The field was for this event was composed of
1990 and '91 WC winners and the top 3 finishers from the 1991 Winston Open. In
May of 1991 his awesome pit crew helped him qualify in the three lap/one pit
stop format to earn the pole and a $30,000 bonus. Davey won the race May 19th by
leading both segments, all 70 laps, with his Yates rocket! There were no
cautions and the race speed was 168.75. The team earned $325,000 for their
efforts. The Winston All-Star Race May 16th, 1992 was One Hot Night! Once again
his crew played a vital part in helping him win his second consecutive pole for
the event with an 11.9 second pit stop during a three lap run. This year the
team bonus for the pole was $50,000. No fan will ever forget his winning
last-lap duel and crash that saw him edge out Kyle Petty in the Mello Yellow 42
at the start finish line by half a car length...then slam into the front
straightaway wall. This is classic TV footage shown every year when the Winston
Select race is broadcast...it was One Hot Night! Although Davey was not
seriously injured, he ended up in the hospital for an overnight stay...not even
sure he had won, until he asked. Yes, indeed he had won!! The car he was driving
that night was a different story. Nicknamed "007"...it was declared a total loss
by owner Robert Yates.
________________________
After he returned to Petty Enterprises with an 11th place
points finish in 1998, John Andretti continued an inexplicable slide down the
standings in 2001 as he dropped to 31st in the Pettys' first year with
Dodge. Despite managing only one top-five
and two top-10 finishes, Andretti only failed to finish three races in the No.
43 Cheerios Dodge, all due to accidents. Again, despite logging 21 finishes of
25th or worse in 35 starts, he still managed to win a career high in money,
going over $2 million for the third straight year with $2,873,184. Andretti did
manage to qualify in the top 25 19 times in 36 races but led only two races for
53 laps. Versatility is a word that emerges when discussing Andretti, a
native of Bethlehem, Pa. With major victories in Indy cars and sports cars and
experience in just about every other kind of race car -- top fuel dragsters,
Midgets and Sprint Cars among them -- Andretti has achieved success in every
racing series he's entered. Andretti has established that he's not just a
jack-of-all-trades; he's no longer a curiosity from open-wheel racing. He's a
respected Winston Cup Series driver, and a good one. He made his Winston Cup
Series debut in 1993 and committed himself totally to NASCAR's elite series in
1994. After a variety of stops with different owners, it appears Andretti has
settled down. Certainly the names "Andretti" and "Petty" together have a
winning ring to them. The nephew of Mario Andretti (his father is Mario's twin
brother Aldo) and the Godson of renowned Indy car pilot and NASCAR and Indy
Racing League owner A.J. Foyt, John has been a racer practically since birth.
Starting with karts when he was only nine, the cousin of Indy car stalwart
Michael Andretti has had a perpetual focus on winning, as if it were
hereditary. John graduated with honors from Moravian College with a B.A.
in business management. He co-owns two auto parts stores.
________________________
If Ward Burton is able to avoid
unwanted collisions on the race track in 2002, he may be able to get back into
the top 10 in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings. The older of two racing brothers, Burton had a lot more to
worry about in 2001 than his younger brother Jeff beating him on the race track.
His Bill Davis Racing team switched to Dodge Intrepids, and Burton suffered six
DNFs to finish 14th in points. Burton equaled his career high of six
top-five finishes, including a victory in the Pepsi Southern 500 at Darlington,
but his top-10 numbers dropped dramatically from 17 in 2000 to just 10 in 2001.
Despite that, he still managed to bring home a career high in winnings,
$3,633,692. Burton started the season in a hole after getting knocked out
of the Daytona 500 in an accident. He charged back to 11th in points after six
races, but the rest of his season was plagued by inconsistency that knocked him
as low as 23rd in points. Despite being very competitive at a number of tracks,
he was never able to get on a roll. He found the Dodge a tough beast to qualify,
as he only started in the top-10 eight times and he failed win a Bud Pole for
the sixth consecutive year. The Danville, Va., native began racing karts
at age 8. He later drove Street Stock and Late Model Stock Cars on Virginia
short tracks, mainly his home track of South Boston Speedway. He was voted most
popular driver there in 1989. In 1990 he joined the Busch Series. In 1994 he
competed for rookie of the year in Winston Cup, finishing behind his
brother. Outside of racing, Burton is involved with wildlife and
environmental conservation and has created the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation,
which purchases parcels of land in an effort to conserve and protect wildlife
habitats. The foundation works closely with other wildlife organizations to help
with these causes.
