Newspaper Page Text
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
!%■•*■ *- *- ' *~ *-—*—-*» *- %4
ON THE-TUBE —
All times Eastern
Nextel Cup ««
UAW-GM Quality 500, "R
7 p.m., Saturday NBC
Busch Series
Spongebob TtlT
Squarepants 300,
8 p.m., Friday
Truck Series _____
Silverado 350 k. UUUUU
CHAM M fl
2 p.m., Saturday
r ippwppipwi m 1
[•BURNINQHBSBEg»J
► Many drivers have complained
about all the attention going to
10 drivers. Joe Nemechek fixed
that with a victory at Kansas. In
fact, the 10 drivers racing for
the championship raced mainly
each other. They led a grand to
tal of 11 laps between them.
s- If the old points system was
still in effect, Jeff Gordon would
now lead Dale Earnhardt Jr. by
one point. Jamie McMurray and
Dale Jarrett would be in the top
10. Ryan Newman and Jeremy
Mayfield wouldn't.
► Busch, of course, is the leader
in the system that is actually in
place. He's lucky to be there. He
lost control of his Ford early in
the race but managed to come
back because, miraculously, his
spinning car didn't hit anything.
“I'm disgusted with myself be
cause it was the same mistake
I've made before," said Busch.
► Talk about a long shot? Joe Ne
mechek woh both Kansas races
Nextel Cup and Busch and
he had won in neither series this
year when the weekend began.
► The “Chase” field is becoming
increasingly stretched. The dis
tance from first-place Busch to
lOth-place Jeremy Mayfield is
257 points. Only three drivers
Busch, Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff
Gordon are within 100 points.
► Tony Stewart went to bat for pal
Earnhardt Jr. by pointedly criticiz
ing NASCAR officials for penaliz
ing Earnhardt for using profanity.
Stewart said NASCAR was “fan
tasy land." How so? “A lot of
what NASCAR does contradicts
what they say," Stewart said.
► Stewart, by the way, dominated
the Busch Series race only to be
knocked out in a crash with Ne
mechek with only a couple of
laps to go. Stewart has never
won a Busch Series race, and it
doesn't seem to be in the cards.
► Ricky Rudd was as hungry for a
win as Nemechek, but the veter
an was a model of sportsman
ship when his Ford caught Ne
mechek's Chevy at the end. “I
wasn't going to take a cheap
shot at Joe," he said.
► Greg Biffle finished third but
thought he should have been
the winner. ‘I don't want to act
like a baby." he said, "but I'm
disappointed bad."
ggigggiJSiMnrca
Nextel Cup
1. Kurt Busch 5,685
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -29
3. Jeff Gordon -79
4. Elliott Sadler -143
8. Mark Martin -150
6. Tony Stewart -173
7. Matt Kenseth -180
8. Ryan Newman 232
9. Jimmie Johnson - 247
10. Jeremy Mayfield -257
Busch Series
X. Martin Truex Jr. 4,212
2. Kyle Busch -149
3. Greg Biffle - 480
4. Jason Leffler - 551
8. Ron Hornaday Jr, - 670
8. David Green - 688
7. Jason Keller - 720
3. Mike Bliss - 898
9. Ashton Lewis -1,077
10. KaseyKahne -1,093
Craftsman Truck
1. ■ Bobby Hamilton 2,933
3. Dennis Setzer -56
3. Cart Edwards -146
4. Ted Musgrave -1.50
8. Matt Crafton - 271
9. Chad Chaffin - 308
7, Travis Kvapil - 310
8, David Starr -372
9. Steve Park -420
10. Jack Sprague - 451
WHO’S HOT
AND WHO'S NOT -
► Who's hot? Joe Nemechek has
finished in the top 10 three
times in the past four races....
Ricky Rudd has finished in the
top 15 three weeks in a row. ...
Elliot Sadler jumped four spots
to fourth place in the “Chase for
the Championship" with a
fourth-place finish in Kansas.
Who's not? Jimmie Johnson
has slumped to ninth in “the
Chase.' 247 points behind Kurt
Busch. He's been 32nd or
worse in three of the past five
races. As many critics feared,
the man who led the points race
for most of the season has
been shuffled to the back in the
new playoff format.
- CUP SER<e»-
Race: UAW-GM Quality 500
Where: Lowe's Motor Speed
way, Concord, N.C. (1.5
miles), 334 laps/501 miles.
When: Saturday, Oct. 16
Last year's winner: Tony
Stewart
Qualifying record: Jimmie
Johnson. Chevrolet, 187.052
mph, May 27, 2004.
Race record: Jeff Gordon,
Chevrolet, 160.306 mph,
Oct. 11.1999.
