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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
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ON THE TUBE
All times Eastern
Nextel Cup
Sony HO 500.
8 p.m., Sunday
Buacli lariat dMa
Ameriquest 300. NBC
4 p.m., Saturday
Thick Serlea maw
NCTS2OO, Mt!wti
8 p.m., Sept. 8
BURNING ISSUES-
► Matt Kenseth, counted out of
the title chase only a few races
ago, now is only 11 points out of
the top 10. He became the 11th
driver to win a race this year.
► Jeff Gordon's upward mobility
continued with a sixth-place fin
ish in the Sharpie 500. Incredi
bly, Gordon now resides in the
top 10 with two races remaining
before the Chase begins.
► Tony Stewart's eighth-place fin
ish was his worst showing in the
past 10 races, but it padded his
points lead to 213. Ten races
ago, he was 380 points behind
Jimmie Johnson and in 10th
place. Of course, the edge will
mean little after two more races.
► Stewart s lead over lOth-place
Gordon is 611 points. If Stewart
maintains the lead, which is al
most a certainty now, and if Gor
don remains in 10th place, the
two will be separated by only 45
points entering the final 10 races,
thanks to the Chase format.
► The relationship between Kevin
Harvick and owner Richard Chil
dress appears to be deteriorat
ing. Harvick has been talking
about moving on, and a split ap
pears to be getting more and
more likely. Where will Harvick
wind up? That’s hard to say.
► As expected, Scott Riggs will
move with his sponsor, Valvo
line, to Ray Evernham’s Dodge
operation next year. Sterling
Marlin appears to be his likely
successor at MB2 Motorsports.
► Ex-NFL players Roger Staubach
and Troy Aikman plan to debut
their own Nextel Cup team next
year. Could that be where Har
vick is headed? Or might he
land at Joe Gibbs Racing in
Gibbs’ No. 11 Chevrolet?
► Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s title hopes
are all but dead. He would have
to make up 117 points in two
races in order to make the top
10. He would also have to move
past Gordon, Kenseth, Jamie
McMurray, Elliott Sadler and
Dale Jarrett in the standings.
TOP IQ IN POINTS
Nextel Cup
X. Tony Stewart 3,410
2. Jimmie Johnson - 213
3. Greg Biffle - 224
4. Rusty Wallace - 271
§. Mark Martin - 396
6. Jeremy Mayfield - 427
7. Kurt Busch • 428
8. Carl Edwards - 561
9. Ryan Newman - 591
10. Jeff Gordon -611
Curoff for The Chase
XX. MattKenseth -622
12. Jamie McMurray - 623
13. Elliott Sadler -645
14. Dale Jarrett -689
XM. Date Earnhardt Jr. - 728
Busch Series
1. Martin Truex Jr. 3,756
2. Clint Bowyer -194
3. Reed Sorenson -344
4. Carl Edwards ~-425
5. Denny Hamlin - 574
1. Kenny Wallace -620
7. David Green -848
8. David Stremme -864
9. Paul Menard -869
10. Jason Keller - 937
Craftsman Truck Series
X. Permit Setter 2,515
2. Ted Musgrave -143
3. Bobby Hamilton - 257
4. Ron Hornaday - 261
8. jimmy Spencer - 280
WHO’S HOT
, ANO WHO'S NOT
»> Who * hot
Matt
Kenseth has
three top
five finishes
in the past
four races.
... Jeff Bur
ton’s sec
ond-place
finish at
Kenseth
Bristol was his best of the
season.
► Who’s not Jamie McMurray
dropped from 10th to 12th in
the points standings as a re
sult of his Bristol showing. ...
Dale Jarrett fell from 11th to
14th.
► If you have a question or a comment, write: NASCAR This Week, c/o The Gaston Gazette, PO. Box 1893, Gastonia, NC 28053
NEXTEi; CUP SERies
Race: Sony HD 500
Where: California Speedway.
Fontana (2.0 miles), 250
laps/500 miles.
When: Sunday. Sept. 4
Last year's winner: Elliott
Sadler
Qualifying record: Kyle
Busch, Chevrolet, 188.245
mph, Feb. 25, 2005.
Race record: Jeff Gordon,
Chevrolet, 155.012 mph,
June 22,1997.
Last week: For Matt
Kenseth, the third time
proved to be the charm. The
Sharpie 500 was the third
race he dominated but the
first he won. The 2003 Cup
champion led 415 out of a
possible 500 laps, holding
WHAT’S UP IVIEXT
Brandon Whitt Craftsman Truck Series No. 38 Cure Autism Now Toyota
Patience Pays Off
Whitt’s breakthrough shows he’s learning how to pick his spots
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
On July 23, Brandon Whitt, a 22-
year-old from El Cajon, Calif., enjoyed
a career breakthrough by winning the
Craftsman TVuck Series race at Mem
phis Motorsports Park, a .75-mile oval
in Millington, Tenn.