________________________
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came into the 2001 season
thinking the biggest obstacle he would face would be a sophomore slump, endured
the loss of the his father in the Daytona 500 and went on to establish himself
as one of the sport's superstars. Earnhardt finished second in the Daytona 500,
but faltered with a first lap crash and 43rd-place finish the next weekend at
Rockingham. He didn't stay down for long, though. Junior scored three emotional victories and came back to finish eighth in
points. The first victory came when the NASCAR Winston Cup Series returned to
Daytona for the Pepsi 400. The second came at Dover, Del., in the first race
after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Earnhardt also won at Talladega in the
EA Sports 500 -- the site of his father's final victory. That Talladega victory
earned Junior a Winston No Bull 5 $1 million bonus that pushed him to a season
winnings total of $5,827,542. That was bolstered by nine top-fives and 15 top-10
finishes, as well as two Bud Poles. Before the 2000 season, many thought
Earnhardt was the front-runner for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award. It
didn't pan out that way frequent challenger Matt Kenseth outran Junior in the
Daytona 500, and never let up in his run to the title. Kenseth ultimately scored
a 42-point victory in the rookie race. Earnhardt's close relationship with
his cousin, car chief Tony Eury Jr., crew chief Tony Eury and his crew, was both
a blessing and a curse. The continuation of his Busch Series success into
Winston Cup created an atmosphere that was too distracting and disruptive for
the operation's success to continue. Junior did have a part in recreating
one Winston Cup milestone in 2000 when he competed with his father and older
half brother, Kerry Earnhardt, in the Pepsi 400 at Michigan International
Speedway. That occasion was only the second time that a father had raced against
two sons. Lee, Richard and Maurice Petty had previously accomplished the
feat. Junior started 2001 with vivid dreams of a Daytona 500 victory in
his No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet. Despite the idiosyncrasies of his rookie year,
Earnhardt has proven beyond any doubt that his name isn't the only key to
success. Earnhardt began his professional driving career at the age of 17,
competing in the Street Stock division at Concord (N.C.) Motorsport Park. His
first race car was a 1978 Monte Carlo that he co-owned with Kerry. Within two
seasons, the young Earnhardt had honed his driving abilities to the point of
joining the Late Model Stock Car division. There, he developed an in-depth
knowledge of chassis setup and car preparation, while racing against Kerry and
their sister Kelley. With his father's guidance and his own experience on the
short tracks throughout the Carolinas, he was ready to take a bold step
forward.
