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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
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Chrysler 400, a.^'AYl
2:30 p.m. March 7
Busch Sartos
Sam's Town 300,
3:30 p.m. March 6
Craftsman Truck _____
Easycare 200, UuBBl!
1 p.m. March 13 * sa ** ¥ *
► North Carolina Speedway, with
its abrasive surface, was sup
posed to favor veteran drivers
with experience at ‘saving the
tires." So who finishes second,
and by no more than a foot?
Kasey Kahne, who was compet
ing In only his second Cup race.
S-The winner, defending series
champion Matt Kenseth, was
the Raybestos Rookie of the
Year in 2000. The runner-up,
Kahne, is in the current rookie
race. The third-place finisher,
Jamie McMurray, was last year's
top rookie.
► The top eight drivers in the
points standings yes, it is
early are under the age of
35.
► Rockingham gets only one race
this year, and rumors are every
where that even that race is en
dangered. The track has the
least attractive date on the
schedule a week after the all
encompassing Daytona 500
and only 45,000 or so showed
up to watch what proved to be a
classic.
► Next week is an off week. Why
not take that week off after the
500? That would at least give
thousands of Carolinas fans a
week to recover from the exorbi
tant price-gouging of Daytona
Speedweeks. It seems as if the
schedule makers don’t want
Rockingham to succeed.
► Dale Earnhardt Jr. had never
finished better than 13th at
Rockingham, and the fact that
he managed to slip into fifth at
the end was yet another indica
tion that Junior's title hopes are
burgeoning.
► Jimmie Johnson crashed and
placed 41st. As a result, he
dropped out of the top 10 in the
points standings for the first
time in 70 races over three sea
sons.
► Kenseth, of course, trails Earn
hardt Jr. by only seven points,
and the next rsce, in Las Vegas,
is the one he won last year.
► Rookies have finished in the
top three in both races to date.
Scott Wimmer was third in the
Daytona 500.
► Kenseth has finished in the top
10 in his past six races at Rock
ingham, winning two of them.
a^iagtciLTggnrega
Nextel Cup
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 340
2. Matt Kenseth -j
3. Kevin Harvick -46
4. Scott Wimmer -52
5. Jeff Gordon -54
8. Tony Stewart -75
7. Kurt Busch 83
8. Elliott Sadler -85
>. Ward Burton -90
10. Joe Nemechek - 99
Busch Series
1, Kevin Harvick 335
2. Johnny Sauter 5
1. David Green -41
4. Robby Gordon -44
5. Ron Homaday 50
0. Michael Waltrip -59
7. Jason Keller -67
0. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -69
9. Martin Truexjt -_7l
10. Kenny Wallace : 90
Craftsman Truck
1. Cart Edwards 190
2. Travis Kvapll : 15
2. Mika WaHaoe 20
4. Rick Crawford 30
4. Terry Cook -30
0, Dennis Setter -to
7. frank Kknroel -43
8. Jon Wood -44
t. David Reudmann -47
10. Bobby Hamilton • 55
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PROUD TO BE THE OFFICIAL RU DEALER FOR
1-75 Exit 149, Byron, Georgia 1 -866-21 7-51 09
N€XTEt <3€JHF» SERIES
What: UAW-DaimlerChrysler
400
Where: Las Vegas Motor
Speedway (1.5 miles), 267
laps/400.5 miles
When: Green flag drops at 3
p.m. March 7
Last year’s winner: Matt
Kenseth
Qualifying record: Bobby
Labonte, Chevrolet, 173.016
mph, Feb. 28, 2003
Race record: Mark Martin,
Ford, 146.554 mph, March
1,1998
Most recent race: Matt
Kenseth led 258 laps with
ease and won by less than a
foot. Kenseth won Sunday's
Subway 400 at North Caroli
na Speedway for the second
WHAT'S UP NEXT
Kasey Kahne Nextel Cup Series, No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid
ROCK SOLID
Rookie Kahne shows his skills in last-lap duel
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
The rookie gave the champ all he
could handle.
Kasey Kahne came within inches
of winning in only his second Nextel
Cup race. Driving the No. 9 Dodge in
which Bill Elliott won the previous
race at North Carolina Speedway,
Kahne qualified third and spent
nearly the en
tire afternoon
running in the
top 10, al
though he nev
er actually led
a lap in Sun
day’s Subway
400.
As the laps
wound down,
Kahne drew closer and closer to the
bumper of leader and eventual win
ner Matt Kenseth. Astonishingly, he
drove beneath Kenseth in the final
turn of the final lap, and the two
drove across the finish line side-by
side. Kenseth’s margin of victory
was 1/100th of a second.
“I didn’t know if I’d won or not,”
Kahne said afterward. “It was too
close to call, actually. For a second I
thought that Matt was go-
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► If you have a question or a comment, write: NASCAR This Week, cyo The Gaston Gazette, RO. Box 1893, Gastonia, NC 28053
time in three years. Kasey
Kahne, driving the Ray
Evernham-owned Dodge that
had been driven by Bill El
liott to victory there on Nov.
9, 2003, performed more
admirably than anyone could
have imagined in only the
second race of his rookie
season. It took a photo fin
ish to determine that
Kenseth finished first and
Kahne second. Kahne
roared up on the bumper of
Kenseth's Ford on the back
straight, the two skated
through turns three and four
and they sailed down the
home straight side-by-side.
Kenseth's margin was inch
es at the end.
if I
■jjS •$
SPORTS
What: Sam's Town 300
Where: Las Vegas Motor
Speedway (1.5 miles), 200
laps/300 miles
When: Green flag drops at 4
p.m. March 6
Last year's winner: Joe Ne
mechek
Track qualifying record: Matt
Kenseth, Chevrolet, 169.385
mph, March 2, 2001
Race record: Jeff Burton,
Ford, 135.118 mph, March
4, 2000
Most recent race: Jamie Mc-
Murray won his fourth con
secutive Rockingham Busch
race Saturday. Martin Truex
Jr. finished second, followed
by Kevin Harvick, Michael
Waltrip and David Green.
