May 3, 2003
- Nemechek wins at Richmond: #25-Joe Nemechek wins a slightly rain shortened Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond International Speedway, his first win in 45 races when he last won at Rockingham in November 2001. #18-Bobby Labonte was 2nd, his third 2nd place finish in a row. The race was rain shortened by 7 laps [393 run of 400 scheduled]. The win puts Nemechek in The Winston [23 drivers eligible + the Winston Open winner]. #31-Robby Gordon [4th] and Nemechek get their first top fives of 2003. Jason Keller finished 32nd in the #01 US Army Pontiac subbing for injured Jerry Nadeau. Ironically it was the first win for the #25 team since Nadeau won at Atlanta in 2000.
See my Pontiac Excitement 400 Info page for my race rundown, with cautions and why, lap leaders, dnf’s, and Notes.
Race Results at Jayski’s Pontiac Excitement Results page and at:
ThatsRacin.com or NASCAR.com or MotorsportsOne.(5-3-2003) - BAM Racing Friendly: BAM Racing will carry the colors of Friendly’s Ice Cream at Richmond. BAM is doing it for free. Friendly’s normally sponsors #37-Derrike Cope, but Cope failed to qualify Friday. So BAM owner Beth Ann Morgenthau decided to put Friendly’s on Ken Schrader’s #49 Dodge for the race. And she’s not charging Friendly’s a dime. Some race-to-race sponsorships can cost as much as $200,000. “We just like Derrike,” Morgenthau said. “He had a bad break, and we could help him out. So we did.”(NASCAR.com)(5-3-2003)
- Keller in the #01 for Nadeau: Jason Keller will drive for the injured Jerry Nadeau in Saturday’s Pontiac Excitement 400, a spokesperson for Keller said after Friday night’s Hardee’s 250 NASCAR Busch Series race. Keller practiced Nadeau’s #01 U.S. Army Pontiac car in Happy Hour on Friday afternoon. Keller, who has competed in 298 Busch Series races, will be making his Winston Cup debut.(NASCAR.com)
UPDATE: MB2 Motorsports announced that Busch Series driver Jason Keller will substitute for the injured Jerry Nadeau in tonight’s Pontiac Excitement 400. It will be Keller’s first Winston Cup start. He spent approximately 20 minutes in the U.S. Army backup car during Saturday’s final practice session. “While our thoughts are with Jerry during his recovery, we also want to express our appreciation to Jason for filling in on a short notice,” said Jay Frye, CEO/general manager of MB2/MBV Motorsports. “Jason has proved himself in the Busch Series and we know he can get the job done.” Keller, 33, is in his 10th season as a Busch Series driver and is currently sixth in the Busch point standings. Last year, he finished second in the Busch season point standings and was third in 2001. Keller, his wife, Deborah, and two children – Joe (6) and Jade (4) reside in Greenville, SC.(US ARMY Racing PR), see Nadeau story and updates below….(5-3-2003) - Ramblings – Richmond: #5-Terry Labonte”s last top-spot was at Texas Motor Speedway in March of 2000, and before that you’ve got to go back to Sears Point International Raceway (it was called that then) in May of 1996.
When Labonte leads ’em down Saturday Night for the Pontiac Excitement 400, he’ll be the 9th different drvier to start from the pole this season.
Front Row Joe Nemechek, it’s the first time he’s been on the front-row since he had the pole at Talladega in October of 2000.
#45-Kyle Petty (8th) has his best starting spot since he started 6th here in this event last year.
STREAKIN….#12-Ryan Newman has 9 Top-10 starts in a row.
#24-Jeff Gordon has 6 Top-10 starts in the last 7 races. Joev #25-Nemechek has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races. Jimmie
#48-Johnson has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races.
(StockCarFans.com Winston Cup Newsletter)(5-3-2003) - NASCAR’s talks on title sponsorship continue: Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications, said Friday there are “four or five” companies involved in discussions about eventually replacing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco as title sponsor of the sport’s top series. Hunter also said, however, that some of companies mentioned as possible candidates in published reports – Anheuser-Busch, AT&T and UPS and others – may not be among them. “McDonald’s? Yes, we’ve talked to them,” Hunter said. “I’ve seen names like Coca-Cola, VISA, Microsoft, Gillette and maybe one or two others pop up. If you say those kinds or companies are included among the ones we’re talking to, that’d be accurate.”(The Charlotte Observer)(5-3-2003)
- Yates in No Hurry: Robert Yates [#38 and #88 team owner] said Friday at Richmond that he prefers to keep Jarrett’s No. 88 team intact for the time being and let that group solve the team’s problems. Team engineer Garth Finley took over as interim crew chief after Robert Yates Racing general manager Doug Yates released Brad Parrott. Yates said he wants to give Finley and the rest of the crew “the room, the support, the time” to get Jarrett running well again. Yates said Doug Yates has talked to a few prospects, but “I don’t see anybody coming in the door tomorrow,” Robert Yates said. Yates said he hasn’t talked to Jimmy Makar, who has been in the rumor mill to move to Yates. Makar is the general manager of Joe Gibbs Racing after being moved form Bobby Labonte’s crew chief in the off-season.(NASCAR.com)(5-3-2003)
- New York NASCAR’s #1 Priority: Over the weekend, Brian France, NASCAR senior vice president and a member of the organization’s board of directors, told a group of newspaper sports editors gathered in New York that he would love to see races in the New York and Portland/Seattle areas. France called staging a Winston Cup race near New York City a “No. 1 priority.”(Kansas City Star)(5-3-2003)
- Atwood back with Evernham at Pocono UPDATE: Mountain Dew LiveWire, a new Dew that will be available from Memorial Day through Labor Day, is sponsoring the #91 Evernham Motorsports Dodge Intrepid for a one-race deal at the Pocono 500 on June 8, 2003, as part of its “summer-only” product launch. Casey Atwood has been selected by Evernham Motorsports to drive the #91 racecar for the June 8 event in Pennsylvania. In last year’s ARCA race at Pocono, Atwood took the checkered flag after starting from the pole position. Mountain Dew is currently an associate sponsor of Evernham Motorsports, driver Jeremy Mayfield and the #19 team known as the Dew Crew.(Evernham Motorsports PR)(5-1-2003)
UPDATE: Ray Evernham said he would like to run his #91 Dodge, a research and development team, in four or five Winston Cup races this season. The team’s first race is the June race at Pocono, when former Evernham Motorsports driver Casey Atwood will return behind the wheel. Atwood, who won the ARCA race at Pocono with the same R&D team at Evernham Motorsports, remains without a full-time ride this season. “He’s still under contract to me, but he is allowed to do other things,” Evernham said. “I told him when stuff came up, when opportunities came up, we would help him. We got an opportunity to run this race at Pocono, which is one of Casey’s good tracks, and hopefully we can turn it into something more for him or us or both.” Evernham said he hoped Atwood, who drove the #7 Dodge for Ultra/Evernham Motorsports most of last season, would have found a new ride by now. Evernham would like to run the #91 at the July race at Daytona, as well as the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Former Busch series driver Hank Parker Jr. is also slated run at least one race in the #91 this season.(ThatsRacin.com)(5-3-2003)
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