NASCAR Winston Cup Series Notes (Week of September 8, 1997)
8 September 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Notes of Interest
Week of September 8, 1997
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Rusty Wallace's fifth-place finish Saturday night at
Richmond (where he has five career wins) was just his third top-five finish
in the last 13 races. It was his second in the last five (third at Watkins
Glen).
- Geoff Bodine's fourth-place finish Saturday was his second top-five finish
in the last five races. But it was just his third all season. The other two
were runner-up finishes at Watkins Glen in early August and at Richmond, the
same place he ran so well Saturday, in March, 21 races ago.
- Ward Burton, who recorded three top-10 finishes in the first nine races,
Saturday night posted his first (seventh-place) since Sears Point in May, 13
races ago.
- Although he has qualified extremely well this year, especially in the
second half of the season. Joe Nemechek's sixth-place finish Saturday was his
first top-10 run of the season.
- Saturday's 14th-place finish was the ninth straight top-15 finish for Ken
Schrader.
- Jeremy Mayfield's 10th-place finish Saturday was his eighth top-10 run of
the year.
- Coming into this season, Mayfield had just three top-10 finishes in his
career.
- The 39 cars still running at the finish of Saturday's race ties a NASCAR
Winston Cup modern-era record for short tracks.
- How tough was the competition? Of the 39 cars still running at the finish
Saturday, 37 completed at least 392 of the 400 laps.
- How far have things come? Well when Ned Jarrett, father of Dale Jarrett,
the winner of Saturday's race, won this same event in 1963, Richmond
International Raceway was a half-mile dirt track instead of a
three-quarter-mile paved facility. Saturday night, the 37th-place car
finished eight laps down. When the elder Jarrett won this race, nine laps
down was good enough for fourth.
TOP 10
- TENTH: Ricky Rudd now has occupied a spot in the top-10 in the NASCAR
Winston Cup point standings 57 of the last 58 races, dating back to October
of 1995.
- NINTH: Ted Musgrave now has four top-10 finishes in the last seven races.
- EIGHTH: Bill Elliott earned his first Busch Pole of the season and his
first since Phoenix in late 1995, but that good luck didn't rub off. After
finishing in the top-10 in six of the previous seven races, Elliott finished
30th Saturday.
- SEVENTH: Bobby Labonte has seven top-10 finishes in the last 11 races, but
his 34th--place finish Saturday broke his string of three straight.
- SIXTH: Dale Earnhardt's No. 3 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Chevrolet now has
been running at the end of the last 37 straight races.
- FIFTH: Terry Labonte has seven top-10 finishes in the last 10 races, but
has dropped to fifth in the points in the process.
- FOURTH: Jeff Burton has 12 top-10's and 14 top-15 finishes in the last 16
races.
- THIRD: Dale Jarrett now has ten top-10 finishes and eight top-fives in the
last 12 races.
- SECOND: Mark Martin's 25th-place finish was his first outside the top-10
since Daytona in July, eight races ago. Still, Martin has 16 top-10 finishes
and 13 top-fives in the last 18 races.
- FIRST: All 18 of Jeff Gordon's top-10 finishes this year, also are
top-five finishes.
TURNING TO LOUDON AND THE CMT 300
- In five different NASCAR Winston Cup races at New Hampshire International
Speedway, there have been five different winners: Rusty Wallace (1993); Ricky
Rudd ('94); Jeff Gordon ('95); Ernie Irvan ('96) and Jeff Burton earlier this
year. (NOTE: this is the first year NHIS will host two NASCAR Winston Cup
races).
- While Mark Martin has not won at Loudon, he has earned two Busch Pole
Awards and four top-five finishes.
- Ricky Rudd has five top-10 finishes (four top-fives) in five previous
races at NHIS.
- A driver doesn't have to start on the front row to win at New Hampshire.
the average starting position for the winners at NHIS in five previous races
is around 15.5.
STAT OF THE WEEK:
The average starting position for the drivers finishing in the top-five in
Saturday night's Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400 was 17.8. The average
finishing position for drivers starting in the top-five was 28.4.
By NASCAR Public Relations