I had Tony Stewart as one of my top picks this past week, figuring that there was no way that the #20 could repeat its bad luck of the blown engine that occurred on Lap 3 back in February. Well, I thought wrong as Kyle Petty slows down on Lap 2 of the Pepsi 400, with Matt Kenseth not checking up, and thus tapping Elliot Sadler, who taps the #20 into the wall. That brought out the first of three cautions that occurred in the first 20 laps of a race that saw Kevin Harvick qualify on the pole with plate specialist veteran Geoff Bodine qualifying second. The second caution would occur on Lap 10 when Johnny Benson was nudged from behind by Michael Waltip and would go hard into the retaining wall. Benson would emerge helped from his machine with the same �deer in the headlights� look after being injured in a Busch crash in Richmond back in May. Sure enough, it would turn out the JB sustained cracked ribs again � so do not look for him in the #10 for the next few weeks. It has officially become a lost season for Benson. Caution #3 occurs on Lap 18 when Steve Park rears his head for the first time this week, sending the #33 Carrot-Top Special of Mike Wallace into the wall off of Turn 4, with about a dozen drivers taking the evasive action of heading to pit road to avoid the melee. Most of the field would pit for the first time under this caution, although Dale Earnhardt Jr. would take gas only while Jeff Burton and Jeremy Mayfield, along with three others elect to stay out. Problems in the pits occur with the machines Kurt Busch, Robbie Gordon, and Todd Bodine, with Gordon sustaining the most damage. A crewman for Bodine also suffered a leg injury in that mishap. Soon after the restart Busch is black-flagged and ordered back in the pits, word is that Kurt drove past the �stop paddle� after his pit, and is held up for an entire lap. Due to the lack of practice time (rain) the past two days (which probably contributed to the spate of early incidents), NASCAR throws out a competition yellow after Lap 25, which was planned beforehand. But due to the previous three cautions there are no takers on pit road.

While making round of wedge, crewman finds himself wedged...

But as the field is about to take the green, Jeff Gordon � who is running strong, suddenly detects a tire going down and is forced onto pit road. It is yet another horrible break for the #24, and one that he would not recover from in this race. With the ensuing long run that followed, an out of draft Gordon would be lapped about 25 laps later. Sterling Marlin would eventually inherit the lead, followed by Michael Waltrip. Dale Jr. has climbed up into the top five, but is not running quite as dominant as recent plate outings. Dale Jarrett is also in the mix but is running conservatively to guard against high engine temps (running at about 220). Dave Blaney, riding the momentum of several strong performances, has also climbed into the top ten. XFL (kind of like TRAC) driver Kenny Wallace ends this run with a hard lick into the wall with his Stacker 2 rig. Kind of like being tossed around by a wrassler, eh. Marlin makes sure not to let Gordon get his lap back as we head to Caution #5 on lap 60. Everyone pits at this juncture knowing they will only need to make one more stop should the race stay green till the end. Yeah, right. Marlin 16.3, Junior 17.0, Jarrett a slow 19.0. We also find out that Jimmie Johnson has sustained damage during the run. Matt Kenseth is the big gainer on pit road, moving from 21st to 14th, but with a car that doesn�t look 100 percent.

