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June 22,2002 |
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Road to repeat
INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: |
Sportsline.com,June 22, 2002
Tony Stewart took the first step toward defending his title in the Dodge/Save Mart 350 by winning the pole Friday on the road course at Sears Point Raceway. Stewart had not won a pole in 58 races, dating back to Martinsville Speedway nearly two years ago. At Sears Point last year, he qualified with third.
_____________________________________ Pole sitter Tony Stewart press conference _____________________________________ "Coming to a road course to me is somewhat of a luxury," Stewart said. "It's not another mile-and-a-half oval."Stewart's lap of 93.476 mph on the scenic wine country course also gave Pontiac its first pole of the season. "I don't think it's any secret to anyone that we've been struggling lately," he said. "But the nice thing about here is that horsepower and body styles don't matter a lot. "It's a matter of who gets the mechanical balance and what drivers get used to the racetrack." Stewart has started in the top 10 in nine races this year, including six of the last seven events.
"It was a decent lap, but I know we've got more in the car," Kurt Busch went from a provisional entry last year to the second-best qualifier this year with a lap of 93.184. Fellow Ford driver Jeff Burton beat four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon with a lap of 93.166. Gordon, who has won at Sears Point for three of the last four years and holds the NASCAR record with seven career road course victories, went 93.141 mph in a new, specially designed Chevrolet Monte Carlo. FULL STORY
Gordon returns to the scene of the crime
Robby Gordon will remember Sears Point as the victory that wasn't -- due in part to his current teammate. Subbing for Ultra Motorsports driver Mike Wallace, Gordon's road-racing savvy put him in the lead late in the Dodge-Save Mart 350 on a course usually dominated by the other Gordon -- Jeff. Then he got into a bump-and-grind with Kevin Harvick. Harvick, on fresher tires, wanted to pass Robby Gordon to get back on the lead lap. Gordon was having none of it. With 10 laps to go, Tony Stewart ducked under the duel to take the lead and win the race by 1.7 seconds over Gordon.
_____________________________________ _____________________________________ ``Still today I don't understand why a lapped car would do that to the leader -- a car that was a lap down -- and I still think it's wrong,'' Gordon said.Meanwhile, the former adversaries are now teammates, driving for Richard Childress Racing. ``It's over with. We have to get along,'' Gordon said. ``That's one of the things that's nice about Winston Cup. You're running 36 races a year and we're on to the next one.'' |
---KEN SCHRADER TO PETTY? --ANOTHER NAME CHANGE FOR LOWE'S MOTOR SPEEDWAY --NEW CUP TEAM PLANNED --ISC BUYING PIKES PEAK? --ARCHITECT SUES KENTUCKY SPEEDWAY --SHEPHERD TO HANDLE WOOD TEST -- MICHIGAN TO ADD GATES -- DISTANCE CHANGES AT SONOMA --NASCAR TO TEAM WITH BRITNEY --MICHIGAN EASILY OUTDRAWS OTHER RACES \ You never know how rules of road will be enforced
A NASCAR rule change can be both time-consuming and expensive. Friday morning, NASCAR told drivers to take their cars into the garage after making their qualifying laps. Somehow, Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't remember that part of the conversation. When he got onto the course, he was more concerned with the task at hand -- turning in a banzai qualifying lap. "But I messed up," Junior admits. |
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Tony Stewart will start here Sunday precisely where he ended things one year ago, at the head of the pack. And if Stewart's laps in the weekend's Dodge/Save Mart 350 are consistently as fast as his pole winning run yesterday, he'll run away from the field. But Jeff Gordon and Robby Gordon are not expected to concede anything. And there could well be some wild cards, like surprising Kurt Busch, who will start next to Stewart.
There could be some other surprises, too. Robby Gordon had the dominant car here last summer, but he got caught up in a duel with Kevin Harvick, now his teammate, and Stewart sneaked away with the win. "He gave us the race last year," Stewart said. "He shouldn't have been messing with him anyway." |
Robby Gordon should finish the job at Sears Point NBCSports.com June 22, 2002
To be successful at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., one of two road courses run by NASCAR, a driver must be aggressive yet savvy, driving hard yet smooth, while pushing his car to the edge but not over it. On Sunday when the Winston Cup series makes its 14th stop at the northern California track, I think road-course veteran Robby Gordon will put together the entire package and take the checkered flag.
_____________________________________ Road courses belong on Winston Cup schedule _____________________________________ WHY ROBBY GORDON WILL WIN Gordon brought an extensive and successful road-course background to the Winston Cup circuit, and he has shown it the past couple years. Driving a limited Cup schedule in 2000, he recorded his two best finishes of the year at Sears Point (ninth) and Watkins Glen (fourth), NASCAR's other road course. Last year, he led at Sears Point with 11 laps remaining before being passed by eventual winner Tony Stewart. Later in the summer at Watkins Glen, Gordon had the strongest car in the field and was in the lead before the telemetry box in his car caught fire and forced him out of the race. Although Gordon has only one top-10 finish this year -- eighth at Dover three weeks ago -- I think he will use both his vast road-course experience and the lessons he's learned here the past few years to finally make the trip to Victory Lane at Sears Point. FULL STORY 
While many people on the fringe of Winston Cup racing are calling for the series to add more road course events, the two races per year that is currently used are more than enough.. NASCAR Winston Cup may be known as a series where drivers only know how to turn left, but they have run 92 races on road courses since 1949.
