The Final Lap - with Kerry Murphey

NASCAR News

April 23, 2004

Be sure to check out Jeff Gordon tonight on QVC, on their "For Race Fans Only" shopping show. Proceeds will go toward the Jeff Gordon Foundation, on the sale of his Sesame Street 35th Anniversary die-cast #24 car.

Sterling Marlin will be a presenter at the 39th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 26th. The event will be on CBS at 8pm from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

QUALIFYING | BUSCH SERIES

10 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9 Kasey Kahne
8 Paul Menard
7 Mark Green
6 Jason Leffler
5 Mike Bliss
4 Robby Gordon
3 Martin Truex Jr.
2 Ron Hornaday
1 In only his 3rd Busch start, Clint Bowyer driving the #21 Reeses car took the poll with a speed of 183.253mph

Note: Chevrolets took 16 of the top 19 spots.

TRACK STATS | TALLADEGA

Distance: 2.66 Mile Tri-oval
Banking/Turns 1-4:33º
Banking on Tri-oval:18º
Banking/Backstretch: 2º
Length/Frontstretch: 4,300 ft.
Length/Backstretch:4,000 ft.
Miles/Laps: 500 mi. = 188 laps
Up for grabs: about 5.7 million dollars
Last Years winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

April 22, 2004

Paul Andrews has been inked as the new crew chief for Kasey Kahne's #38 Busch series ride. He comes over from Jeff Burton's 99 Cup team.

Check out these DEI / Talladega stats. 7 of the last 10 races have been won by an Earnhardt, 3 by senior, and 4 by Jr. Add in Michael Waltrips wins, and DEI has 5 straight car-owner wins at the track...who do you think will win on Sunday?

Some driver milestones to let you know about. Ricky Rudd makes his 725th start, Mark Martin his 575th, and Bobby Labonte will make his 375th Cup start.

ON TV

BUSCH SERIES HAPPY HOUR @ 3 p.m. Friday on Speed

NEXTEL CUP QUALIFYING @ 4 p.m. Friday on Speed

NEXTEL CUP HAPPY HOUR @ 1 p.m. Saturday on FX

THE BUSCH SERIES RACE @ 2 p.m. Saturday on Fox

NEXTEL CUP RACING FROM TALLADEGA @ 1 p.m. Sunday on Fox

All times are eastern.

April 21, 2004

Jamie McMurray has been docked 25 driver points, and drops from 13th-14th in the point standings. Not because of spinning Matt Kenseth at Bristol, but for his confiscated car, that failed the X measurement.

Martinsville Speedway will begin resurfacing of the asphalt parts of the track next Monday. The turns which are concrete will remain untouched unless inspection causes concern. They may just fill the hole that Jeff Gordon's car hit with new concrete and that's it.

Eric McClure will be driving a second entry for Morgan/McClure Motorsports this weekend at Talladega. He'll make his Cup debut and will be in the #04 Chevy, along with their main entry of Jimmy Spencer in the 4 car.

TESTING | MICHIGAN

Circling the track today will be Jeremy Mayfield, and David Stremme...plus Robby Gordon will practice his 31 Cup car along with his Indy 500 entry.

ON TV

Check your CNN listings for "Live From" which will feature guest Kyle Petty today talking about his Victory Junction Gang Camp.

POINT STANDINGS | TRUCK SERIES

Busch guys had the week off, so lets run down the truck series.

10 Jon Wood
9 Bobby Hamilton drops 6
8 Chad Chaffin
7 Rick Crawford rockets up 8 spots with his win
6 Matt Crafton
5 Mike Skinner
4 David Reutimann
3 Dennis Setzer
2 Travis Kvapil
1 Carl Edwards

April 20, 2004

Stanton Barrett has a partial sponsorship from AmericInn Lodging System for at least 8 Busch series events. It starts with California in a couple of weeks.

Truck Series driver Jon Wood will be part of a Speed Channel dating show called "I wanna date a Race Car Driver." The first show will air on June 9th at 9pm eastern.

TESTING | KENTUCKY

At least 10 teams will be on hand this week at the track, including: Dale Jarrett, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte, Brendan Gaughan and more.

POINT STANDINGS | CUP SERIES

10 Kevin Harvick
9 Kasey Kahne
8 Rusty Wallace up 3
7 Jeff Gordon
6 Tony Stewart down 2
5 Elliott Sadler
4 Jimmie Johnson
3 Matt Kenseth
2 Kurt Busch
1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads by 5 points

BIGGEST GAINERS: Up 3 spots include Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Ward Burton Ricky Craven and Bobby Labonte
BIGGEST LOSERS: Down 3 spot are Jeremy Mayfield, and Jeff Burton...Ken Schrader drops 5

April 19, 2004

RACE RECAP | MARTINSVILLE | CUP SERIES

10 Dale Jarrett takes a much needed top 10
9 Sterling Marlin
8 Matt Kenseth
7 Jamie McMurray
6 Jeff Gordon great finish considering his day
5 Ryan Newman 5th top 10 this year
4 Jimmie Johnson 4th Martinsville top 10
3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. grabs the points lead by 5
2 Bobby Labonte 5th top 10 at Martinsville

VICTORY LANE

1 For his 55th career win, 7th at Martinsville, and ending his 105 race winless streak....Rusty Wallace finally found the checkered flag in his #2 Miller Light Dodge.

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

-Early cautions included Andy Hillenburg, Robby Gordon, Brendan Gaughan, Ken Schrader and Jeremy Mayfield.

-Jeff Gordon who started from poll, dominated the first half of the race until his 24 broke the race track. A piece of concrete came up from the racetrack in turn 3 on lap 290, damaged the right front of his Chevy.

-The Red flag was thrown to repair the pot-hole with epoxy, total wait time for the hole to dry was: 1 hour 17 minutes.

-NASCAR did not allow the 24 team to make any repairs under the red.

-Jeff Gordon was able to battle back to finish 6th after making repairs.

-The 12 of Ryan Newman and 24 of Jeff Gordon fought hard at the end for 5th place

ON SATURDAY

The Busch guys had the week off, so it was the trucks this time beatin' and bangin'

5 Mike Skinner
4 Jon Wood
3 Jack Sprague
2 Dennis Setzer
1 Rick Crawford grabs the win after breaking his foot in Atlanta a month earlier. The win rockets him up 8 spots in the points to 7th.

Updated: Sunday, October 31, 2004 | 9:45 AM Pacific

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