As we go back to green, Busch is ordered back on pit road, and this time the 350 lb Cup official puts his stool in front of the #97 and sits his ass in front of it for a few laps. We will get to the entire story on that later. The running order now is Waltrip, Junior, Marlin, Jarrett � no surprise whatsoever. FOX is showing one of Marlin�s crewman carrying around a carburetor, but it turns out that he�s carrying it just for the sake of lugging a carburetor around. Ryan Newman is now up to seventh, while both Burton�s are also in the top ten, Jeff ninth, and Ward tenth with a brand new race car. Geoff Bodine is still battling on the lead lap, but a myriad of problems has the #09 back in 31st, the last lead lap car. Jeff Gordon is still running strong, but there is no chance the #8 or #15 is going to let him have his lap back on this night. Newman starts battling Junior for second as green flag stops approach, with pit crews making deals on who should pit together. With 51 laps to go DW makes a comment on TV stating that he doesn�t like the way Newman and Blaney are running together, that statement would later prove prophetic. Green flag stops occur with Jarrett and Jeff Burton both having problems, while Junior and Waltrip have their stops without incident. Jeff Gordon could also have used a faster stop if he had any ideas of getting back on the lead lap. After cycle completes running order is Waltrip, Marlin, Junior, and Rusty Wallace � having one of his best plate runs ever. In fact the #2 has not had a top five run all season. A wounded Tony Stewart spins out on the backstretch (possibly with a tire going down) to bring out the caution. The #24 is in no position to get a lap back, however Elliot Sadler is trying while crew chief Slugger Laabe tells Waltrip that it is �his call� to whether he slows up for Sadler. Waltrip�s question is then �Where�s Gordon�. When assured Gordon is no threat the #15 slows, but too late for Sadler to get the lap back.

None of the leaders pit at this point, and Waltrip and Junior break away from the pack while a huge three-wide gaggle develops in back of them. For the first time tonight, you could sense The Big One, perhaps with Dale Jarrett right in the middle of it. Heading into Turn 1 with 26 laps to go Jarrett goes below the yellow line in an attempt to block off Jeff Burton. The #99 gets into the #88 who spins into oncoming traffic, and it is on. Fourteen cars wreck in Turns 1-2, with the most damage sustained by Jarrett, J. Burton, Brett Bodine, Joe Nemechek, Mike Skinner and Bobby LaBonte. Brett Bodine is in flames on the backstretch while Nemechek has taken a wicked, head-on impact. All of this leads to a few surreal scenes captured on television. First, Nemechek�s mother is totally distraught on top of the war wagon. And another look at the replay shows that it�s for good reason for Joe has taken a scary Earnhardt like shot to the wall. And Mrs. Nemechek has been there before, with losing her other son John in a truck crash at Miami back in 1997. Fortunately Joe walks away and would later thank his lucky stars for the HANS device. Meanwhile Brett Bodine staggers away from his burning machine, becoming more of an inferno by the minute without any fire crews in site. Hey, it isn�t a good car fire, unless it can be seen from outer space. While that is going on Dale Jarrett is walking all the way back from his wrecked machine all the way back to pit road, as he decides to hump it himself since there was not a wrecker or anything else near him. I have just one comment about the crash itself, if that was Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, or Robby Gordon causing the wreck instead of Jarrett, we would had been seeing much more criticism coming his way.

Race finally restarts with 16 to go, with a caution for debris coming with 10 laps left, with the #15 in front. The debris would be a harbinger of things to come. Meanwhile Junior is in discussion on the radio with crew chief Tony Eury Jr., on whether he should go for the win himself, or simply hold on to second while running interference to Michael Waltrip, and repaying him for past favors as well. Eury tells Junior empathically to go for the win. Single file restart occurs with seven laps remaining. Contenders and teammates Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman do not seem to be tag-teaming well together as the recipe for another crash develops. With less than four laps remaining Geoff Bodine gets into his younger brother Todd, but both amazingly save their machines. Meanwhile on the backstretch Newman and Dave Blaney get together and wreck, ruining potential top ten finishes for both. While the Blaney/Newman wreck was going on Dale Jr. makes his move for the lead but instead is hung out to dry and gets back to the stripe in sixth. With only three laps remaining there is no red flag and the race ends with Waltrip winning. Meanwhile hooligans (or are they Dale Jr. utopians) protest by throwing anything they could get their hands onto the backstretch. I went to a NASCAR race and a soccer crowd broke out.

