2002 NASCAR Winston Cup's biggest surprises and disappointments

[Joe Fan]

Pleasant surprises:

Jimmie Johnson-won three races and finishing 5th in the point standings as a rookie. I kind of expected Ryan Newman to be up there but Jimmie was a real surprise.

Kurt Busch-winning 4 races and finshing 3rd in the final point standings--which was higher than two Roush teammates Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton. He looks to be a real contender for next year's Winston Cup Championship.

Jeff Green-finished 17th in the point standings. Who would think he would finish higher than his other Childress teammates Kevin Harvick (21st) and Robby Gordon (20th) in the final point standings?

Dave Blaney-finished 19th in the point standings driving that Jasper Engines Ford piece of junk. That is quite an accomplishment in this routinely backmarker ride.

Mark Martin-good to see one of the best overall drivers in the series back in top form. Losing the championship by 38 points (13 if you drop the stupid 25 point penalty) is nothing to be ashamed of.


Disappointments:

Bobby Labonte-teammate wins the Winston Cup and Bobby finished 16th in the point standings.

Richard Childress Racing-no Childress driver finished in the top 10 (or top 15 for that matter) in the point standings. You can't blame the Monte Carlo aero package as a rookie Jimmie Johnson driving a Monte Carlo was leading the point standings late in the season.

Robert Yates Racing-after having two drivers in the top five in last year's point standings, both Jarrett and Rudd were fortunate to finish 9th and 10th respectively this year.

Sterling Marlin-getting injured and unable to make a run for the championship.

[Lee Roy]

Surprises:

Rusty Wallace going 0-fer 2002.

Stewart winning the championship with 6 DNF's, when usually the champion has to have an almost flawless season.

Disappointments:

Dale Jr. finishing outside the top 10 in points.

[BootsOntheSide]

Biggest disappointment was Sterling missing out on the final challenge.

Surprise in general has been the showings of the young guns. Busch, Johnson and Newman in the Top 6, way ahead of most of the established star names like the Labontes, Jarrett and Rudd.

[Emfa]

Good call on Dave Blaney, Joe. He put that thing mighty close to the front a few times!

[429CJ]

Disappointment: Pontiac-field going thinner - again! PPI and Morgan McClure isn't much of a compensation.

[Roselady3]

Biggest Disappointments:
Jr not in the top 10.
Jeffie being in the top 10.
Harvicks dismal year.
Gibbs dropping Pontiac.
Both Labonte's being a non-factor all season.
RCR's over-all problems.

But of course- none of that really matters-----
As my dude won the championship!!!
WhooHoo!!
<<Jumping up & down with joy>>
Tony- You're the DUDE!
<<skipping & sreaming with delight>>
Show them that Attitude gets you places!
(How are you all going to deal with me?)

[RaceFanStan]

Originally posted by Roselady3
(How are you all going to deal with me?)

I'm going to sit back and laugh !

[jslone]

To me some of everything was the following;
Just about the whole of team Rousch(I think) was in the top 10
Both Labontes had a disappionting years(me thinks that Terry should call it a career)
No surprise in Harvick(that dreaded sophomore slump)
Petty Enterprises I thought had a good year as did Ricky Craven.

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by Emfa
Good call on Dave Blaney, Joe. He put that thing mighty close to the front a few times!

His car is appropriately the color yellow. When handed a lemon, Blaney made lemonade. He was able to make the field in all 36 events and finished ahead of: two RCR drivers (Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick); Petty's flagship #43 car driven by John Andretti; Jeremy Mayfield in an Evernham Dodge; a former Winston Cup champion in Hendrick machinery (Terry Labonte); the Woods Brother Ford driven by Elliott Sadler (who is getting promoted to the Yates #2 car) and both of Bill Davis's cars (#22 driven by Ward Burton and the #23. Note Bill Davis was the owner who released him.

[bcobbus]

Notreally the biggest surprise, but my favorite moment of the year by far was Johny Benson wiing his first race at Rockingham!

[Ax Slinger]

Originally posted by Joe Fan
Jeff Green-finished 17th in the point standings. Who would think he would finish higher than his other Childress teammates Kevin Harvick (21st) and Robby Gordon (20th) in the final point standings?

Well, I did. Kevin Harvick isn't as great as he thinks he is, after all, even Robby Gordon did better than he did. And Robby Gordon, well... He's Robby Gordon. If he could just drop his attitude and stop wrecking every other car he touches, he might actually make it in Winston Cup someday. But I still have my doubts about that...

