Rookie wins becoming common

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2000

It was just last season that Tony Stewart's record three victories as a Winston Cup rookie seemed a remarkable feat.

Twelve races into this year's schedule, that mark is beginning to look ordinary.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth, drivers who moved from the Busch Grand National series to Winston Cup this season, have won one-quarter of the races and are the first rookies to win in the same season in 19 years. Morgan Shepherd and Ron Bouchard won one race each in 1981. Together, they've managed to keep past winners such as Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd, Sterling Marlin and Stewart out of the winner's circle.

"You put a really good driver into a really good car, and they are going to get to the front," said Marlin, who was a rookie in 1983. "That's just what racing is all about. It's not like when I first started in Winston Cup. I was in the same boat as a lot of guys when they first get in.

"You do anything and drive anything to get in. All you're looking for is seat time. You don't think about winning races. You think about making races."

Having a seven-time Winston Cup champion as a father and his resources around the race shop has no doubt helped ease Earnhardt Jr.'s transition. He has won two points races and The Winston on May20 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Kenseth also is fortunate to have Jack Roush as his team owner and teammates Mark Martin, his mentor, and Jeff Burton to turn to with questions. Kenseth won the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday for his first career win.

"They have a head start with the teams," said Jeremy Mayfield, who drives the No. 12 Ford. "With their talent, it's a pretty potent combination."

GAMBLING: In years past, when Jeff Gordon and his race team made a gamble during a pit stop late in a race, it usually meant the Rainbow Warriors were eyeing a win.

But in the Coca-Cola 600, a race Gordon has won three times, Gordon and his crew needed a gamble to help the three-time series champion get a top-10 finish.

Gordon was in 11th place when caution came out on Lap362 and the leaders made pit stops. He opted for only two tires and gas while the others changed four tires. The shorter stop gave Gordon the lead on Lap363. But his time out front was short.

Not even a full lap after the re-start, Bobby Labonte passed Gordon for the lead. By the end of the race, Gordon was in 10th place.

"It's been an unbelieveable season," said Gordon, who is eighth in points and has one win. "You see a lot of different guys winning. There's a lot talent out there. I look at our program, and we've got to get our stuff better. We've either got to change the way we're doing our bodies or the way we're setting them up. The same things we used to do just don't seem to work as well as they used to."

CLOSE BUT: Winston Cup points leader Bobby Labonte was 26 laps from winning his second 600 when Kenseth passed him for the lead.

Labonte, who led twice for 35 laps, finished second for the third time in four years in the race.

"We had a good enough car to win at one point in time, but the race wasn't over until 600 miles so it really didn't matter," he said.

The driver of the No. 18 Pontiac gained 46 points in the standings on Ward Burton, who finished 13th.

The top five points positions are separated by 104 points.

SCHMIDT'S RETURN: Sam Schmidt, paralyzed from the neck down and in a wheelchair since a crash during testing in January at Orlando, called his return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday "a little bittersweet."

"I miss it quite a bit. It's hard to put into words," said Schmidt, who started in three Indy 500s, joined Treadway Racing after Arie Luyendyk retired last year and won his first Indy Racing event in September in his hometown of Las Vegas.

"I really feel confident that I'm going to walk away from this," he said.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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