u/GeoChallenge

2002 looked like it was going to be another solid season for Sterling Marlin but injuries said otherwise. He only accomplished 29 of 36 races and because of that fell out of the top 10 in points to 18th. Despite this he still had an average finish of 13.9, two wins, 8 top five's and 14 top 10s. Statistics most drivers in the field would love to have.

Unfortunately after Marlins accident, he seemed to never drive quite the same and his results would never match his 2001, 2002, and 1995 seasons. Marlin's best finish in the NASCAR Cup points was third two times. 2001 and 1995.

Bodine Racing began racing in the NASCAR Super Truck Series in 1995. Bodine drove ten races in the No. 7 Ford with Exide sponsorship, the same as his Cup car. He shared the ride with Dave Rezendes, who raced eleven times that season; together, they combined for fourteen top-ten finishes. Bodine's son Barry drove a second truck, the No. 07 Tanya Tucker Salsa Ford Martinsville, but he crashed out.

Dave Rezendes raced the No. 7 full-time in the 1996 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with QVC sponsoring. He had a very successful year with three victories and a sixth-place finish in points. Bodine and Barry drove the 07 in six races, but only had one pole and top-ten. Resendes showed he was a very talented driver, but unfortunately his time in the sport was short. He was let go from the team after two races in 1997 due to lack of sponsorship. He never found a stable ride after and quit his NASCAR career. That seems to be a story for another time.

Tammy Jo Kirk took over with Loveable as her sponsor, becoming the first full-time female driver on the circuit. She had a best finish of 11th, but was let go late in the season, and Barry Bodine finished out the season. The team closed in 1998 due to a lack of sponsorship.

Richard Petty ran by himself and won by himself but things changed in 1970 when Plymouth came up to Petty and said they wanted his team to run a second Plymouth Superbird. Petty obliged and was introduced to his new teammate, Pete Hamilton. The two would strike up a positive relationship together.

Maurice Petty would be the crew chief for Pete Hamilton in his time with Petty Enterprises. In his very first points race for the team, he would go on to win the Daytona 500 after a fierce battle with David Pearson. At the time it was the biggest upset victory in Daytona 500 history. Richard would finish 39th due to engine woes. Hamilton would go on to say, “I’m a young driver (age 26) with a lot to learn. Winning one race doesn’t prove you know it all.”

Pete Hamilton would go on to win three races that season including two wins at Talladega.

He would race a few more races again in 1971 with Plymouth but with Cotton Owens and win the Daytona Duels. He would retire from automobile racing at the end of the season. In total he would make just 64 Cup starts and pick up four wins. He would then go on to evelop a "Kit-Car" for Chrysler Corp. A weld-it-yourself Volare or Aspen late model stock car that any racer could order from Plymouth and Dodge dealers. He would later move to the Southeast from New England and become a car builder for local racers in the region.

After some starts in 2003 in ARCA and with NEMCO in the Busch Series, Kyle Busch signed with Hendrick Motorsports instead of a part-time schedule with Chance 2 Motorsports. He then began his first full-time Busch Series season, replacing Brian Vickers in the 5 Chevrolet, sponsored by Lowe's.

Busch earned his first pole at Darlington Raceway followed by his first win at Richmond in May. Busch won four more races in 2004, tying Greg Biffle for the most wins by a rookie (yet another Greg Biffle record broken in 2025), and finished 2nd in points behind champion Martin Truex Jr. Busch would win Rookie of the Year honors tying the bow on an extremely impressive rookie season in the NASCAR Busch Series.

For most NASCAR fans who live east of the Mississippi, drivers like Kasey Kahne put Washington on the map. Far from NASCAR country, isolated in the northwest corner of the contiguous United States, Washington beams bustling, forever green, natural, and notorious for rain showers. From the beautiful Pacific Blue to the towering peaks of the Cascades to the amazing cliffs of Dry Falls. This stunningly beautiful corner of the country was all new to the average NASCAR fan. Not only was it Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, Microsoft, Costco, UPS, Kenworth, Nordstroms, T-Mobile, Alaska Airlines, and Expedia, but now a young gun in blue eyed Kasey Kahne!

Kahne became an overnight sensation, gaining fans from all corners of the globe and especially gaining a following among women NASCAR fans.

