facts and figures:
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North Carolina Speedway by the numbers:
Johnny Benson won at The Rock last fall -- he was the third driver to score his first career victory at North Carolina Speedway. Credit: Autostock
Johnny Benson won at The Rock last fall -- he was the third driver to score his first career victory at North Carolina Speedway. Credit: Autostock
# Track length is 1.017 miles, taking 393 laps to cover 400 miles.
# The bowed frontstretch is 1,300 feet long and the backstretch is 1,367 feet long.
# Both straights are banked eight degrees.
# The banking in Turns 1 and 2 is 22 degrees and the banking in Turns 3 and 4 is 25 degrees.
# Ricky Craven won the 2002 Bud Pole Award at Rockingham for the Subway 400, with a lap in 23.468 seconds, 156.008 mph. Rusty Wallace is the event and track qualifying record holder with his lap in 23.167 seconds, 158.035 mph set on Feb. 25, 2000.
# Richard Petty won the first Winston Cup (then NASCAR Grand National) pole at Rockingham in 1965 with a lap of 30.965 seconds, 116.260 mph.
# There have been 13 different Bud Pole winners in the 16 Winston Cup races at Rockingham since 1995. Mark Martin (fall 1999, fall 1998 and spring 1997) and Jeff Gordon (spring 1995 and spring 2001) are the only repeat Bud Pole winners in the 16-race period.
# Mark Martin and Kyle Petty lead all active drivers with five Bud Poles each at Rockingham. Retired drivers Cale Yarborough and David Pearson also scored five poles at The Rock.
# Terry Labonte has four Bud Poles at Rockingham. Labonte swept 1985, captured his third straight in the spring of 1986 and then went 20 races before gaining his fourth Bud Pole at Rockingham in the spring of 1996 -- his second Winston Cup championship season.
# Matt Kenseth won the 2002 Subway 400 at an average speed of 115.478 mph (three hours, 27 minutes, 40 seconds). Bobby Labonte set the Subway 400 race record in 2000 at 127.875 mph while Jeff Burton established the track's 400-mile race record in 1999 at 131.103 mph (three hours, two minutes, 55 seconds).
# Curtis Turner won the first Grand National race at Rockingham, the American 500 in 1965 with a race speed of 101.943 mph. The Winston Cup race format at Rockingham was changed from 500- to 400-mile races in October 1995.
# As much as Michael Waltrip says he wants to win multiple races this season -- and as likely as it is, it's not apt to happen this weekend at Rockingham. Only three times in the 37-year history of the Subway 400 has the Daytona 500 winner gone on to win at The Rock in the spring, and only once in the schedule's current format where Rockingham follows Speedweeks by one weekend.
# Jeff Gordon did the feat in 1997, when he went on to win his second Winston Cup championship; and Richard Petty won at Daytona and Rockingham in 1971 and 1974, when the two events were split by the series' stop in Richmond, Va. Coincidence? In both years, Petty went on to win the Winston Cup championship, also.
# Working against Waltrip in this case is his career record at The Rock. In 34 races at the 1.017-mile oval, he has just three top-10 finishes, has finished 19th or worse in his last 10 races here and was 40th in the 2002 Subway 400.
# Despite his current lengthy winless streak, Rusty Wallace's five wins at North Carolina Speedway are the most of the 15 active drivers that have won here. Richard Petty is the career victories leader here, with 11. Although Wallace's most recent victory was the 1994 Subway 400 -- also his third straight Rockingham victory -- he continues to run up front. In the last 10 races at The Rock, Wallace has recorded seven top-10 finishes.
# In addition, Wallace should make his 600th career Winston Cup start in the Subway 400. He is 14th in all-time starts, just two behind 13th-ranked James Hylton.
# John Andretti is also in line to pass a career milestone, with his 300th career Winston Cup start coming into the Subway 400.
# Roush Racing teammates Mark Martin and Kurt Busch, who finished second and third, respectively, in the 2002 Winston Cup points are riding hot streaks coming into Rockingham that began at Martinsville Speedway last fall. Busch has scored six straight finishes of sixth or better; while Martin has scored six straight top-10 finishes. In last year's Subway 400, Busch finished 12th and Martin, 21st behind winning Roush teammate Matt Kenseth.