Whitt had demonstrated consider
able promise before, but Memphis sig
naled his arrival as one of the sport’s
genuine up-and-comers. Finally, in
Memphis, he managed to put it all to
gether.
“It was frustrating because we were
running so well,” Whitt said. “The
team was really coming together, but
until Memphis, we just couldn’t make
it through those last 15-20 laps when
everything was happening. Finally, we
reached the point where we put it to
gether, and we started making it to the
end of races and getting some good
finishes.
“We finished in the top 10 in Ken
tucky (July 9) and won Memphis, so
that showed we were starting to get
the bugs out. The team’s coming to
gether great. We’ve got a great rela
tionship with TRD (Toyota Racing De
velopment). They’re helping us move
forward. Everything’s really falling
into place.”
Whitt said his victory was more
than just a matter of luck evening out.
“Adversity will teach you some
thing,” he said. “Every time some
thing happened, I learned something.
The feel right before a tire blows out,
for instance. There were things I had
never experienced before. For me, I
learned the different feels of stuff
that was about to happen or could’ve
happened. From that aspect, there
were a lot of pluses that came out of
what seemed at the time like bad luck.
“A couple of problems have reoc
curred, and because I’ve learned some
things, we’ve been able to cure them
just like that. We’re not guessing any
more. We’ve been through it.”
Whitt has also learned to pick his
spots. Young drivers have a tendency
to seize every opportunity, which cre
ates a higher likelihood of trouble and
also makes their moves predictable to
more experienced drivers they are at
tempting to pass.
“My spotter tells me all the time to
be aggressively smart,” Whitt said.
“You’ve got to pick your spot to be ag
gressive. If you take too many
chances, you’re going to wind up ‘in
the fence.’ There’s a time and a place,
and you’ve got to pick and choose and
just be smart.”
Mayfield feeling a bit overlooked as Chase approaches
By Monte Dutton
NASCAR This Week
BRISTOL, Tenn. Jeremy
Mayfield noted that he doesn’t
get as much attention as some
other drivers but said it doesn’t
bother him. Then he said it does.
“I can go with the flow with a
lot of things,” he said. “As far
as on the race track, car for
car, driver for driver, I feel
like I’m as good as any driver
out there ... and that’s the way
I should feel.”
Mayfield suggested that a
certain double standard exists
with prominent drivers like Jeff
Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
off Jeff Burton by .511 of a
second in a two-lap shootout
at the end. It was Kenseth's
first victory in 57 races, and
the victory left Kenseth 11th
in the points standings, only
a position out of a race-off
birth entering the final two
regular-season races. Al
though it was his first Bristol
victory, it was his seventh
top-10 finish in his past eight
visits to the .533-mile track.
Nextel Cup points leader Tony
Stewart, outside the top 10
for much of the night, ap
peared near the front as if by
magic, keeping his edge and
finishing in the top 10 for the
10th consecutive race. Stew
art finished eighth.
IN THE SPOTLI6HT
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John Clark/NASCAR This Week
Brandon Whitt, 22, recently won his first Craftsman Truck Series race. He’s beginning to
find that patience on the track is one of racing’s great virtues.
“When they have a bad year
or bad luck, you don’t hear that
they can’t drive or they’re not
focused. The problem I’ve got
with it is people who want to
throw off on just me or say I’m
not focused or I don’t drive like
I used to drive. That’s not right.
That’s what irritates me more
than anything.”
■
Like football A cool head
comes in handy at Bristol, but
it doesn’t necessarily do any
good. At no track is trouble
harder to avoid than the .533-
mile concrete oval.
SPORTS
BQ6CH SFRHES
Race: Ameriquest 300
Where: California Speedway,
Fontana (2.0 miles), 156
laps/300 miles.
When: Saturday, Sept. 3
Last year's winner: Greg Bif
fle
Qualifying record: Tony Stew
art, Chevrolet, 185.941
mph, April 26, 2003.
Race record: Hank Parker
Jr., Chevrolet, 155.957 mph,
April 28, 2001.
Last week: Ryan Newman, in
a Dodge, won for the third
week in a row, taking the
Food City 250 at Bristol.