Last week: "The Chase" took
a back seat at Kansas
Speedway as drivers without
a hint of a chance at the
championship took center
stage. Joe Nemechek, who
hadn't won a race all year, ar
rived in Kansas and won not
g --gracei as
John Andretti nextel cup Series
Back on track
Andretti will have a full-time ride next season with PPC Racing
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
John Andretti, who won races at
Daytona in 1997 and Martinsville in
1999, will return full time to
NASCAR’s premier series next year
and will give his new team a trial run
this week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Andretti will drive a Ford carrying
No. 14. That number is often associat
ed with the 41-year-old driver’s godfa
ther, A.J. Foyt. John is, of course, the
nephew jf another Indy-car great,
Mario Andretti.
The new team will be entered by
PPC Racing, with primary sponsor
ship from Victory Brand and APlus at
Sunoco. This year Andretti has com
peted in five races, with the best fin
ish occurring in the Daytona 500,
where he wound up 13 th .
“We’re giving birth to something
new that is extremely exciting with a
lot of great people,” said Andretti.
“For me to be part of it, I’m over
whelmed in a lot of ways and delight
ed and looking forward to being part
of all of the success we’re going to
have in the future. It's good to be back
in the saddle.”
Andretti downplayed the fact that
he will represent a one-car team in an
age in which stock-car racing has
come to be dominated by multicar
groupings.
“At first the question was a fair one,
but now we feel like we’re not a one
car team,” he said. “We’re part of
Ford, which is a huge camp. Robert
Yates Racing has been tremendous in
their help. It’s been phenomenal to
work with them, and they actually had
a couple of people come out and talk
us through some of the things they’ve
worked with.”
Andretti hasn’t been a full-time
competitor in Cup since 2002, al
though he ran 29 races for four differ
ent teams in 2003. Returning from the
sidelines is quite a relief.
“It bothers me a lot to see all those
guys having a lot of fun and not be
there,” he said. “Also, you have
friends at the race track. You work
with so many different people. I got to
go to a lot of soccer games and horse
shows, but there’s still something
missing. It’s not the case like a Mark
Martin or a Rusty Wallace, those guys
who really have completed their ca
reers and have gotten so much out of
it. I feel like I’ve left so much behind
and still have a lot that I need to ac
complish, and my window is short.”
“We don’t have a lot of time to build
because what I want to accomplish
Mo other sport would do what NASCAR did to Earnhardt Jr.
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -
NASCAR officials’ decision to
penalize Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25
points (he also received a
SIO,OOO fine) for using poor
language in Talladega victory
cost the 30-year-old driver the
Nextel Cup points lead.
Few sports would allow a
word even a profane one
to affect the outcome of, shall
we say, a pennant race, but this
sport had already established
such a precedent by taking
similar actions against Busch
Series drivers Johnny Sauter
► If you have a question or a comment, write: NASCAR This Week, c/o The Gaston Gazette, PO. Box 1893, Gastonia, NC 28053
one, but two major NASCAR
races. His victory in the Ban
quet 400 settled mostly
among drivers who won't be
invited to the one at the end
of the year followed by
one day another victory in the
Busch Series. The 41-year
old Chevrolet driver began
the day ranked 24th in the
points standings, and the
fourth victory of his career
only lifted him up three
spots. Nemechek held off an
other veteran, Ricky Rudd,
who arrived and left Kansas
in 26th place in the stand
ings. Greg Biffle finished
third and moved up to 18th
in points.
and Ron Hornaday Jr.
If the end of the season ar
rived, though, and Earnhardt
Jr. lost the title by five points,
wouldn’t that be something?
■
Bah! HumbuglNot everyone
is overjoyed with the notion of
a major NASCAR race in New
York. Take the mayor of the
Big Apple, for instance.
At a community meeting,
Michael Bloomberg said, “Per
sonally, I am not an auto racing
fan, and I am skeptical that it
fits on Staten Island."
The mayor cited traffic
SPORTS
-eUSQH<€fH€S
Race: Spongeßob
Square Pants Movie 300
Where: Lowe's Motor Speed
way, Concord, N.C. (1.5 mi.),
200 laps/300 miles.
When: Friday, Oct. 15
Last year's winner: Greg Bif
fle
Qualifying record: Kevin Har
vick. Chevrolet, 184.445
mph. May 24, 2003.
Race record: Mark Martin,
Ford. 155.996 mph, May 25,
1996.
Last week: Joe Nemechek,
in a Chevrolet, won the Mr.
Goodcents 300 at Kansas
Speedway.
-* ' ■ fy; • k I t
John Clark/NASCAR This Week
John Andretti, a two-time winner in NASCAR’s premier circuit, will drive the No. 14 car next
season in the Nextel Cup Series.
has to happen pretty quickly, and so
I’m pushing hard and they’re pushing
hard and we know the hill is huge.”
During his career, John Andretti
has won at many levels. He won a
CART race in Australia in 1991 and
was on the winning team at the 24-
Race: Silverado 350 k
Where: Texas Motor Speed
way, Justin (1.5 miles), 146
laps/219 miles.
