perfect sense as well?

There are a lot of things that NASCAR could do, but one thing is for certain, very soon they will announce that the Winston will began to rotate.

And that will make perfect sense.

Childress, Gordon Say RCR Ship is on Steady Course
By Ben Blake
Speed channel, June 19, 2002