All News Bill Elliott Bobby Labonte Brendan Gaughan Brian Vickers Casey Mears Elliott Sadler Greg Biffle Jeff Gordon Joe Nemechek Kasey Kahne Ken Schrader Kurt Busch Matt Kenseth Michael Waltrip Rusty Wallace Ryan Newman Scott Riggs

StockCarFans.com – Rumblings – Texas:

April 4, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • It wasn’t as close as Rockingham, but it wasn’t far off….#38-Elliott Sadler held off #9-Kasey Kahne today at Texas Motor Speedway, winning the Samsung/RadioShack 500 by a whopping .028 seconds for his second career Cup victory and #55 for Robert Yates Racing. He broke a 108 race losing streak (his other previous win was at Bristol in March of 2001), and gives RYR a 15 year streak with at least one victory (Hendrick Motorsports has the longest current run at 19). His win was worth $497,733 from the whopping $6.8M in posted awards, and he’s now 89th on the all-time win list.
    Other important milestones for Sadler & the Yates team today: They’re now the on the Winners Circle plan for the rest of the season (they’re the first wild card for 2004), they become the 22nd qualifier for the Nextel All-Star Challenge in May at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and they got M&M’s their first ever Cup points win (Elliott won a Twin-125 at Daytona in February).
    #9-Kasey Kahne had the dominant car again, leading six times for 148 laps. He’s now lost two races this season by a combined .038 seconds, and he’s been the bridesmaid three times already this year.
    #24-Jeff Gordon (3rd) had his best finish since he won at Atlanta last October.
    #41-Casey Mears (7th) tied his career-best finish today. He was 7th at Las Vegas last month as well.
    #25-Brian Vickers (12th) had his career-best finish today. He was 13th at Phoenix last November.
    #10-Scott Riggs (15th) had his career-best finish today. His previous best was 25th at Atlanta last month.
    STREAKIN….Kurt Busch has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races.
    This Week’s Elevator…UP: Operator of the Week is Michael Waltrip (+21), followed by Ken Schrader (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Bill Elliott (-34), followed by Greg Biffle (-27), Bobby Labonte (-24), Ryan Newman (-24), and Brendan Gaughan (-22).
    Elliott Sadler led today for the first time since he led once for one lap at Atlanta last October. Joe Nemechek led today for the first time since he led once for 19 laps at Martinsville last October. And, Bill Elliott led today for the first time since he led six times for 189 laps at Homestead last November. We’ve had 31 different drivers to lead a lap this season…. plowing our way to the number of 48 we had last year.
    We’ve got a new points leader after today…..Kurt Busch assumes the point. He’s got a 19 point advantage over teammate Matt Kenseth, and of course any other year we’d be able to talk about how tight the points are (first and fifth are separated by only 90 markers), but that means nothing now! Rusty Wallace (17th to 11th) made the best move forward today, while his teammate Ryan Newman (5th to 10th) fell five spots.(StockCarFans.Com Nextelcup Newsletter)(4-4-2004)