________________________
True to the form he exhibited in
2000, Bill Elliott continued to scratch and claw his way back toward the elite
ranks in Winston Cup racing in 2001. He earned his first victory in seven years
in a first-year program. Elliott, who sold
his team to Ray Evernham, rebounded from two straight seasons of finishing 21st
in the points to finish 15th. More importantly, Elliott proved he could still
win by capturing the Pennzoil 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
Elliott, who was strongest through the middle portion of the 36-race schedule,
scored five top-fives and nine top-10 finishes and won $3,618,017 after scoring
only two DNFs. Elliott began the 2001 season with a bang, winning the Bud
Pole for the Daytona 500 and finishing fifth in the "Great American Race." But
several erratic stretches through the year, including a 13-race stretch before
he scored his second top-10 of the year, hurt his chances for a better finish in
the points. Elliott's best point finish since 1997 only could have
improved the Cumming, Ga., native's already immense popularity. Elliott,
however, removed himself from the running for the NASCAR Most Popular Driver
Award early in 2001. In 2000, fans voted him as NASCAR's most popular
driver for the 10th straight year, the 15th time that he had won the honor in
the previous 17 seasons. Last year, Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup
champion, proved he had lost none of his qualifying prowess with 16 top-10
starting spots. He made his 650th career start at Dover Downs in
September. Elliott started racing on short tracks in Georgia with his
brothers, Dan and Ernie. He started in the Sportsman division in 1970, made his
Winston Cup debut in 1976 and competed in his first full Winston Cup season in
1983. His first win came in his 117th start, in the Winston Western 500 at
Riverside, Calif., in 1983. His first pole came in his 56th attempt, in the 1981
Rebel 500 at Darlington, S.C. In 1992 Elliott won four consecutive races to tie
the modern-era record. He won a single-season record 11 superspeedway races in
1985. That year, he won the Winston Million, from which came the nickname
"Million Dollar Bill." He owns the fastest recorded time in a stock car,
qualifying for the 1987 Winston 500 at Talladega with a speed of 212.809
mph. Elliott's greatest loves, aside from family and racing, are snow
skiing and flying. He has multi-engine rated and helicopter-rated pilot's
licenses. His lengthy list of career accomplishments includes being one of
only 10 drivers to top $20 million in career winnings in Winston Cup racing,
joining Jeff Gordon, the late Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, Rusty
Wallace, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Burton in that elite
club. He was named the driver of the decade for the 1980s in a fan poll
conducted by ESPN Speedweek.
________________________
Just two seasons after crew chief Ray
Evernham left the Hendrick Motorsports operation after the pair had won three
titles in just five years, Jeff Gordon wore the crown again in 2001.
Gordon won a Winston Cup record $10,879,757 in
2001 as he elevated himself to motorsports' all-time money winner. He also
punctuated his season with a series-leading six Bud Pole Awards. He came
back from a first lap crash to win The Winston all-star race for the third time,
tying the late Dale Earnhardt for the most wins in the event and won his third
edition of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At age 30, he
became the youngest driver ever to win four Winston Cup titles and is only the
third, along with Earnhardt and "King" Richard Petty, to achieve that
plateau. Despite his age, there is no denying Gordon can be labeled a
veteran when it comes to racing. Born in Vallejo, Calif., but raised in
Pittsboro, Ind., Gordon began his racing career at age 5. By age 20, with
numerous victories and achievements, he was named, for the second straight year,
to the 1991 All-American Team by the American Auto Racing Writers and
Broadcasters Association, joining such notables as Earnhardt, Harry Gant,
Michael Andretti and Gordon's racing hero, Rick Mears. Gordon joined with
car owner Bill Davis in 1991 and began competing on the Busch Series, finishing
second three times and third once. He had five top-fives and 10 top-10s, notched
one pole and placed 11th overall in the standings. Those successes in his
inaugural season earned him the Vortex Comics Rookie of the Year honors. He
continued to excel in the 1992 season by capturing his first series victory at
Atlanta from the pole. He set the series record for pole positions in a single
season, capturing 11. Before his successes, Gordon logged more than 600
victories in 15 years of driving in open-wheeled competition. During the 1970s
and early 1980s, he won three national Quarter-Midget championships and four
national karting championships. He became USAC's youngest driver when he was
granted his race driver's license for that circuit on his 16th birthday. In four
different USAC divisions in more than four years, he recorded 22 victories, 21
fast times, 55 top-5s and 66 top-10s in just 93 starts. In 1990, at 19,
Gordon won the USAC Midget Series national championship, becoming the youngest
driver ever to win that title. He followed that in 1991 by capturing the USAC
Silver Crown national championship. Hendrick, a keen judge of racing
excellence, was so impressed with the talents and unlimited potential of the
young racing phenom, that he signed Gordon in early May 1992 to a Winston Cup
Series contract for the 1993 season. Gordon has since become an equity owner of
his race team.
