Subway 400 Preview

Defending race champion Dale Jarrett has 12 top-five finishes in his last 16 starts at Rockingham. Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

 When: Sunday, Feb. 22
 Where: North Carolina Motor Speedway Rockingham, N.C.
 Race: No. 2 of 37 on the Nextel Cup circuit
 TV: FOX, 1 p.m. EST
 Laps: 393
 Track length: 1.017 miles
 Race length: 400 miles
 Qualifying record: Rusty Wallace, Ford, 158.035 mph, Feb. 27, 2000.
 Race record: Jeff Gordon, 128.423 mph, Nov. 1, 1998.

 • Qualifying: Ryan Newman wins pole
 • NASCAR.com: Sign up for TrackPass

Drivers to watch

Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Did the double last week, capturing the Daytona 500 on Sunday before taking the Busch race Monday; first in the series championship for the first time in his career; two-time Busch series champion had been as high as No. 2 in the championship, holding that spot for 19 race weeks last season; the Nextel Cup win was the 10th of his career and second championship-points victory at Daytona; last driver to win the Daytona 500 and the series title the same season was Jeff Gordon in 1997; has finished 33rd or worse four times in eight career starts at North Carolina Speedway and still is chasing his first top-10 finish at the 1.017-mile track; personal-best effort is 13th, which came in November.

Jeff Gordon -- Four-time NASCAR champion was in the chase for the title last year but finished fourth, 237 points behind champion Matt Kenseth; one of two drivers with three wins last year; in the last nine races of 2003, finished fifth five times and had two victories; was eighth last week at the Daytona 500; four-time winner at Rockingham, winning this event three times; has not been better than 15th in three of his last five starts at the track.

Kevin Harvick -- Placed fourth in the Daytona 500, matching his best finish in the race; was a career-best fifth in the series championship last season; never has finished among the top 10 at Rockingham in six career starts; best effort here was a 14th-place effort in 2001.

Dale Jarrett -- A disappointing season by his own standards in 2003, recording just one top-five -- a victory in this event; placed 20th or lower in 22 races; had only seven top-10s and earned just over $4 million; 1999 series champion was 10th at the Daytona 500 last week; has 12 top-five finishes in his last 16 starts at Rockingham.

Jimmie Johnson -- Produced a fifth-place finish at the Daytona 500 to extend the longest active streak for most consecutive weeks in the top 10 in the championship to 70, which ranks ninth in NASCAR's modern era; the only driver to spend all 36 weeks of last season in the top and finished second in the series; finished 28th or worse in his first two career starts at Rockingham but has notched a top-10 in his last two visits; was eighth at this event last season and was runner-up in the fall race.

Matt Kenseth -- Just one victory last year but was a model of consistency all season long and produced his first NASCAR championship; won at Las Vegas, finished fourth the following week in Atlanta and took over the series points standings lead for the balance of the season -- 33 consecutive races; clinched the title in the penultimate race at Rockingham; posted a series-leading 25 top-10 finishes and had only two DNFs; opened the new season with a ninth-place finish at the Daytona 500; has five consecutive top-10 results at Rockingham -- three of them have been top-fives, including a win at this event in 2002.

Bobby Labonte -- Overcame early problems at the Daytona 500 to finish 11th; the 2000 series champion had two victories last year, including the final event in Miami; driving for Joe Gibbs Racing for the 10th consecutive year; had 12 top-five finishes and 17 top-10s; also scored four pole positions for a career total of 26; placed eighth in the points standings; started 10th and finished 16th in the spring race at Rockingham last year.

Joe Nemechek -- Captured one of his three career wins at Rockingham in the fall of 2001 but has not cracked the top 20 in four starts since at the track; was sixth at the season-ending Daytona 500; driving full-time for MB2 Motorsports after competing for the team in the final four races of 2003; ranked among the top 10 just once last season, placing ninth at Darlington in March.

Ryan Newman -- Won the IROC event at the Daytona 500 last Friday for his first-ever victory in the four-race series; finished the main event 31st after his involvement in a backstretch accident -- a 12-car melee on lap 71; by way of his wins (8) and poles (11), the 2003 title could have been his, but some incosistency and bad results early in the season proved costly and he ended up just sixth; was 2002 Rookie of the Year; completed degree program in vehicle structure engineering at Purdue University.

Elliott Sadler -- Placed seventh at the Daytona 500 but is eighth in the series championship after Jeff Gordon claimed points for leading the race; in the top 10 since he was No. 10 after California in late April of last season; was ninth in this race last year at Rockingham -- his first and only finish among the top 10 in 10 career starts.

Tony Stewart -- Produced a runner-up effort last week at the Daytona 500; won the 2002 series championship; finished 20th in last season's Subway 400 but has registered top-10 finishes in six of his last eight starts at Rockingham; finished a personal-best fourth at Rockingham each of the last three years at this event.

Michael Waltrip -- Two-time Daytona 500 champion finished 38th Sunday after he was involved in an ugly 12-car crash, ending the race on lap 71 when his car flipped three times before landing on its roof; has four career wins; 2003 was his first multi-win season of his career.

Scott Wimmer -- Opened his rookie campaign with a third-place finish at the Daytona 500 -- the best effort by a first-year driver since Jeff Gordon placed fifth in 1993; ran full-time in the Busch Series last season; made one career start at Rockingham, starting 37th and finishing 26th in the fall race.

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