Finishing behind Waltrip was Rusty Wallace, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer (of all people), and Mark Martin. Those five are now the eligible drivers for the next potential million dollar bonus at Richmond in September. Dale Jr., by finishing sixth misses out. We get a disgusting scene with Jimmy Spencer (with family in the background) �interviewing� (I�m using the term loosely) Sterling Marlin. Spencer�s brother looks exactly as one would think, only balder and even heftier. And we won�t even talk about the female (sister, in-law, whatever) with the nerdy glasses in the group. They need to get back to selling used tires as new at their shop, or whatever they allegedly do. On a more serious note, Junior was second-guessing himself big time in regards for going for the win, you can tell he felt that he didn�t have the horsepower on this night. Rounding out the top ten was Todd Bodine (great run), Jimmie Johnson (great finish after earlier troubles), Ward Burton, and believe it or not, Geoff Bodine with yet another top-ten plate run. Other notables include Kevin Harvick in 11th (solid run), Elliot Sadler (12th), Ricky Rudd (15th), and Bill Elliott (17th). The late crashes did allow Jeff Gordon to finish 22nd, the best of all a lap or more down. The late crash relegates Newman and Blaney to 27th and 28th respectably, both deserved a better fate. Bringing up the rear was Robby Gordon (29th), Matt Kenseth (30th), Kurt Busch (31st), Bobby LaBonte (32nd), Jeff Burton (33rd), Dale Jarrett (35th), and Tony Stewart (39th). Shawna Robinson was actually running a strong race on the lead lap but a rear end (insert your own pun here) relegated the #49 BAM machine to 40th. She does know how to run at this venue, I�ll give you that. And one last item, just to show how other races pale in comparison to the big one in February. Waltrip nets a little over a $170 K for this weeks win, while Ward Burton collected over 1.4 million for taking the Daytona 500, even the fifth place finisher that day collected over $600,000...

Sterling Marlin maintains his point lead, with Mark Martin now in second, 77 points behind. They are followed by Jimmie Johnson (-114, increased to -139 after this weeks point deduction), Rusty Wallace (-144), Jeff Gordon (-150), Ricky Rudd (-200), and Tony Stewart (-212). Now back to Kurt Busch, after receiving his initial one-lap penalty, KB was heard swearing and cussing up a storm towards NASCAR officials on the radio. There used to be a �private-line�, which teams used to say material that they did not want anyone else to hear (officials, fans, etc.) � NASCAR does not allow that any more. All this so everything can be heard for a price either on the internet or on pay-per-view satellite/digital cable - not to mention fans being able to listen to scanner frequencies at the track. Thus Big Brother came down on Kurt and nailed him with an additional three-lap penalty for �unsportsmanlike conduct�. Perhaps teams should be allowed to have that private line so they could vent when necessary, that's definitely a valid point. However, remember what was said in this column after Busch�s antics in the Winston All-Star Race. I said back then that Busch�s fantasy stock would take a hit, now has the attention of other drivers and NASCAR officials. Saturday night was a perfect example of that, and a NASCAR official said publicly that he had no problem whatsoever taking Busch�s car out of contention, and in effect making an example out of him. Busch would publicly apologize for his outburst on Monday with the following�``To NASCAR, my sponsor, my team, and to all of the fans I extend my sincerest apologies for my anguish and temper that I expressed over the radio during the Pepsi 400,'' he said. ``... Racing in Winston Cup is a dream come true for me, and I can't thank NASCAR, Roush Racing, and Newell Rubbermaid enough for helping my realize that dream. I let my temper get the best of me the other night and the way I handled it was not in any way appropriate, and for that I'm truly sorry.''

OTHER NOTES

Finally, a great skit that I found on Totally NASCAR last week which was shown along with Kenny Wallace's association with WWE wrestlers. Donnie Hammond was acting like a wrestler, Larry McReynolds played the part of a wrestling manager while Dick Berggren posed as a wrestling interviewer (think Gene Okerlund). Berggren was grilling the other two about being 'beat up by wrestlers every week' and asked what they were going to do at Daytona where 'there will be wrestlers all over the place'. At that point Hammond and Larry Mac throw a Goodyear Eagle radial over Dr. Berggren's head and start 'beating up on him'. Absolutely hilarious...