IfVJ THE SPOTLIGHT
ing to win, and then I kind of got a
burst of speed and pulled a little bit
lower. I don’t>know if that helped or
hurt, but it definitely was close."
Replays showed conclusively that
Kenseth won, but the margin was no
more than a foot. Kahne’s perform
ance was the best by a rookie in the
history of the Rockingham, N.C.,
track, which opened in 1965.
Kahne won the final Busch Series
Series points standings last year.
During the final laps at Rocking
ham, Kahne said, “I was just trying
to control myself and stay calm and
not ‘overdrive’ the corner. That’s the
biggest thing you can overdrive
the corner so easy on older tires. I
didn’t want to overdrive the corner,
and I had Tommy (Baldwin Jr., his
crew chief) telling me what was go
ing on and Michael
What: Easycare Vehicle Ser
vice Contracts 200
Where: Atlanta Motor Speed
way, Hampton, Ga. (1.54
miles), 130 laps/200.2
miles
When: 1 p.m. March 13
Last year’s winner: First se
ries race at this track
Most recent race: Roush
Racing driver Carl Edwards
started off the season with
a victory at Daytona. The
Craftsman Truck Series sea
son starts slow, with the
second race, on March 13,
a long month after the first.
Then there’s another month
off, with the third race at
Martinsville not until April
17.
Landis ‘spotting’ (by radio) all day.
“I had a lot of good people and a lot
of help and just took it to the final
corner and tried to make something
happen.”
Like so many other bright, young
drivers, Kahne spent his early years
driving in various open-wheel series.
When he won the “night before the
500” race at Indianapolis Raceway
Park in both 2000 and 2001, Kahne
became the first driver to win it
back-to-back since Jeff Gordon in
1989-90.
“Ray (Evernham, the car owner)
saw he had that talent there and put
him behind the wheel,” Baldwin said
of Kahne. “We ran a lot of laps and
tested for a day, and we knew what
we had. We had a good practice (the
day before the race), and basically
all week was good. You really can’t
take anything away from what he did
all week. We’ll
take this mo
mentum
and run
JMHHk wi th it.”
r Photos by
John Clark/
~ NASCAR
£jsH| This Week
race of 2003,
the Ford 300
at Homestead-
Miami (Fla.)
Speedway.
The 23-year
old is a native
of Enumclaw,
Wash., and fin
ished seventh
in the Busch
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2004
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UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400
| LAS VEGAS %
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IwSn Distance:. 1.5 mile oval njjjSjjn
Tm Length of frontstretch: 2,275 ft
Length of bactetreteh: 1,572 ft |
iSSa& Miles/Laps: 400mi.-267 laps
FEUD OF THE WEEK
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s
Jimmie
Johnson
Jimmie Johnson blamed veteran
Ken Schrader for a crash that
dropped Johnson out of the top 10 in
the points standings for the first
time in almost two years. The Hen
drick Motorsports driver spent 70
weeks in the top 10.
Johnson was knocked out of Sun
day’s Subway 400 on lap 131.
“From my vantage point coming
into the corner, I thought he was
staying on the track,' Johnson said
of Schrader. ‘And then he comes
down and comes across trying to get
to pit road. I hate it. No hand signals
(from Schrader) or anything.’
The El Cajon, Calif., driver had
two other streaks snapped. He post
ed top-10 finishes in the past eight
races dating back to last season and
top fives in the past seven.
“It’s just a shame for this team,”
Johnson said. ‘This is definitely a
way that we didn't want to start the
season, but there are a lot of races
left."
NASCAR This Week’s Monts
Dutton gives his take: ‘We can only
speculate that Schrader received
some sort of abrupt message from
his crew chief or spotter telling him
to pit. Regardless of what caused
the incident, it was a tough break for
Johnson, who fell to 25th in the
points standings, 140 behind Dale
Earnhardt Jr.“
WHO'S HOT
AND WHO'S NOT
► HOT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the only
driver with top-five finishes in both
races so far. Matt Kenseth has two
top-10 finishes. ... Ward Burton's
quiet ninth-place finish at Rocking
ham moved him to ninth place in
the points standings. ... Jack
Roush, whose Fords have won 11 of
the past 12 races won by the manu
facturer.
► NOT: Jeff Burton has finished 42nd
and 37th in the first two races in
2004. Robby Gordon has finished
35th and 36th. Michael Waltrip has
finished 38th and 33rd. ... The Joe
Gibbs Racing duo of Bobby Labonte
and Tony Stewart finished 25th and
26th at Rockingham.
[ FAN T«RS
► The 'Sands of Time: Celebrating
100 Years of Racing at Daytona'
by Bill Lazarus (Sports Publishing
LLC, $29.95) takes readers from
the first makeshift race on the
beach through the 2003 running of
the Daytona 500. Many of the great
est drivers have raced at one time
or another at Daytona, either in the
early speed runs on the beach, in
the NASCAR races or in the annual
24-hour endurance race. The book
is full of rare photos gleaned from
the archives of ISC Publications.
► The sponsor of Terry Cook’s Crafts
man Truck Series team. Power Stroke
Diesel, is teaming with an organiza
tion called Paws With a Cause,
which trains assistance dogs to
cater to individuals with mobility and
hearing disabilities who seek inde
pendence. A NASCAR simulator will
travel the truck circuit to raise
awareness and funds for the cause.
3B
Ken
Schrader