Last Lap: Surprises from the first half

So significant is the element of surprise this Winston Cup season one wonders if Mike Helton hasn't appointed David Copperfield and Penn & Teller to NASCAR's board of directors.

From Dale Jarrett's futility to Matt Kenseth's consistency to series-wide parity, no one knows quite what to expect once the rubber hits the road come Sunday afternoon.

We've seen 13 different winners in the season's first 16 races. We've seen hirings, firings and unabashed verbal lashings.

At times, inconsistent rules enforcement has baffled competitors and fans.

We've seen Ryan Newman walk away unscathed from visually horrific accidents on multiple occasions, seen bad luck wreak havoc on Tony Stewart's bid to repeat as champion and seen NASCAR punt tradition out West in the name of something called premier market penetration.

When the sanctioning body impounded Stewart's entire car at Texas, I thought I'd seen it all. Then they moved the Southern 500 date to California.

Then Nextel showed up. Sure, we knew RJR was leaving ASAP, surely to be replaced by VISA or Coke or Budweiser as title sponsor in NASCAR's premier league.

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But Nextel? Surprise, surprise, race fans, and welcome to a crash course in new-school NASCAR.

The telecommunications giant will change the landscape we currently race on in ways we can't currently fathom, earning them the crown for biggest off-track surprise of the campaign to date.

But what about during competition? What was the biggest on-track surprise of the first half of the 2003 season?

SeanyO: Dale Jarrett's struggles and his DNFs this year are the biggest surprises this season.

He is 29th in points, behind the likes of Kenny Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield. Who can't say this is the biggest surprise this season???

I can't. Jarrett's decline utterly baffles me, and ranks atop my list of on-track surprises for the season's first half.

Twenty-ninth in points? The last time Jarrett was this low in the championship standings, he had a mustache and a mullet and the HANS device was a weight-lifting contraption in Sweden.

	Jimmy Elledge (right) went to work with Casey Mears at Chip Ganassi Racing. Credit: Autostock

After an attempt to integrate Jimmy Elledge into the organization failed miserably in 2002, Jarrett entered this season with what seemed sibling stability in crew chief Brad Parrott and team manager Todd Parrott.

Not so. Brad was fired after just two months and Todd has since left the team as well, leading team owner Robert Yates to place engineer Garth Finley at the helm.

He's now gone, too.

Throughout the ordeal, the No. 38 outfit was quietly kicking spoiler and taking names, thanks in part to uncanny chemistry between driver Elliott Sadler, crew chief Raymond Fox and car chief Shawn Parker.

Saying they clicked is like saying The Usual Suspects is a good movie. It just doesn't do it justice.

The setup Brad Parrott used to win Rockingham? It came courtesy of the three-headed monster over at the 38.

Ding, ding, ding! Yates moved Parker, a tireless worker and, according to Sadler an absolute genius, over to Jarrett's team, upsetting the successful dynamic built at Team 38.

Now, both teams are struggling just to run mid-pack.

RYR has all the talent and resources money can buy, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel -- It's the glare from the midnight oil they're forced to burn just to catch up.

jic8: The biggest surprise so far is that Matt Kenseth has only finished out of the top ten three times this year and that his worst finish is 22nd and we're almost halfway through the season.

In this day and time, if that is the worst he does, no one is going to even come close to catching him and he definitely deserves the championship.

But you have to think he will get bit by the bad luck bug sooner or later. Junior, Gordon, and Busch have all had their fair share, and if any of them hope to catch Kenseth, they better hope he gets his share too.

	Matt Kenseth Credit: Autostock

Though I agree that Kenseth's consistency is totally absurd -- in a good way, like Angelina Jolie's lips or losing weight on the Atkins Diet -- and that the Junior and Jeff show will have a heck-of-a time catching him, I can't say I'm flabbergasted.

What does trip my trigger is the fact that he's silently built the largest points discrepancy between first and second at this point in the season since 1987, when Dale Earnhardt held a whopping 409-point advantage over his good buddy Neil Bonnett.

1987. I'd just finished fifth grade. Ice cream and Little League baseball and Matchbox cars and long sunny days eating Chick-O Sticks at the pool. Sorry. Brief tangent.

beaverly: Actually, when NASCAR's president Mike Helton, admitted that they made a mistake on the call when Jeff Gordon passed Kenseth on a caution, trying to keep Busch and J. Burton, Kenseth's teammates a lap down.

The thing that surprise me was that there was no reason to admit wrong. Once the decision was made there was no way to correct it mistake, so have bother!