________________________
Dale Jarrett finished fifth in the
Winston Cup standings in 2001, the seventh straight season in which he's been in
the top-five. Four inopportune accidents were the only thing that prevented
Jarrett from marching further up the standings as he fell another spot after
winning the 1999 Winston Cup championship. Jarrett won four times and had four Bud Poles and added 12 top-five and
19 top-10 finishes. He was tied atop the Winston Cup standings with eventual
champion Jeff Gordon for two consecutive weeks in July, but an a pair of
accidents at Pocono in July started a four-race stretch that knocked him out of
the championship chase when he finished 41st, 12th, 31st and 37th.
Qualifying continued to be a strong suit for Jarrett, who lined up in the top-25
29 times in 36 starts. For the second straight season, Jarrett discovered, as he
had in his Winston Cup title defense that it's a fine line between waltzing to a
championship and simply struggling to keep up. The Conover, N.C., native
for the second straight year in his 18-year career was hurt by sub-par finishes,
with six of 30th or worse. Jarrett began racing in 1977 in the Limited
Sportsman Division at Hickory Motor Speedway, where his father, two-time NASCAR
Grand National champion Ned Jarrett, was once the track promoter. He began
his Winston Cup career in 1984 while still competing on the Busch Series, in
which he began competing in 1982, the series' first year. His first Winston Cup
win came in his 129th start at the 1991 Champion 400 at Michigan International
Speedway, in a Wood Brothers car following a fender-banging duel to the finish
line with the late Davey Allison. The win that truly launched the current
phase of his career came in 1993 with Joe Gibbs Racing, in the Daytona 500 --
his first of three scores in that race. That season he would finish fourth
overall in series points. He stumbled a bit the following two years, finishing
out of the top-10 in both 1994 and 1995, but since 1996 only Jarrett has
finished in the top-five in points every year, establishing himself as one of
the true elite in the sport, with 28 career victories. Jarrett earned 2000
"True Value Man of the Year" honors for his charity work, including his position
as national spokesperson, with wife Kelley, for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation. It was the second time he has been cited with the award.
________________________
After struggling through a sophomore
slump in the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup season, Matt Kenseth hopes to recapture the
winning form he had in 2000, when he won the Raybestos Rookie of the Year
Award. Kenseth did finish 2001 13th in the
points, an improvement over the previous year. The driver of the No. 17 Roush
Racing Ford scored four top-five and nine top-10 finishes and won $2,565,579 in
prize money. In the last four years, Kenseth also has maintained success
in the NASCAR Busch Series, scoring a total of 12 wins. In 2001, he posted 14
top-10 finishes in only 23 starts in that series. Kenseth began racing at
the age of 16. By the age of 19, he had moved up to the ultra-competitive
Wisconsin Late Model ranks, taking on the likes of Dick Trickle, Ted Musgrave
and Rich Bickle. He became the youngest winner in RE/MAX Challenge Series
history when he captured an event in LaCrosse, Wis. Kenseth won a track
championship at the Madison (Wis.) International Speedway in 1994 and won track
championships at Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna in 1994-1995, when
he won four consecutive features. Kenseth was driving in the American
Speed Association's ACDelco Challenge Series, when he got a call from Robbie
Reiser to drive his Busch Series car. Kenseth accepted, and the rest, as they
say, is history.
________________________
Bobby Labonte quickly found out last year how fleeting the near
perfection of his 2000 championship season could be. A tough adjustment to
Goodyear's new tire compound package and bouts of bad luck early in the year
made Labonte's title defense improbable. In the end, he fought back to sixth in the standings; but it took him
until late July to win his first race of the season. He ended up with two wins,
nine top-fives and 20 top-10s, which was well under his production of the
previous year. He won one Bud Pole and earned $4,786,779. Labonte's 2000
championship season seemed to be charmed, but the Corpus Christi native won the
title based on excellence and consistency. Labonte was one of only two drivers
to complete the 2000 season with no DNFs. Labonte set several milestones
including becoming the first Busch Series champ (1991) to win the Winston Cup
crown, and becoming the first set of brothers, along with 1984 and 1996 champion
Terry Labonte, to win the Winston Cup title. Labonte began racing
Quarter-Midgets in Texas in 1969, then graduated to karts in 1978. He began his
Winston Cup career in 1984 as a crew member at Hagan Racing, where his brother
Terry won the series championship. He went to work for car builder Jay Hedgecock
in 1987 and also raced Late Model Stock Cars at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro,
N.C., winning the track championship with 12 wins and seven poles in 23
races. Labonte's first career Winston Cup victory came in 1995 in the
Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Later that year, he swept both races at Michigan.
