Who’s made the greatest improvement in a year? When you discount drivers who were hurt last year and missed races or didn’t have a full-time ride (Mike Skinner, Wally Dallenbach, Steve Park), the driver who’s moved forward the most positions since California in ’98 is our points leader Jeff Burton. Last year at this point he was 14th, 347 points behind Jeremy Mayfield. Three other drivers are 10 spots higher this year vs last….John Andretti, Kenny Irwin, and Kevin Lepage. The other side of the coin shows the likeness of Jimmy Spencer. He’s fallen from 8th last year at this time to 24th this year. Ted Musgrave’s story is much the same….20th to 35th. Johnny Benson and Robert Pressley are 13 spots lower in the points standings this year. Last year’s points leader after Fontana was Jeremy Mayfield. This year he’s 12th, and has 291 less points. That’s about 9-10 finishing positions per race. Jeff Burton has improved 434 points over the same 10 race time-frame. He’s also scored 87 more points than Mayfield had last year at this same time. For that matter, Dale Jarrett (who’s second this year) has 32 more points now than Jeremy had last year(From Henry’s Ramblings of the Stock Car Fans Newsletter )
