Many Fantasy Racing Challenges have new contests to mark the second half of the season. For details on CDM�s revamped Checkered Flag Challenge, click here.

Now for a review of the event that tightened everything up�

SEARS POINT RECAP

Actually they changed the name of the racetrack the day before the race. Something about a European computer chip company, that is at least until they merge or go bankrupt by this time next year. Thanks to watching this race in it�s entirety I�m now able to master this track on the EA Sports game. A brief trip around the track goes as follows � an uphill climb just after the start/finish line (170 feet � or a 17 story building) leading to the sharp right-hander in Turn 4, which marks the backside of the course. The next sharp right-hander is in Turn 7, which leads into the fast downhill �esses� on the backstretch, where speeds reach 140 mph. The final trick is the sharp hairpin in Turn 11, which necessitates slowing down to 35 mph, before shifting back into the high gears leading back to the start/finish. The normal lap at Sears Point is about 1:15 and the race consists of 110 laps. Track position traditionally means everything here, as no one starting back further than 13th has even been able to win in the races 13-year history.

Besides the usual road-course �ringers� (Boris Said, Ron Fellows), the only other real pinch-hitter was Jerry Nadeau, who was subbing for Steve Grissom in the #44. Race begins with polesitter Tony Stewart jumping into the lead, but road-course king Jeff Gordon quickly makes a couple passes from his no. 4 position, and overtakes Stewart on the hairpin to lead by the end of Lap 2. Robby Gordon, another road course star, quickly makes his move from a starting position of ninth up to fourth. It is quickly apparent that points leader Sterling Marlin would be the first casualty of the day, as he�s without power steering (not good on a road course) and is back in 40th after 10 laps, and would eventually head to pit road. Sterling would make one attempt to get back out but then call it a day, and be saddled with a 43rd. With a lead of only 110 points over Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, it appears that there will be a new point leader by day�s end. J. Gordon, Stewart, Kurt Busch, and R. Gordon have formed a four-car breakaway by this point. The youngster Busch is hanging in there well after qualifying second, showing his road course mettle. Rusty Wallace, usually strong here is fighting a loose condition and falling into the clutches of 20th place. Jeff Burton is another car beginning to fall back, meanwhile John Andretti, a road course natural, is closing in on the top ten.

The second huge development occurs just before green-flag stops around lap 30 when leader Jeff Gordon will become the first of many casualties on the day due to a broken rear gear, and goes behind the wall. Jimmie Johnson has a slow pit of 20.5, Boris Said 16.9, Stewart 14.0, Busch (who now looks like the car to beat) 14.4. Mark Martin is able to stay out the longest (a Jack Rosch team trademark), and pits in 15.1. Yet another contender goes by the boards when Matt Kenseth, running in sixth spring an oil leak, bringing out the first caution of the day.

Robby Gordon and Stewart elect to sacrifice track position at this point to pit out of sequence, and are now in the middle of the filed. Hood goes up on Jeff Burton�s machine, yet another contender by the wayside. Kurt Busch has the lead on the restart, followed by Bill Elliott, Bobby LaBonte, Boris Said, Ricky Rudd, and John Andretti. Boris gets loose and off the payment, moving Rudd into the fourth position. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who does not have a good record here) adds to his disappointing first-half by going off-track and into the tires � damage. Road ace Said is busy bottlenecking a gaggle of cars challenging for fifth.

Ward Burton, having a terrible last month and a half, is the next to break a gear and goes behind the wall. Rusty Wallace seems to have his problems fixed and is now back in the top ten. 34 cars on the lead lap at the race�s halfway point, with Dale Jr. hanging on at the tail end of the lap. Drivers having respectable days up to this point include Dave Blaney (9th) and Jerry Nadeau (10th) along with fellow �young-guns� Ryan Newman (11th), and Jimmy Johnson (13th). Newman, Johnson, and race leader Busch showing they can more than handle their own in the road-course environment. Nadeau would bring out the next caution on Lap 67 by going off course, doing a neat 720 while being able to save the car. Huge break for John Andretti who was in the middle of �short-pitting� at that moment, and is able to be in second behind Todd Bodine (who does not pit during yellow). Among those who do pit, Busch wins the race off pit road. Andretti also came up big with a short-pit with the yellow coming out at Pocono. T. Bodine�s lead does not last long as he spins with the old tires on the first green-flag lap in Turn 11. Andretti is now the race leader with Tony Stewart back in the top ten. Most teams believe they will be short on fuel, but then again that seems to the spiel of every crew chief at this point of a race. Among those trying to chase down the #43 of Andretti at this point include Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, and Mark Martin. An over-driving Boris Said is desperately trying to get back into the race but crashes hard, bringing out the yellow and turning the complexion of the race upside down.

