NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDERS – NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES
Reed Sorenson was the Raybestos® Rookie of the Race in the April 2 DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Sorenson finished 12th and took top Raybestos® Rookie honors for the second time this season and twice in the last three races.
J.J. Yeley led the Martinsville race once for one lap. He is first Raybestos® Rookie to lead a lap in the spring race at Martinsville since Kasey Kahne in 2004. Yeley is the only first-year driver to lead a lap in two short-track races this season.
Clint Bowyer holds a five-point advantage over Yeley (60-55) in the Raybestos® Rookie standings entering the April 9 Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
DID YOU KNOW? Only once in 10 races at Texas has a Raybestos® Rookie won the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first career NEXTEL Cup Series win by 5.920 seconds over Jeff Burton in 2000. Earnhardt Jr. led six times for 106 laps, more than any other driver.
Earnhardt Jr. and Kahne (2004 spring race) are the only Raybestos® Rookies to lead the most laps in a NEXTEL Cup race at Texas.
DID YOU KNOW? A Raybestos® Rookie has finished in the top-10 at Texas in six of the past eight races: 1999 (Tony Stewart, sixth, and Elliott Sadler, 10th), 2000 (Earnhardt Jr., first), 2001 (Kurt Busch, fourth, and Kevin Harvick, seventh), 2002 (Jimmie Johnson, sixth), 2003 (Jamie McMurray), and 2004 (Kahne, second).
DID YOU KNOW? TWO or more Raybestos® Rookies have finished in the top-10 just twice in 10 previous races at Texas:
1999: Stewart (sixth) and Sadler (10th)
2001: Busch (fourth) and Harvick (seventh)
TWO or more Raybestos® Rookies have led the same Texas race just once: (Earnhardt Jr. and Scott Pruett in 2000).
The best start by a Raybestos® Rookie at Texas is third by Kahne in 2004.
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE HISTORY
The way to the NASCAR NEXTEL championship is to win Raybestos® Rookie of the Year. Since 1979, SIX Raybestos® Rookie of the Year drivers have gone on to win a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup title: Dale Earnhardt (1979), Rusty Wallace (1984), Alan Kulwicki (1986), Jeff Gordon (1993), Tony Stewart (1999, 2005) and Kenseth (2000).
At least one Raybestos® Rookie has won a Bud Pole in each of the
last 10 years (1996-2005). There has been a first-time Bud Pole winner in each of the last 19 years (1987-2005).
RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER POINT STANDINGS
DRIVER POINTS
Clint Bowyer 60
J.J. Yeley 55
Denny Hamlin 53
Martin Truex, Jr. 52
Reed Sorenson 51
David Stremme 40
Brent Sherman 30
HIGHEST-FINISHING RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE BY RACE
EVENT HIGHEST-FINISHING ROOKIE
Daytona 500 Bowyer, sixth
Auto Club 500 Yeley, eighth
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Hamlin, 10th
Golden Corral 500 Sorenson, 10th
Food City 500 Hamlin, 14th
DIRECTV 500 Sorenson, 12th
