Nascar Pages

Next Race Schedule

Subway 400
North Carolina Speedway
Feb. 24, 2002


Link to Track

Preview of Next Race

Pos/Driver/Points

Latest News and Commentary

Race Report from Rockinghom
by Pete McCole
February 24, 2002

A little luck, a good engine and great pit stops helped Matt Kenseth score a victory in Sunday's Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway.

Several late caution flags helped to set up a dramatic 24 lap sprint to the finish, but it was Kenseth who was leading as the race finished under caution following the 10th yellow flag of the day.

Kenseth, Ricky Craven and Sterling Marlin had been battling it out for the lead for 107 laps when the 9th caution of the day waved for debris on lap 366. Kenseth, Marlin and the rest of the field made pit stops, while pole sitter Ricky Craven stayed out.

Kenseth's team got off a great pit stop, as they had all day, getting Kenseth out first, followed by Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin and Bobby Labonte.

On the restart on lap 369, Craven began to pull away, and it appeared his gamble might pay off, but his worn tires would prove to be not enough to keep him in the front. Behind him, Wallace, Kenseth Marlin and Labonte fought for second place, but Marlin and Labonte were able to pull away as Wallace and Kenseth traded paint on the backstretch. Marlin, who restarted 4th, took the lead from Craven on lap 376, and Labonte slid by as well to take second. Kenseth, shuffled to 4th place while fighting Wallace for 2nd, started to make his way to the front. He got around Wallace, and started closing in on Marlin and Labonte.

On lap 384, 9 laps to go, Robby Gordon spun on the backstretch. Marlin and Labonte, perhaps expecting a caution flag or debris on the track, appeared to slow down. Kenseth took advantage and passed Labonte, and then passed Marlin with 7 laps to go. One lap later, the yellow flag came out for an oil slick in Turn Four.

Kenseth was first back to the caution flag, and won his second career Winston Cup race as the race finished under caution.

"I thought when the 32 (Craven) was in front of us I thought I was in the worst position I could be in." Kenseth said, "The guys on the inside were going to have new tires and the 32 was on old tires and I didn't know which was to go. I knew whichever way I went, Rusty (Wallace) was going to go the other way. We were slamming and banging out there and we just got really lucky. I don't know what happened to the 40 (Marlin) and the 18 (Labonte). I don't know if they thought the caution would come out or what, but they just slowed down and I had a run off the corner."

"I just held it to the floor and made it back to the line. It was just a great finish for the DeWalt team."

Sterling Marlin, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Ricky Craven rounded out the top five.

It was Kenseth's first win since the Coca Cola 600 in May of 2000, a winless streak of 60 races that he was happy to see finally come to an end.

"It felt like 160 races ago. It felt like forever." Kenseth said, "I'll wonder tomorrow if there ever will be a next one because you never know."

Kenseth won his first career Busch Series race at this same track in 1998, his previous best career Winston Cup finish was 10th in last November's race here.

Ricky Craven lead most of the day, showing the way for the first 104 laps after starting on the pole. He gave up the lead during the first round of pit stops, later regaining the lead on lap 145. The race for the lead then came down to Craven, Kenseth, Marlin, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Green, who swapped the lead several times.

Rudd dropped out of contention after his car stalled on pit road following a pit stop, putting him one lap down.

Kenseth's team had fantastic pit stops throughout the race, giving him great track position all day. Kenseth started 25th, the 3rd farthest starting position to win a Winston Cup race at North Carolina Speedway.

Sterling Marlin, who lead five times today for 35 laps, finished second.

"We were great on long runs today, and I thought we had 'em where we needed 'em. We came up a little short." Marlin said. "I can't understand the red flag situation. It caught us last week. I don't know what happened to it today.

"We fought the car a little bit today. We were a little too tight early. We got it freed up and it was back and forth. I want to congratulate Matt Kenseth on a great race. We had a good car, too, but we just got in some oil down there in turns three and four and I almost wrecked with four or five to go. Matt got by us, but we had a good car on long runs and that's what we were counting on."

Bobby Labonte, who struggled early in the race, came home third.

"We didn't have any forward bite there at the beginning of the race." Labonte said, "We just struggled, struggled, struggled and try to work on the race car some. We got a lap down, but then DJ (Dale Jarrett) blew a motor right in front of us and we were able to get
our lap back. From that point on it was a whole lot better. We were sitting there a lap down before halfway, but then the guys in the pits, they adjusted on the race car some."

"We changed some air pressure, wedge and everything, track bar adjustments - everything we could really do in a short stop - and then got some track position out of it
and got better and better as the day went on."

Labonte's teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 4th after starting 19th

"We got a top five today - that's a good run." Stewart said, "We got pretty tight in the
center of the corner that last three or four runs, but other than that it was a pretty good day."

"This was about where we were last fall. We had a good solid run today. Anytime you
can get a solid run like we had today, you'll take it any day of the week."

Pole sitter Ricky Craven, who dominated most of the early part of the race, came home 5th.

