Notebook: Veterans make strong showing

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Chalk one up for the old guys.

In addition to Rusty Wallace's second-place finish, Sterling Marlin was fourth and Ken Schrader sixth.

Marlin moved up six spots in the Nextel Cup point standings, putting himself in 10th after six races.

	Ken Schrader

"We had a heck of a car, but it was just a little bit too loose all day," Marlin said. "The pit crew had some good stops, and all the guys made the right calls in the pits and here we are."

A pit road gamble to take just two tires paid off for Marlin.

"We needed track position and just had about 30 laps on the tires," he said. "We decided to gamble and see what we could get."

Schrader's finish was the best-ever for BAM Racing, but he didn't want the team to get complacent.

"It was a good finish," Schrader said. "We just got to keep getting better.

"We were going to be better here last year but things didn't come out that way. We just got to keep digging at it."

Rough day for Yates teammates

A competitive weekend pretty much went out the window for Robert Yates Racing teammates Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett.

Jarrett was on his way to a top-10 finish in his No. 88 Ford when he blew a tire after contact with Scott Wimmer, finishing 21st.

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"I was going around the outside of a car that was gonna clear me by a few cars and he slid up in Turns 3 and 4 and that made me get out of the gas," Jarrett said. "From there, things just started happening.

"The 22 and I rubbed and as soon as we rubbed, it blew the left front tire out. That turned what was a pretty decent day into a not-so-good day."

Sadler never got the handling right on his No. 38 Ford, settling for a 14th-place finish.

"We were tight all day long," Sadler said. "I mean, the car would just not turn all day long. The guys and Todd (Parrott) made air pressure and track bar adjustments and pulled a spring rubber to fix it, but 'tight in the middle' was all I said all day.

"We took a gamble in the late going and didn't pit, hoping everyone else would -- and everyone behind me did. Then the car was fighting tight again and we just finished in one piece."

Long day for Mears, too

Casey Mears finished 36th, 169 laps behind winner Kurt Busch. Just about everything that could go wrong seemed to for the No. 41 Dodge team.

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First, the crew replaced the radiator, only to have Mears get caught up in a crash on Lap 169.

"We're not sure exactly how it happened yet, but it looks like the fan got into the radiator and knocked a hole in the radiator," Mears said. "We were just going to ride around and pick up a couple of spots, if we could.

"Ricky Rudd blew a right front tire right in front of us. I was underneath him and he went up and hit the wall and came back down and got into me. I didn't have anywhere to go."

Show me the money

Johnny Sauter finished 15th, the first time this season the No. 30 Chevrolet has been on the lead lap at the end of a race.

"It's tougher than you think it is," Sauter said of completing 500 laps at Bristol. "I don't know if it's especially tough on me because I ran 250 laps yesterday, plus all the Happy Hours and practices.

"You spend five or six hours in the car on Friday. It's tough, but maybe I'll get a raise."