Now, that’s the way racing is supposed to be. We [SCF] used to call this formful….the fastest car (and the one that led the most laps) won, and the runner-up and 3rd place finishers were the cars that led the next most laps. Maybe a trend? (Well, for one week anyway) Tony Stewart tracked down Ryan Newman (making up close to 8 seconds in less than 30 laps) and zoomed past with less than 10 laps to go tonight at Lowe’s Motor Speedway to lay claim to the UAW-GM Quality 500. It’s been a long time since we saw fresh tires make a difference, but we sure returned to that tonight. It was the second win of the season for Tony (he captured the June event at Pocono) and the 17th of his Winston Cup career. He’s now in a 4-way tie for 36th on the all-time win list (with Jeff Burton, Marvin Panch, and Curtis Turner). This was win #39 for Joe Gibbs, and it clinches a spot on the 2004 Winners Circle plan for the #20 car (and bumps, at least for the moment, teammate Bobby Labonte from that plan). Jeff Gordon (5th) is in a rut. This is 4 straight 5th place finishes for him. Mark Martin (11th) had his best finish since he was 10th at Watkins Glen in August. Tony Raines (25th) had his best finish since he was 20th at Bristol in August. STREAKIN….Ryan Newman has 6 Top-10’s in a row. Tony Stewart has 4 Top-5’s in a row. Jeff Gordon has 4 Top-5’s in a row. Kevin Harvick has 4 Top-10’s in a row. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Matt Kenseth (+21) followed by Jeremy Mayfield (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Elliott Sadler (-36), followed by Mike Skinner (-29), Kurt Busch (-24), Robby Gordon (-23), and Todd Bodine (-21). This was Op #3 for Kenseth (tying him with Jamie McMurray for the lead in that category) and BD #4 for Sadler (tying him with Ryan Newman for most BD’s this season). It certainly wasn’t a surprise to see Matt Kenseth pass the re-scheduled Busch race this afternoon. 800 miles in a day is a tad much for somebody with as much on line as he has. And that was before he knew he was gonna have power steering trouble. Kenseth tacked another 8 points onto his lead tonight….it’s now at 267. But, we’ve still got some close races elsewhere in the Top-10. 3rd to 6th is separated by 83 points, 7th Place (Tony Stewart) is one point ahead of Bobby Labonte, and brother Terry (9th place) is just five markers ahead of Kurt Busch. We’re down to just 13 drivers with a mathematical (though unrealistic) chance at the Championship. We lopped another four off tonight. Matt Kenseth’s “Magic Number” grew as well. It’s now 10th (the highest its been since Dover….in spite of his problems the last two races). No driver made a multi-position move forward this week. Robby Gordon (12th to 15th) made the only major move downward.( StockCarFans.Com Wcup Newsletter )(10-12-2003)