The No. 18 has won at least one race every year since.
________________________
At the end of the 2001 season, Mark
Martin defied anyone to question his commitment to excelling in the NASCAR
Winston Cup Series. However, his poor showing last year knocked Martin out of
the top 10 in the standings for the first time since 1989. Martin's drought -- which included his first winless season
since 1996 -- caused team owner Jack Roush to make a drastic crew change
following the season. Crew chief Jimmy Fennig switched to Kurt Busch's car,
along with car chief Shawn Parker. Ben Leslie came over from Busch's team to
serve as crew chief. For the first time in 14 years, Martin concentrated
solely on the Winston Cup Series and it didn't seem to help much. Although he
won two Bud Poles, the Batesville, Ark., native finished 12th in the points
after amassing only three top-five and 15 top-10 finishes, with four DNFs.
Martin's drop from the top 10 in the standings ended a 12-year run in which he
had been in the top-10. It was the second straight season in which Martin
suffered a drop. He finished eighth in 2000 after he had finished no worse than
sixth in the previous 11 years. Martin left the Busch Series as its career
victories leader with 45 wins. Martin dominated the Busch Series despite not
running a full schedule there since 1987. A four-time ASA ACDelco
Challenge Series champion, Martin started racing in the Winston Cup Series in
1981 and ran a full season in 1982 with a family-owned team. After running only
22 races between 1983 and 1987, he ran a full Busch Series schedule in 1987 for
car owner Bruce Lawmaster and became the first Ford driver to win at Dover. That
win caught the eye of Jack Roush, who was setting up his NASCAR Winston Cup team
for 1988.
________________________
In 2001, Steve Park seemed on his way
to having a banner year. Then in September, a bizarre accident put him on the
sidelines. Heading into the Mountain Dew
Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Park had scored his second career victory;
and on the strength of four straight top-10 finishes, he was 10th in points. In
the NASCAR Busch Series race at Darlington, he suffered head injuries in that
crash that put him out of the No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet for the rest
of the season. Before the wreck, Park had five top-five and 12 top-10
finishes in 24 starts and had won $2,385,971. He wound up 32nd in the Winston
Cup standings after missing the last 12 races of the season. In the Busch
Series, he had five top-10s in only seven starts. He had a breakout season
in 2000 in the No. 1 Chevrolets, scoring his first Winston Cup victory and his
best finish in the point standings, 11th. Park, whose five-year Winston
Cup career continues to be marked with jagged peaks and valleys, first broke
into Victory Lane at his home track, Watkins Glen International, in August 2000.
His career had been interrupted previously by serious injuries suffered at
Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1998. The East Northport, N.Y., native had
continued to cement his relationship with former champion crew chief Paul
Andrews. Park, whose father and uncle, Bob and Bill, were successful
Modified racers in the Northeast, moved to the Winston Cup Series after winning
rookie of the year honors in the Busch Series in 1997, scoring victories at
Nashville, Michigan and Richmond. He finished third in the Busch standings that
season, the only full year he competed there, along with running five Winston
Cup races. He finished second in the Featherlite Modified Series in 1996,
when he was named the series' most popular driver. In 1995, he finished second
in the Modified standings and was the series' Bud Pole champion. He has also won
races in the Busch North Series. He got the late Earnhardt's attention with his
performance in a Modified and a Craftsman truck at Watkins Glen in 1996.
