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Cup countdown
Looking ahead as the season enters the backstretch
Posted: Tuesday September 10, 2002 1:05 PM
Twenty-six races down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Sterling Marlin has his first Winston Cup championship.
Ditto Mark Martin. Or Jimmie Johnson.
Jeff Gordon owns a points trophy for each finger. Wait, he gave up the middle one so he could give that finger to Brooke.
Tony Stewart jumps to the NFL. If you saw Monday Night Football, the Steelers could use some folks who know how to push people around.
Twenty-six down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Rusty Wallace has at least one victory in his 17th consecutive season, tying Richard Petty for the all-time record.
Bill Elliott revels in his first top-10 points finish since 1997.
Matt Kenseth more than quadruples his career wins total. He has four this year after posting only one in 76 career starts entering 2002.
Ricky Rudd exits Robert Yates Racing with the class he should have been shown.
Ryan Newman becomes as well known as fellow Purdue alums Orval Redenbacher, Neil Armstrong or even Kermit the Frog, who was named for a professor of philosophy at Purdue University. Theodore Kermit Scott grew up in Leland, Miss., with Muppet creator Jim Henson, who borrowed Scott's middle name for his most famous creation
Twenty-six races down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Dale Jarrett, at last, drives the truck.
Kurt Busch becomes only the fourth driver in Cup history to win more than $2 million in his first two full seasons.
Jeff Burton's crew chief swap is a harbinger of things to come in 2003.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins at least two races for the third consecutive year. Anything less and the folks at MTV will reconsider airing that all-access Cribs episode again.
Michael Waltrip celebrates in Victory Lane at a track less than 2 1/2 miles long.
Twenty-six races down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Ricky Craven sets a personal high with eight top-10s in one year.
Jeff Green proves that it's so easy, no wonder he's still employed.
Bobby Labonte wins two or more races for the fifth year in a row.
Dave Blaney gets a gig with American Express. It's the only way fans will recognize him.
Kevin Harvick is more than a pretty wife. DeLana has gotten more TV time this year than her famous hubby. Then again, she's better at PR than he is, too.
Twenty-six races down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Kyle Petty exceeds $2 million in earnings for the first time in 22 full seasons.
Robby Gordon continues to average top-20 starts ... and finishes out of the top 20.
Terry Labonte finishes ahead of his brother in points for the first time since 1998.
Ward Burton has the worst points finish for a Daytona 500 winner in the past 10 years. However, he won't pass his brother in the standings.
Elliott Sadler gives the Wood Brothers a victory in consecutive years for the first time since 1986-87.
Twenty-six races down, 10 to go, and then we'll know if ...
Jimmy Spencer moves into the top 25.
B. Duane Cross is a senior producer for CNNSI.com.
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