His rookie season gave fans a lot to be excited for as he showed his chops early on and had many close calls with winning! Apart from his iconic red Dodge Dealers scheme, he also ran this vibrant Mountain Dew paint job which featured hues of green along with black. It was quite the eye catcher.

There's no beating around the bush. 2026 has been a down year for Haas Factory Team. Being a single car team is never easy, but it certainly has been extra tough for this team.

In 2025 they had two top 5s and seven top 3s. That's okay. They also had an average start and finish of 23.6.

Now 23 races into the 2026 season, things are very different. They've had no top 10 finishes and have seen declines in both their average start and average finish. The average start has dropped to 25.6 while the average finish has dropped at 25.1. these are the worst numbers Cole Custer has ever had in a full-time season. The biggest highlights were a 12th at Michigan and a 13th at Indianapolis so far. Another positive is that Cole Custer has only DNF'd once due to an accident. So Cole is keeping the car clean for the most part. They just don't have the speed most of the time.

This past week at Iowa, team owner Gene Haas said they would not be giving up or selling their charters. In fact he said they were disappointed by their results this year and they're going to work extra hard to try and improve things. They've invested a lot of money into Cup and they aren't just going to pull out. It'll be interesting to see how this team improves moving forward. It's always nice to root for an underdog.

Crazy how many years it took for Brennan Poole to get his first 1:64th scale diecast made. I guess we can say his first is making quite the colorful splash with Member 1st Federal Credit Union wrapped around his 2026 Chevy camaro. The credit union themselves is a very localized Pennsylvania-based company.

Just so you are aware, her sponsor on this car is Ramses, current day Durex. A condom manufacturer. What's proceed. 😁

Sherry Blakley only ever made one NASCAR attempt in the O'Reilly series. Which makes it even more strange that this diecast was ever produced by Racing Champions.

She "raced" in the All Pro Series and Goody's Dash Series starting in the mid-1980s, but there doesn't appear to be any statistics of her results. I can't find how many races she ran or for what team. It seems that data is lost or hidden pretty well. The only stat I can find is for the All Pro Series where it says she attempted one start at Pensacola but failed to qualify.

She attempted the Snowball Derby in 1990 and 1991, but failed to make the field for either race.

In 1994 she attempted an O'Reilly Series race at Charlotte but failed to qualify after wrecking during her attempt. Again what made it so interesting is that she had a very controversial sponsor. A deal with Ramses prophylactics in 1994. It's unknown if she had this sponsor prior to this race and it's also unknown which team she actually showed up with.

It's amazing how many unknowns there are to her and this car being produced. In a world where Racing Champions was afraid to show beer sponsors, but would willingly have this car produced. I assume this is her 1994 car that she attempted to qualify with but it's still just so weird this car was made. It never ran a race.

She passed away in 2011 at a young age. If anyone knows more about Sherry Blakley's racing career, share in the comments!

Stewart started the 2004 season by finished second in the Daytona 500. He and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both dominated the race, leading 156 laps overall (98 for Stewart).

Also this season at Sonoma, Stewart bumped into rookie Brian Vickers who would later spin Stewart out on lap 88. Stewart confronted Vickers after the race and threw a punch through Vickers' window. Stewart was fined $50,000, stripped of 25 driver & owner points, and put on probation for the rest of 2004.

Stewart's first win came at Chicagoland. During a mid-race restart, he turned race leader Kasey Kahne into the wall, which led to an altercation between his and Kahne's pit crews.

It was also this year where Tony Stewart dominated and won at Watkins Glen fighting off food poisoning and stomach cramps. Infamously he soiled himself in the car and turned his firesuit a shade of brown. Stewart declined a post race interview.

After it was all said and done, Stewart finished sixth in the Cup standings. But Stewart's 2004 wasn't done. In November, Stewart bought Eldora Speedway, a 0.500 mile high-banked clay dirt oval located in ohio. As of 2026, Tony Stewart still owns the track.

Those are just some of the wild and interesting stories that made up Tony Stewart's 2004 season.

Ever since they debuted this Lucas Oil scheme back in 2023, it has easily been one of my favorite schemes Kyle Busch ran at RCR. Something about it makes me nostalgic. It makes me think of 80s and 90s NASCAR paint schemes. I just absolutely love it and I'm so thrilled that this car was still produced. This is the last time we get this scheme with Kyle Busch on the door frame.

