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CNNSI.com's Stephen Thomas tackles three questions that matter to fans:

1	If Bill Elliott finishes 15th in the points, is the season a success?

Bill Elliott Craig Jones/Allsport With 11 races remaining in the 2001 season, Bill Elliott is 15th in the points standings. That's a far-cry from 21st, his finish each of the last two seasons and at least marginally better than 19th, the spot he occupied as recently as five races ago. In reality, if Elliott either remains where he is in the standings -- 27 points from 14th and 24 points in front of 17th -- or perhaps rises a notch or two, 2001 would have to be looked upon as a success. In the last five years, Elliott has finished 21st, 21st, 18th, eighth and 30th in points. Over that span, he had nine top-5 finishes and 16 other top 10s. Compare those numbers with what he’s put up in just his first year with Ray Evernham: three top 5s and four other top 10s; in the last five weeks, he has finished 19th, third, 24th, eighth and fourth (a period that corresponds roughly to the recent rule change made to the Dodge). “We’ve learned a lot lately,” Elliott said recently. “We’re sorting this stuff out. But, we’re getting better each week. It will come with time. The change to a new car with a new motor is pretty dramatic, [but], we’re taking it one step at a time. We’ve just got to keep working in the right direction.

2	In a twist, is the little guy getting bigger?

Brett Bodine David Taylor/Allsport Thanks to a one-race sponsorship deal, single-car owner Brett Bodine was able to field a second car at Bristol. Another small outfit, Morgan-McClure Racing, is trying to land another primary sponsor in an effort to add a second team. Though neither Brett nor his brother Geoffrey, who drove the owner’s second car, finished terribly well at Bristol (26th and 27th, respectively), they both qualified very well (20th and 13th); Kevin Lepage, the driver of Morgan-McClure’s only car, finished a very respectable 13th. Though each of those performances might, in their own way, offer some hope that there is still room for the little guy in NASCAR, it’s equally apparent that there is strength in numbers. How much might either organization benefit from the addition of a second team? Greatly, at least according to Larry McClure. “Having more money and a second team allows you to do more things more economically,” Larry McClure said. “You can run that second team more cheaply than you can the first. Another team would also allow you to try certain things that you can’t with just one; try more things with the engine or the chassis or the aero package. Also, with a second team, if one guy is complaining about something, but the other guy isn’t, you’re able to get to the bottom of problems a lot more quickly.” Morgan-McClure Racing has won 14 Winston Cup races in its lifetime, including the Daytona 500; Brett Bodine has won one, but none as an owner. If either organization is to survive and thrive into the future, expansion is the key.

3	As he continues to struggle, will Terry Labonte lead a lap in '01?

Terry Labonte AP Terry Labonte, he of the 21 career wins and two Winston Cup titles, remains the only driver who has raced all 24 races this season to not lead a lap. That’s right, the likes of Mike Wallace, Jason Leffler, Buckshot Jones and Stacy Compton have all led more laps than Labonte. In fact, of the 40 drivers listed in the Winston Cup’s weekly standings, Hut Stricklin (who has missed nine races) is the only other driver who has not led a lap. Labonte is obviously too good a driver to find himself in such dire straights; of course, that was what most observers said when this dubious streak was a mere 10 races old. Two-thirds of the way through the season and that is starting a little hollow. But it’s reaching a point in the season where it is beginning to appear that the only way Labonte will actually see any clean air is if for some inexplicable reason, 42 other drivers suddenly slam on their brakes …

 

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