Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Cup makes blunder front-loading open dates

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 17:17:16 -0500

Nextel Cup makes blunder front-loading open dates

Mark Armijo
On motorsports
Feb. 27, 2004 12:00 AM

Only two weeks into the 36-race NASCAR Nextel
Cup schedule, and someone at series
headquarters already has scheduled an off
weekend. Doesn't anyone in Daytona Beach, Fla., have a calendar?

With only four idle weekends during a nearly nine-month season, you'd
think NASCAR would spread them as evenly as possible to spare teams such

a backbreaking schedule. But with all four open dates occurring during
the season's first half, teams are forced to endure the final four
months (July 25-Nov. 21) without a week off.

Drivers don't suffer nearly as much as team personnel, which puts in
dawn-to-dusk hours every day at the shops.
Greg Zipadelli, Tony Stewart's crew chief, isn't about to knock an off
weekend, no matter when it comes.
"It's hard to space out those off weekends the way we'd like them to
be," Zipadelli recently told a team spokesman. "If it were me, I'd just
look at the schedule and space them out as evenly as I could. But I
don't have to deal with racetracks and weather. So we'll take this early

gift, enjoy it, and in another couple of weeks we'll have another one."

The next stop on NASCAR's extended schedule is March 7 at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway, where oddsmakers have made Nevada's Kurt Busch an 8-1
co-favorite with Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is next at 9-1, followed by Jeff Gordon and Matt
Kenseth at 10-1.

At several Station Casinos sports books in Las Vegas, bettors also can
place over-under wagers on total cautions (five); winning car number
(0-23 or 24-99); and winning manufacturer (Ford/Dodge vs. Chevrolet).

The Motorsports Central Southwest bureau staff likes Sterling Marlin at
20-1 and Jeff Burton at 25-1. . . .
NASCAR denies it recruited teams to fill out last week's 43-car starting

field at Rockingham, N.C. But NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter also told

reporters the series shouldn't have allowed Joe Ruttman to start the
race.

Ruttman was on the track for one lap before receiving a black flag for
not having a pit crew on pit road.
"The Joe Ruttman thing was sort of a sham," Hunter said. "We always try
to do the right thing, and since we had let it go that far, we let him
start the race. However, that will not happen again."

Ruttman and team owner James Finch pocketed $54,196 for finishing last.
The economy and the exorbitant amount it takes to go racing (some
sponsorships are in the $15 million range) has led to fewer sponsors and

teams this season. But if the Las Vegas entry list does come up short,
maybe Joe Gibbs Racing will consider inserting JJ Yeley into the mix.
Yeley, a Phoenix native, will be in Las Vegas making his Busch Series
debut.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/0227autocol0227.html

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