# Four drivers sitting in the top-10 in Winston Cup points after Daytona are seeking their first top-10 finish at Rockingham. Jimmie Johnson has two career starts here, Kevin Harvick has four and Robby Gordon eight. The fourth, Mike Wallace, has 10 career starts at The Rock but he also has no ride this weekend.
# Bobby Labonte has been rock-solid at Rockingham over the last eight races; scoring seven top-10 finishes in that time including his only Subway 400 victory in February 2000. Five of those seven top-10s were third or better.
# Including its fall race, the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400, Rockingham is riding a streak of eight different winners in its last eight Winston Cup races: Johnny Benson (November 2002), Matt Kenseth (February 2002), Joe Nemechek (November 2001), Steve Park (February 2001), Dale Jarrett (October 2000), Bobby Labonte (February 2000), Jeff Burton (October 1999) and Mark Martin (February 1999).
# Five drivers scored top-10 finishes in both Rockingham Winston Cup races last season, led by defending Subway 400 winner Matt Kenseth, who was eighth in the fall. Others include Bobby Labonte, third and seventh; Ricky Craven, fifth and ninth; Jeff Burton, sixth and fourth; and Jeff Gordon, seventh and fifth.
# Ricky Craven has scored 36 percent of his career top-five finishes at Rockingham. Craven has 14 top-five finishes in 216 Winston Cup starts, with five of those coming at North Carolina Speedway. The first of his three top-five finishes last season included a fifth-place in the Subway 400.
# No less than six drivers entered in the Subway 400 having five or more starts at The Rock have never led a lap here, including Dave Blaney (six races, best finish, ninth), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (six, 15th), Robby Gordon (eight, 11th), Jerry Nadeau (nine, fifth), Elliott Sadler (eight, 11th) and Mike Skinner (18, sixth, twice).
# Twenty percent of all races at North Carolina Speedway have been won from the pole position (15 of 75 events). Seventy-nine percent of the races have been won from starting positions within the top-10 (59 of 75). The top four starting positions have produced 44 victories.
# The most recent time a NASCAR Winston Cup victory was scored from the Bud Pole at Rockingham was by Jeff Gordon in the 1995 Goodwrench 500, the last 500-mile race at The Rock.
# Chevrolet leads all manufacturers in victories at Rockingham in the Modern Era of 1972 to the present. Chevrolet has 19 wins followed by Ford and Pontiac with 13; Buick and Dodge (five); Mercury (four); and Oldsmobile (three).
# The last victory at Rockingham by a Chevrolet was by Joe Nemechek in the 2001 Pop Secret 400; by a Dodge was by Richard Petty in the 1977 Carolina 500; by a Ford was by Matt Kenseth in the 2002 Subway 400; and by a Pontiac was by Johnny Benson in the 2002 Pop Secret 400.
# Junior Johnson leads the all-time car owner victories list at Rockingham with 14 wins, followed by Petty Enterprises (12), Wood Brothers (six) and Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing (four).
# The farthest back in the field that the winner of a Winston Cup race started at Rockingham was 30th by the late Neil Bonnett in the (spring) 1988 Goodwrench 500. The farthest back in the field that a race winner started under the 400-mile format was 28th by Bobby Hamilton in the (fall) 1997 ACDelco 400.
# In the 37 years of twice-a-year NASCAR Winston Cup racing at Rockingham, a sweep has occurred eight times: Richard Petty (1971 and 1976), David Pearson (1973), Cale Yarborough (1975 and 1980), Darrell Waltrip (1981), Rusty Wallace (1993) and Jeff Gordon (1998).
# Kyle Petty won three of the six races at Rockingham between March 1990 and October 1992, while driving for Felix Sabates. His best finish since is eighth in February 1994 and he has posted just two top-10 finishes in the 18 races since his last Rockingham victory.
# The format at Rockingham changed from 500 miles to 400 beginning with the fall race in 1995. In the 15 Winston Cup races here since that time, the driver that led the most laps won the race only three times: Bobby Labonte (2000 Dura Lube/Kmart 400), Joe Nemechek (2001 Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400) and Matt Kenseth (2002 Subway 400).
bron: nascar.com
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20-02-2003, 19:31