________________________
Kurt Busch's Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the
Year effort took a big hit with four finishes of 30th or worse in his first six
starts and Busch was eventually overpowered by late entrant Kevin Harvick as he
tottered to an uneven 27th in the Winston Cup standings. Busch had the
high point of a Bud Pole at Darlington Raceway and three top-five finishes,
including a third at Talladega in the spring. But his Roush Racing Ford team was
hit with seven DNFs and had 15 finishes of worse than 30th. Busch had a
daunting task ahead of him as he attempted to win rookie of the year honors in
one of NASCAR's top divisions, following up his 2000 rookie of the year campaign
in the Craftsman Truck Series. Harvick's entrance ultimately made it
impossible. Busch, a young Las Vegas native is backed by the powerful Jack
Roush conglomerate, which engineered a sweep of the top-two positions in the
NCTS in 2000. Busch had been on a raging hot streak in NASCAR racing. In
consecutive seasons he won the Featherlite Southwest Series Rookie of the Year
Award in 1998, became the youngest FSWS championship in 1999, finished second in
the championship and won the rookie of the year award in the CTS and also made
his Winston Cup debut in 2000. Busch stepped into the No.97 John Deere
Ford formerly driven by Chad Little at Dover in September when Roush released
Little. Busch competed in seven events to maintain his rookie eligibility and
had two top-10 starts and a best finish of 13th, in the high profile UAW-GM
Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in October. In the Truck Series he
truly was a diamond in the rough, however. He tied for second in the Bud Pole
standings with teammate Greg Biffle, with four pole awards. He won his first
race in his 14th start and won a total of four races, including the season
finale Motorola 200 at California Speedway. He logged an impressive 13 top-five
and 16 top-10 finishes in 24 starts. Busch began his racing career at 14,
driving a Dwarf Car owned by his father at Pahrump Valley Speedway, a
quarter-mile clay track outside Las Vegas. In 1996, Busch was the NASCAR Weekly
Racing Series Hobby Stock champion at The Bull Ring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
among three titles he won at the 3/8-mile-paved venue. Busch won the Nevada
Dwarf Car championship in 1995 and was Legends Car National Rookie of the Year
in 1996.
________________________
Jimmie Johnson made his first three Winston Cup starts in
2001, the season in which he scored a breakthrough first NASCAR Busch Series
victory in only his fourth season in stock cars while preparing to advance his
career to the next level. While he qualified an impressive 15th in his first
start, at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Johnson's best finish was only 25th, at
Homestead. He primarily concentrated on maintaining his top-10 standing in the
Busch Series point standings. Johnson, with a limited number of stock car starts
on his resume, was the third man in the 2000 Busch Series rookie invasion, but
he had an impressive enough rookie season to end it with a Hendrick Motorsports
contract to compete in the Winston Cup Series in 2002. Johnson, a former
off-road racer, started 31 races and finished 10th in the point standings with
six top-10 finishes. Even though Johnson's consistency was what earned him his
point position, with 24 top-25 finishes and an average finish of 20th, the
enduring image of him from 2000 is his crash through the Styrofoam blocks at
Watkins Glen after a Turn 1 brake failure. Due to the great seasons by fellow
rookies Kevin Harvick and Ron Hornaday, Johnson finished only third in the
rookie of the year standings. Johnson, an off-road racer who won championships
in the Mickey Thompson Stadium Championship from 1992-94, won the ASA ACDelco
Challenge Series Rookie of the Year Award in 1998 and had made less than 100
stock car starts in his career heading into the 2001 season.
_______________________
After a tumultuous 2001 season in which he parted
ways with Penske Racing, Winston Cup veteran Jeremy Mayfield seeks to rebound in
2002 with Evernham Motorsports behind the wheel of the No. 19 Intrepid.
Mayfield opened 2001 with a ninth place finish in the Daytona 500, but he
continued to drop in the standings until he was released from the team following
the September race at Kansas Speedway. His best finishes were three third-place
efforts. Despite having only five top-five and seven top-10 finishes, he won a
career high $2,774,745. To this point, the apex of Mayfield's career has
been his 1998 season with Penske-Kranefuss Racing, when he finished seventh in
the Winston Cup point standings with 12 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes.