Andretti is let down by his pit crew with a slow 19.2 stop (issues with left rear), Rusty is 16.1, Busch 15.6 and first out among those who pit. Jerry Nadeau, Jeff Green, Bill Elliott, and Iceman Terry LaBonte are among those who roll the dice and stay out, gaining precious track position. Bad late-race blunder by Rusty Wallace�s crew, as a loose lugnut forces #2 to make a second trip to pit road, putting Wallace at the end of the lead lap. Race resumes with 23 laps remaining with Elliott in front, followed by Nadeau, Green, T. LaBonte, Jeremy Mayfield, Elliott Sadler, and Casey Atwood. Notice that the final five drivers have not even been mentioned in this recap until this paragraph. Kurt Busch is the top driver among those who pitted and is running tenth.

Elliott slides off the track soon after the restart and yields the lead to Nadeau. Green, who has never ran in a cup race here, is now an unlikely second. Kurt Busch gains a couple positions to eighth with 22 to go. Dave Blaney (tapped by Newman) gets in trouble on Turn 11, same for Casey Atwood (tapped by B. LaBonte). Nadeau is beginning to open up a significant lead. Meanwhile, Terry LaBonte, a one time monster on road courses, passes Green for second with 17 to go. Kurt Busch is in sixth, Rudd in eighth, and Stewart is running ninth at this juncture. Nadeau�s lead is up to 4.5 seconds with 16 to go. Rudd moves up to second with 12 laps remaining, 8.5 seconds behind the leader. Rudd qualified seventh, while Nadeau qualified 22nd, Green 33rd, and T. LaBonte 39th (provisional-land). Remember no one qualifying worse than 13th has ever won at this track. Bobby Hamilton and Michael Waltrip become a couple of more Turn 11 casualties, ruining potential top ten days. Rudd passes the #5 machine of Terry LaBonte for second with eight laps to go. It appears to be the highest Ricky will get as Nadeau has a near-insurmountable 6.5 second lead and is on the verge of season�s most unlikely victory as a substitute driver, as Robby Gordon nearly pulled off last year. Tony Stewart moves up to seventh, while Rudd gains a half-second on Nadeau per lap � which will not be enough. Meanwhile Jimmie Johnson�s car breaks a gear and the #48 limps around the track, costing JJ his chance to take over the points lead. Michael Waltrip has another spin while Jimmy Spencer breaks a gear on Turn 11. Nadeau�s lead is still 4.5 seconds with three laps to go, Rudd needs a miracle. Jerry starts to slow noticably on the backstretch while someone on the radio transmission yells �OH NO!!!� Meanwhile Stewart gets T. LaBonte for third. Suddenly Nadeau pulls off at the end of Turn 11, just ahead of the idled machine of Jimmy Spencer. A serious heartbreak for Nadeau, not to mention the entire #44 team and Petty Enterprises. Meanwhile Rudd, himself the victim of heartbreak in two races he had in his hip-pocket this year, is able to make the final two circuits to hold off Stewart, followed by Terry LaBonte, Kurt Busch and Jeff Green. Rusty Wallace had fought his way back up and was listed in 15th during the white flag lap, but finished in 27th, the final car on the lead lap. According to Rusty�s website, a tire was going down thanks to tangling with Brett Bodine, thus leading to the final lap limp. And one wonders why the date between the Rusty fan and the Rudd fan (on the TV commercial) didn't work out, they sure seem to have the same problems lately.

Rounding out the top ten was Elliott Sadler, Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, Ryan Newman, and John Andretti. Other notables included Robby Gordon (11th), Mike Skinner (a season-best 12th), Bobby LaBonte (13th), Kevin Harvick (14th), Dale Jarrett (15th), Ricky Craven (19th), Ron Fellows (25th), Jeff Burton (29th), Dale Jr. (30th), Jerry Nadeau (34th), Jimmie Johnson (35th), Jeff Gordon (37th), Matt Kenseth (39th), and Sterling Marlin (43rd). Believe it or not Marlin hung on to his points lead, but those following him closed considerably with Mark Martin leapfrogging both Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and is now second 62 points behind. Gordon is in third 82 points behind with Johnson now in fourth 86 back, Tony Stewart rounds out the top five 88 points behind. Any one of the top five could conceivably take over the points lead this week at Daytona.