_____________________________________ Rudd not angry at NASCAR's 'young guns' _____________________________________ Historically, the tour visits two such tracks per season. Since its inception in 1949, NASCAR has run at the old Daytona Beach course, the defunct Riverside, CA track, (now paved over into a parking lot) and current venues Sears Point and Watkins Glen.Road courses are more difficult than ovals, more technically demanding from a driver's standpoint. Most "Cup" drivers view road courses as a nuisance, since stock car drivers grow up on ovals, and most have never learned the skills necessary to compete on these tracks |
Guest Columnist's From Team Racin.com --The Rumor Mill Keeps Goin and Goin And Goin Don Smith -- Rankings for Sears Point Tim Haddox -- Should we keep road courses? Ann Stacy -- Race Fans Want to Know: NASCAR, how BAD can you get? Valerie Wood -- Fantasy Racing News Weekly / Dodge/ Save Mart 350 A.J. Caccia -- Replies to Michigan Rankings Tim Haddox
Ken Schrader to pilot purple car at Bristol
The votes have all been counted, and it's now official. Purple is the newest color to join the famous "M&M's"® mix, and it's now the newest color car in the "M&M's"® Racing Team's stable.
Voters in more than 200 countries selected which color - purple, pink or aqua - would join the famous candy mix as part of "M&M's"® GLOBAL COLOR VOTE(tm). While chocolate lovers around the globe were choosing which color they wanted to add to the "M&M's"® mix, NASCAR fans were debating which color car they wanted to see driver Kenny Schrader pilot around a high-banked, short track. |
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The seat-of-the-pants feel just isn't enough anymore Gaston Gazette, June 22 2002  Charlotte Motor Speedway circa 1960 You put Fireball Roberts into one of these high-tech, aerodynamic marvels that race in NASCAR today, and winning would be a piece of cake, right? Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, Curtis Turner, Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Herb Thomas, Ned Jarrett … any of them would have made mincemeat out of the drivers out there today. Racing’s too easy. The cars have power steering. Some of them might have traction-control devices so technologically advanced that NASCAR officials, try as they might, can’t detect them. The oldtimers — the ones who used to run 500 miles on a road course, not 220 as will be the length of the Dodge/Save Mart 350 on Sunday — would wear these tenderfeet out. That’s what I used to think until I started chatting with a couple drivers on the subject. First of all, a great driver is a great driver … in any age. But the drivers from days gone by would have a harder time adjusting to the cars today than the drivers of today would have adjusting to the cars of days gone by. FULL STORY
Crawford Mr. Consistency
So, Rick Crawford has yet to win a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race this season. In fact, Crawford hasn’t been to victory lane in the Truck Series since his first win in early 1998 at Homestead, a span of 105 races. But while he would dearly love to taste the spoils of victory again, Crawford certainly has nothing to hang his head about these days.
_____________________________________ Kvapil Wins Memphis Truck Race _____________________________________ The CTS veteran, who leads all active drivers with 133 consecutive Truck Series starts, is currently tied for third in the standings with Ted Musgrave, just 17 points behind leader David Starr. He has five top-five and six top-10 finishes in seven races, not having finished worse than sixth since a season-worse 24th-place effort in the opener at Daytona |
Parts of pop star's NASCAR flick may be shot at Lowe's Motor Speedway
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STORIES ELSEWHERE
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-- ASA driver Councilor killed in crash
ESPN.com -- Hamilton could be a surprise this weekend Mike Mulhren, LapBylap.com -- Sonoma: Ken Schrader preview Motorsport.com -- Childress hopes to reverse woeful showing LapByLap -- Komen Foundation benefit from Jarrett's success Motorsport.com -- Jarrett, Newman press conference Motorsport.com -- Wood Brothers' heritage runs deep at two-mile track Monte Dutton,Gaston Gazzette |
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NOTES FROM THE TRACK AND AROUND THE WEB:
LAST RACE Sirius Satellite Radio 400 Winner:Matt Kenesth Average Speed: 154.822 miles per hour Time of Race: 2 hours, 35 minutes, 1 second Margin of Victory: .131 seconds Cautions: 4 for 16 laps Lead Changes: 15 among 10 drivers Unofficial Race Results Sirius Satellite Radio 400 Pocono 500 results MBNA Platinum 400 Results Coca-Cola Racing Family 600 Results |
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NEXT: Time: 2:30 p.m. (Eastern) TV: WINSTON CUP QUALIFYING 5 p.m. (EDT) Friday FSN CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES O'REILLY 200 1 p.m. (EDT) Saturday ESPN WINSTON CUP HAPPY HOUR 2 p.m. (EDT) Saturday FX WINSTON CUP DODGE/SAVE MART 350 2:30 p.m. (EDT) Sunday Fox Radio: PRN Times and stations are subject to change Race Record: E. Irvan 81.412 06|07|92. Qualifying Record: R. Wallace 99.309 06|23|00 |
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