PHOTO: Nigel Kinrade, Nigel Kinrade Photography
SEASON IN REVIEW
South Boston, Virginia driver Ward Burton picked up his second LASTCAR Cup Series title in 2002, scoring three last-place finishes in thirty-six starts in a thirty-six-race season.
Burton was competing in his ninth season on the Cup Series tour and his seventh full season for Bill Davis Racing. The 2002 season began with a career high for both driver and team when Burton won the Daytona 500 on February 17, narrowly losing a thrilling drag race with Sterling Marlin to the final caution flag only to inherit the lead when Marlin illegally pulled his car’s fender under the ensuing red flag. It was also a tremendous thrill for crew chief Tommy Baldwin, who seven years later would go on to start his own single-car Cup Series team which, against all odds, would race its way into four consecutive Daytona 500 fields. The 2002 running of the 500 was also a rough day for fourth-year driver Tony Stewart, who scored the first last-place finish of his career when the engine on his #20 Home Depot Pontiac expired after just two laps. As the season played out, however, Stewart’s luck improved on the way to his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship. Burton’s season became a year of struggles, leading to his second LASTCAR Cup Series title in nine years.
The first of Burton’s three last-place finishes came at Fort Worth, Texas on April 8, where his #22 Caterpillar Dodge was taken out in a crash after 169 laps. The other two finishes came in consecutive races that September, both of them due to crashes: the MBNA All-American Heroes 400 at Dover, Delaware on September 22, where the wreck happened after 26 laps, and at the Protection One 400 at Kansas City, Kansas on September 29, where it occurred after five laps. Despite the win in the 500 and another at Loudon, New Hampshire on July 21, Burton finished just 25th in points, his worst showing since 1996.
Burton not only joined Junior Johnson, Derrike Cope, and Jeff Gordon as the only four Daytona 500 champions to win a LASTCAR Cup Series title, but became the first to win both in the same season.
Following another rough season in the #22 where he scored just four top-ten finishes in 2003, Burton left Bill Davis Racing to drive the #0 NetZero Hi Speed Chevrolets fielded by the same Gene Haas team that would become the Stewart-Haas Racing #14 team five years later. Burton’s season was again not as good as Stewart’s, however, as he came home 32nd in points with just three Top Tens. Burton didn’t race again until a three-race stretch for the struggling Morgan-McClure Motorsports team, which was still winless since Bobby Hamilton’s Martinsville, Virginia victory in 1998. After three finishes of 25th-28th, however, Burton and McClure obtained sponsorship from State Water Heaters, setting them up for a full-season run together in 2007.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Several lesser-known drivers scored the first last-place finishes of their Cup careers in the 2002 season:
Truck Series regular Randy Renfrow finished last in the only Cup Series start of his career at the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond, Virginia on May 5 when his #59 Price Motorsports Dodge broke an oil pump after 58 laps.
In the Pocono 500 at Long Pond, Pennsylvania on June 9, ten-time ARCA Series Champion Frank Kimmel finished last in the last of seven career Cup starts when his #46 Advance Auto Parts Ford overheated after eighth lap.
Stuart Kirby was just 21 years old in 2002, having made just a handful of starts in ARCA before his Cup Series debut the year before, where he finished 42nd in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Concord, North Carolina. 2002 saw him finish last in the bizarrely-colored #57 CLR Ford at the July 14 running of the Tropicana 400 in Joliet, Illinois when his rear end gave out after 124 laps. Kirby would make seven more Cup starts in 2005 and a few more in Busch, Trucks, and ARCA through the 2009 season.
In the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Concord, North Carolina on October 13, the night Jamie McMurray pulled an upset win in just his third career start, Jason Hedlesky finished last in the 863rd and final Cup Series points race start for longtime owner Junie Donlavey when his #90 Lucas Oil Ford fell out with handling woes after 31 laps. Donlavey’s team folded up in 2004. Hedlesky, like Andy Houston, now works as a spotter. Donlavey passed away at age 90 on June 9, 2014.
Jay Sauter - of the prolific Sauter racing family - scored four Truck Series wins in the first four of his five seasons, but made just two Cup Series starts in the 2002 season. Both starts came while sharing the #71 ride owned by Dave Marcis, who retired from racing after he finished next-to-last in that February’s Daytona 500, his 883rd and final start. Sauter finished last in the EA Sports 500 at Talladega, Alabama on October 6 when his #71 RealTree Camouflage Chevrolet was taken out in a crash after 46 laps.
Hideo Fukuyama was both NASCAR’s first Japanese driver and its first last-place finisher. Following his debut in the patriotic #66 Standing Together / World Berries Ford at Dover, Delaware on September 22, the 46-year-old Fukuyama finished last in the October 20 running of the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville, Virginia when the same car crashed after he completed 400 laps. Fukuyama would make just two more Cup Series starts in 2003, finishing last in his final start, the Dodge / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, California, where his #66 Kikkoman Ford broke the rear end after 68 laps. Fukuyama is currently a sports analyst in Japan.
In terms of the number of different last-place finishers, 2002 became the most competitive in NASCAR’s modern era (1972-present). 29 different drivers finished last over the 36-race schedule, edging the previous record of 28 set in 1993.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Ward Burton (3)
2nd) Andy Hillenburg, Sterling Marlin, Joe Nemechek, Tony Raines, Mike Wallace (2)
3rd) John Andretti, Johnny Benson, Jr., Dave Blaney, Geoffrey Bodine, Gary Bradberry, Todd Bodine, Stacy Compton, Hideo Fukuyama, Bobby Hamilton, Jason Hedlesky, Frank Kimmel, Stuart Kirby, Kevin Lepage, Ryan Newman, Steve Park, Randy Renfrow, Elliott Sadler, Jay Sauter, Ken Schrader, Morgan Shepherd, Mike Skinner, Tony Stewart, Hut Stricklin (1)
