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This is me Thursday night at the California Speedway "After Dark" party. Jeff Green is my favorite Busch driver. |
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Me again with Tony Stewart's show car. |
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Bobby & Terry are my favorite Winston Cup drivers. |
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Fans continue to sign Dale's trailer. There are all kinds of messages and prayers written everywhere. It's amazing how high up on the trailer some fans have managed to sign. |
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Along the white stripe. Michael wrote Forever Mike Davis |
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Unocal was giving out Friday pit passes with any fill-up. So we took them up on it and spent most of Friday in the pits. We got some great close up shots of the cars. |
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Now doesn't this car look good streaking down the track? |
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Friday morning practice before qualifying. You can see how much tape they put on the front grill. |
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Working on set up - they run a few laps then come in for adjustments. |
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Here's the "famous" Hollywood Hotel. |
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Rusty Wallace |
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Kyle Petty |
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Kurt Busch with his new Sharpie paint scheme. |
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Johnny Benson |
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Section 8, Row 37, seats 17 & 18 - that's us! Just about where the yellow star is. Great seats - but it's a long climb. |
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Here's Terry Labonte going out for morning practice. I love his new paint scheme. |
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Tony Stewart coming back out after a few adjustments |
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Ken Schrader in one of his Mars Candy paint schemes. |
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Mark Martin's new 2001 colors of Viagra. |
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Sterling Marlin had a special John Wayne paint scheme. |
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The Taladega Race winner from the prior week - Bobby Hamiltom. |
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While the Cup guys were doing morning practice, the Busch guys were getting lined up to qualify. Here's Kevin Harvick's team putting the final finishes on his Busch ride. |
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John Andretti |
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Jeff Burton |
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Mike Skinner |
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OK - it's silly - but here I am standing in front of Bobby Labonte's race tires. The security people sure kept an eye on me when I stopped for the picture! |
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Here are all the Cup guys, after qualifying, lined up for "Happy Hour". Bobby Labonte as the pole sitter gets to go out first! |
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Gordon, Jarrett & Wallace stop for a tire check. They open Jarrett's hood to look at something. |
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Wallace, Rudd & Nadeau. Tire temps are important to tire wear. |
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Nadeau, Mayfield and Spencer with his Mummy 2 paint scheme. |
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Craven and Terry Labonte. |
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Kevin Harvick with Bill Elliott driving by at the 55 mile pit speed. |
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Joe Nemechek and Kevin Harvick |
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Everybody stops two or three time to check tire pressure and temps. Gotta watch how much or how little pressure builds up. |
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Also check the spark plugs. |
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Happy Hour is over and everybody heads for the garage. |
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Head for the barn and talk to your crew about what you've learned. |
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Hope you learned something that will help on Sunday. |
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It's all in the hand of the crew now. They's look and the notes and make final setup decisions. |
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We were invited to a Sunday tailgate party by DotComRacers Fantasy Race League. Great bunch of people and they have some cool garage shots on their website. |
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Sunday morning of race day. Great skydive team. |
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Bobby Labonte accepts the Bud Pole Award. |
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Driver introductions - Terry Labonte |
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Jeff Gordon walks across to the cars for a lap around the track. |
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NAPA logo and flags. |
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Drivers head for their cars to buckle in. Clear the grid - it's time to go racing! |
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The scoring pylon shows the starting grid. |
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Pace laps - Kurt Busch is coming into the pits - he needs to change a tire, but also gets gas which is a NO NO. |
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Pace car pulls in and we're goin' racin'! |
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Bobby Labonte leads them to the green. |
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First round of pit stops begins about Lap 40. Sterling Marlin was pitted right across from us. |
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As was Terry Labonte - we saw way too much of him in the pits! |
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At 55 mile pit speed - Bobby Labonte goes by in a blur. |
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Tony Stewart, Jery Nadeau and Jason Leffler were also easy to see from where we sat. |
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Little "E" was just a couple pits behind Terry. |
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Looks like a 4 tire change. |
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Cloud of smoke and he's back to racing - crew makes sure no tires get away. Bobby Hamilton is just on the way to his pit. |
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Spencer is in as Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett head for their puts. |
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1st caution Lap 58 - Bobby Labonte spun though the grass near start/finish line. This was his second spin of the weekend. His first was Saturday. |
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Pits get very busy under caution. Here comes Bobby - he managed not to hit anything but he surely needs tires! |
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Restart with Jeff Gordon in the lead. Terry is the first car one lap down. |
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You'd think his teammate would cut him a break - but - no deal. |
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Next round of pit stops under green around Lap 107. |
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Lap 222 Bobby spins across the race logo for the 2nd time today. This completed his spin "hat trick" for the weekend. |
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Lap 222 Mark Martin and Ward Burton wreck coming into turn 3. Martin drove his battered car to the garage. |
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Another trip to the pits in hope of last minute adjustments to improve your finish. Up against the wall between turn 3 and 4 you can see Ward's car surrounded by emergency equipment. |
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It was several scary minutes before Ward climbed out. He took a hard hit. His car came back to the garage on a hook. Ward was taken to Loma Linds Hospital for observation. He was released on Tuesday morning. |
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Rusty Wallace takes the checkered flag for his 1st win of the 2001 season. |
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Scoring Pylon tells the tale of who finished where. |
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As Rusty stopped at the Start/Finish line, a crewmen brought him a Dale Earnhardt flag. He made his victory lap carrying the flag as a tribute to his fallen friend and competitor. He would have liked Richard Childress to have been able to take the lap with him. |
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All the other drivers head for the garage with hopes of a better day next week. |
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Surrounded my friends, crew and the media Rusty climbs out of the car in shower of confetti to celebrate the win. |
Race Stats
Time of the race 3 hours, 29 minutes, 37 seconds.
Average Speed 143.118 mph
Margin of Victory 0.270 seconds
Cautions six for a total of 29 laps.
Twenty-three lead changes among 14 drivers.
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.