The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII OFFSEASON EDITION
|
|
The Worlds first daily e-newspaper devoted to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for Vol. III,No.VIXII OFFSEASON EDITION |
|
 ABOUT CSD
Race
Shop
Tickets
Fantasy
Garage Opinions
ADVERTISE |
|
NASCAR Christmas Stuff! Click Here |
TODAYS FRONT PAGE<
DEAR SANTA
Holiday gifts for NASCAR's fast-living crowd
|
Quote Of The Day: “We’re not sure what happened to the engine, but it’s obviously something internal.” — Greg Biffle, differentiating from those pesky external engine problems, after the race in Las Vegas. Happy Birthday: Greg Biffle, Peter Sospenzo, Ray Dunlap, Addison Frye 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Boyer takes over crew chief duties for No. 40 team Marlin to run limited Busch schedule for FitzBradshaw Racing NASCAR evolution: Only the strong survive Craven gets Superchips as truck sponsor Fuge buys truck team Harvick enters Grand National West race in January Corporation buys SCORE Motorsports, puts Hermie in car, Ince as crew chief Seasons change but work never ends Crosby becomes third woman to compete full-time in Busch Series Chastised "Chase" gave NASCAR excitement, ratings The Year That Never Was The Wrench Who Stole Racing The agony and the ecstasy of 2004
NEW!
The official Radio Partner of the Cup Scene Daily The Daily Scene Newsletter is BACK! CLICK HERE To Sign up
Daytona 500 Tickets NEW! Gemstone Jewelry ON SALE NOW. Click Here!
KEEP THE CUP SCENE DAILY COMING! PLEASE Support our sponsors!
Check out the NEW NASCAR Ebay page
|
By Jeff Owens They have everything a man could want. Big houses, expensive cars, big boats, airplanes, million-dollar motor homes, trophy cases filled with shiny hardware, celebrity status and more money than they know what to do with. Their toys include the best hunting, fishing and golf equipment money can buy. The younger crowd has every new gadget and gizmo created, from video games, to remote-control cars to iPods. All that and they get to drive fast race cars for a living. Heck, some even own their own race track.
So what could NASCAR's Nextel Cup stars possibly want for Christmas? What do you get the millionaire star athlete who really does have everything? How about something to make them laugh -- a gift designed especially for them, one with a special meaning only them and their fans will understand. Something to remind them of the bloops and blunders and lighter moments of the 2004 season. Like these gifts designed especially for these drivers: Jimmie Johnson: A giant bottle of PowerAde. Johnson and teammate Jeff Gordon, both Gatorade-sponsored drivers, were at odds with NASCAR over the placement of big, blue PowerAde bottles on top of their cars in victory lane. Though PowerAde is the "official sports beverage of NASCAR," the bottles caused a sponsor conflict for Johnson, Gordon and other Gatorade drivers. Their answer? They either knocked the bottles off their cars or covered them from the view of TV cameras. Of course, the latter drew Johnson a hefty fine. Jeff Gordon: A flu shot. Flu-like symptoms caused Gordon to miss many of the festivities surrounding the awards ceremony in New York. The untimely illness also cost him and Johnson the chance to defend their titles in the prestigious Race of Champions event in Paris. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: An automatic five-second delay for all television interviews and a copy of NASCAR's new book: How To Celebrate In Victory Lane Without Cursing on TV. Tony Stewart: A year's supply of Imodium AD. For those long races at places like Watkins Glen, where a stomach virus can leave you needing more than just a pit stop. Matt Kenseth: A robot. To help him practice for those Nextel commercials in which he plays a robot. Kurt Busch: A Teleprompter. For the new champ to practice those script-like interviews that sound like NASCAR-written speeches. Michael Waltrip: For the only driver who gets more TV time than Junior, a copy of the DVD of Michael Waltrip's Greatest Commercials. Mark Martin: Sponsorship from Pfizer's newest wonder drug. He has to be getting tired of all those Viagra jokes.
