Atlanta’s Down, Three Remaining

I'm sure that we will all agree that the best thing NASCAR could do at this point is to do away with the restrictor plates and come up with another way to slow the cars down and give the drivers more control of the race cars. This would also put an end to the questionable dominance of Dale Earnhardt Inc. at restrictor plate events. Gary Nelson, NASCAR's managing director of research and development, has recently made it known that there may be an alternative to the restrictor plates in the near future. Nelson started out as a crew chief and has always hated the use of the plates in reducing air and fuel flow to the engine in an effort to reduce horsepower. Other means of reducing horsepower at the restrictor plate tracks are being tested in earnest as this is being written.

Rookie Roundup......

At the beginning of the season Greg Biffle was leading the Raybestos Rookie of the Year quest, but the tides have turned to favor Jamie McMurray. After Martinsville, with four events remaining, McMurray, driver of the No. 41 Havoline sponsored Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge, is 33 points ahead of Biffle, 82 points ahead of third place Casey Mears, and 86 points ahead of fourth place Tony Raines. Only those four drivers had started all 32 of the races up to that point. Fifth place Fifth Place Jack Sprague got ousted from the No. 0 NetZero Pontiac after having competed in 19 events, and sixth place Larry Foyt has only competed in 17 events.

Seventh place Hideo Fukuyama dropped out of the running after competing in only two events. I know I sound like a stuck phonograph record, because I'm always stating that the best place to find stats and a complete rookie of the year breakdown is at Jayski.com but the facts are the facts. According to Jayski's stat page, Jamie McMurray has received twice as many rookie of the race awards as Biffle, but Biffle had ten bonus' to McMurray's nine, with Biffle listed with 997 points and McMurray listed with 996. With the amount of points a rookie can make in a race usually staying in the teens, it'll take more than one race for McMurray to best or tie Biffle. I'm not going to go out on a limb at this point and give the nod to McMurray, because there's a lot that

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4