Wallace

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- One isn't just the number of races left on the Winston Cup schedule this season.

It's also the number of chances remaining for Rusty Wallace to get his first win of 2002, which would extend a streak that now sits at 16 consecutive seasons with at least one win in each campaign.

Wallace came close in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, finishing second to race winner Matt Kenseth, the fourth time this season that Wallace has finished runner-up.

But still, that's little consolation to a driver who has practically grown desperate to keep his lengthy streak intact.

"Oh man, I want it real bad, I just didn't get it today," said Wallace, who finished 1.344 seconds behind Kenseth. "I really felt we could have won the thing at the end there, but Matt was just too tough."

Wallace faces a conundrum of sorts heading into next Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway: does he focus most of his efforts on going for that elusive win, knowing that if he pushes his luck too much he could ultimately come up short.

Or, does Wallace, who is in an extremely tight battle for third-place in the final standings, forget about pride and records and focus on the one thing he does seemingly have more input and control over: finishing as high as he can in the final standings?

Kurt Busch is currently sits third with 4,461 points, followed by Wallace and rookie Jimmie Johnson, who are tied for fourth with 4,453 points apiece, followed by Jeff Gordon, who is just one point behind Johnson and Wallace.

"That's amazing how close the points are," Wallace said. "You race all year long and the points end up that close. I just hope to God we get to Homestead and nothing goes wrong and we have a good, strong run there.

"There's no doubt that there's a lot on the plate (at Homestead). It's going to be a high intensity week. ... We said if we get through clean without a scratch on it, we're going to have (the car he drove Sunday at Phoenix) to take it back home, clean it up and take it straight to Homestead. Well, it doesn't have a scratch on it, so I get my best bullet going to Homestead, and let's hope it'll work down there."

While the more practical side of Wallace says go for the highest finish he can get in the standings, the possibility of still getting that elusive win remains in the back of his mind.

"I got my rhythm back and got my mojo going on again, so we're looking forward to next week."

Wallace even boldly predicted a win for himself and the No. 2 Ford Taurus team -- but with a slight caveat.

"If we don't win Homestead -- which we are -- we're going to the Daytona 500 and we may win that sucker."

Johnson's struggles continue

	Johnson

Jimmie Johnson continues to have woes. Johnson finished out of the running for the third consecutive race, albeit his 15th-place showing Sunday was much better than his previous two finishes (22nd at Atlanta and 37th at Rockingham, N.C.).

For a driver who has enjoyed outstanding success for much of this season, it's the worst time for Johnson to go into the tank performance-wise.

"We made a mistake in qualifying and had to start near the back (started 37th, courtesy of a provisional entry)," Johnson said. "We worked our way up through there, we had a fast race car, drove all the way up to ninth before that first pit stop, and then we came into the pit stop disaster.

"We ran out of gas, got in a (engine) stall, tried to get the thing to start up, and on top of that, dropped the jack before the left rear was on it, then had to have it get picked back up, fixed the fender, put a tire on it and drive off. That just killed us. That was the start of a bad day on pit road, and just being so far back, we couldn't catch up with the cars we were pitting with to make up a spot on pit road."

That was the bad news. However, Johnson has some bit of consolation: he's still only 20 points behind Ryan Newman in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year Award standings.

Johnson also remains smack dab in the middle of the hotly contested chase for third-place in the final standings.

Johnson is tied with Wallace for fourth in the standings after Sunday's race at Phoenix, just eight points behind Busch and one point ahead of Gordon.

"The last three weeks has just been some crazy stuff that's been going on, and it's really, really hurt us," Johnson said. "I just hope we can get things rallied back, come back to Homestead, be back on our game and get max points.

"I guess the end results, finishes and stuff that you would expect to typically see, but the circumstances that have gone on have been some off the wall stuff, getting crashed before we even took the green at one race, and then last week a health problem. It's just been one thing after another that's just been off the wall. You wouldn't expect this kind of stuff to happen being such a big-rate team. I think the results might show it, but us as a team, we know we're looking at it and know that we need to get back on our game."

Blimey, it's Blaney

	Blaney

Dave Blaney turned in one of his stronger performances of the season Sunday, winding up with a seventh-place finish -- his best result of 2002.

Blaney, who started fifth, even led a lap in the race. Blaney's career-best finish is sixth (three times).

"You finish with a day like this and you say, 'My God, that's easy. How come we don't do that all the time," Blaney said.

Blaney is currently 19th in points, trailing Jeff Green by just 19 points. A decent finish at Miami will move Blaney up at least one spot, as the injured Sterling Marlin sits in 18th place, 67 points clear of Blaney. The Hartford, Ohio, native -- who has been as high as 17th in points this season -- finished a career-best 22nd overall in 2001.

Notes