All News Boris Said Carl Edwards Elliott Sadler Greg Biffle Jamie McMurray Jimmie Johnson Kevin Harvick Kurt Busch Mark Martin Raybestos Rookie Robby Gordon Ron Fellows Rusty Wallace Sterling Marlin Tony Stewart

Off Week Notes:

March 4, 2005 at 12:00 AM

Two weeks down, 34 to go. With those numbers looming, an off-week for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is, in reality, anything but that. The next event – the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 on March 13 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – is fast approaching. For some competitors, there’s only one way to prepare: Keep racing.
That inclination pairs perfectly this week with a first-ever NASCAR Busch Series event in Mexico City. Seven NASCAR NEXTEL Cup drivers are making a South of the Border sojourn to compete in a historic event – Sunday’s Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 presented by Banamex at the legendary Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course. It will mark the first NASCAR Busch Series points event held outside the United States, and the first road-course event for the NASCAR Busch Series since a 2001 event at Watkins Glen. (FOX will televise the Telcel Motorola Mexico 200 presented by Banamex live on Sunday beginning at 3:00pm/et. Among those tackling the 80-lap, 201-mile challenge on the Autodromo’s 2.5-mile course will be Robby Gordon (#55 Fruit of the Loom Chevrolet), Rusty Wallace (#64 Bell Helicopter Dodge), Jamie McMurray (#42 Texaco-Havoline Dodge), Kevin Harvick (#21 Pelon Pelo Rico Chevrolet), Carl Edwards (#60 Charter Communications Ford), Boris Said (#1 Yellow Dodge) and Elliott Sadler (#90 Citifinancial Ford). Another participant with NASCAR NEXTEL Cup experience is Ron Fellows, a road-racing specialist who makes frequent appearances in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup events at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen. He’ll drive the #87 Chevrolet.
McMurray will be joined by most of his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup team, including crew chief Donnie Wingo. His team owners, Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, also plan to be there.
Always room for surprises Only two races have been checked off the 2005 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule, but fast starters already have emerged, among them Carl Edwards (#99 Office Depot Ford), who sits a surprising fourth in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings heading into the off week thanks to a 12th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 and last Sunday’s fifth-place finish at California Speedway.
According to Roush Racing owner Jack Roush, Edwards is following in his teammates’ footsteps. But current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Kurt Busch (#97 Irwin Industrial Tools/Sharpie Ford) and last Sunday’s Auto Club 500 winner, Greg Biffle, also excelled in youthful sink-or-swim situations. Edwards, who also ran fulltime in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2003 and 2004 (he was the Raybestos Rookie of the Year in 2003), was promoted to the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series last season, running the final 13 events in the #99.
Early contenders handicap themselves, others Only two races have been completed, but the points battle already is shaping up. The target is race #26, the cutoff point for the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. At the end of that Sept. 10 event at Richmond International Raceway, the NASCAR Top 10 and any drivers within 400 points of the leader will compete for the championship over the season’s final 10 races. So there’s much ground to make up – or lose – even in the spring. Certainly, people expected to be in the NASCAR Top 10 are there, heading into the off week; current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Kurt Busch leads the standings followed by Jimmie Johnson (#48 Lowe’s Chevrolet), the series runner-up for the last two seasons. One of Busch’s Roush Racing teammates, Mark Martin (#6 Viagra Ford), who finished fourth last season and is competing in his final fulltime season, sits third.
Two other drivers who made last year’s inaugural Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart (#20 Home Depot Chevrolet), are sixth and seventh, respectively. Gordon, who won the season-opening Daytona 500, is 10th after engine failure relegated him to a 30th-place finish at California. Then there are the surprises: Rusty Wallace (#2 Miller Lite Dodge), who’s retiring following this season, is eighth in the standings following back-to-back 10th-place finishes in the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500. Sterling Marlin (#40 Coors Light Dodge) is ninth after an eighth-place in the Daytona 500 and a 15th-place finish in the Auto Club 500. Greg Biffle, who’s fifth in the standings after last Sunday’s win at California, also won last year’s season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Neither Wallace, Marlin nor Biffle made last year’s Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup.
TV Timeout The preliminary results reveal that more households tuned in to the 2005 Auto Club 500 than any other non-Daytona 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event in history, which also made it the highest-rated, most watched event at California Speedway. The Auto Club 500, which followed the Daytona 500 for the first time, enjoyed a 20% increase in households and an 18% increase in viewers over the second event of the 2004 season at North Carolina Speedway.
Chevrolet, Ford tied for lead in Manufacturers standings Greg Biffle’s Auto Club 500 win gave Ford its first victory of 2005 and tied Chevrolet for the early lead in the 2005 Manufacturers Championship. Both Ford and Chevrolet have 15 points and one win. Dodge has eight points.(NASCAR PR)(3-4-2005)