NASCAR Winston Cup Notes of Interest (week of 8/4/97)
5 August 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Notes of Interest Week of 8/4/97 DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Ricky Rudd has won at least one NASCAR Winston Cup race w year for 15 years. But Saturday's win in the Brickyard 400 marked only the fourth time in those 15 years he has won more than one race a year and the first time he has done so since winning two with car owner Bud Moore in 1987. - The last time Ricky Rudd won more than one race in a season, he picked up $653,508 in winnings for the year. That's just $82,508 more than the $571,000 he won in one day Saturday. - After being involved in an early-race incident (lap 14 of 160), Bill Elliott bounced back to finish eighth and was left standing as the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four runnings of the Brickyard 400. - The other two drivers who entered the race with top-10 finishes in the previous three Brickyards, Rusty Wallace and Morgan Shepherd, didn't fare as well. Shepherd failed to make the race and Wallace took a champion's provisional to start 43rd in the 43-car field. He finished 38th, falling out after 91 laps with engine problems. - After missing finishing in the top 10 in the first Brickyard in 1994, both Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett Saturday posted their third straight top-10 finishes in the event. Jarrett's third-place finish was his third straight top-five in the race. TOP 10 - TENTH--After posting three finishes of 32nd or worse in a four-race stretch, Bill Elliott now has recorded three consecutive top-10 finishes to move back into the top 10 in the point standings. - NINTH--Jeremy Mayfield has finished outside the top 15 just once in the last eight races. His fifth-place finish Saturday was his third top-five of the season, more than his career total entering this year. - EIGHTH--Ricky Rudd has just four top-10 finishes in the last eight races. But two of those are wins. - SEVENTH--Bobby Labonte has finished lower than 11th just once in the last six races. - SIXTH--Dale Earnhardt had put together a string of six top-10 finishes in eight races, but has now finished outside that group in three of the last five events. - FIFTH--Jeff Burton has eight top-10 finishes in the last 11 races. - FOURTH--Between September of last year and June of this year, Terry Labonte had not even finished outside the top 15 in any race. He has finished 35th or worse in three of the last six. - THIRD--After three straight finishes of 27th or worse, Dale Jarrett has posted six top-10s in the last seven races. - SECOND--Mark Martin has finished in the top 10 in 12 of the last 13 races. - FIRST--Jeff Gordon has 14 top-five finishes in 19 races this season. The best he's finished in the other five races? 21st. TURNING TO WATKINS GLEN AND THE BUD AT THE GLEN - When discussing strategy on winning the Bud at the Glen, track position has to be at or near the top of the list. Since the NASCAR Winston Cup Series returned to the famed road course in 1986, no driver has won this event from deeper in the field than 13th. - The winner of the Bud at the Glen has come from the front row in six of the last 11 years and from the Busch Pole in four of those years (1986, '93, '94, and '95). - Mark Martin, who won the '93, '94, and '95 races, has posted eight straight top-five finishes at The Glen. His average finish for this race during that period is 2.5. - Rusty Wallace is a two-time winner at The Glen, but has not posted a top-five finish there since running fourth in 1991. - Wally Dallenbach may only have run a full NASCAR Winston season once in the last four years, but that hasn't slowed him down at The Glen. Dallenbach has posted three top-five finishes in the last five races there. - Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon each have posted back-to-back top-five finishes at The Glen. - Chevrolet is playing against the odds this weekend. Only Tim Richmond (1986) and Ernie Irvan (1991) have won this race while driving Chevrolets since the Series returned in 1986. STAT OF THE WEEK Of the six new tracks added to the NASCAR Winston Cup schedule in the last nine years, four have run more than one event: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, New Hampshire International Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Sears Point Raceway. In 26 races at those four tracks there have been only three repeat winners. Davey Allison won twice at Phoenix and Ernie Irvan and Rust Wallace both have won twice at Sears Point. But only one driver, only one, has won at all four race tracks. Name him. Ricky Rudd. By NASCAR Public Relations