GARAGE NOTES

In late-breaking news, apparantly Kevin Harvick is about to get the ultimate vote of confidence - a long-term contract with RCR to drive the Goodwrench car. Not satisfied with their lack of bang for the buck, high profile sponsor M & M�s is looking to ditch Ken Schrader for a new contract with a higher profile team. Reportedly, Robert Yates Racing (Jarrett/Rudd), and Cal Wells (Ricky Craven) would be willing to take on an additional team only if they could land M & M/Mars for somewhere to the tune of $12-$14 million. One Cup contender who may not fare as well in the second half is Sterling Marlin, as new engine specifications (something to do with ratios) will be used in time for the Chicago race next week, which supposedly will serve to handcuff the Dodge�s. In particular, Marlin�s team will be forced to revamp much of their engine fleet. Rough drafts of the 2003 WC schedule are beginning to circulate, with the change of note being the Spring Talladega race being moved up a couple weeks to early April due to a late Easter Sunday (April 20), where along with Mother�s Day, NASCAR always is off. Other than that no new tracks, no other change of schedule. Looking further down the pipe however, International Speedway Corporation is looking at buying the Pike Peaks track in Colorado (where Busch and Truck series races are usually held). That could very well lead to a Cup race at that venue while another (Rockingham??) loses one. There are two sides to the debate on that one � bringing the Cup Series to new venues v. keeping races in the traditional Southeast hotbeds.

There was big-time attrition in the Busch Series in Milwaukee this week, as 95 degree temperatures (and that was just the air temp) led to eight breakdowns (engines, radiator, electrical etc.) before the 250 mile event was even half over. The other story of the event featured a father (Jim Sauter) along with three sons (Tim, Johnny, Jay) competing in the same race. The elder Sauter had an engine expire late but the sons would finish 9th, 12th, and 13th. More impressively, all four of the Sauter's qualified in the top ten. Greg Biffle won the event for a second consecutive year. Yet another member of the Rosch stable, Biffle will be running some events in the second half, where he will be much more than a field filler.

There were other drivers who refused to rest on the final off-week of the season. Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Ken Schrader among others went north of the border to race against the CASCAR regulars in a Canada Day Weekend special. Kenseth won the feature, but the real story was Stewart going wacko after Schrader after the two got together in a qualifying heat. Tony would go on to speed around the track during the ensuing yellow and rammed into the #36, knocking Schrader out of the event as well. There were also reports that the two got into a shoving match in the garage area as well. Somebody tell those guys that this wasn't the last lap of the Daytona 500. Before heading to Canada Schrader participated in the Milwaukee Truck Race on Saturday, dude would race 365 days a year if he had the chance...

The season�s second half unofficially begins with a prime-time restrictor-plate showdown at Daytona for the Pepsi 400. The biggest risk fantasy racing wise would be your driver(s) being involved in �The Big One� (trademark pending), which struck here in February and in both the Busch and Cup races in Talladega. Plate races also means strict enforcement of the �white line�, which lurks to ruin a drivers day in a big way, as well as the fact that the majority of drivers are capable of scoring a top finish by merely staying on the lead lap � along with a little help at the end. This is also one of the five races dangling the million-dollar carrot, so Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon will be eligible for the bonus should any of them win, based on their top-five finishes in Charlotte � where Martin himself cashed in back in May.

The list of contenders this week is as follows�

Dale Earnhardt Jr. � Although a major disappointment thus far this year, a clear-cut favorite this week based on his three wins in the past four plate races, although�

Michael Waltrip � the #15 has to be considered favorite 1A, with a win, two seconds (while running interference for Junior) and a fifth in his last five plate appearances. Should he be running first over Jr. in the final laps he does have a couple of IOU�s coming. Has been clearly been DEI�s best driver over the past month or so, ever since rumors of him being replaced surfaced. Look for Mikie to be in the top 15 overall for the balance of the season.

Jimmie Johnson � The aggressive setups of former Jeff Gordon crewman Chad Knaus, along with this talented rookie driver, has made the #48 the talk of the circuit. JJ first served notice by winning the pole here back in February. Although the #1 position usually proves to be too daunting for a rookie Cup driver, Johnson hung around for most of that afternoon and placed 15th, followed up by a seventh in Talladega. Don�t be surprised if he gets a top-five here.

Tony Stewart � Don�t be spooked by his third-lap exit back in February (engine) or the late-race controversy (went below the line) that cost him 20 positions in this race last year. Two consecutive wins in the Bud Shootout proves that the #20 knows his way around this joint.

Kurt Busch � The only driver besides Waltrip to score top-fives in both plate races this season. And he doesn�t care whose feathers he ruffles in the process including Jeff Gordon, who dubbed him a wildman back in February. Busch also got a final one-fingered salute from the #3 car back in the �01 500.

