The Buzz: June 3, 2001

June 3, 2001
12:06 PM EDT (1606 GMT)

Team owner Richard Childress wasted little time making a decision after Bud Pole Qualifying for Sunday’s NASCAR Winston Cup MBNA Platinum 400 was rained out Friday at Dover Downs International Speedway.

On Sunday morning, Childress announced he would bring his No. 30 AOL Chevrolet driven by Jeff Green to Michigan International Speedway next weekend to attempt to qualify for the June 10 Kmart 400 on the two-mile oval.

“It’s a shame the America Online team wasn’t able to qualify Friday but there’s nothing you can do about the rain,” Childress said after the rule book procedure used to set the 43 car field eliminated his third Winston Cup entry.

“Jeff was 10th fastest in the morning practice and he didn’t even make a (practice) qualifying run on sticker tires. He was going to be at Michigan next week anyway for the IROC race so we decided to try again there.”

Green previously made his first of seven planned starts this season in the AOL car at California Speedway, a track that is very similar to Michigan, where he qualified 28th. While the team continues to mull its choice for a full-time driver for 2002, Green plans to compete in Cup races at Chicagoland Speedway, Indianapolis, Bristol, Richmond and Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

In the bushes

Jimmy Spencer was a gold mine in Saturday morning’s Winston Breakfast Club media briefing at Dover Downs International Speedway. Spencer, who interestingly enough won his second NASCAR Busch Series event of the season Saturday afternoon in the MBNA Platinum 200, was bemoaning the seven-year dry spell he’s mired in, in the Winston Cup Series.

“I’ve won in Busch, but that’s what it is, the bush league -- it’s not Winston Cup,” Spencer said, simply indicating how badly he wanted to win in "The Bigs." In the afternoon he made no bones about how much he enjoyed racing in the Busch Series, how much respect he had for the series and its competitors and how much he enjoyed being there with owner James Finch.

Spencer said he felt his Haas-Carter Motorsports team was on the verge of success, fueled by his relationship with teammate Todd Bodine.

“Todd and I are working good (together),” Spencer said. “Sharing info is important to both of us -- we just had two cars in the wind tunnel and they are within five or six pounds (of downforce) of each other.”

Jarrett succeeds, Newman fails

Jason Jarrett’s career rejuvenation program got a huge boost Saturday. The son of 1999 Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett bolted past Frank Kimmel -- who had won the four previous ARCA RE/MAX Series races and a Winston West Series race earlier the same afternoon -- with four laps left to win the BPU 200, the inaugural RE/MAX Series event at the new Kansas Speedway. Jarrett, an ARCA Rookie of the Year candidate who stepped back to the RE/MAX Series to rebuild his career after a couple shaky years in the Busch Series, scored his first win in the series and only his second top-five of the season. He is third in ARCA points.

For the second straight week, 2002 Winston Cup hopeful Ryan Newman won a pole but crashed early in the event. After winning the Bud Pole for the Coca-Cola 600 and crashing on the race’s 12th lap, Newman hit the wall at Kansas on lap 87 and was knocked out of the race.