~NUT«&~ANP«eoiars»
Kyle Petty said different
drivers react differently
“Stock-car racing is a little
like football when it comes to
the use of emotion, especially
anger,” he said. “For a line
backer or defensive end or of
fensive tackle, yeah, emotion is
good. Lots of anger is good.
Take it out on the other guy.
But for, say, a quarterback,
maybe that’s not so good. Too
much emotion, and passes are
overthrown, or a wide receiver
is more intent on hitting a cor
nerback than catching a pass.
“It’s the same thing in racing.
CRAFTSMAN TRUCK
Race: NCTS 200
Where: Richmond (Va.) Inter
national Raceway (.75
miles), 200 laps/150 miles.
When: Thursday, Sept. 8
Last year's winner: Ted Mus
grave
Qualifying record: Jamie Mc-
Murray, Dodge, 125.436
mph, Sept. 9, 2004.
Race record: Bob Keselows
ki, Dodge, 104.167 mph,
Sept. 4,1997.
Last week: Mike Skinner, in
a Toyota, won the O'Reilly
200 at Bristol.
For some guys, anger can work
out. It’s a good thing for them.
They use that to help them fo
cus. For others, it ruins their
concentration. They are too busy
playing ‘The Fugitive’ and get
ting the one-armed man or what
ever than they are on winning
the race.... Sometimes you have
to fight to get your emotions
back in check but, unless you’re
one of the ones anger helps, you
had better do it in a hurry.”
■
Quite the local splash Bru
ton Smith always enjoys stir
ring the pot.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 ♦
CALIFORNIA DATA
US Auto Club 500 California S OO 5
Feb. 27 Sept 4
Distance: 2 0 mile oval
Length of frorrtstretch: 2,500 ft Tjw
u Length of backstretch: 3,100 ft
8 %3" Miles/Laps: 500 mi, - 250 laps
FEUD OF THE WEEK
%
m m
V
E
R
S
u
s
Ryan
Newman
Ryan Newman
vs. Dale Jarrett
The two tangled twice during the
Sharpie 500, and Jarrett’s “payback"
turning right into Newman while
Newman's Dodge was passing him
on the outside represented a par
ticularly devastating blow to Jarrett’s
chance of making the Chase. ‘Mine
was unintentional, and his was inten
tional,” said Newman, “and that's all
I’m saying."
NASCAR This Week’s Monte
Dutton gives his take: ‘Jarrett de
clined comment after the incidents,
but it seemed remarkable that a vet
eran driver would do something so
obviously destructive to his title
hopes. As one observer noted,
'Maybe it just felt good.'"
LEGENDS AND LORE
NASCAR has baan coming
to California for yaars
California Speedway only joined
the Cup circuit in 1997, but NASCAR
has held races in Southern California
almost from the very beginning. The
Fontana track is located only a few
miles from two major tracks that are
no longer in operation. A huge shop
ping mall exists where Ontario Motor
Speedway, a 2.5-mile track, once
stood, and the historic Riverside
road course hosted Cup events from
1958 through 1988. Races were run
at Carrell Speedway, in Gardena,
from 1951 through 1954, and Ascot
Stadium, in Los Angeles, was the
scene of races from 1957 through
1961.
FAN TIPS
Three-day ticket package
available for Atlanta
Atlanta Motor Speedway is of
fered a three-day ticket package for
$69 that includes admission to five
events over three days on the Oct.
28-30 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500
weekend. The package includes ad
mission to qualifying, an all-star Leg
ends Cars race, the IROC season fi
nale, a Craftsman Truck Series race
and the Nextel Cup 500-miler. For
more information, go to www.atlanta
motorspeedway.com or call the tick
et office at (770) 946-4211.
ijfIMriITURN *
DUR-REAPERS \
Stewart might be
cheating his way to wins
If baseball has taught us any
thing, it’s that we can’t trust athletes
these days. ... When I see Tony Stew
art winning one race after another, it
makes me wonder what’s he doing
to cheat? Is his car on the juice?
Justin Collins
Elizabethtown, Ky.
NASCAR officials have thorough
pre- and post race inspections at
every event. It's hard to get away with
much in this sport.
The Speedway Motorsports
Inc. CEO caused a huge stir at
the track and in the entire re
gion —when he boldly offered to
pay the University of Tennessee
and Virginia Tech S2O million
each to play a football game in
the infield of Bristol Motor
Speedway.
It’s not that simple.
For a football game to be
played here, a number of in
field buildings would have to be
razed and an artificial-turf field
installed. If 160,000 fans attend
ed, each paying SSO a ticket, the
gate would be $8 million.
In 1999, Tennessee rejected
an offer of $3.5 million.
11A
Dale
Jarrett