Ryan Newman: A lifetime invitation to the Chase, the new playoff format he calls "silly" and "ridiculous." Kasey Kahne: An appearance on the TV show The Bachelor. After all, People magazine named him one of its 50 hottest men. Kevin Harvick: A Matt Kenseth T-shirt and a new front bumper. Harvick showed up in a Kenseth T-shirt the week after the two tangled on the track at Pocono. Why the new front bumper? He wore his out hitting people this year. Rusty Wallace: After his feud with Newman, Dr. Phil's new book, How To Get Along With Your Teammate. Jeremy Mayfield: Dr. Phil's new book How To Get Along With Rusty. A few years after feuding with Wallace, Mayfield will drive one of Wallace's Busch cars next year. Joe Nemechek: A giant G.I. Joe. His first victory in the Army-sponsored car was one of the feel-good stories of the year. Greg Biffle: Action figures of The Flash and Wonder Women. The spandex-clad superheroes joined Biffle in victory lane after his win in a DC Comics-sponsored car at Michigan. NASCAR chairman Brian France: A big bottle of Crown Royal. It was France who spearheaded NASCAR's new policy to allow hard-liquor sponsors. For NASCAR officials: A red flag. For all those occasions when they can't figure out the running order, or when the caution lights are supposed to come on, or when pit road is supposed to be open, or who is on the lead lap or ... For NASCAR fans: Foam-covered beer cans for all those races when NASCAR officials make you so mad you just have to litter the track with garbage. And for all of NASCAR's Nextel Cup competitors: A little time to relax before one of the most hectic schedules in sports starts all over again.
Johnson's October Win at Atlanta Voted Top 2004 Moment
A year filled with changes, history and exciting “firsts” left no shortage of memories during NASCAR’s 2004 season. But one moment does stand out, as selected by media voting. Jimmie Johnson’s (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) Oct. 31 win at Atlanta not only kept him in contention for the inaugural “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup,” it helped jump-start healing for Hendrick Motorsports, which had been shaken by a team plane crash the previous week. As a result, Johnson’s win was selected by the media as the top 2004 NASCAR moment. A total of 153 votes were cast in week-long balloting, which began Dec. 15 and ended Dec. 22. Johnson’s win received 31 percent of the voting, tops over the next-closest moment – Kurt Busch (No. 97 Sharpie/IRWIN Industrial Tools Ford) overcoming a detached right front tire in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway to clinch the 2004 series title on the season’s last lap. Busch’s feat received 22 percent of the voting. Finishing third was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s (No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet) Daytona 500 win, which received 17 percent of the voting. Finishing fourth was Jeremy Mayfield’s (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) Sept. 11 win at Richmond, the cutoff point for the Chase. Mayfield’s win, which earned him a berth in the Chase, received 10 percent of the voting. Media voted Matt Kenseth’s (No. 17 DeWALT Tools Ford) photo finish with Raybestos Rookie of the Year Kasey Kahne (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge) at North Carolina Speedway on Feb. 22 as the fifth top moment of 2004. Kenseth’s and Kahne’s finish – Kenseth won – received eight percent of the voting. Jeff Gordon’s (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) Brickyard 400 win, which tied him with Al Unser, Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt for the most wins at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was voted the sixth top moment of 2004. Gordon’s accomplishment received five percent of the voting. Two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series highlights tied for seventh and eighth place in media voting. Bobby Hamilton (No. 4 Square D Dodge) winning the 2004 title as the series’ oldest champion (age 47) and the first driver-owner to win a series title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992, and the 2003 series champion, Travis Kvapil (No. 42 Line-X Toyota), claiming Toyota’s historic first win on July 21 at Michigan International Speedway, both received two percent of the voting. Two NASCAR Busch Series moments tied for ninth and 10th in media voting: Mike Bliss’ first series win in October at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and 2004 series champion Martin Truex Jr. (No. 8 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet) beating team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Talladega Superspeedway in April both received one percent of the voting.
