WHO WINS THIS WEEK?Byline: Steve Ramirez Staff Writer FONTANA - NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. always has marketed Winston Cup racing as the most competitive series in motor sports. While that's been more myth then fact over the years, it fits the first part of NASCAR's 2000 season. Entering this weekend's NAPA Auto Parts Auto parts are components of automobiles. They mainly are, in alphabetic order (only car specific articles or articles with car section):
While the list includes stalwarts Dale Jarrett Dale Arnold Jarrett (born November 26, 1956 in Newton, North Carolina) is an American race car driver. Jarrett currently races in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series exclusively, driving the #44 Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing. (Daytona 500), Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is a professional American race car driver. He was born in Vallejo, California, raised in Pittsboro, Indiana, and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. and Dale Earnhardt This article is about the elder Dale Earnhardt. For his son, see Dale Earnhardt, Jr.. For the racing team he founded, see Dale Earnhardt, Inc.. Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Sr. . It also features rookie Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ward Burton Ward Burton (born October 25, 1961) is an American NASCAR auto racer, who has a total of five career NEXTEL Cup wins. He is currently the driver of the #4 State Water Heaters Chevrolet Impala SS for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. , who hadn't won in nearly a decade. Other winners this season are Bobby Labonte Robert Alan Labonte (born May 8, 1964) is an American race car driver and drives the #43 Cheerios Dodge Charger for the Petty Enterprises NASCAR Racing Team in the Nextel Cup Series and the #77 Dollar General Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Kevin Harvick Incorporated in the Busch Series. , Jeff Burton Jeffery Brian Burton (born June 29, 1967 in South Boston, Virginia) also sometimes referred to as "JB" is a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver. He drives the #31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. , Rusty Wallace Russell William "Rusty" Wallace (born August 14, 1956 in Fenton, Missouri) is a former NASCAR champion, NASCAR Busch Series car owner, and television broadcaster with ESPN and ESPN on ABC. Wallace had his first live broadcast of the Indy 500 on May 28, 2006. and Mark Martin. It's the longest streak of different winners to begin a season since the early 1980s. There are several reasons for this sudden parity, but most observers credit NASCAR, which has made several minor rule changes in the past few seasons to level the playing field. ``NASCAR has tightened up the rules some more to get parity among all the teams,'' veteran driver Johnny Benson said. ``Although I don't think they will ever have 100 percent of a level playing ground, it's as close as it's ever been. ``It's harder to win (a race), but by the same token, it's bringing everybody into a closer group and giving them a chance to win.'' The rule changes cover several areas, including the height of the front-bumper air dam, the height of the rear spoiler spoiler: see airplane. 1. spoiler - A remark which reveals important plot elements from books or movies, thus denying the reader (of the article) the proper suspense when reading the book or watching the movie. 2. , and the height of the rear quarterpanel. NASCAR also has made rule changes for springs and shocks and restrictor plates for the four races at Daytona (Fla.) and Talladega (Ala.) speedways. All are designed to make for equally matched stock cars, whether it be a Chevrolet Monte Carlo The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was an American mid-size car. Originally introduced by Chevrolet for the 1970 model year (as competition with the Ford Thunderbird), it has gone through six generations as of 2007. , a Ford Taurus or a Pontiac Grand Prix The Pontiac Grand Prix is an automobile produced by the Pontiac division of General Motors. First introduced as part of Pontiac's full-size model offering for the 1962 model year, the Grand Prix name has also been applied to cars in the personal luxury car market segment and the . ``Aero-matching is what we're doing now,'' series director Gary Nelson said. ``We go to the (wind tunnel) and we match the cars and we go to the race track and see how they run. We work on the rules, on the spoilers and the air dams to get them to run side-by-side on the race track. When (the cars) run side-by-side and where each (driver) feels like they have a shot at (the win), then we feel like we have aerodynamically matched the cars.'' The result has been a complete turnaround for a sport that was dominated by Richard Petty in the 1960s and '70s, Darrell Waltrip in the '80s and Earnhardt and Gordon in the '90s. This year's competitive balance is far from just a few years ago, when three teams combined to win nearly 70 percent of the races. Gordon won 13 races in 1998. Gordon has since slipped into the pack. He went 12 races without a top-10 finish and 13 events without a win before winning the DieHard 500 two weeks ago at Talladega. ``It's just so competitive right now,'' said Jarrett, who drove his Ford Taurus to last year's series championship. ``You have to have everything exactly right every week, and if you are off just a little bit, it seems like's it's magnified right now because so many cars are finishing on the lead lap.'' The reason? ``The competition has caught up a lot,'' said Jarrett, who won the season-opening Daytona 500. ``They've caught up because so many people are branching out and taking that (race-day) knowledge elsewhere. ``That's going to make things more competitive and it's going to make it more difficult to dominate like before. I think Jeff Gordon is capable of (winning races), but I also believe even if they had everything back in place like they had before (crew chief Ray Evernham's departure), they wouldn't be able to dominate.'' That's fine with NASCAR. ``I find it hard to believe that someone is going to be able to win that many races in a season again,'' Jarrett said of Gordon's success in the late '90s. ``The competition is just too good now. You're not just having to beat 8-10 cars like before because there are 20-25 cars that have the capability of running up front. ``Then on any given Sunday, if they make the right moves and hit the right setup, they are going to be up there and then what you might have thought was a victory gets taken away.'' Everyone will be watching to see if the trend continues Sunday in Fontana. SINGLES CLUB Nine different drivers have won the first nine races of the 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup series. Here's a look at this season's winners: Date.....Race..................Winner Feb. 20..Daytona 500...........Dale Jarrett Feb. 27..Dura Lube/KMart 400...Bobby LaBonte Mar. 5...CarsDirect.com 400....Jeff Burton Mar. 12..Cracker Barrel 500....Dale Earnhardt Mar. 19..Mall.com 500..........Ward Burton Mar. 26..Food City 500.........Rusty Wallace Apr. 2...DirecTV 500...........Dale Earnhardt Jr. Apr. 9...Goddy's Body Pain 500.Mark Martin Apr. 16..DieHard 500...........Jeff Gordon CAPTION(S): 3 boxes Box: (1) Napa Auto Parts 500 (2) Napa Auto Parts 500 schedule of events (3) Singles Club (see text) |
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