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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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G.B.U. Scott 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Terry Labonte to lead charity motorcycle ride Saturday Jimmie Johnson to present music award In the Fast Lane: Gordon, NASCAR grew together J. Gordon hopes for more success at Martinville Yates gets a new engine man NASCAR trying to slow speeds Kenseth's favorite thing about Martinsville? Leaving. Mears looks forward to Martinsville Regan Smith joins the Army Once kingly, now petty Dancers, start your engines' in this here ballet Cup Scene readers speak out about the new point system
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Happy Birthday: Suzanne Belber, Ed Schafer, Chuck White, Richard Brown They could take advantage of this weekend's rare Nextel Cup open date to slow down and rest their pedal feet. Instead, it's back to the track for six NASCAR big-leaguers who will compete in tomorrow's Busch Series Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.
''Weekends off are nice, but racing is everything to me,'' said Derrike Cope, winner of the 1990 Daytona 500. ''Everything I do is about racing, and having this chance to run at Nashville is great.'' And for the fringe benefits. Michael Waltrip is on record as talking about how much he wants the race's unique winner's trophy - a Gibson guitar. Joining Cope and two-time Daytona 500 winner Waltrip, in today's practice and qualifying will be Indy 500 entry Robby Gordon, and Nextel Cup drivers Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne and Johnny Sauter. Another Nextel Cup veteran, Ken Schrader, is entered in tonight's ARCA race. At a time when the Nextel Cup series is having trouble filling a 43-car field each week, Nashville has an entry list of 56 drivers. "All eyes are on the Nashville Superspeedway," track president Cliff Hawks said. "We're the only major motorsports event taking place in the nation this weekend." The Nextel Cup resumes next week in Martinsville along with the Craftsman Trucks series. The Indy Racing League is off before picking up in Japan on April 17, and Formula One doesn't race again until April 25 in Italy. Even the NHRA dragsters are parked until April 18. "We have the potential on Saturday to host one of the biggest events in this track's short three-year history, and that is the result of this off-cup weekend," Hawks said. Ticket sales were up 4,000 from this point last year, and Hawks said he has built two portable grandstands to hold what could be the second-largest crowd since the track's inaugural race in 2001 when Biffle won his first Busch race here. Because it is Easter weekend, children can take part in an egg hunt in the morning and there will be a concert by the Christian group Newsboys before driver introductions. The main attraction, of course, will be the racing on the 1.33-mile concrete track.
Green took over the NASCAR Busch Series points lead following last weekend's eighth-place finish at Texas and heads to Nashville looking for a repeat of past success. Green won last season's first race at the track with a last-lap pass of Johnny Sauter and then returned later in the season for a runner-up finish to Scott Riggs. Green also won at the track's predecessor, Nashville Speedway USA, in 1995 and although a native of Owensboro, Ky., raced extensively early in his career in the Late Model Stock division at the fairgrounds track. "As a team, we are excited to get back home and defend our race win," Green said. "We are off to a championship year, and we are focused and determined to win another guitar. "It's always exciting to go to our first Busch Series stand-alone event. It'll be a barn-burner, I promise." Green's Brewco Motorsports team will unveil its new Chevrolets this weekend. The team had been using the now-discontinued Pontiac Grand Prix, which were left over from last year. "The guys have put a ton of hours into these cars, and I really believe that the competition hasn't seen anything yet," Green said. Green will also sport a special guest in his pits Saturday, Shad Meier of the NFL's Tennessee Titans. During a recent test session at the track, Ryan Newman, the preseason favorite for the Nextel Cup championship, said he won't run Busch Series races because of the ''time and risk involved.'' Cope, however, sees the race as a chance to get some exposure for his team. It is the first stand-alone Busch race of the season, the first time no Nextel Cup race has hogged the spotlight. ''From my team's standpoint this is a tremendous opportunity to do some great things in front of the fans,'' Cope said. There are 36 Nextel Cup races and 34 Busch Series races. Tomorrow's race is the seventh on the Busch schedule and the first of eight not run in conjunction with a Nextel Cup race. At least three drivers — Biffle, Kahne and Sauter — are scheduled to run all the races in both series, and Cope may do likewise. Gordon is fifth in the NASCAR Busch Series standings, and there's a possibility that he could continue running in both series full time. "We decided that if we finished with a top five in Texas, that we would go to Nashville," said Gordon, who took third at Texas. "(The team) is running well with the help of our RCR (Richard Childress Racing) engines, and if we stay in reach of a championship, I'm sure we will continue to race." Drivers who run both full schedules will have only one weekend off between now and the Nov. 20-21 Nextel/Busch season finales. ''It's a huge challenge to do the double duty,'' said Sauter, who finished second to David Green in last year's Pepsi 300. ''The schedule is definitely demanding and can wear you down as the season goes on. Between testing, racing, practicing and appearances, it doesn't take long for your free time to evaporate.'' Sauter had committed to running the Busch schedule for Brewco Motorsports when Richard Childress offered him a Nextel Cup ride. He couldn't turn down what he terms a ''dream job'' with Childress, but felt compelled to honor his Busch commitment to Brewco.
''I'm going to some tracks for the first time, and the more seat time I get the better,'' Kahne said. What about Newman's worry that twice as many races mean twice as much risk? ''I don't worry about that,'' Kahne said. ''There's some risk in everything we do.'' Kahne, whose sizzling Nextel Cup start was the talk of the early season, is leading the rookie of the year standings and is seventh in the Nextel Cup standings. He is 21st in Busch points. Biffle spoke for most of the drivers when he said his motivation for double-dipping is simple: ''I just love to race. On Saturdays when there's a Busch race at a track prior to the Sunday Nextel Cup race, I'm there watching anyway. I'd rather race than watch.'' Biffle already has a Busch championship (2002) and captured Nashville Superspeedway's inaugural Busch race in 2001. But one is never enough, so he's coming back for more. Weather could be a problem, however - forecasts call for rain the day of the race. Attracting fans on Easter could be tough too, especially since the NHL's Nashville Predators host Detroit on Sunday afternoon in Game 4 of their opening-round playoff series. Hawks is hopeful the more top drivers see this track, the more they will want to come back. "It cannot hurt," he said. Kyle Petty, will be running in this weekend's Rolex Grand American Sports Car Series at Phoenix. Petty will rejoin Gunnar Racing, this time at the wheel of the No. 45 Porsche GT3 RS. "It's no secret that I love racing in the Rolex Series," Petty said. "I try to do it every chance I get, and with Nextel Cup being off that weekend, I jumped at the chance to get back in a sports car. "I'm looking forward to running at Phoenix, because in the past I've only been able to race with the series at Daytona and Watkins Glen." Petty kicked off his 2004 racing season by competing in his fifth Rolex 24 at Daytona, teaming with actor Paul Newman, Gunnar Jeannette and Michael Brockman. |
