Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: ‘Young guns’ dominate Winston all-star race

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 9:07 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

If Ricky Rudd had a problem with the way the media was jumping on NASCAR's "young guns" bandwagon, he must have been cringing during the final segment of Saturday night's The Winston all-star race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Seven of the 10 drivers who advanced to the final 20-lap segment were 30 years of age or younger -- including 24-year-old race winner Ryan Newman.

Bill Elliott, at 46, and Ricky Craven (35) were the only representatives of NASCAR's "old guard" in the final segment of the race -- a fact not lost on Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"Before that last segment started, I was looking at who was out there and it was pretty cool -- all the young guys that are part of our fraternity," Earnhardt, 27, said. "We had all the young guns there. Me and Matt (Kenseth, who is 30) aren't even that young anymore; maybe we're the middle of the road.

"Then I saw Bill Elliott out there and I didn't know how he was in there -- and I didn't know if he even wanted to be there."

Earnhardt finished second to Newman, who earned $750,000 for the win. Kenseth took third and 23-year-old Kurt Busch of Las Vegas was fourth.

Sadler, driver of the No. 21 Woods Brothers Racing Ford, was upset after he and Newman made contact during the race, which resulted in Sadler hitting the wall in Turn 2. When Newman came by the crash scene during the ensuing caution period, Sadler hurled his helmet at Newman's car.

"I was almost clear of Elliott and I moved up a little bit and he was there," Newman explained. "You can call it racing, you can call it me pushing up into him, whatever, but he did a heck of a lot better job of playing baseball than he did accepting what happened.

"I wouldn't say it's my fault, I wouldn't say it's his fault, but, you know, things like that happen in races like that, and I can say anything other than that. I'm sorry he didn't get to finish the way he wanted to, but I wouldn't place blame on anybody."

"It gets nutty, doesn't it?" Gordon said of the non-points race. "What a blast. I had a lot of fun (and) it puts on a great show for the fans.

"I thought we would have been in position to win that deal (but) Kurt Busch turned me coming off of turn two and I had flat tires. I couldn't go another lap without destroying the car, so I came in and (NASCAR) said I pitted too early. I don't agree, but that's racing."

Other winners were Don Sargent (Chargers), Spencer Clark (Legends Cars), Mark Allison (IMCA Modifieds) and Tom Lovelady (Bandolero Cars).