[24thunder]

biggest surprises:Johnny Benson getting 1st win,His way!
Jeff Gordon going thru divorce & 31 race winless streak,still improving His best finishes at all of His(4)non-win tracks!
Rusty Wallace failing to win,was hoping that He'd keep that streak alive!
Kevin Harvick winning all the races(2)at Chicago.
Jeff Gordon winning all the races(2)at Kansas.
Bill Elliott winning back to back races(Pocono & Indy)!
HMS letting Jerry Nadeau go,a poor decision IMO!

biggest disappointments:Toni Stewart becoming Champion while on probation & only averaging 133.3 points per race,not even a Top 10 average finish!
Jeff Gordon leading most laps at Infineon Raceway when rear-end gear broke & took Him out of contention for the win!
Bill Elliott winning the MPD award for 16th time(enough already-imo)!

[Snapper Baz]

Biggest surprise, how well the BUSCH series was covered by Sat'tv station "Motors tv"...biggest dissapointment of the year...Eurosports coverage of the Winston Cup! You don't know how good you've got it Stateside boys & girls! Well Done Mr Stewart and Mr Johnson!!

[JoeGibbs2018]

Hey Thunder, it was actually Jerry Nadeau driving the Brawny 44 that led all those laps and nearly won at Infineon when the rear-end let go, and not Jeff Gordon.

Originally posted by 24thunder
biggest surprises:Johnny Benson getting 1st win,His way!
Jeff Gordon going thru divorce & 31 race winless streak,still improving His best finishes at all of His(4)non-win tracks!
Rusty Wallace failing to win,was hoping that He'd keep that streak alive!
Kevin Harvick winning all the races(2)at Chicago.
Jeff Gordon winning all the races(2)at Kansas.
Bill Elliott winning back to back races(Pocono & Indy)!
HMS letting Jerry Nadeau go,a poor decision IMO!

biggest disappointments:Toni Stewart becoming Champion while on probation & only averaging 133.3 points per race,not even a Top 10 average finish!
Jeff Gordon leading most laps at Infineon Raceway when rear-end gear broke & took Him out of contention for the win!
Bill Elliott winning the MPD award for 16th time(enough already-imo)!

[rustyfan]

Biggest Surprises
* Roush Racing coming back to form in a BIG way
* Jeff Burton not being part of the Roush comeback
* Jamie McMurray - need I say more?
* Jimmie Johnson's strong performance - his Busch career sure didn't indicate he would be this good
* Tony Stewart not being fired/sued/suspended/lynched, after all


Biggest Disappointments
* Rusty going winless - ARRRGGHHH... however, look out for him in 2003!
* Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s relatively poor season (though there was a reason for it, as it turns out)
* The overall performance of Richard Childress Racing
* Bobby Labonte's cr@p-luck season
* Sterling Marlin missing the end of the season due to injury
* Ricky Rudd's turbulent second half of the season
* Jeremy Mayfield


Most Pleasant
* Ryan Newman winning Rookie of the Year and the Winston (attaboy Newman!)
* Tony Stewart winning the Winston Cup Championship
* Jeff Gordon not winning the Winston Cup Championship
* Johnny Benson finally picking up that first elusive win
* Bill Elliott winning the Brickyard 400
* Joe Nemechek ending up in a good ride that he should do good with in 2003 (especially if the end of 2002 is any indication)


I'm sure I've forgotten something, but the above pretty much sums up my thoughts on 2002 - a truly memorable year for mostly all the RIGHT reasons as opposed to 2000 and 2001

Bring on 2003!

[24thunder]

Originally posted by JoeGibbs2018
Hey Thunder, it was actually Jerry Nadeau driving the Brawny 44 that led all those laps and nearly won at Infineon when the rear-end let go, and not Jeff Gordon.

Actually,Jerry Nadeau was driving the PEI Georgia-Pacific #44 car & yes He did break a rear-end gear with just over 2 laps to go for the win,however,Jeff Gordon also broke a rear-end gear after leading the most laps(31) in that race,also several other drivers suffered with rear-end gear failures due to a bad batch of parts!I think there were like a total of 5 rear-end gear failures that day(not sure of No.).

[JoeGibbs2018]

Your right about PEI Georgia-Pacific, I can't keep up with all the sponsor changes!! Thanks......All I can recall about that race is the end!! Thanks

[24thunder]

Originally posted by JoeGibbs2018
Your right about PEI Georgia-Pacific, I can't keep up with all the sponsor changes!! Thanks......All I can recall about that race is the end!! Thanks

No problem!That was a great race,of course I was disheartened after Jeff Gordon's bad luck,but when Jerry Nadeau(another 1 of My faves)in(at the time)a 1 race deal to replace Steve Grissom in the #44 car looked like He was about to win the race,I got really interested only to see Jerry also have touble & Ricky Rudd to go on to victory!I hated to see it for Jerry with only 1 recorded win at Atlanta in 2000 season,and another win snatched away at Atlanta in 2002 due to running out of gas on the last lap while holding a convincing lead! I sure hope that things improve for Jerry with the Army sponsorship!