Actually the two drivers that benefited from the call was Busch and Burton. Allowed them to finish in a higher position than they would have hence receiving more points.

Intriguing response from Cleaver, here, and one I agree with.

I remember thinking at the time that Helton's admittance of fault was unprecedented. I'd never known NASCAR to so openly admit wrong like that, either.

	Michael Waltrip: Fifth in points?! Credit: Autostock

ryanzgurl: The biggest on-track surprise is the number of drivers that have been let go. I have been watching NASCAR now for five years (I know, I am a novice!) and I don't think I have seen such a flutter of personnel.

Funny thing is, I don't think it is anywhere near over. Not only are the drivers who have been switched not permanent in their new rides, but there are quite a few others who could lose theirs before too long.

The problem too, is that with the talent pool sitting in the Busch Series, I am afraid that these Cup drivers may not be able to rebound if they are let go.

Jeff Green and Steve Park getting their respective releases from Childress and DEI? Not surprising. Mike Skinner knew his pink slip was coming from McClure.

John Andretti?

He got shafted. His release may have been acceptable, were it not in favor of Christian Fittipaldi. There's your top candidate for surprise of the year.

TSfan17: The biggest surprise of the season has to be a tie:

	Texas Terry is back. Credit: Autostock

Waltrip's consistency is quite surprising. For the first time in his career, he looks as if he can win somewhere besides Daytona. He's never recorded more than five top-fives in a single season, and already has four in 2003.

For the first time in his career will be a staple of the top-10 all year.

As we said, Jarrett's struggling. But he's not done. Nor is Wallace. He'll get a win before the year is out. Despite the streak, he's been up front a ton. Don't forget, he was the leader with 12 laps to go in the Brickyard 400 last year.

Stay patient, Rusty fans. He'll get one.

buckshot88: I think there have been two major surprises and they both have to so with maturity.

The first is Dale Jr.'s consistency. I'm not a Junior fan, but I am happy to see him driving up to his potential and shutting up the people who say that he is only in Winston Cup because of his name.

The second is Kevin Harvick's self-restraint after the Sonoma race. I was glad to see him being somewhat reserved with his thoughts and then releasing a levelheaded, educated comment later.

I can't wait to see his true rebuttal on the racetrack.

	Surprisingly consistent

Big 10-4 on both counts, Roy. Two weeks into the season, Junior was 38th in points. Six weeks later, he was second.

He's now third, having fallen two points behind Gordon at Sears Point. He trails Kenseth by 176, but he's showing the world there's substance behind the hype.

And Kevin? He's learning the game: Let the champ speak, nod your head and wait until you see what really happened to comment.

MikeC: That they haven't found that traction control. Guess they got tired of looking.

Hysterical.

dupont242003: I would have to say the biggest surprise for me is the amount of bad calls and missed calls that NASCAR officials have made this year.

Yeah, NASCAR admitted the mistake in one call they made, but does that make it right. No, it doesn't. There were a lot of bad calls they should have admitted to, but it wouldn't have corrected them or made things better.

I would hope that the rest of the season will have better judgment calls and not so many screw-ups.

I'll drink to that. Good or bad, just stay consistent.

	One amazin' finish

UncleTom315: Watching Ricky Craven edge out Kurt Busch by less than a quarter of a second. Either that, or Joe Nemechek winning a race.

I was also surprised that Dale Jr. ran his way back from almost a lap down at 'Dega to catch up with the draft. More surprising (I guess) was seeing him win the race from that standpoint.

Beecher-Helton is back, this time with a common response. Several folks shared the sentiment that the Craven/Busch Darlington thriller ranked atop the list of the season's surprises to date. I can certainly see why.

With so much straight-line racing these days and many guys concerned as much about preserving equipment as matting it for a win, I never thought I'd see a finish like that. And I'm quite certain I'll not see another like that in my lifetime.

gypsy: I think for me it was the number of different drivers who won.

Several folks shared this opinion, as well. As was stated earlier, 13 different drivers have gone to Victory Lane thus far, an impressive tally made all the more surprising when considering that Wallace, Harvick, Mark Martin, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Burton and Bill Elliott have yet to claim victory in 2003.

And Terry Labonte? Talk about surprising. Many assumed his career was over, that he'd accepted "riding around" for the rest of his career, that he'd go out quietly. Not even. For the first time in four years, that lone star could wave in Victory Lane, maybe at Richmond later this fall.

That'd be a nice surprise, wouldn't it?