after two races, #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 40th in Nextel Cup Drivers Points, the highest finishing drivers who stood at 40th after 2 races in the past 15 seasons? 2001: Kevin Harvick finished 9th [was 8th after 26 races, The Chase starts race #27], Harvick stepped into the #3 car at Rockingham, renumbered to #29 after the death of Dale Earnhardt, so after two races he had only run one race. 1996: Geoff Bodine 17th; 2006 [was 18th after 26 races]: Scott Riggs 20th [failed to make the Daytona 500, was 18th after 26 races]; 1998: Johnny Benson 20th [was 19th after 26 races].(from ESPN’s NASCAR Now with some facts added by yours truely) ALSO: in 1996 Jeff Gordon was out of the top-40 after 2 races and came back to finish 2nd to Terry Labonte and was leading after 26 races [the Series only ran 31 races in 1996](3-7-2007)
