Winston Cup

FAST FACTS
Event	UAW-GM Quality 500
Site	Concord, N.C.
Schedule	Thursday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 7 p.m.); Saturday, race (NBC, 7:30 p.m.)
Track	Lowe's Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns).
Distance	500 miles, 334 laps.

Last race: Ryan Newman's gas gamble paid off with another win, at the Banquet 400 in Kansas City, Kan. Newman drove the final 117 laps on one tank of fuel and held off a challenge from Bill Elliott to win his series-leading eighth victory of the season.

	Drivers to Watch
	Check out a short list of drivers to keep an eye on this weekend at Lowe's.

Last year: Subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray became the quickest driver in NASCAR modern-day history to win a race when he took the UAW-GM Quality 500.

Fast facts: Matt Kenseth has a comfortable 259-point lead over Kevin Harvick in the championship standings. ... Brian Vickers is expected to make his Winston Cup debut in this race. The 19-year old is currently third in the Busch standings. ... Five polesitters have won the race, but none since Harry Gant in 1982.

Next race: Subway 500, Oct. 19, Martinsville, Va.

Busch Grand National

FAST FACTS
Event	Little Trees 300
Site	Concord, N.C.
Schedule	Thursday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 4:30 p.m.); Friday, race, 8 p.m. (Saturday, TNT, Noon, tape).
Track	Lowe's Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns).
Distance	300 miles, 200 laps.

Last race: David Green led just one lap down the stretch, but it was good enough to win the Mr. Goodcents 300 at Kansas Speedway and retake the lead in the points standings. The race finished under caution when Bobby Hamilton Jr. crashed on the last lap.

	Drivers to Watch
	Check out a short list of drivers to keep an eye on this weekend at Lowe's.

Last year: Jeff Burton nearly lapped the field and won the Little Trees 300 by nearly 20 seconds. It was Burton's second straight win and fifth of the 2002 season.

Fast facts: Matt Kenseth won the Carquest Auto Parts 300 in Concord on May 24. ... Green leads Scott Riggs by just 21 points in the championship race. The 59 points separating the top-five drivers in the standings is the closest with six races to go in series history.

Next race: Sam's Town 250, Oct. 18, Memphis, Tenn.

CART

FAST FACTS
Event	Telmex Gigante Gran Premio Mexico
Site	Mexico City
Schedule	Friday, qualifying, 3:50 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 3:05 p.m.; Sunday, race (Speed Channel, 4 p.m.).
Track	Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (road course, 2.75 miles, 17 turns).
Distance	203.378 miles, 73 laps.

Last race: Mario Dominguez overcame a fourth-row starting spot to win the Grand Prix of the Americas in Miami. Drivers starting outside the first three rows have won just twice in the last 33 races, with Dominguez claiming both of them.

Last year: Kenny Brack won for the first time in 2002, at the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix in front of a CART-record crowd of 174,866 at the Hermanos Rodriguez Autodrome.

Fast facts: Carl Haas, co-owner of Newman-Haas Racing, resigned from CART's board of directors last week. ... Michel Jourdain Jr. will try to become the first Mexican driver to win three races in a season and first Mexican to win on his home soil.

Next race: Lexmark Indy 300, Oct. 26, Surfers Paradise, Australia.

Craftsman Truck Series

FAST FACTS
Event	Silverado 350K
Site	Fort Worth, Texas
Schedule	Friday, qualifying, 2:15 p.m.; Saturday, race (Speed Channel, 3 p.m.).
Track	Texas Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns).
Distance	219 miles, 146 laps.

Last race: Dennis Setzer picked up his third victory of the season by winning the John Boy & Billy 250 at South Boston Speedway. Setzer had finished second in the previous two races.

Last year: Brendan Gaughan took the lead when Ted Musgrave spun out with 14 laps left and held on to win the Silverado 350 at Texas Motor Speedway. It was Gaughan's second win of 2002, both coming at Texas.

Fast facts: Travis Kvapil cut a 72-point deficit in the championship standings to just 20 after Gaughan finished 15th last week. ... Rick Crawford is expected to make his 170th consecutive start this weekend, matching Jack Sprague's series record set from 1995-2001.

Next race: Advance Auto Parts 200, Oct. 18, Martinsville, Va.

Formula One

FAST FACTS
Event	Japanese Grand Prix
Site	Suzuka
Schedule	Thursday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 1 a.m.); Friday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 1 a.m.); Saturday, race (Speed Channel, 1 a.m.).
Track	Suzuka Circuit (road course, 3.636 miles, 21 turns).
Distance	192.708 miles, 53 laps.

Last race: Michael Schumacher overcame the rain and moved closer to his sixth series championship after winning the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis.

	Drivers to Watch
	Check out a short list of drivers to keep an eye on this weekend at Japan.

Last year: Schumacher delivered a perfect ending to a near-perfect season by winning his third straight Japanese Grand Prix and 11th race of the 2002 season.

Fast facts: Schumacher leads Kimi Raikkonen by nine points in the standings heading into this weekend's season-ending event. ... Japanese driver Takuma Sato recorded his first championship points with a fifth-place finish in last year's race.

Indy Racing League

FAST FACTS
Event	Chevy 500
Site	Fort Worth, Texas
Schedule	Friday, qualifying, 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, race (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.).
Track	Texas Motor Speedway (quad-oval, 1.5 miles, 24 degrees banking in turns).
Distance	300 miles, 200 laps.

Last race: Sam Hornish Jr. won the fastest open-wheel race in history, averaging 207.151 mph in the Toyota Indy 400 at California Speedway. Hornish and four other drivers will compete for the championship at the season-ending race Oct. 12 at Texas Motor Speedway.

	Drivers to Watch
	Check out a short list of drivers to keep an eye on this weekend at Texas.

Last year: Hornish edged Helio Castroneves to win the Chevy 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sept. 15 to clinch his second straight IRL title. Hornish nipped Castroneves by .0096 seconds in becoming the first driver to win two IRL championships.

Fast facts: Castroneves and Scott Dixon are tied for the lead with 467 points, followed by Tony Kanaan, two-time champion Hornish and two-time CART champion Gil de Ferran. ... Eight of the 12 IRL races at Texas Motor Speedway have had a margin of victory of less than a second.

NHRA

FAST FACTS
Event	O'Reilly Fall Nationals
Site	Dallas
Schedule	Friday, qualifying, 3:30 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 12:30 p.m. (ESPN, 5 p.m., tape); Sunday, elminations, Noon (ESPN2, 6 p.m., tape).
Track	Texas Motorplex

Last event: Tony Schumacher set a national elapsed-time record en route to his fourth Top Fuel victory of the season at the rain-delayed Lucas Oil Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. Schumacher set the record in his U.S. Army dragster at 4.441 seconds during his qualifying victory. Tim Wilkerson, Warren Johnson and Michael Phillips also won.

Last year: Jeg Coughlin moved another step closer to his second Pro Stock championship by winning at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals, his third victory in a row and seventh in 10 events. Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Del Worsham (Funny Car) also won.

Fast facts: Larry Dixon needs to reach the quarterfinals _ something he's done at every event this season _ to win his second straight Top Fuel championship. ... John Force clinched his 11th Funny Car championship at the 2001 event.

Next event: ACDelco Nationals, Oct. 26, Las Vegas.