Mayfield began racing karts in 1982, then moved up through the weekly tracks of
central Tennessee. He raced Street Stocks, Sportsman and Late Model Stock Cars,
where he was 1987 Kentucky Motor Speedway Rookie of the Year. He raced on the
ARCA RE/MAX Series in 1993, with eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes, good
enough to earn that series' rookie of the year award and a lot of notice from
NASCAR team owners.
________________________
As he rolled toward his 2002 rookie season in the
NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Ryan Newman was something akin to a bowling ball
hell-bent on making nothing but strikes. Newman, who in 2001 competed in
Winston Cup, NASCAR Busch Series and ARCA RE/MAX Series events, made a big
impact in all three series as he prepared to step into the No. 12 Penske Racing
ALLTEL Fords full time. In 2001, Newman earned his career first Winston
Cup Bud Pole Award at Lowe's Motor Speedway. In seven Winston Cup starts, he had
a best finish of second -- in Kansas Speedway's inaugural event. He backed up
that impressive performance with six Bud Poles in 15 Busch Series events and a
victory at Michigan Speedway. Newman has the brains to go along with his
talent at driving race cars. While building his driving career in 2001, he
completed his degree program in vehicle structure engineering at Purdue
University, where he was the recipient of the Rich Vogler Memorial
Scholarship. Newman, a native of South Bend, Ind., grew up as a star in
the open-wheel ranks, winning more than 100 Quarter-Midget features, earning two
Midget championships and earning 1995 USAC Midget Series Rookie of the Year
honors. In 1996, Newman was named USAC Silver Crown Series Rookie of the
Year and one year later, finished sixth in Silver Crown points. By 1998, Newman
had 11 top-10 finishes in 13 races for a third-place finish in the Silver Crown
standings. He ended the season with three straight Midget wins. He showed
his versatility in 1999, taking the USAC Coors Light Silver Bullet Series
national championship with two wins and 12 top-10 finishes. He also won seven
times in Midgets and picked up a victory in Sprint Cars -- the first driver to
win in all three major USAC divisions that season. Newman made his
stock-car debut in June 2000 in an ARCA race at Michigan, then promptly won the
next race he entered -- the July 22 Pepsi ARCA 200 at Pocono. He continued his
hot streak, winning ARCA events at Kentucky Speedway and Lowe's Motor
Speedway.
________________________
Tony Stewart marked himself in his first two Winston
Cup seasons as virtually a sure thing to win a championship. In his third
season, Stewart proved he needs to find out how to start the season better to
make his patented strong finishes pay off . In 2001, he ended up second in the
points to four-time champion Jeff Gordon. The Rushville, Ind., driver
continued to pile up race wins and strong finishes with three victories, 15
top-fives and 22 top-10s. All that running at the front also led to $4,941,463
in winnings. In 2000, Stewart led the Winston Cup Series in victories with
six. While he ended up sixth in the point standings, he and crew chief Greg
Zipadelli continued to establish themselves as a potent combination with 12
top-5 and 23 top-10 finishes. Stewart's Winston Cup success was surprising
to some -- he had a spotty, winless record in the Busch Series with Joe Gibbs
Racing and Ranier/Walsh Racing. Before that, however, Stewart's open-wheel
record was impeccable. Stewart jumped into the Indy Racing Northern Light
Series in 1996, where he won rookie of the year. He also was named Indianapolis
500 Rookie of the Year before winning the IRL championship in 1997. He
completed the arduous Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 double in 1999, finishing ninth and
fourth, respectively and repeated the feat with a pair of top-10s in
2001.
________________________
Fred
Couples | Dallas
Cowboys | Chicago
Cubs | Dale
Earnhardt Memorial | In Memory of Tom Landry
| NASCAR | In Memory of Adam Petty
| Payne Stewart
Dedication | Tiger
Woods| My Family | The
Alderson Family Website (Mine & Sonia's Page) | Original Poetry
| Sandra & Larry's Site (My
sister & her boyfriend) | Home
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