BNS: Thompson: Notes of Interest

Notes of Interest

* Martin Truex Jr. dominated the 2001 edition of the Pepsi Racing 150, taking the lead from Mike Olsen at the one-third mark and never relinquishing it. Olsen's second place was remarkable, considering he crashed hard in practice. Jamie Aube, Bryan Wall, and Dale Quarterley completed the top five. Ted Christopher started on the pole and led the first 20 laps, but faded to tenth.

* Mike Olsen won the Bud Pole in 2001 with a clocking of 20.496 seconds at 109.776 mph. Thanks to a new track surface, that peeled nearly a full second off Dave Dion's year-old track record.

* The Pepsi Racing 150 will mark the 20th appearance of the Busch North Series at Thompson International Speedway. Of the previous 19 races, Ricky Craven and Mike Stefanik have each won three, Bobby Dragon, Kelly Moore, and Jerry Marquis have two wins each, and Ken Bouchard, Mike McLaughlin, Robbie Crouch, Andy Santerre, Jeff Fuller, Tracy Gordon, and Martin Truex Jr. have each visited victory lane once. Dragon's two victories were the first two Busch North races at the track in 1988 and 1989.

* The Pepsi Racing 150 will mark the 100th Busch North Series start for both Tracy Gordon and Dennis Demers.

* Thompson International Speedway opened in 1940 and has always been a 5/8 mile paved oval. It is the oldest track in New England built specifically for auto racing and one of the oldest speedways in the country which does not trace its ancestry back to some other entertainment facility- fairgrounds, horse track, amusement park, etc. Thompson's regular NASCAR Weekly Racing Series presented by Dodge program is run on Thursday night; it was racing at Thompson that Ted Christopher won the 2001 NWRS national championship.

STAT OF THE WEEK

After eight events, the top five drivers in the Busch North Series standings are separated by 55 points. For comparison, in 2001 the margin from first to fifth after eight races was 130 points; in 2000, it was 137 points; and in 1999, it was 268 points. The 1999 and 2000 statistics do not include the combination races which disappeared from the schedule in 2001.

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