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Top 10 stories of 2003

1. Goodbye Winston, hello Nextel

Hurt by a $246-billion settlement against the major tobacco companies and losing its place as a mainstream product, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco wanted out of its 33-year sponsorship association with NASCAR. Attempting to make the next leap beyond the South and into ripe markets in the Northeast and West, NASCAR was in search of the type of high-profile, politically correct imagemaker to further put itself in the mainstream.

It's hard to say if Nextel's 10-year, $700-million deal to become the title sponsor of NASCAR's premier stock car series will be as mutually beneficial as was Winston's, but it's an experiment both are eager to undertake. Comparing them might be unfair. Hundreds of millions of dollars of tobacco cash helped elevate NASCAR from a regional phenomenon to a national spectacle that earned major television contracts and packed sunburned crowds into grandstands from Homestead to Sonoma, Calif. The increased prestige lured champions from other world-respected leagues like former IRL champion Tony Stewart, who won a Winston Cup title in 2002.

Some young drivers did not associate "Winston" with anything other than stock car racing when they were children.

"I wasn't even here," said Jimmie Johnson, 28, of Winston's entry into the series in 1972. "But I can say that I wanted to be in Winston Cup all my life. Good or bad, I didn't realize that it was a cigarette brand. I thought it was what NASCAR was called."

NASCAR isn't the only racing series to be impacted by changing attitudes toward cigarettes and the diseases to which they contribute. Montreal lost its date on the Formula One schedule because a cigarette brand is a major series supporter and Canadian legislation bans the advertising of tobacco products. Montreal is back on the 2004 schedule pending a financial agreement involving different sponsorship. Times are changing and so is the nature of racing.

"It was a good run, but I suppose it was time to move on," said Richard Petty, NASCAR's first Winston Cup champion in '72.

Former NASCAR strongman Bill France Jr., son of the series' founder, anointed his 41-year-old son as the company's new chief executive officer in September. Brian France is outgoing, speaks the language of business and has high-minded goals for expansion.

A key player in NASCAR's $2.8-billion television contract, he has stated his goals as an expansion of NASCAR beyond its normal borders - possibly even to foreign countries - and increasing diversity.

France Jr. remains a powerful player in the shadows, but the new France appears to have much latitude.

France has made it a stated priority to spread NASCAR's product over more areas of the country, particularly into the ripe New York City market that it so covets. Developers have expressed interest in placing a track in the Pacific Northwest. The mountain west region is underserved and there has been a flirtation with Canada and Europe.

The problem is how to accomplish all this without undermining its core in the Southeast and alienating a fan base that grew up loving the sport, does not have to be sold on a new product and is unlikely to lose interest in five years. The transition has begun with Rockingham losing its fall race for 2004 and the Southern 500 moving from its traditional Labor Day date to the next-to-last race of the season.

Every area in the country seemingly wants races. Every track with pavement wants a NASCAR date - specifically the top series - because they are licenses to print cash. There are only so many race-able weeks in a year - about 40, says team owner Jack Roush - and drivers and teams are stretched thin already.

Paul Tracy began his 13th season in Championship Auto Racing Teams with a victory in the first Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and ended it with his first driving title. The year was as eventful for CART as it was for Tracy, but not nearly as uplifting.

Beset by money problems and with its once-mighty grip on open-wheel racing still loosening to the rival Indy Racing League, CART officials accepted a bid from a group called Open Wheel Racing, which included team owners Gerald Forsythe, Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Gentilozzi, to buy the outstanding stock in the circuit for a paltry 56 cents a share.

With the Securities and Exchange Commission continuing its process to approve the sale, CART released another dismal third-quarter report and declared that it would run out of funds and liquidate assets in mid December if the deal was not approved. CART stockholders cannot vote on whether to approve the sale until Dec. 18, so the league's situation appears grim.

That creates a major problem for organizers of the Feb. 20-22 St. Petersburg Grand Prix, which is scheduled to begin the CART season on downtown streets. It's hard to sell potential sponsors on a race that might not have a league to back it.

The wild card is the wealth and power of the three very rich men attempting to buy the league. The question remains, however, if they can resuscitate the league in time to save the St. Petersburg race.

When a disposable shaver brand decided it wanted to develop an advertising campaign with NASCAR, it opted for the "Young Guns," the generation of drivers that stormed the series a few years ago with its youth and success. Trouble is, the drivers assembled on stage for the announcement - Matt Kenseth, 31, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 29, Ryan Newman, 25, Kurt Busch, 25, Kevin Harvick, 27 - seem like absolute graybeards these days compared to the next evolution of the young, talented racer.

"I figured I better do this now," quipped Kenseth. "This might be the last time I get to be called young."

Call them the "Younger Guns" or what you will, but the next evolution is occurring right now. Youthful drivers have more access to top-flight equipment than ever and are using it to win. Brian Vickers became NASCAR's youngest champion when he won the Busch series title a month past age 20 and has a full-time Nextel Cup ride with Hendrick Motorsports next year. Kyle Busch, Kurt's 18-year-old brother, was racing in ARCA this season but has a full-time Busch Series ride next year, also with Hendrick, and could run a limited Cup schedule.

The youth movement is not limited to NASCAR. A record nine newcomers undertook a CART season last year, including rookie of the year and new Tampa resident Sebastien Bourdais.

Why all the kids?

"The team owners know they don't have to pay them," Tracy joked.

That's not to say the kids had all the fun. Terry Labonte, 47, provided one of the feel-good stories of the year when he ran off with the Southern 500 at Darlington. Labonte had not won since 1999. His four top fives and nine top 10s allowed him to finish in the top 10 in final points for the first time since 1998.

Bill Elliott, a target of retirement speculation much of the year, won the Rockingham fall race and would have taken the checkered flag Sunday at Homestead if not for a blown tire on the last lap. Elliott, 48, finished with eight top 10s in his final 12 races to place ninth in points.

Tony Renna was on the first day of his dream job when his IndyCar went airborne during a tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and crashed into the catch fence. Renna was one month from his 27th birthday, one month from marriage and a few months from embarking on his Indy Racing League career full time with the Chip Ganassi Racing team when he became the latest driver to die on the track.

Sure, race drivers are a high-spirited bunch, but anger appeared to be at a premium this season. More than a year of ill will between Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch escalated at Michigan when the veteran Spencer slugged the young and disliked Busch in the mouth after Spencer thought Busch insulted him. Busch was not the same after the incident. He won at Bristol, but his bump of Sterling Marlin blackened his public image even further and seemed to sap the joy completely from him. Spencer vs. Busch was the longest-running but not the only feud in NASCAR. Kevin Harvick tried to get at Ricky Rudd at Richmond when he believed Rudd sent him into the wall intentionally, and both crews drew suspensions in a melee that ensued when a member of Harvick's crew stomped on Rudd's hood.

Poor Matt Kenseth. Nobody was complaining about the points system last year when he won a series-best five races but finished eighth in the standings to champion Tony Stewart. Changing the way points are awarded was a hot topic, however, when he began running away with the title despite winning just one race. Ryan Newman earned a lot of respect for his eight wins and 11 poles, but Kenseth earned his first title, becoming just the third champion - the first since Benny Parsons in 1973 - to win just once.

NASCAR banned racing back to the flag and formalized the unwritten "gentlemen's agreement" after a pack of cars nearly ran down a stalled-out Dale Jarrett in September at New Hampshire. Now, the highest-scored car on the nonlead lap gets a lap back under caution.