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FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2005
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BURNING ISSUES-
■ As hard as this is to be
lieve, former Daytona 500
winner Ward Burton does
not currently have a ride for
this year’s race.
■ The debut of Dodge's new
Charger might not be quite
as difficult due to the fact
that all the manufacturers
will be adjusting to new
aerodynamic rules. Rookie
of the Year Kasey Kahne
says the difference in the
spoiler heights is greater
than the difference in the
body shapes.
■ The aero changes will not
be in play at Daytona, how
ever. The spoiler heights
are unchanged for the re
strictor-plate tracks.
■ Most drivers now em
brace the "Chase" champi
onship format. When the
changes were announced a
year ago, most opposed
them.
■ Daytona International
Speedway has undergone
major changes since the
most recent race there last
July. The infield of the 2.5-
mile track has been ambi
tiously rearranged, and the
garage area is entirely new.
■ If you made Speedweeks
lodging reservations some
time ago, as many have, it
might not be a bad idea to
make some inquiries. Last
year's hurricanes caused
considerable damage to
many major structures, and
some of the area’s major
hotels have not reopened.
■ No Daytona 500 winner
has gone on to win the
championship in the same
season since Jeff Gordon
in 1997.
■ This year’s Daytona quali
fying races have been in
creased from 125 to 150
miles. Originally, they were
100 miles. The distance
was hiked to 125 miles in
1969.
■ Last week NASCAR an
nounced changes in the
Busch and Craftsman Truck
series to change the com
position of starting lineups
in a manner similar to what
had already been changed
in Nextel Cup. There are no
more provisional starting
spots, but top teams will
enjoy guaranteed places in
the fields.
■ Carl Edwards will attempt
to compete full time in
both the Cup and Busch
series. Edwards’ entire
Busch Series experience
consists of one race.
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Burdick on the pole
for first NASCAR race
*
Bob Burdick, from Omaha,
Neb., won the pole for his first
major NASCAR race. The race
was run in Trenton, N.J., in the
summer of 1959, and Burdick
was only 22 years old. Burdick
only competed in six races that
year but finished in the top 10
in four of them, including a sec
ond-place finish in the South
ern 500 at Darlington. The
highlight of Burdick's career,
which consisted ,of only 15
races, was a victory in the
1961 Atlanta 500.
NASCAR’s view of ‘cuss words’ is set by the federal government
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
Few incidents were more contro
versial in 2004 than NASCAR’s deci
sion to dock Dale Earnhardt Jr. 25
points after he used coarse language
in victory lane at Talladega.
Who determines unacceptable lan
guage on television? Not NASCAR.
Here are the Federal Communications
Commission’s guidelines:
“The FCC has defined broadcast in
decency as ‘language or material that,
in context, depicts or describes, in
terms patently offensive as measured
by contemporary community broad
cast standards for the broadcast
medium, sexual or excretory organs
► If you have a question or a comment, write: NASCAR This Week, c/o The Gaston Gazette, PO. Box 1538, Gastonia, NC 28053
Craftsman Truck Series
w
* J .'
Photos by John Clark/NASCAR This Week
Brendan Gaughan, left, finished second in the Nextel Cup rookie standings last season. But that wasn't enough to earn the 29-year-old racer a spot on the major circuit this year.
Going, going, Gaughan
Despite success in rookie season, Gaughan finds himself out of Nextel Cup
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
Brendan Gaughan finished second
in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year
race in 2004, but it wasn’t enough to
keep him in the Nextel Cup Series.
Gaughan, 29, was replaced by Travis
Kvapil in the No. 77 Kodak Dodge.
This year Gaughan will return to
the Craftsman Truck Series and the
Orleans Racing Team. He will com
pete in at least 18 races as a team
mate to Steve Park.
“He (Park) is going to run full
time,” said Gaughan. “We’re looking
for a sponsor still, but with Dodge’s
help, the guys back at the shop are
really pumped up about the new sea
son. ... If we can do well enough,
maybe we’ll do the entire series, but
for right now, it’s just 18 races.
“Some people have said they no
ticed the smile is back on my face.
I’m having fun again. If I do some
thing (else, as in a Cup ride), I’m go
Newman: New rules won’t stop me
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
•
Ryan Newman said new qualifying
rules won’t prevent him from winning
poles. Newman, of course, won nine last
year.
“While the rules may have changed,
the playing field is still the same,” he
said. “We won poles while everyone was
in qualifying trim, and we’ll win poles
when everyone is in race trim. Collec
tively, our goal is to be the fastest car
every time we’re on the track. That won’t
or activities.’ Indecent programming
contains patently offensive sexual or
excretory references that do not rise
to the level of obscenity. Indecent pro
gramming may, however, be restrict
ed in order to avoid its broadcast dur
ing times of the day when there is a
reasonable risk that children may be
in the audience.