What will make this particular car so interesting in the future is that Kyle Busch was planned to drive it but he never did. So it's a car that never ran. A fantasy car.

He ran this scheme every year since 2023, but never ran the 2026 version in a points paying race.

Can't say that this is one of the better paint schemes out there, but I can say it is a unique color combination we don't see much on track. With McDonald's gone from 23/XI, Wallace now has Hardee's as his main fast food sponsor. Even better, Hardee's seems to be embracing their sponsorship even having special promotions that come with a Hardee's toy car. McDonald's didn't seem to do anything with their NASCAR sponsorship, something they used to be really good at in the 90s and into the 2000s. So as one brand leaves, we welcome another.

To all my fellow Carl's Jr people, we sadly seem to get no sponsorship on these cars. What a rip. 😆 Would make for a nice paint job though with the Carl's Jr colors.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that Elliot Sadler was always one of those drivers who felt like he left a lot in the tank. There was potential that was never fully met. Some of that potential was shown when he drove for the Wood Brothers. He drove for the organization for 4 years, 1999 to 2002. During those years he picked up a win at a difficult track, Bristol. He also finished third or better four times, which on the surface doesn't sound great but you have to remember the organization was not a powerhouse. This car was a 20th or worse car week in and week out. It only showed up for restrictor plate tracks. That's what makes his Bristol win all the more telling.

It was the 2001 Food City 500. 500 laps under the lights. The race didn't start good. Elliott Sadler qualified 38th with a provisional. They were about as far back as you can start. Not only that but he wrecked his primary car during practice and they had to use a backup. This win wasn't even intentional, if that even sounds right to you!

As a result of Harvick getting a flat, and Sadler having miscommunication issues with his crew, he stayed out, and somehow held the lead over John Andretti for the win.

Elliott Sadler's win for the Wood Brothers was not only Sadler's first win in the Winston Cup Series but also the Wood Brothers first since 1993, and the last until the 2011 Daytona 500 10 years later.

In fact this finish propelled him to 9th in the NASCAR Winston Cup points. This wouldn't last long as the team would start to have a terrible finishes week after week. But it did show us a glimpse even if not intentional. There was so much working against him that weekend from the poor qualifying, the backup car, and they somehow backed into a win.

I'm surprised that Denny Hamlin's 2025 AM/PM Toyota Camry doesn't have any ARCO badging on it since this is the store attached to all ARCO gas stations. Such a good looking scheme that I'm glad they came back to sponsor other JGR cars in 2026! If we can't have beers sponsors or tractor and hardware store companies competing against one another, maybe we can get gas station convenience stores competing against one another in NASCAR. 😁

I actually have nothing written up tonight. Here are some photos of Josh Berry's Motorcraft Ford Mustang.

The car picture is Kurt Busch's 2010 Miller Lite Dodge Charger.

Whenever somebody asks me about how much time Kurt Busch spent with Roush Racing compared to Team Penske, I always think he spent more time at Roush. Well the fact of the matter is, he spent 6 years at Roush and 6 years with Penske. And equal amount of time and fruitful at both organizations.

Kurt won 10 races in 6 years with Penske, winning at least one race every year! Four of the years he won multiple races.

Statistically his best season with Penske was in 2009 where he finished 4th and points grabbing two wins, 10 top fives and 21 top 10s. His low point was 2008 where he finished 18th in points with one win, five top fives and 10 top 10s.

In 2011, Kurt Busch switched over to the 22 Dodge while Brad Keselowski took over the number two. In Kurt's final season with the team, he managed two wins, 8 top fives and 16 top 10s.

Kurt's time with Penske wasn't all Penske perfect. He had clashes throughout his career with the team, other drivers, and even media members. It was his attitude that many feel led to him being released by Roger Penske at the end of the 2011 season. His release left him forced to go to Phoenix Racing. He had earned a reputation for being difficult to deal with and being a hot head.

He had two great opportunities with Roush and Penske, but Phoenix Racing is where he would eventually rise again.

1997 was a downgrade from 1996 and 1998 was a further downgrade from 1997. Ricky Rudd was seeing the second year of his mid career decline.

They started off the season very poorly with only three finishes of 20th or better in the first 11 races. In fact, the first two races of the year were back to back sub 40th finishes. He finished 42nd at Daytona and last place at Rockingham.