"We were strong. I'm really proud of the Tide team." Craven said, "It just got away from us in the middle part of the race. The cautions kept coming as we were gaining momentum and we never got the track position back."

Craven was the only one in the top ten that did not pit during the final round of pit stops, but his tires gave out in the final laps.

"It was a great gamble. I was 100% with them. The car would really run. I liked the air on the front of the car. In traffic we used it up a little. Had we been able to get back to the front, I believe we could have matched the 17 door-to-door"

Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Hamilton and Kenny Wallace made up the rest of the top ten.

2001 champion Jeff Gordon struggled all weekend. He started 33rd and fought an ill handling race car all day, but rallied back to finish 7th.

"We struggled with the handling but the further we got to the front, the better it got." Gordon said, "So, I'm happy with that - considering what happened on pit road and where we started. It was a hard-fought day for us and I'm pretty proud of these guys
on the Dupont Chevrolet."

"I knew we had a car that was capable of being in the top 10. I know we have a team capable of it. You just never know with the circumstances."

Last week's Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton stayed in the top 20 most of the day, finishing 13th, despite several scrapes against the wall.

"I'm not really sure what happened." Burton said, "The first time I went into turn one
and hit the wall a little bit. I don't know if that had anything to do with the next two or three times or not. I would go into the corner and straight into the wall, and one time off the corner. Right there at the end, the guys did a good job of adjustment. Had it gone green, I think we could have still got a top 10. It was just one of those days."

The biggest story of the day were concerns about engine failures, as this weekend's race was the first to use NASCAR's new one-engine rule, where the teams must practice, qualify, and race using the same engine. Any team changing engines must start in the rear of the field.

Not wanting to jeopardize their starting spots, most teams took only a handful of laps during the final practice session.

Dale Jarrett, one of the favorites to win today's race, was one of the first to drop out with engine problems while leading the race on lap 145.

"It didn't give any warning. The temperatures were all okay." Jarrett said, "We weren't turning a lot of RPM's, something just let go."

Jarrett doesn't believe the one-engine rule played a part in his disappointing 42nd place finish.

"If it happened later, you might look at parts like that, but not this early in the race. It's just unfortunate. As hard as we try to insure that pieces and parts aren't going to break, sometimes they do and today they did."

Besides Jarrett, engine problems meant a short day for Stacy Compton and Michael Waltrip.

The race was slowed for caution flags ten times, the only major incident of the day occurred on lap 157, when Jeff Gordon got into the back of Casey Atwood off turn two, sending Atwood spinning down the backstretch. The crash collected seven cars, including Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader, Buckshot Jones, Jeremy Mayfield, Michael Waltrip and Jeff Burton. All the drivers emerged unhurt.

The finish did not come without controversy. When the final caution flag flew in lap 389 for debris on the front stretch, many expected NASCAR to throw the red flag to allow the race to finish under green. However, there were not enough laps left to red flag the race, and the race ended under caution.

NASCAR President Mike Helton explained why NASCAR did not throw the red flag.

"Ever since we started using red flags, we said that if there's enough time when the caution comes out, we'll red flag the race so we can clean up the track and finish under green." Helton said, "Today, the caution came out at the completion of lap 389."

"So the leader was picked up by the pace car on lap 390. Had we stopped on lap 390, cleaned up the track and rolled off, we would have opened up pit road on lap 391. That would have given them the one-to-go (signal) on lap 393, so there wasn't enough time to red flag it and finish under green. So we ended up finishing it the way we did."

"A lot of the series have started going to the 'green-white-checkered' [finish]. I don't say that I approve of that." Bobby Labonte said, "I don't really like that a lot of times. For me, I'm probably not that good on three laps, so I don't approve of it.

Race winner Matt Kenseth defended NASCAR's call regarding the red flag.

"I've got great confidence in spite of some of my criticisms of NASCAR policies and practices over the years." Kenseth said, "They get it right much more than they get it wrong and I was waiting to see which way it would go."

"Whichever call they made, I was sure it would be consistent and would be okay."

For Sterling Marlin, it was the second time in a week that a red flag had cost him a chance at a victory.

Marlin was leading last Sunday's Daytona 500 following a spin with Jeff Gordon. While the race was red flagged with the field on the backstretch, Marlin got out of his car to fix his damaged right front fender.

Under NASCAR rules, teams cannot work on their cars during a red flag, and Marlin was forced to restart the race at the rear of the field.

"Whoever's running the show up there sometimes decides to do it and sometimes they don't. It depends on who's leading the race." Marlin said. "I didn't realize there was only four laps to go. Glover immediately comes on the radio and asks me where the red flag's at? They didn't throw it. There was some oil in three and four, and I guess it would have taken awhile to get it cleaned up."

"If it had ended like this last week, we would have won the race, but that's
racin'."

Although Marlin didn't win the race, he didn't come away empty handed. Today's second place finish gave Marlin the points lead over Ward Burton, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton.
"If it had ended like this last week, we would have won the race, but that's racin'."

Feedback can be sent to nascar@autoracing1.com

Go to our forums to discuss this article