All News Brendan Gaughan Brian Vickers Casey Mears Dale Earnhardt Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Jarrett Dave Blaney Elliott Sadler Greg Biffle Jeff Gordon Jeremy Mayfield Johnny Sauter Kasey Kahne Kevin Harvick Matt Kenseth Ricky Craven Robby Gordon Rusty Wallace Ryan Newman Scott Riggs Scott Wimmer Tony Stewart

StockCarFans.com – Rumblings – Atlanta:

March 14, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • What a difference a week makes! In a turnaround about as far apart as Las Vegas and Atlanta in distance, Dale Earnhardt Jr and his Budweiser Chevy were a handling machine today. For a guy who couldn’t stay out of the garage last weekend, Little E was the dominant car at the end today (leading 52 of the final 60 circuits) at Atlanta Motor Speedway and captured the Golden Corral 500 by daylight (in NASCAR that’s about 4.584 seconds). Little E’s second victory of the season (and 11th of his Cup career) moves him into sole possession of 45th on the all-time win list. This was win #17 for DEI and was worth $180,078 from the over $4.6M in posted awards.
    #19-Jeremy Mayfield (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Dover last September.
    #9-Kasey Kahne should have kept his mouth shut. See what happens when you say you’re getting tired of finishing second? You slump to 3rd!
    #16-Greg Biffle (8th) had his best finish since he was 7th at Dover last September.
    #88-Dale Jarrett (9th) had his best finish since he was 7th at Bristol last August.
    #23-Dave Blaney (11th) had his best finish since he was 9th at Pocono last July.
    #31-Robby Gordon (17th) had his best finish since he was 12th at Talladega last October.
    #32-Ricky Craven (22nd) had his best finish since he was 19th at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last October.
    #10-Scott Riggs (25th) had his career-best finish today. He was 29th at Las Vegas last week.
    STREAKIN….Matt Kenseth has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. Tony Stewart has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races. Jeff Gordon has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
    The Rookie Report: Kasey Kahne (3rd) has taken three of the four races so far this season. He was followed by: Brian Vickers (21st), Scott Riggs (25th), Scott Wimmer (27th), Johnny Sauter (30th), and Brendan Gaughan (33rd).
    This Week’s Elevator….UP: Lonely Matt Kenseth (+24) is Operator of the Week (for the third time already in 4 races!). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Casey Mears (-25), followed by Elliott Sadler (-24), Kevin Harvick (-24), and Rusty Wallace (-24).
    Jeremy Mayfield, Casey Mears, and Greg Biffle all led today for the first time this season. We’ve had 22 different leaders thus far….don’t think we’re gonna threaten that 48 number from last year.
    No changes at the top of the point standings this week….first and second remain Kenseth & Stewart, though Tony cut 6 points off Matt’s lead (not that that means anything anymore). Every other spot in the Top-12 changed hands. The best move forward in the standings was made by Ryan Newman (21st to 10th), while teammate Rusty Wallace accomplished the same feat in the opposite direction (12th to 22nd).(StockCarFans.Com Nextel Cup Newsletter)(3-14-2004)