| | CONCORD, N.C. -- In a lot of ways, this was supposed to be the season of change for NASCAR. It was labeled "NASCAR 2000" by the sanctioning body, and the monicker was to lead the charge into the 21st Century like a battle flag
raised high above an armored brigade.
Two manufacturers came loaded with new variations of old models and
another -- Dodge -- sat waiting for their Intrepid to come to life on the floor of Ray Evernham's headquarters near Charlotte.
|  | | Dale Earnhardt's narrow victory over Bobby Labonte in Atlanta jumpstarted a sluggest first-quarter start to NASCAR 2000. |
NASCAR came to Daytona with rules for competition which it thought would
better the sport. It came with infamous Section Four, which would
eventually garner mass media coverage of a mass media uprising.
Two months later, the Chevy has changed, the rules have changed and
Sectionus Fourus has gone the way of Tyranosaurus.
NASCAR's future, though, and that "NASCAR 2000" logo are alive and well
-- thanks to parity, big money and big plays.
The Parity
Little can be said in defiance of NASCAR's efforts to level the playing field in Winston Cup racing. Aside from the Ford feast at Daytona -- a top-five Taurus sweep -- the remaining eight races have been about non-partisan competition.
Of the nine different winners in nine different races -- a Winston Cup record to start a season -- four have driven Fords, three in Chevrolets and two have been won behind the wheel of a Pontiac. A rookie, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has even managed to crack into the win column.
"I think each year it's going to get tougher and tougher, and this year seems to be
one of those years where it's going to be extremely hard to see somebody get
into double-digit wins," says Jeff Gordon, ye of the 13-win season in 1998.
In light of these recent developments -- and, for the first time in many moons -- the talk of a dominant manufacturer in Winston Cup racing has subsided. There is the occasional whimper, but the season-opening storyline has been put on the back
burner.
Also put to rest has been the notion of NASCAR's common templates. The idea, dubbed "aero-matching" by the sanctioning body, was supposed to stop the bickering amongst drivers of different makes and models. It came in like a lion, and,
well, went away like a lamb.
Parity has silenced the masses.
Maybe things aren't completely equal now. The nine who've claimed wins in 2000 appear to be the dominant nine cars. Of that group, eight of them hold down the first eight positions in the Winston Cup standings. Only Earnhardt Jr. is
absent from the upper tier.
With 45 top-five finishing positions available in the first nine races, the eight at the
top have managed to snare 31. Bill Elliott (2) and Tony Stewart (3) are the
only other drivers with more than one top-five finish this year.
Statistically speaking, the record string of different winners is in jeopary of
reaching double-digits.
The Money
If money talks, then Dale Jarrett's in a position to fillibuster.
First quarter earnings are in for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, and Jarrett's
revenue is exceeding even the highest earnings estimates. Thus far, Jarrett
and car owner Robert Yates have walked -- no, run -- to the bank with over
$3.02 million.
In a NASCAR season that's being shaped on the proposition of equality and sharing of the wealth, nobody's Jarrett's equal in the money market. The reigning Winston Cup champ kicked off his year with a No Bull 5 win in the
Daytona 500 and was rewarded with prizes in excess of $2 million.
Thank you, R.J. Reynolds.
For the whopping intial offering that Jarrett received at Daytona, he has been able to average $336,890 per start in the 2000 season.
Of the $29,869,221 that have been awarded to 53 different drivers this year, Jarrett
has won slightly more than 10 percent.
That's not to say that poverty has stricken the remainder of the entrants in the Winston Cup arena. Five others have topped the million-dollar mark in the season's first nine races with Jeff Burton tops amongst them. He, another
recipient of the No Bull 5 Millon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, is hot on Jarrett's heels with $2.87 million.
Points leader Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott have also topped the million-dollar plateau in only two months of competition, thanks in large part to strong showings in the Daytona 500 -- the six
millionaires finished 1-thru-6 in the "Great American Race."
Two lucky fans -- those partnered with Jarrett and Burton at the No Bull 5 races -- also reached the million-dollar mark before Bill Clinton rolled his final Easter Eggs on the White House lawn. Forty-seven other drivers did not.
To put Jarrett's astonishing 2000 figures into perspective, take a look at last season's final money numbers: Martin won two races and finished third in the points standings, claiming $3.5 million along the way. Tony Stewart, thrice a winner
in 1999, won only $3.2 million over the course of the entire season. And, Jarrett
himself won the championship, $6.6 million in earnings, and averaged only
$184,711 per race for his efforts.
The Big Play
When NASCAR needed a hail-mary in March, Dale Earnhardt went long. He juked the safety -- teammate Mike Skinner -- and toyed with the corner -- Bobby Labonte -- to silence NASCAR's competition critics.
After a snoozer and Daytona, a strategical battle at Rockingham and an umbrella uprising at Las Vegas, Earnhardt put the muscle and close-quarters action back into stock car racing with a 2-foot win over Labonte at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Just when the shiny action appeared to be tarnishing on the facade of Casa NASCAR, Earnhardt rode in on a black-and-silver sander and saved the day.
Earnhardt, NASCAR's rolling highlight reel, turned a season of controversy into a suddenly-booming season of suspense. His quest for an eighth championship and Martin and Labonte's search for a first have set the stage for NASCAR Spring
2000.
Phil Furr, a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C., writes a weekly auto-racing column for ESPN.com.
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