“Consistent with a federal statute
and federal court decisions interpret
ing the indecency statute, the Com
mission adopted a rule pursuant to
which broadcasts both on television
and radio that fit within the inde
cency definition and that are aired be
tween 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are
SPORTS
ing to do it the way I want.... There’s
talk about a lot of things. I let every
body talk. I listen to all the deals. You
never know what might be there. A
lot of people have called and ex
pressed some interest. I’ve called a
few people and expressed interest.”
Gaughan insisted that his year as a
Cup driver left no bad feelings.
“No, we went up there and gave it a
shot,” he said. “There’s pressure on
all sorts of people at that level.
There’s politics and pressures, peo
ple that have to justify their own
jobs. Once you get there you have to
spend more money to keep a job.
Things get difficult at that level for
some. I turn left. I tell people I don’t
know much about the mechanics of a
race car, and I don’t, but I know more
than I let on. I know enough to stay
away and let the people who are real
ly smart do their job.”
In 2003, Gaughan very nearly won
the Truck Series championship. In
fact, the driver who did win it, Kva
pil, is the driver who eventually re
change with this rule.”
NASCAR revamped its
qualifying procedures last
week, guaranteeing a spot
in a Nextel Cup race to the
top 35 drivers in the points
standings.
The next seven positions
in the starting field will be
Newman
awarded to drivers with the fastest qual
ifying speeds who are not among the top
35 in points. The 43rd and final starting
position will still be reserved for a cur
rent or past Nextel Cup champion.
subject to indecency enforcement ac
tion.”
■
Doing ‘the double’ This year Carl
Edwards, not Greg Biffle, will at
tempt to run full-time in both Cup and
the Busch series.
It’s going to be fun, said Edwards.
“For me, yeah,” he said. “That’s the
way I look at it because I really love to
drive race cars. I go to sleep every
night and think, ‘Man, this is the great
est thing in the world.’ I don’t know if
Jack (Roush) realizes it, but I’ve only
driven one Busch race, really.”
“Running one series for a champi
onship and another series to survive
placed him in Cup.
Last year Gaughan finished in the
top 10 four times and had one top
five finish, but Kasey Kahne was a
runaway winner in the rookie race
with 376 points. Gaughan had 256,
one more than Brian Vickers.
“I was ready for Nextel Cup, driv
ing-wise,” said Gaughan. “Maybe I
needed to learn a few other things
like how to play politics better. In the
end, I don’t do that very well, and I
don’t think I’m ever going to do that
very well. When I see a spade is a
spade, I call it a spade. It may end
my career.
“It may be the worst thing, and my
father yells at me for it. My dad
(Michael) plays politics a lot better
than I do. In the Truck Series, you
have (director) Wayne Auton and
that’s the end. What he says goes.
You don’t need to play politics around
here. When you’re talking about the
Orleans Racing Team, you’re talking
about me and my dad. That ain’t a
very political structure there.”
The system eliminates the old proce
dure of teams accruing provisionals
throughout the season to gain entry into
the starting fields. If a driver didn’t
qualify in the top 35 on speed, he had to
use one of his provisionals to get in.
When the provisionals ran out, the
driver was sent home for the weekend no
matter where he stood in the standings.
The new qualifying system will not be
gin until the sixth race of the season.
Through the first five races, the top 35 in
the standings of the 2004 points system
will be assured a starting spot.
is going to be the hardest thing he’s
ever done,” said Roush. “It’s perfect.”
■
Letting his hair down Elliott
Sadler turned heads in Daytona with
hair that had grown long over the
winter.
“I’ll probably have it cut here be
fore long,” he said. “I’m just ‘on
strike’ right now. I don’t feel like get
ting it cut. I’m too lazy. I actually
tried to bleach it this winter and that
didn’t really work out too good, so I’m
back to my normal hair color. I don’t
know, it’s just something different. If
you all know me and been around me
long enough, I always try to be the
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Brendan Gaughan
Brendan Gaughan
Fans can get a jump on
Speedweeks with guide
Before fans even get to Daytona
for Speedweeks, they can down
load the Daytona International
Speedway Fan Guide to keep them
abreast of the many changes that
have taken place at DIS, including
free parking, tram service and in
formation on the new infield Fan-
Zone. The Fan Guide can be down
loaded at www.daytonainternation
alspeedway.com and includes tick
et information, event schedules,
transportation tips and other tid
bits. The Fan Guide will be avail
able during Speedweeks at Infor
mation Centers and the Speedway
ticket office. All ticket holders will
also be mailed a Fan Guide.
different guy in the garage, not the
one that’s taking the same step as
everybody else.
“Everybody else keeps little short,
tidy little hair, so I decided to do
something a little different. I don’t
know. I have a great sponsor and a
great team owner. M&M’s knows I’m a
free-spirited kind of person and so
does Mr. (Robert) Yates, so they let
me kind of go off on my own. As long
as I don’t do anything stupid, they
kind of let me be my own person, so
it’s great working with companies like
that.”
Contact Monte Dutton at
hmd4Bsß@peoplepc.com