April 7, 2000
- Sponsor Exposure: Valvoline topped NASCAR in network TV exposure for the seventh straight year in 1999, with Mark Martin’s #6 Ford accumulating nearly $49 million in value. According to research by The Sponsors Report, which documents advertising exposure on national sports telecasts, total value for all Winston Cup sponsors topped $1.4 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 1998(That’s Racin’/AP)(4-7-2000)
- Some Qualifying Notes: #42-Kenny Irwin crashed in practice and had to go to a backup car. #32-Scott Pruett has engine problems in practice and changed an engine before qualifying. Geoffrey Bodine is at Martinsville this week, he got the cast off his wrist and plans to test at Richmond Apr 24-25th and race at California on Apr 30th(4-7-2000)
- Bliss full-time: Dr Jerry Punch mentioned during ESPN2’s qualifying coverage that crew chief Barry Dodson of the #27 Viagra Pontiac says that current driver of the car, Mike Bliss, will be in the car for the remainder of the season(4-7-2000)
- Sadler to run Martinsville: Elliott Sadler plans to go the full 500 laps this Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in the #21 CITGO Ford, a week after suffering cuts on his left shoulder after a crash at Texas. No plans to have a relief driver(Total Sports)(4-7-2000)
- Rookie Win UPDATE: Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in only his 12th Winston Cup start. Ron Bouchard won a Cup race in his 11th start in 1981 at Talladega, Mark Donohue won in his 5th Winston Cup start in 1973 at Riverside, the earliest in the ‘modern era’ of Winston Cup, he would only make one more Cup start. Others: Morgan Shepherd won in his 15th start (Martinsville) in 1981, but wasn’t named Rookie of the Year. Several other drivers won in their first year, but weren’t considered ROTY candidates: Dan Gurney at Riverside in 1963 in his third race and Mario Andretti at Daytona Beach in 1967 in his fifth start(Daily Press)(4-4-2000)
UPDATE: Looks like the ‘record’ for an earliest win is a rookie who is running a full season, not a one time or part time driver. Seems Bouchard is credited with holding the record. See a nice chart on this at That’s Racin’: Rookies running to Victory Lane(4-7-2000) - Talladega Testing on Thursday. #27-Mike Bliss, #3-Dale Earnhardt, #18-Bobby Labonte, #1-Steve Park and #31-Mike Skinner spent Thursday preparing for the April 16 DieHard 500. Also Loy Allen tested the Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevy(Talladega Site)(4-7-2000)
- Lewis Scheme: Ashton Lewis Jr. and the #46 Lewis Motorsports team will run a special paint scheme at the BellSouth Mobility 320 at Nashville. The team will be honoring late country comedian Jerry Clower with a special paint scheme. The car will carry images of opossums, raccoons, coon dogs and frogs, which were the center of many of Clower’s light-hearted stories of country living. See the scheme on the BGN Paint Schemes page(Keystone Marketing)(4-7-2000), Lewis failed to qualify for the race(4-8-2000)
- Speed Magazine: Son starts with a Sterling reputation by Andrew Booth(4-7-2000)
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