Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Foods - Raybestos® Rookie Notes

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIES OF THE YEAR FEATURE FOR THE OCTOBER 10 BANQUET 400 NASCAR NEXEL CUP SERIES RACE AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY.

Former Raybestos® Rookies of the Year Ricky Rudd (1977) and Sterling Marlin (1983) share comments on their rookie season and on the 2004 Raybestos® Rookie class.

RICKY RUDD, #21 MOTORCRAFT FORD: (Note: Rudd won Raybestos Rookie of the Year driving cars for a team owned by his father, Al Rudd. In 25 starts, he scored one top-five, 10 top-10 finishes, and won $68,448.) "We worked really hard as team. My Dad owned the team and my brother worked on it, my sister, everyone involved. Winning Raybestos® Rookie of the Year was what motivated us that year. We ran the whole season with I think maybe one racecar and we ran all but about four or five races that year. Our goal was to compete and try to and win the rookie of the year and that was tough year because you had MC Anderson. Sam Sommers drove for the team. It was a very big, financed team and Ronnie Hopkins Sr. was the chassis guy so you know what we were up against. We were a bunch of guys working out of the junkyard trying to beat them. The odds were stacked against us but a lot of hard work, dedication, and sacrifices and we were able to do it. I still think about that year quite a bit but I don't think I would want to relive it. It was a tough year but it was a fun year." WHAT DO YOU THINK WINNING RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR MEAN TO A YOUNG DRIVER'S CAREER? "It's creditability. It's a lot of creditability when you say that you are a former NASCAR Raybestos Rookie of the Year. It's prestige and that's why we went after it. There was a check involved and at the time I think it was $10,000 but the big thing was the prestige. Using that on your resume to help hopefully attract a sponsor at the time was what we were after." WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS YEAR'S CLASS? "There's a lot of talent. It's a tough deal when you've got a lot of guys coming in at one time. When I ran for rookie of the year it started off with a big class of guys, some really good guys. After about four or five races a lot of them dropped out. They didn't have the finances to continue and it came down to about three people: Sam Sommers, Janet Guthrie, and myself. She was a very talented driver. Sam Sommers and the MC Anderson bunch was the tough one. Comparing that then to now, now there is a large depth of guys that are coming into it with a lot of experience from other forms of racing. There's not a one of those guys if I owned a car I wouldn't want them to drive for me. They're all talented." DUE TO THE PERFORMANCE OF DRIVERS LIKE RYAN NEMMAN AND KEVIN HARVICK, ARE THERE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR RAYBESTOS ROOKIES? "The only thing that the rookie of the year doesn't say is that it doesn't say who ran second and who ran third in a given year. By all rights, the year that I won it, I probably shouldn't have won it. We were up against sort of a stacked deck that wasn't a really fair playing field. We were able to overcome those hurdles but then you turn around and take guys that have come in their rookie year and won races, sometimes you're not comparing apples to apples. Sometimes the equipment that some of the guys who didn't win rookie of the year didn't measure up to the guys that did. That's the only thing that I don't like about the program. There's no true leveling of the field when you start trying to determine who's rookie of the year. It's based on performance and where you finished. Sometimes the guy who finishes second maybe is sometimes more deserving than the guy that won it but his equipment wasn't there for him to be able to capitalize on that."

STERLING MARLIN, #40 COORS LIGHT DODGE: (Marlin won Raybestos Rookie of the Year driving for car owner Roger Hamby. In 30 starts, he scored one top-10 finish and won $143,564.) HOW BIG WAS IT FOR YOU TO WIN RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? "It was big. It was a deal when I'd won a lot of races in Nashville and had raced all over the southeast. You couldn't afford to go Cup racing yourself and he [Roger Hamby] called. It was an opportunity to go get some experience on the tracks and go run. When he done it he said 'We've got $125,000 to run the whole year on. We'll give it a shot' and I wouldn't take nothing for it. We drove every race but one and had a big time all year. I'd been around Cup racing forever but I'd just run spot races. I was glad to get a chance to run all the races and go all over the country and get your name out there. The next year I drove a few races for him and finally got hooked up with Hoss Ellington in '86 and got into a good car and showed what we could do. That's how it started." HOW PRESTIGIOUS DO YOU THINK WINNING RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? "I think it used to be bigger to me, I don't know. It's a good thing. There's been some guys win it and quit in two or three years and then had guys go on to be Winston Cup champions. It's just weird how it played out." COMMENTS ON THIS YEAR'S CLASS. "To get to this level you've got to have some pretty good talent. Somebody has got to notice you and give you a chance to see what you can do. Kasey [Kahne] has really surprised me this year. Bill and that team really got the car going good last year and he stepped right in it and hadn't missed a beat. Brian has had some good qualifying runs. It happens every year. You're going to have a couple of rookies and this year you have five so you never know." WITH THE SUCCESS OF RECENT ROOKIES, DO YOU THINK THE LEVEL OF EXPECTATIONS ARE UNREASONABLY HIGH? "It depends on the equipment that you step in. Some guys step right out of a Busch car right into the best equipment, the best talent pool as far as engine builders and chassis guys that money can have. Some guys make the right step and other guys might step over here and it might not be quite as good. They're going to finish 10th where the other guys might be running top-three, four, or five every week. It's just who you get with."

NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDERS - NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS

DRIVER              POINTS
Kasey Kahne 292
Brian Vickers 199
Scott Wimmer 197
Brendan Gaughan 196
Scott Riggs 189 
Johnny Sauter 123

HIGHEST FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIES BY RACE

EVENT               HIGHEST FINISHING ROOKIE
Daytona 500             Scott Wimmer, third
Subway 400 Kasey Kahne, second
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Kasey Kahne, second
Golden Corral 500 Kasey Kahne, third
Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 Kasey Kahne, 13th 
Food City 500 Scott Wimmer, 13th 
Samsung/RadioShack 500 Kasey Kahne, second
Advance Auto Parts 500 Brian Vickers, 13th  
Aaron's 499 Brendan Gaughan, 13th 
Auto Club 500 Brendan Gaughan, sixth
Chevy American Revolution 400 Brian Vickers, eighth
Coca-Cola 600 Kasey Kahne, 12th
MBNA 400 "A Salute to Heroes" Scott Riggs, fifth
Pocono 500 Brian Vickers, 13th 
DHL 400 Kasey Kahne, second
Dodge/Save Mart 350 Brian Vickers, 22nd 
Pepsi 400 Brian Vickers, ninth
Tropicana 400 Brian Vickers, 14th 
Siemens 300 Kasey Kahne, eighth
Pennsylvania 500 Kasey Kahne, third
Brickyard 400 Kasey Kahne, fourth
Sirius at The Glen Kasey Kahne, 14th 
GFS Marketplace 400 Kasey Kahne, fifth
Sharpie 500 Scott Riggs, 17th 
Pop Secret 500 Kasey Kahne, second
Chevy Rock and Roll 400 Kasey Kahne, 24th 
Sylvania 300 Kasey Kahne, fourth
MBNA America 400 Brendan Gaughan, 22nd 
EA Sports 500 Brendan Gaughan, fourth