As a Ford driver, Martin has to be anxious to get to the 1.366-mile track as the Chevrolets have dominated the last two races, which were held at bigger, faster tracks at Las Vegas and Atlanta. As a Roush Racing driver, he has to be a bit apprehensive. Roush cars have had engine problems like crazy this year.
How bad have Nadeau's finishes been at Darlington? How about in six tries, his best is a 29th last fall. In the other five starts, he's been 31st or worse. It's hard to believe it could get any uglier than that so the way the UAW-Delphi Chevy team is looking at it there's no where to go but up.
That's exactly what they are after a near miss last Sunday. That run has pushed them up to seventh in the points standings, proving, while things haven't always gone smooth in Furr's absence, they have kept the ship from sinking.
Park's win at Rockingham should make him really good to go at Darlington this weekend. Both tracks have similar, abrasive surfaces and Goodyear is using the same tire.
Those two factors should immediately put Park and the Pennzoil posse right in the hunt. Remember they started outside pole when they pounded The Rock two weeks ago and believe they are capable of the same kind of performance on NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, a place they haven't exactly set the world on fire.
Last March's race was the only really bad Darlington showing he's had. In the fall, he finished 10th something he had also done in 1999, a year he came home 12th in the first race. Park's average finish in five starts is 19.2.
Even though they had problems last week in Atlanta, this Dale Earnhardt Inc. team has the confidence to rebound quickly. Does that mean a winning effort at Darlington? Probably not. It does mean top-10 or better.
Wallace is an aggressive driver who is notoriously hard on his equipment and tires. That style doesn't bode well for success at NASCAR's oldest -- and perhaps toughest -- speedway. Darlington's narrow turns make handling difficult and the abrasive asphalt is rough on tires.
Goodyear is running a new, harder tire compound this season. That will likely make tire management even more difficult at Darlington. To get a jump on things, Wallace tested two days last week at the 1.366-mile speedway.
The Penske Racing team never quite got the handling down on Rusty Wallace?s No. 2 Ford, but great pit stops helped salvage a 12th-place finish in Sunday?s Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta.
Wallace qualified ninth but slipped out of the top-10 due to a tight-handling car. That condition continued to plague him, but stops like a 14.2-second four-tire change kept Wallace in contention through the first two-thirds of the race. Finally, Dave Blaney?s stout Dodge put Wallace a lap down on lap 202.
All in all, Atlanta wasn?t a bad effort for the Penske Racing team. Chevy teams clearly had the upper hand on all Fords, but Wallace hung around. Quick pit stops retrieved a respectable finish and Wallace is eighth in points. Grade: C.
Darlington is hardly one of the stronger tracks for Johnny Benson, who has no top-five finishes in Winston Cup competition and was 24th and 38th in last year's two events.
However, the former ASA and Busch Series champion excelled in Busch competition at the track, sweeping second-place finishes in two races in 1995 and finishing fourth in a 1994 race.
He has much motivation to turn in a good performance Sunday. He's third in driver points and has a streak of three straight top-10 finishes.
No doubt Ricky Rudd and Bodine have talked. After six years, Rudd gave up ownership headaches to concentrate on racing. In 2000, Rudd improved his position in the standings by 26 places over last season. Bodine finished 35th -- again. Ownership has privileges: job security, choice of support staff and control. But Bodine, 42, still lives to race and is hungry for a win. After 13 full seasons in Winston Cup, Bodine has visited victory lane only once -- more than a decade ago at North Wilkesboro. It has been 325 races since Bodine posted a win, 231 races since he won a pole and more than six years since he finished in the top five.
For a privateer, there is seldom enough money to compete against the multicar operations. Bodine missed five races and used provisionals to make the fields for four events. If he hopes to be competitive again, he must rethink his strategy.
The new Tide Ford driver has had one excellent showing and one not-bad outing in four races this year. Ricky Craven's season would get a big boost if he were to turn in a performance Sunday near the level of his Darlington best, a third-place finish in 1996.
Since Gordon began dabbling in NASCAR in 1991, he has had only one race in a competitive car -- an ill-fated tryout with Robert Yates in 1993 substituting for injured Ernie Irvan. In the 1996 and '97 seasons, Gordon ran 22 races for Felix Sabates. During his second year in the car, Gordon won his only pole in the spring Atlanta race and posted a career-high fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen.
