With four races left, some drivers need fan support (cont'd)

Dale Jarrett is on the winless list, too. What a season for Jarrett. Twenty-one starts, 41st in points and his best finish is 22nd, at Daytona, in February. That's a long time ago. This certainly is not the way Jarrett fans wanted to see the former champion go out. Hey, he's got four more races this year and a few in the spring. If you're heading to the track over the next four weeks, give DJ the thumbs-up; a little extra encouragement is a good thing.

Ricky Rudd is a guy who has had a disappointing year. He is 33rd in points, just one top-10, got hurt, missed some races and now heads to Atlanta where he admits, the two just can't seem to get along.

"Atlanta's always been a tough track for me," Rudd said. "I won there about 20 years ago, but it's just one of those tracks that I haven't had much luck at. We're going to Atlanta this weekend with a brand-new car. From my understanding it's a car that is similar to the one David [Gilliland] ran the other weekend at Charlotte, which turned out to be a pretty good car. We'll see what happens this weekend but it's encouraging to see that the guys at the shop are trying out some new things they've learned throughout the season and putting it together in our car for this weekend."

No quit here, either.

Rudd is accurate with his racing history. His only win in Atlanta did come 20 years ago. He won in the spring of 1987. It was the fourth race of the season. Do you know who finished second? Benny Parsons! By less than half a second (.41). Man, I'll bet BP was fired-up! I can hear him telling the story now.

Jeff Burton is another guy that could use a little extra support from the stands. He is ninth in points and has not had much luck in the Chase. But Jeff Burton does have one thing going for him, the date. Doing my weekly research it looks to me that in the modern era (1972-present), the Nextel Cup Series has raced on Oct. 28 just one time. It was at Phoenix in 2001. The winner that day was Jeff Burton. And as long as we're on the topic, 45 years ago this Sunday, Oct. 28, 1962, the NASCAR "Nextel Cup" Series ran the season finale. They were in Atlanta. It was the 53rd race of the year. The winner was Rex White. He started fifth, in car No. 4, and led three laps.

Less than half of the 44-car starting field finished that day. Joe Weatherly came home second and Marvin Panch was third. They were the only three cars on the lead lap. Richard Petty was fourth. White won by 12 seconds. Fireball Roberts led 144 laps but finished five laps down.

It was a star-studded race. In the field were Lorenzen, Buck and Buddy Baker, Pearson, Langley, Ralph Earnhardt, Tiny Lund, Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, 1961 series champion Ned Jarrett and many, many more.

Weatherly won the championship in 1962, The King was second in points and Ned was third. No one ran all 53 races that year but those three guys were the only drivers that competed in 52 of the 53. How did they ever do that?

What a season 1962 must have been. And it all ended on Oct. 28 in Atlanta.

At the end of the year there is so much to watch for and so many guys to root for, in addition to your favorite driver. I have always tried to enjoy the final few races of the season as much as possible, tell as many stories as time allows, get as many guys on the air as we could. Why? In just four weeks the racing hibernation begins. Got to stock up while we can, right? And besides, 45 years from now, someone might be writing about the great race they had in Atlanta on Oct. 28, 2007.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.