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Features

Then & Now

NASCAR.COM pays tribute to two outgoing vets
and welcomes two rookies to the Cup fold.

Each week will preview one year in the career of the retiring drivers,
as well as a pop-culture look at what's going on in the world today.
Mark Martin

Mark Martin

Rusty Wallace

Rusty Wallace

Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace have competed in all 10 Cup races held at California Speedway, and each have a victory at the 2-mile track.

Martin won the California 500 Presented by NAPA on May 3, 1998, while Wallace took the checkers in the NAPA Auto Parts 500 on April 29, 2001.

Martin has five top-10s at Fontana with an average finish of 14.6 and three DNFs.

Wallace has six top-10s at California with an average finish of 13.4 and only one DNF.

Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch

Travis Kvapil

Travis Kvapil

Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil return to California for Sunday night's Sony HD 500.

Busch started from the pole -- his first career -- and finished 23rd in the Auto Club 500 on Feb. 27.

Kvapil qualified 35th and finished 24th in that race, which was won by Greg Biffle.

Through 24 races, Busch has five top-five finishes and eight top-10s. Busch leads Kvapil, who has only one top-10 finish, by 50 points in the rookie of the year standings with 12 races remaining.

Also in 2001 ...

  • News
  • Aug. 1 -- Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2 1/2 ton monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building. He would be sued to have it removed. Later, he would be removed from office.
  • Entertainment
  • April 24 and Oct. 30 -- Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson release albums in the same year, respectively. Janet releases All For You and Michael releases Invincible. Both albums would hit No. 1 on the album charts.
  • Sports
  • Nov. 4 -- Only four seasons old, the Arizona Diamondbacks became the youngest franchise to win a World Series by defeating the New York Yankees 4 games to 3 behind Series co-MVPs Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.
  • Deaths
  • Stock car driver Dale Earnhardt ... TV personality Morton Downey Jr. ... singer Perry Como ... cartoonist Hank Ketcham ... actor Jack Lemmon

Also in 2005 ...

  • News
  • Aug. 29 - Hurricane Katrina slams the Gulf Coast, leaving in its wake more than 100 dead (the toll is still rising), massive flooding in New Orleans and the Mississippi coast and major power outages across the region.
  • Entertainment
  • Aug. 28 -- Singer Art Garfunkel, who pleaded guilty to marijuana possession last year, is arrested again on the same charge. Garfunkel, 63, was pulled over by a New York state trooper near Woodstock after running a stop sign.
  • Sports
  • Aug. 30 -- White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle called the Texas Rangers cheaters, claiming the team signals pitches to batters through a light system. Texas is batting .285 with 125 homers at home, compared to .256 with 86 HRs on the road. Story
  • Still to come in 2005 ...
  • Sept. 27 -- Michaëlle Jean will become the 27th Governor General of Canada, and the first black person to hold that position.
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