CHICAGO PREVIEW

The normal grind resumes this week with only the second Cup race in the history of the Chicago Track, so there�s not much of a history to go on. Chicagoland Speedway is a 1.5 mile affair with a curved backstretch, so it comes across as a �handling track� where drivers are endlessly turning left. Still, speeds will be plenty fast as Todd Bodine won last year�s pole at 183.717 mph. One of the complaints that came out of NASCAR�s first trip here had to with the track only having one groove. Any driver that went high into the �evil area� quickly found himself in trouble. Mike Skinner suffered a concussion and knee injury in the 2001 Cup race, hastening his departure from RCR while there was also a frightening crash in the Busch race, with the #25 Marines car getting absolutely plastered. Kevin Harvick won last year�s inaugural race, with Robert Pressley (#77 car) finishing second, followed by Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett and Jimmy Spencer. Like I say, not much to go on note wise. Also just a reminder, the keys have been handed off to Benny Parsons, so the races are on NBC/TNT the rest of the way.

47 cars will attempt to qualify for 43 posiitons this weekend. Jerry Nadeau will be riding the #00 car owned by Michael Waltrip, Kenny Wallace again has the Stacker2 #98 machine while Mike Wallace subs for Benson in the #10. The rest of the usual suspects line up as follows...

BEST BETS

Jimmie Johnson � Was my favorite for this week before NASCAR got teams attention with fine/points reduction. Chad Knaus may now be forced to be more conservative in his setups.

Matt Kenseth � Look for the #17 to rebound strong from two subpar outings. Came back from provisional land to finish seventh last year.

Ricky Rudd � We don�t know where or even if the Rick will be around in �03, we do know to expect a spate of strong runs that should last five races (Chicago, New Hampshire, Pocono, Indy, Watkins Glen). Qualified and finished third last year.

Dale Jarrett � Throwing out Watkins Glen (where the #88 tends to end up in the kitty litter going into Turn 1), Jarrett should be just as strong as Rudd for the next month.

Sterling Marlin � Qualified and finished ninth last year, another top ten should be a given barring problems.

Kurt Busch � One gets the feeling that this could be a young guns day. Finished eighth after qualifying 31st last year.

Jeff Gordon � 25 races and counting, after two bad breaks is due to be strong.

Bill Elliott � Qualified fourth and finished tenth. Best Dodge option after Marlin.

Mark Martin � Should also be a banner day for the Rosch team, sixth place finish last year.

Tony Stewart - It is the 400 milers that the #20 seems to excel in.

SLEEPERS

Dave Blaney � More of a solid dark horse each weekend. The second place success of the #77 last year should bode well.

Kevin Harvick � Coming off a pair of respectable runs and comes in as defending champ. A top ten finish is possible.

Jimmy Spencer � His top five in Daytona is what many expected on a consistent basis with his Chip Ganassi ride way back in February. That momentum along with last year�s top-five should make for a good combination.

Ryan Newman � Has never raced here. His late mishap with Blaney was a huge downer, since his engine had actually made it the whole way for once.

Michael Waltrip � Up to twelfth in points after six top tens in his last nine races, the best sustained stretch in his career.

Rusty Wallace � Finally gets a top five in the Daytona outing.

Todd Bodine � 14th place finish after starting on the pole last year.

Jeff Green � My deep sleeper, has been coming on in recent weeks, and RCR as a whole is looking better.

Here are the best bets to get a close-up with Miss Winston along with gulping OJ at day�s end�

1. Rudd, 2. Kenseth, 3. Johnson, 4. Jarrett, 5. J. Gordon, 6. Marlin, 7. Martin, 8. Busch, 9. Blaney, 10. Stewart

The early odds on the race are as follows...

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

ANDY HOUSTON AWARD

Two trips to Daytona, two Andy Houston Awards for Tony Stewart. Who would had thunk that...