NASCAR Winston Cup Series Notebook (9/29/97)
1 October 1997
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Notes of Interest Week of September 29, 1997 DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Bobby Hamilton's third-place finish Monday was his second such finish in the last three races. The other was at New Hampshire International Speedway, practically a one-mile replica of Martinsville. - In fact, Hamilton has three consecutive third-place finishes at Martinsville and four top-fives in the last five races there. - Monday's 32nd-place finish was the fourth straight finish lower than 30th for Michael Waltrip (the same spot in which his brother Darrell had finished the three previous races). - The sixth-place run posted by Kenny Wallace was his best finish since, well, finishing sixth at Martinsville in April, 19 races ago. - Ricky Craven's eighth-place finish was his second top-10 in the last three races. - Busch Pole sitter Ward Burton equaled his best finish f the year with a seventh place run. Burton has finished seventh three times this year. - Ken Schrader's ninth-place finish was his sixth top-10 of the year and his 11th top-15 in the last 12 races. TOP 10 - TENTH: Monday's 13th-place finish was just the third top-15 for Ricky Rudd in the last eight races. But it kept him in the top 10 in the standings. - NINTH: Ted Musgrave's 21st-place run on Monday was his fourth finish outside the top 20 in the last five races. - EIGHTH: The fifth-place finish posted by Bill Elliott Monday was his eighth top-10 in the last 11 races. - SEVENTH: The up-and-down season for Bobby Labonte continues. His last eight races show four top-10 finishes and three of 27th or worse (the other was a 16th-place finish at Loudon, NH). - SIXTH: Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte continues to have a season he probably would just as soon forget. After four consecutive top-10 finishes in the month of August, Labonte now has four consecutive finishes outside the top-15 and three straight outside the top 20. - FIFTH: After 16 weeks in the No. 6 spot, Dale Earnhardt moves into fifth after his second consecutive second-place finish (his fourth of the season) and his third straight top-10. He still has just four top-10s in the last 10 races. - FOURTH: After two weeks of fighting an inner ear infection, using substitute drivers and other such methods to maintain his position in the points, Jeff Burton gained points on the position behind him for the fifth straight week. He now has five top-10 finishes in the last seven races. - THIRD: Dale Jarrett's 12th-place finish was just his third run outside the top 10 in the last 15 races. - SECOND: Mark Martin's 11th-place finish was just his second run outside the top 10 in the last 11 races. - FIRST: Jeff Gordon now has nine top-10 and eight top-five finishes in the last 10 races. TURNING TO CHARLOTTE AND THE UAW-GM QUALITY 500 - How competitive do things get when the NASCAR Winston Cup Series gets to Charlotte Motor Speedway in the fall? Well, there have been 25 different winners in 37 runnings of the UAW-GM Quality 500. - Only two drivers, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough, have won this race more than twice (three each). - Only three active drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and Mark Martin have won this race more than once. - Ten active drivers have won this race at least once. Current NASCAR Winston Cup point leader Jeff Gordon is not among that group, however. - In fact, Gordon has not had a top-five finish in this race since running fifth in 1993. - Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion. Terry Labonte is also the defending champ of this race. But odds of him winning his first race of this season aren't with him here. No driver has won this race in consecutive years since Bobby Allison did so in 1971 and '72. - Dale Earnhardt has three top-five finishes in the last four runnings of this race. - Mark Martin, making a bid for his first NASCAR Winston Cup title, certainly has had his success at Charlotte. He has finished in the top five in four of the last five UAW-GM Quality 500s (including two wins). - Dale Jarrett has three consecutive top-five finishes in this race (including a win in 1994). STAT OF THE WEEK Although Dale Earnhardt has not won a race since last March, he leads the NASCAR Winston Cup tour this season with runner-up finishes with four. While that may seem like a large number, Earnhardt is averaging nearly four second-place finishes (3.692) a year over the last 13 seasons. His high was seven in 1994 (the year he also won his last championship) and his low was none in 1985 -- the only time during that period he didn't have at least two in a season. By NASCAR Public Relations
