 |
Tony Stewart is the defending champion of Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. Credit: Autostock
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
March 8, 2003
10:06 AM EST (1506 GMT)
HAMPTON, Ga. -- NASCAR Winston Cup racing is all about statistics, and numerology.
In Atlanta Speedway's 87-race history, stretching back to the superspeedway boom year of 1960, its springtime event has created a sizeable log of statistical nuggets interspersed with facts and notes about the sport's best drivers.
0 -- The number of drivers that have scored top-10 finishes in all three races held so far this season.
1 -- Number of top-10 starts this season for Jeff Gordon. Gordon has scored 12 top-10 finishes, including three victories, in his 21 races at Atlanta.
1.54 -- The length in miles of a lap at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The track has 24-degree banking in its corners and five-degree banking on its straightaways. The frontstretch is 2,332 feet long and the backstretch is 1,800 feet long.
2 -- The number of Bud Pole Awards by driver Dale Jarrett in the 11 races since Atlanta Motor Speedway was reconfigured in 1997. Jarrett is the only driver in that period with more than one pole at AMS.
 | ALSO | | | | |
|
|
3 -- The number of points between Matt Kenseth -- the most recent Winston Cup winner -- and point leader Michael Waltrip. Kenseth scored his seventh career victory last weekend at Las Vegas. Kenseth is the only driver to lead at least one lap in the first three races in 2003.
4 -- The number of career Winston Cup starts for Kurt Busch at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He has top-15 finishes in three of them, including his victory here last fall.
5 -- The number of times drivers have swept both events in a season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, since the track opened in 1960, including Marvin Panch (1965), Bobby Allison (1972), David Pearson (1973) and Bill Elliott (1985 and 1992).
6 -- The number of different winners in the past six Winston Cup races held at Atlanta Motor Speedway, including Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Kevin Harvick, Jerry Nadeau and the late Dale Earnhardt. Labonte is the first repeat winner, capturing the 1999 NAPA 500.
7 -- The number of back-to-back victors at Atlanta Motor Speedway since 1980, including Cale Yarborough (fall 1980 and spring 1981), Dale Earnhardt (fall 1995 and spring 1996 and fall 1989 and spring 1990), Bill Elliott (Spring and fall 1992 and spring and fall 1985), Bobby Labonte (fall 1997 and spring 1998) and Jeff Gordon (fall 1998 and spring 1999).
8 -- Number of top-10 finishes by Jeff Burton in 17 career Atlanta Motor Speedway Winston Cup starts.
8.74 -- The average starting position by Mark Martin in 34 career races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the best among drivers with 10 or more AMS starts.
9 -- The number of career Winston Cup victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway by the late Dale Earnhardt. Cale Yarborough is second in career victories at AMS with seven and Richard Petty is third with six.
10 -- Ryan Newman's finishing position in his two Atlanta Motor Speedway Winston Cup starts.
12 -- The number of Winston Cup victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway by the Wood Brothers. Junior Johnson and Richard Childress are tied for second in all-time owner victories at AMS, with nine each. The Wood Brothers last won here in spring 1993 with Morgan Shepherd as their driver.
13 -- The number of races at Atlanta Motor Speedway since Ricky Rudd last led a lap, since this event in 1996. Rudd has made 50 starts at AMS and has led 11 races. Rudd won his only AMS race in 1987.
13.45 -- The average finishing position by Bobby Labonte in 20 career races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the best among active drivers with 10 or more starts here.
14 -- The number of victories in the last 16 Atlanta Motor Speedway races by Joe Gibbs Racing (six), Hendrick Motorsports (four) and Richard Childress Racing (four).
15 -- The number of career victories for driver Tony Stewart, the winner of the 2002 spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
17 -- Dave Blaney's best finish in seven career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
18 -- The number of Atlanta Motor Speedway races that Bill Elliott has led. It has been 11 years since Elliott last won at AMS, in fall 1992. While he has led 18 of the 52 races he's competed in at AMS, it's been five races since Elliott last led, in the spring 2000 event.