In his Team Gordon Ford in 2000, he tried to qualify for 23 races, made the field for 17 and finished only 10. Gordon's best performance came at Watkins Glen, where he finished ninth.
Gordon, 32, has won three 24 Hours of Daytona titles. With his success in that event, coupled with Morgan-McClure's three Daytona 500 victories and two Pepsi 400 wins, look for this team to come out fighting during Speedweeks in February.
It has been 93 races since McClure or Hamilton won a pole or race. In Hamilton's defense, he experienced six engine failures in 2000, but he was involved in four accidents that pushed his DNF total to 11. Thich resulted in a 30th-place finish in points -- his worst since 1993. Hamilton is moving to a team that also suffered six engine failures last season. On a positive note, he will be under the direction of Jimmy Elledge, one of the most promising young crew chiefs in the garage.
Hamilton, 43, has three wins and five poles in his career, but last season he led only 65 laps in four races. If Hamilton hopes to maintain his Winston Cup status, he needs to do much better than an average finish of 28th
. Darlington is one of NASCAR's most difficult tracks. Earnhardt was the master of the old track, winning nine times in Cup competition. In two Busch Series races last year, Harvick was no slouch, finishing 15th and 10th.
When Petty Enterprises hired Jones, 30, to fill the seat vacated by the late Adam Petty, the racing world was shocked. Although the Petty organization and Dodge, which returns as the team's manufacturer in 2001, hope to find their future in the youth movement, their choice of Jones leaves room for second-guessing
In six seasons of Busch Series racing, Jones competed in 139 events and posted two wins, two poles, 14 top 5s and 33 top 10s.
Of six career wins for the likable Tennessean, five have come in restrictor-plate races at Daytona and Talladega. The sixth victory came at Darlington, in this race in 1995. Sterling Marlin also has six other top-five runs at the track, suggesting that his finishes in two races last year (21st and 17th) are not the best indicators of his normal performances at Darlington.
A late-race engine failure at Atlanta not only prevented Marlin from contending for victory, it snapped a streak of three straight top-10 finishes and bumped Marlin out of the Winston Cup drivers points lead he held for a week. But it did not come early enough to prevent Marlin from keeping up a streak of leading at least one lap in every race this season. Only one other driver can claim that distinction -- new points leader Jeff Gordon
it seems Nemechek's move to Andy Petree Racing prompted a resurgence for Nemechek, 37.
Though Front-row Joe didn't match his three poles of 1999, he beat out Talladega record holder Bill Elliott for the pole for the Winston 500 and earned a place in the Bud Shootout.
Team owner Petree finally relinquished his dual role as crew chief in October, when the strain of handling both jobs began to take its toll. Petree, who guided Dale Earnhardt to his last two Winston Cup titles, handed the reins to former Morgan-McClure crew chief Danny Gill, and the team steadily moved into the top 15 in points.
Nemechek knows how to win a championship and proved he was up to the task in the Busch Series in 1992. It's too early to determine the effect new teammate Bobby Hamilton will have on the team, but with the competitive nature of NASCAR, a top-10 car is about the best for which Nemechek can hope
Ken Schrader, winless in Winston Cup competition for almost a decade, is quietly putting together the beginnings of a solid season. He was among those who battled for the Daytona 500 victory until he was caught up in the last-lap crash that killed Dale Earnhardt, and after mid-pack finishes at Rockingham and Las Vegas, had a solid race and a top-10 finish (eighth) at Atlanta. Schrader has four top-five runs at Darlington, the most recent a fourth in 1996.
Shrader logged his first top-10 finish of the year and snapped a streak of two straight finishes out of the top 20. Grade: B.
The youngest and most personable of the Wallace racing brothers hopes the change will jump-start an eight-year Winston Cup career that does not include a victory.
The next year, he had the opportunity of a lifetime when he subbed for injured Ernie Irvan in the No. 28 at Robert Yates Racing. He hasn't driven for a team with that quality of equipment since.
Last season, Wallace started on the front row at Martinsville and Bristol in the spring, showing the same short-track prowess as brother Rusty. Kenny equaled a career-high second-place finish last fall at Talladega, where his efforts in drafting helped Dale Earnhardt win his 10th race at that track.
Wallace's career is far from over. Perhaps his new crew chief, Barry Dodson, who led Rusty to the 1989 Winston Cup title, can provide Kenny, 37, with the same magic in 2001.