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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

Kansas Speedway has been kind to Rusty Wallace. Mark Martin, not so much. But it didn't start that way.

Wallace and Martin posted top-10 finishes in the inaugural race at the 1.5-mile track, the Protection One 400 on Sept. 30, 2001. Wallace was fourth and Martin sixth behind winner Jeff Gordon.

While Wallace has posted two more top-10s in the past three years, Martin hasn't finished better than 20th during that time.

In four starts at Kansas, Wallace's average finish is 8.5; Martin's is 17.8.

Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch

Travis Kvapil

Travis Kvapil

Rookie of the year contender Kyle Busch returns to Kansas with an eye toward improving on last year's 37th-place finish.

Travis Kvapil will be making his first start at the track but he did post three top-10 finishes in four Truck Series starts, including a career-best fourth-place finish in 2003.

Busch also has one Busch Series start at Kansas. In 2004, he qualified fourth and finished 29th, 23 laps down.

With only seven races remaining, Busch still leads the rookie of the year standings by 78 points.

Also in 2001 ...

  • News
  • Aug. 1 -- Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2½-ton monument of the Ten Commandments surreptitiously installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building. He would later be sued to have it removed. Later, he would be removed from office.
  • Entertainment
  • June 18 -- Luke and Laura Spencer, widely regarded as the soap opera pairing that helped coin the term "supercouple," signed divorce papers on General Hospital, dissolving their fictional two-decade union.
  • Sports
  • June 9 -- Colorado wins its second Stanley Cup championship, defeating New Jersey in seven games. Avs' Ray Bourque hoists the Cup for the first time in his illustrious 22-year career.
  • Deaths
  • Dale Earnhardt ... singer Perry Como ... terrorist Timothy McVeigh ... actor Carroll O'Connor ... singer Aaliyah … musician Joey Ramone … baseball's Curt Blefary ... author Robert Ludlum

Also in 2005 ...

  • News
  • Oct. 4 -- Citing a loss of city revenue after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said the city will lay off 3,000 city workers -- about half the workforce -- because of financial constraints. The city hopes to save from $5-8 million on a current monthly payroll of $20 million.
  • Entertainment
  • Oct. 8 - Conan O'Brien will turn over his hour-long Late Night show to U2, which is in New York for seven sold-out engagements at Madison Square Garden. The band is expected to perform three songs and be interviewed by O'Brien.
  • Sports
  • Oct. 4 - John Hart resigns as general manager of the Texas Rangers, clearing the way for 28-year-old Jon Daniels to become the youngest GM in major league history.
  • Still to come in 2005 ...
  • Oct. 8 -- The $2 million DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition to create the first fully autonomous vehicles capable of competing on an under-300 mile, off-road course in the Mojave Desert.
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