Rudd always liked Dover and got his first top 10 of the season in the 12th race of the year. Sadly it didn't lead to better finishes as in the next seven races, they finished 25th or worse in five of them. 30th or worse than four of the races!

Rudd's best performance was a four-race stretch between Watkins Glen and New Hampshire where he got all top 15 finishes including two top 10s.

The biggest shock of the Year came at Martinsville where Rudd ended up winning the race! This win would come at a cost though as Rudd memorably gave his post race celebration interview while laying down with an oxygen mask to his face. The race was extremely hot and he received burns all over his body.

It was a very poor season where he saw the highest of high with that win, but at the same time seem to be punished for it with the burn injuries. By the end of the season they had an average finish of 23rd with one top five, and only five top 10s. Up till that point, it was the worst of his career since 1980.

Has the new millennia got closer, Rudd and his team hoped 1999 would be the turnaround season they had been looking for.

The year is now 2000 and Ford is rolling out their new Ford Taurus design. Dale Jarrett and Yates Racing or coming off a stellar 1999 which saw them win the NASCAR Winston Cup title! He did so in possibly one of the most consistent fashions in NASCAR history. He had a stunning 24 top 5s and 29 top 10s. He finished in the top five more than he didn't. He had an average finish of 6.8. Absolutely insane numbers. Would he be able to defend his title?

Things started out strong as Dale Jarrett won the 2000 Daytona 500 in a stunning statement to critics and fans. It would be his third Daytona 500 win. He followed it up with a fifth at Las Vegas and a top 10 in the third race of the year. He had a poor run at Atlanta but made up for it with a runner-up at Darlington. After Bristol and Texas, he had a solid streak of the top five and top 10 finishes including five top fives in a row. In fact from California to Autumn Darlington, Jared had 15 finishes of 9th or better. He was on an absolute rule including a second place at summer Daytona.

After that they had a few finishes of sub 30th followed by some mid top 20 finishes that hurt them in the point standings. As the season came to a close they found themselves fourth in points. They had a lot of strong finishes throughout the year but too many finishes of 20th or worse.

In full, Dale Jarrett would get two wins this season and have 15 top 5s and 24 top 10s. It's crazy to think that in his championship year he had as many top fives as he had top 10s a year later.

The car pictured is Dale Jarrett's 2000 Ford Quality Care Ford Taurus

The car pictured is Matt Kenseth's 1999 DeWalt Chevy Monte Carlo He ran in the Busch Series (O'Reilly Auto Parts Series). It may surprise some to see his iconic black and yellow DeWalt paint scheme not on a Ford. The Chevy was under the team banner of Reiser Enterprises owned by Robert Reiser, AKA Robbie Reiser. The very man who would become Matt Kenseth's crew chief and win a championship with him.

Robbie hired Kenseth to fill in for for an injured driver In 1997. The results blossomed and they excelled together. He would take over the number 17 car for the rest of the season. 1998 would be his first full-time season and he would rocket out the gate winning the second race of the year. He would win two more races that season and finished second in points.

In 1999 he would win four races and finish third in points. He was already making one off starts in the Cup Series and things transitioned in 2000.

In 2000, Jack Roush hired Kenseth and Reiser, as well as their entire Busch team to run full-time in Winston Cup. They rapidly moved up the final points each year. In 2003, Kenseth and Reiser won the final Winston Cup championship as driver/crew chief. Kenseth and Reiser remained together from 2000 to 2007, together winning 16 races.

Chip Ganassi Racing revealed this McDonald's Throwback for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway. The race was held on May 9, 2021. The throwback was to the McDonald’s car that Hut Stricklin wheeled for team owner Junior Johnson back in 1993.

Ross Chastain started the race 18th and ended up finishing 15th in a rather uneventful run. He finished two laps off the pace. Martin Truex Jr was the winner of the race.

2000 was a brand new start for Ricky Rudd as he joined Yates Racing after 6 years with his own team. Yates would do a lot of the background work that Rudd had to do before, and now Rudd could focus on racing. His performance increased instantly.

Although he still did not win any races, he did have two poles and finished fifth in the points standings, a 26-spot improvement over the previous season when he finished a career low 31st for a full-time season. On top of that he picked up 12 top 5s and 19 top 10s. Is average finish improved to 11.5 compared to 26.2 this season before.

The new millennium looked promising for Ricky Rudd and the Yates Racing.