Jeff Gordon � The best bet among the drivers eligible for the bonus. A four-time winner at this venue.

Bill Elliott - Always strong here, and was a pole-sitter here as recently as last year�s 500, where he finished third. Also netted a top-five this February.

Sterling Marlin � Another perennial monster at this venue. Scored three wins in six races here in the mid-90�s and also was in the 500 mix the past two years. Has been battling a recent slump though.

Mark Martin � Could be some more magic in store for the �Little Blue Miracle� this week, who has been running as any of the Rosch cars lately. A second million-dollar evening could be in the offing.

Ryan Newman � Rookie showed notice that he is here to stay with a seventh back in February.

SLEEPERS

Jeff Burton � A couple of quiet, but effective plate runs this year � with a 12th here and a ninth in Talladega.

Dale Jarrett � A 14th and a sixth in his two plate appearances this season. Also the Daytona 500 champ as recently as 2000.

Rusty Wallace � A bigger factor here than many would expect, came away with a third and seventh in the two races last season.

Elliot Sadler � Biggest darkhorse of the weekend, as he is statistically the best driver here over the past two races, with a third last July along with a second in February.

Ken Schrader � A deep, deep sleeper, as the #36 M & M�s Pontiac is clearly better at this track than any other. If you�re in a league forcing you to play Schrader once a year this would be the spot.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Ricky Rudd � Has been running as well as anyone over the last month, but usually not a factor at this venue. Rudd�s attitude over plate racing goes something like this, avoid getting wrecked and move on to the next event.

Matt Kenseth � Figures to be in the championship hunt right down to the final weekend in Miami, but the plate races are the one chink in his armor, where the #17 usually finishes in the middle of the pack. Wait until next week in Chicago to lay the lumber on this ride.

Ward Burton � A fourth place finish last July followed up by his win in this February�s 500. That seems like light years ago now as the #22 has been in a horrible slump since.

Ricky Craven � Has avoid the wrecks in both plate races this season, but has only netted a 17th and 18th out of it.

Jeff Green � Another driver who has avoided major trouble on the plate tracks, but has only been good for a 19th or 16th.

Robby Gordon � Did manage to stay on the lead lap for a 13th back in February, but outside of road races can�t be mentioned with the contenders.

CHECKERS OR WRECKERS

These are part-timers who have done well here but come with a risk � since they are not racing for points they will call it a day if forced behind the wall early�

Geoff Bodine � The Miccosukee Indian Gaming #09 returns after nearly pulling off what would had been one of the greatest upsets in racing history, finishing third in February�s 500. And to prove that wasn�t a fluke, Bodine followed that up with a 12th in Talledega (and also in the hunt late) � giving him the fourth best combined finish out of the plate races.

Mike Wallace � The #33 returns with a one-race sponsorship with 1-800-CALL-ATT (DIAL DOWN THE CENTER, DAMN IT!!!!!). Best case scenario has Wallace perhaps getting in the top 15-20.

DON�T COUNT ON

Jimmy Spencer � Could not even qualify for February�s 500 due to lousy qualifying combined with not being able to get a provisional from predecessor Jason Leffler�s points from last year. Odds better than 50-50 his day will end with telling a TV interviewer that the plate tracks are �just ain�t racing��

Stacy Compton - A few more drivers try to qualify for the marquee races such as this, making it possible for a lower rung driver such as Compton to miss the show completely.

Look for the race to end something like this late Saturday night�

1. Dale Jr., 2. Waltrip, 3. Johnson, 4. Stewart, 5. J. Gordon, 6. Busch, 7. Marlin, 8. Elliott, 9. Martin, 10. Newman

NASCARODDS has the race as follows: Dale Jr. 3-1, Waltrip 4-1, J. Gordon 9-2, Johnson, 5-1, Marlin 6-1, R. Wallace 7-1, J. Burton 8-1, W. Burton 9-1, Jarrett 10-1, Stewart 11-1, Elliott 12-1, Newman 13-1, Busch 14-1, Martin 15-1, Rudd 16-1, B. LaBonte 17-1, R. Gordon 18-1, Kenseth 19-1, T. LaBonte 20-1, Harvick 22-1, Benson 24-1, E. Sadler 26-1, Craven 28-1, Hamilton 30-1, J. Green 32-1, Schrader 34-1, B. Bodine 36-1, Nemechek 38-1, Petty 40-1, Park 42-1, Spencer 44-1, T. Bodine 46-1, Skinner 48-1, Mayfield 50-1, Blaney 55-1, Atwood 60-1, Stricklin 65-1, M. Wallace 70-1, Andretti 75-1, Compton 80-1