Tough Two Weeks at Home for Winston Cup Series

With two consecutive weekends of racing at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, it would seem that most of the Winston Cup competitors would enjoy what amounts to a homestand.

That’s unusual in a season that stretches from February through November and takes NASCAR’s top stock car series from coast to coast.

But the competitors still pay a price this month for remaining in the Charlotte, N.C., area--where most of the teams are based--racing in The Winston and the Coca-Cola 600 on consecutive weekends at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord.

“When we’re this close to racing at home we shouldn’t have to spend more time away from home than we do if we’re on the road, and that’s exactly what we do,” said Dale Jarrett, the defending Winston Cup champion, who makes his home in nearby Hickory.

“This is a great place to come. It’s a great facility, the fans are great, everybody here at Charlotte is great, but this would be a time that the guys could enjoy sleeping in their beds a little bit, but don’t get that chance right now. It seems like there’s something going on every minute we’re here.”

It’ll get worse next year.

NASCAR is adding races in Joliet, Ill., and Kansas City, Kansas, to the schedule in 2001, raising the total number of points-paying events to 36 and the total number of weekends of racing to 38, including The Winston and the Bud Shootout.

Bill Elliott, an owner-driver, suggests that The Winston, which has been a standalone race since its inception, could become part of the Coca-Cola 600 weekend as one way to help keep crewmen from burning out as the schedule gets longer and tougher.

“They’re worked to death as it is,” Elliott said. “Everybody says, ‘Well, it’s only a couple of more weekends we’re throwing out here.’ But the problem is you’re still gone Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the farther you go, that normally means you throw out Thursday for a travel day and part of Monday for a recovery day, so that’s four or five days a week that you multiply times two.

“Wearing an owner’s hat, what I see is that I have to hire not just two or three more people but a lot more people to overcome the amount of traveling and what these guys go through week-in and week-out.”

IMAGINE: Flying cars. Tracks with tunnels and loops. Drivers in energy-absorbing safety suits.

Let your imagination go wild and tell NASCAR what you think the future holds for the stock car sport.

NASCAR 2000 is giving fans heading to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte for next Wednesday’s qualifying for the Coca-Cola 600 an opportunity to predict the future of racing.

Those on hand between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. that day can fill out a prediction form and drop it in a time capsule that, once sealed, will not be opened until 2050.

NASCAR 2000 is a campaign exploring the future of stock car racing, examining new-millennium developments in technology, the evolution of facilities and the plans for increased fan interaction at the tracks and through TV coverage.

FIRST YEAR: Despite being the only driver to win more than once in the first 11 races this season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not leading the rookie of the year competition.

That honor belongs to Matt Kenseth, who is 14th in the standings heading into next Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. Kenseth, who drives for Roush Racing, leads Earnhardt--17th in the standings--by one point in the rookie competition.

Kenseth has been the highest finishing rookie in six of the 11 races, while Earnhardt has taken that honor four times. Dave Blaney had the highest finish in the other event.

Although his best finish thus far has been third in Fontana, Calif., Kenseth has completed 3,346 of a possible 3,531 laps this season.

Among the other rookies, Stacy Compton is 32nd, with Blaney 34th, Scott Pruett 50th, Mike Bliss 45th and Ed Berrier 46th. In the rookie standings, Compton is third, followed by Blaney, Pruett, Bliss and Berrier.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Although the race pays no points, the winner of The Winston has carried the momentum through the season to win the series title seven times in 15 years. The drivers who have won the all-star race and gone on to the championship include Darrell Waltrip (1985), Dale Earnhardt (1987, 1990, 1993) Rusty Wallace (1989) and Jeff Gordon (1995, 1997).