All News Andy Belmont Brendan Gaughan Carl Long Dale Jarrett Jamie McMurray Jeff Green Joe Ruttman Kasey Kahne Kirk Shelmerdine Morgan Shepherd Ricky Craven Rusty Wallace Ryan Newman Scott Riggs

StockCarFans.Com – Ramblings – Rockingham:

February 21, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • It was Ryan Newman’s day today….and once again it wasn’t in much doubt. #12-Newman was faster than Jamie McMurray in his Alltel Dodge at North Carolina Speedway this afternoon…by a whopping .165 seconds. He sped around this 1 mile oval in 23.398 sec (156.475 mph) to grab his third Bud pole at this old place and 19th of his Nextel Cup career. That’s a phenominal pole percentage (a new stat….PPP) of .232! And, that’s waaaay above the Mendoza line.
    #9-Kasey Kahne (3rd) has his career-best starting spot. He started 27th last week in his debut.
    #2-Rusty Wallace (4th….and without any concrete in site) has his best starting spot since he had the outside pole at Dover last June.
    #43-Jeff Green (8th) has his best starting spot since he had the pole for the Daytona 500 in February of last year.
    #88-Dale Jarrett (9th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 6th at Talladega last October.
    #77-Brendan Gaughan (15th) has his career-best starting spot. He started 17th last week in his debut.
    #32-Ricky Craven (17th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 13th at Lowe’s last October.
    #10-Scott Riggs (19th) has his career-best starting spot. He started 36th last week in his debut.
    We’ve got four drivers this weekend making their first starts in quite awhile….
    #09-Joe Ruttman (40th) is making his first start since the Daytona 500 in 1995! He started 19th and finished 27th that day.
    #72-Kirk Shelmerdine (41st) is making his first field since he started 41st and finished 42nd at Pocono in July of 2002.
    #46-Carl Long (42nd) has made his first grid since he started 39th and finished 43rd at Atlanta in October of 2002.
    #80-Andy Hillendurg (43rd) makes his first field since he started 43rd and finished 43rd at Martinsville in April of 2002.
    STREAKIN….Ryan Newman has 7 Top-10 starts in the last 8 races.
    No real Trouble Train this weekend. #59-Andy Belmont and #89-Morgan Shepherd both W/D’ed their cars before qualifying so all 43 cars that took a time made the event.(StockCarFans.Com Nextel Cup Newsletter)(2-21-2004)