19 -- The number of years in Michael Waltrip's Winston Cup career. He is leading the point standings for the first time other than after one of his two Daytona 500 victories.
22 -- The best finish by drivers Jeff Green, Ken Schrader, Jerry Nadeau and Tony Raines in all three races in 2003.
24 -- The number of top-10 finishes at Atlanta Motor Speedway for Terry Labonte, who leads all active drivers in that category.
25 -- The position in the 2002 Winston Cup owners' standings that is currently the cutoff for being charged with a provisional starting position in 2003. The "Provisional Land update" says that after three races in the 2003 Winston Cup season, the No. 4 Morgan-McClure Motorsports team has been charged for using two provisionals, at Daytona and Las Vegas. Derrike Cope is the only other team owner that has used two provisionals, with one charged and one uncharged.
Since there were only 43 entries at the season's second race, Rockingham, cars 48, 99, 30, 54, 14, 74 and 37 were not charged for the provisionals they used at that event. Each team starts the season with four provisionals and gains one provisional spot each time it attempts to qualify for eight races.
26 -- The number of "Modern Era" victories by Chevrolets at Atlanta Motor Speedway, since 1972. Chevrolet leads Ford in all-time Winston Cup victories at Atlanta, 28-26.
36 -- The number of races in which Jimmie Johnson has remained in the top 10 in the Winston Cup standings. Johnson moved into the top 10 after the fourth race of his rookie 2002 season, at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
37 -- The number of races in which veteran Mark Martin has remained in the top 10 in the standings. It is the longest such streak among active drivers.
38 -- The number of consecutive Winston Cup races in which Kyle Petty has been running at the finish.
39 -- The deepest in the field that a race winner has started at Atlanta Motor Speedway, by Bobby Labonte in the 2000 NAPA 500.
45 -- The number of entries at Atlanta this weekend, meaning the drivers that must qualify on speed include Jamie McMurray and Bobby Hamilton Jr., since they are the lowest on the 2002 owner point chart. Beginning at Darlington, the series switches to 2003 owner points to determine provisionals.
Realistically, the most at-risk "bubble cars" include Hamilton, who is making his Winston Cup debut with Team Rensi Motorsports, his Busch team that made no starts in Cup last season; and Jeff Fultz, who will attempt his first Winston Cup start. Fultz has only two cars on the entry list -- McMurray's and Hamilton Jr.'s -- lower in the points than he is, so they both must qualify worse than 36th for Fultz to definitely get in.
50 -- The number of career starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway that Terry Labonte will have if he qualifies for the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.
52 -- The number of Winston Cup starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway by Bill Elliott, the most among active drivers.
65 -- The number of races since Rusty Wallace last won.
68 -- The number of Atlanta Motor Speedway Winston Cup races won by drivers starting from inside the top 10 (78 percent). Thirteen of 87 AMS Winston Cup events have been won from the pole (15 percent).
148.443 -- The spring race record average speed at Atlanta Motor Speedway, set by Tony Stewart in 2002, in three hours, 22 minutes and 18 seconds. Bobby Labonte set the track's 1.54-mile configuration race record of 159.904 mph in November 1997 -- the first race held on the current configuration.
194.957 -- The AMS spring race's Bud Pole Qualifying record, set by Bobby Labonte in 1999, achieved in 28.437 seconds. Bill Elliott won the event pole a year ago at 191.542 mph, 28.944 seconds.
197.478 -- The Atlanta Motor Speedway Winston Cup Bud Pole Qualifying record, set in 1997 by Geoffrey Bodine. That average mph was achieved in 28.074 seconds in the first event on the track's current configuration.
325 -- The number of laps needed to cover 500.5 miles at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
40,000 -- The dollar value of the NASCAR Winston Cup Leader bonus at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is available to the driver that wins the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 if he is also the Winston Cup point leader after the race.
4,075,954 -- The posted awards -- in dollars -- for the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.
|
|
All External sites will open in a new browser window. NASCAR.COM does not endorse external sites.
© 2008 NASCAR | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NASCAR.COM is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