Earnhardt Jr. aims for another Daytona 500 win
Dale Earnhardt Jr. achieved one of his career goals earlier this year when he captured the 2004 Daytona 500, the biggest, richest and most prestigious race of the year. On his fifth career start in "The Great American Race," Earnhardt Jr. slipped past Tony Stewart in the final laps of the race to claim victory in NASCAR's signature event.
Earnhardt Jr.'s victory was part of the historic day that featured NASCAR's first race with sponsor Nextel and a visit from the President of the United States George W. Bush, who gave the starting command "Drivers, start your engines." "This has to be the greatest day of my life," Earnhardt Jr. said after the race, which was voted by fans as the most dramatic moment of the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season on www.NASCAR.com during the recent awards banquet in New York City. Earnhardt Jr. will shoot for back-to-back victories in the 47th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005 at the historic Daytona International Speedway. It'll be the first Daytona 500 with the newly renovated infield, which includes new garages, new Gatorade Victory Lane and Daytona 500 Club, new massive Turn 1, waterfront specialty vehicle parking and an uniquely designed infield. Earnhardt Jr.'s attempt at back-to-back Daytona 500 wins will not be an easy feat as only Richard Petty (1973-74), Cale Yarborough (1983-84) and Sterling Marlin (1994-95) have been able to pull off consecutive triumphs in "The Great American Race." While he wouldn't mind a second Harley J. Earl trophy on his mantle, he's happy to have won his first Daytona 500 in the early stages of his career. His legendary father Dale Earnhardt needed 20 attempts to win his first Daytona 500 in 1998. "I'm just real excited to have won this race," said Earnhardt Jr., whose winning No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet has been on display for the past year at DAYTONA USA - "The Official Attraction of NASCAR." "It's really hard to win it. Some of our greatest competitors come in and out of this sport without taking this trophy home. I'm glad I can say I've accomplished it and I can put the ongoing strive to win it behind me because we really wanted to win it so bad." Earnhardt Jr.'s Daytona 500 victory was part of a dominating performance from the North Carolina native during Speedweeks 2004. Other highlights include: * Nearly winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona with co-drivers Andy Wallace and Tony Stewart. * Finishing second to Dale Jarrett in the Budweiser Shootout, a non-points All-Star event that features previous year's pole winners and past Budweiser Shootout champions. * Winning both a Gatorade Duel and the Hershey's Take 5 300 NASCAR Busch Series race. "I feel like we earned every victory and feel like we worked for it and just didn't come down here with a blistering fast car in every race and walk away from everybody," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We feel pretty good at what we achieved and the matter in which we did it and the manual labor involved in it."
Martin, who has 19 starts in the Daytona 500 without a victory, has four class victories in the Rolex 24 At Daytona as well as the 1999 Budweiser Shootout and a Crown Royal IROC race in 2003. "I've got one more shot," Wallace said. "I've tried my whole life. I've told my crew when I get back here (to Daytona) I better have the best car I've ever had in my life. We've tried but we're going to have to try harder than I've ever tried. We're going to have the best engine, the best car because I want to win it before it's all over. "The Daytona 500 is still the granddaddy of them all. It's a race that I haven't won and I'm going to try my darndest to win that one." While Wallace and Martin will be making their final Daytona 500 starts, the field will feature several up and coming rookies making their first starts such as 2004 NASCAR Busch Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year Kyle Busch, 2004 Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr. and 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil. "I've always told myself that it would be great to be able to win the big race of the Nextel Cup Series," Busch said. "Even if I was never able to win a championship, you just want to say you won a big race and Daytona is one of those. To be able to participate for the first time this year is going to be great. I'm looking forward to it." Tickets for Speedweeks 2005 and the 47th annual Daytona 500 are available online at http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP.
|
Speak your mind!
|