When: Saturday, Oct. 16
Last year's winner: Brendan
Gaughan
Qualifying record: Scott Rig
gs, Dodge, 181.953 mph,
Oct. 4, 2001.
Race record: Brendan
Gaughan, Dodge, 137.736
mph, Sept. 13, 2002.
Oct. 2: Todd Bodine drove a
Toyota to victory at California
Speedway in Fontana.
-NUTS AND BOLTS -
problems and expressed the
view that existing roads “just
can’t handle the existing num
ber of people here.
“Every time I’m in this bor
ough, and I’m here maybe twice
a week, there’s a traffic jam.”
What effect the mayor’s op
position will have remains to
be seen, In July, International
Speedway Corporation agreed
to purchase two large parcels
of land near the Goethals
Bridge for the purpose of
building a .75-mile speedway
on Staten Island that would in
clude seating for 80,000.
•“OWAfTSMAN-TfWOK
hour endurance race at Daytona in
1989. He finished fifth in the 1991 In
dianapolis 500.
Contact Monte Dutton at
hmd4Bsß@peoplepc.com
New crew chief: A couple of
Petty Enterprises employees,
David Hyder and Dean John
son, have moved to BAM Rac
ing, with High Point native Hy
der joining the team as Ken
Schrader’s crew chief.
Hyder was previously “car
chief” for Jeff Green’s No. 43
Dodge. Johnson is a shock spe
cialist.
■
A heap of money: Taking into
account the Earnhardt Jr. fine
for cursing on television,
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2004 ♦
mx
All-Star Challenge Coca-Cola 600 UAW-GM
May 22 May 30 Quality 500 Oct 16
«S®“LOUIEsI
Home Improvement Warehouse
Distance: 1.5 mile oval mM/Au
Length of frontstretch: 1,952 ft
5 Length of backstretch: 1,360 ft 24 °^r
Sr MHes/Laps: 600 mi. - 400 laps ST
NASCAR officials handed out a
whopping $86,500 in penalties
for various violations during
Talladega’s EA Sports 500.
Two other drivers, Greg Bif
fle and Kasey Kahne, also, like
Earnhardt, had 25 points de
ducted in the points standings.
Biffle’s crew chief, Doug
Richert, received a $25,000
fine, by far the largest of the
week, for “unapproved spoiler
adjustments.” Another member
of that team, Mike Hillman Jr.,
received a two-race suspension.
Kahne’s crew chief, Tommy
Baldwin, also received a
$25,000 fine, for “unapproved
spoiler modifications.”
rro in nr tijC IA/CCI/.
Lski
Dale
Earnhardt Jr.
Kurt
Busch
V
E
R
S
u
s
Kurt Busch vs.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They're running neck-and-neck for
the Nextel Cup championship, and
while Busch's edge is 29 points, 25
of them stem from Earnhardt's penal
ty for using profanity in a television
interview at Talladega. “If we get a
top-10 (finish) at every one of these
last races, I'll be real proud of my
team and myself,” said Earnhardt af
ter finishing in Kansas. “That's what
it’s going to take to win the champi
onship, and that’s probably what’s
going to happen."
NASCAR This Week's Monte
Dutton gives his take: “This is evolv
ing into quite a battle between talent
ed drivers. One, Earnhardt, is quite a
bit more popular with the fans than
the other, but winning the champi
onship would help Busch in that de
partment. Oh, yeah, there's this Gor
don guy who's not too far back, ei
ther.”
II I ■ ’Hill ■nm^l
W m, w l
NASCAR fans get chance
to ‘Race to the Polls'
Thirty-six percent of America’s eli
gible voters were not registered for
the 2000 presidential, state and lo
cal elections. With that in mind, Nex
tel Communications Inc. has devised
“Race to the Polls,” a nonpartisan
voter registration program designed
to encourage and mobilize NASCAR
fans to register to vote in the upcom
ing November elections. As part of
the Race to the Polls program, Nextel
will use its at-track fan destination,
The Nextel Experience, and on-site
kiosks as hubs for voter registration
booths.
Hbg<greNPS~ANP“fcQRE~' s
Lowe’s Motor Speedway is
center of NASCAR universe
Daytona Beach, Fla., may be
NASCAR's headquarters, but Lowe's
Motor Speedway, in Concord, N.C., is
located at the sport's epicenter. The
1.5-mile track has been around since
1960, but things never get old there.
More innovations have occurred at
LMS than at all the sport’s other
tracks combined. Master promoters
Bruton Smith and “Humpy” Wheeler
have kept the track perpetually ahead
of its time.
North Carolina economy
reaps benefits from racing
According to a survey sponsored
by the North Carolina Motorsports
Association, the sport's impact on
the state’s economy amounts to $5.1
billion annually, making it 30th
largest out of 481 industries ranked
by the state.
The motorsports industry generat
ed 24,406 jobs in North Carolina dur
ing 2003, with an average salary of
$61,107.
3B