|| *Comments on the 2002 Old Dominion 500:* View the most recent comment <#37> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. tquievryn posted: 01.02.2005 - 6:46 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Kurt Busch won his 2nd race of the year. Johnny Benson was in Busch's rearview mirror for the last 50 laps, but Johnny B. Good didn't bump Busch saying he wanted to win cleanly. Benson was rewared 2 weeks later. Comments: Ryan McGlynn and Brian Rose attempted to make their first Winston Cup race, but DNQed. Geoffery Bodine subbed for Kenny Wallace (who was racing at Memphis) in the Hills Bros. Car. 2. Jason posted: 12.29.2005 - 5:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great race towards the end with Busch and Benson battling it out. Busch with only 1 career win at that point, Benson then winless. Ward Burton and Ricky Craven both had strong runs, leading chunks of laps. Gordon had a strong car, but got squeezed into the wall by Jeff Burton midway through the race. Ricky Rudd came back from a flat tire early in the going, and a lap down to finish 3rd. 3. mcmurrayfan posted: 03.03.2007 - 2:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the last time that all three Bodine brothers competed in a Cup eace. 4. SK posted: 09.10.2007 - 4:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve Grissom's last Winston Cup start to date. 5. SK posted: 12.08.2007 - 9:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) And also of note was Hermie Sadler's career-best start, 8th on the grid. 6. RaceFanX posted: 01.02.2008 - 7:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last time Geoffrey Bodine led a NASCAR race 7. Mr. Big posted: 05.26.2008 - 12:54 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) This race showed why Benson is a class act. If he wanted to, he could've easily bumped Busch out of the way and won, but the guy wanted to win cleanly. Guess what? Two weeks later, he did. 8. Matito posted: 12.02.2008 - 12:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Interesting note: (at least to my knowledge) This is the last time, possibly the only time in the modern era, that the previous week's race winner did not even attempt to qualify, as Jamie McMurray, who won the previous week in Charlotte, was competing in the Busch Series race in Memphis. Mike Bliss took over the #40 and brought it home in a respectable 14th place finish for his only Cup race of the season. 9. Taylor posted: 12.27.2008 - 12:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The 4th "Spin and Win" this season Las Vegas-Sterling Marlin Chicagoland-Kevin Harvick Michigan-Dale Jarrett Martinsville-Kurt Busch 10. David posted: 08.08.2009 - 2:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not the only time anymore, Matito. Brad Keselowski won earlier this year at Talladega but did not race the following week at Richmond. 11. Rick Hendrick posted: 02.27.2010 - 10:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) That was a great finish. 12. Rick Hendrick posted: 03.24.2010 - 5:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) What happened to Jeff Gordon during this race? 13. RaceFanX posted: 04.27.2010 - 11:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think this is the race the Racing-Reference.info banner race picture comes from. Looks like Gordon is on the tail end of a lap and Ward is leading. 14. webmaster posted: 04.27.2010 - 11:33 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Good eye, RaceFanX! :-) I was at the race sitting between turns 1 & 2 and a friend of mine took that photo. 15. Rick Hendrick posted: 06.03.2010 - 9:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think Jeff Gordon made contact with the wall, i believe, i did not see the video, that is why Jeff finished 36th, probably ending his chances for the title. 16. Matthew Tesfaye posted: 06.03.2010 - 9:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Gordon wasn't on the tail end of the lead lap, it was the start of the race. 17. Cooper posted: 10.02.2010 - 10:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually RacefanX, it is the start of the race. Newman was on pole, Gordon started 2nd. 18. Anonymous posted: 01.29.2011 - 12:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) "This is the last time, possibly the only time in the modern era, that the previous week's race winner did not even attempt to qualify" I'm pretty sure it would have happened back in the late 70s/early 80s when guys like Yarborough and Baker ran the partial schedule. 19. CBASS posted: 05.13.2012 - 12:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor corrections: #40 Marines/ Coors Light #4 Kodak Perfect Touch #66 Standing Together/ World Berries 20. Daniel posted: 05.25.2012 - 12:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) In using fastest 43: #51 Brian Rose & #59 Carl Long Out using fastest 43: #44 Steve Grissom & #66 Hideo Fukuyama 21. David posted: 09.19.2012 - 9:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton must have been penalized 25 points for something. 22. Anthony posted: 10.25.2012 - 8:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton was penalized for unaprooved front springs & was fine $10,000. Ward led 145 of the 500 laps that's 29% of the race he led (76 miles led) Ward Burton took the lead 3x & during qualifying he had a speed of 92.348 mph qualified 4th (20.505 seconds -0.108 behind) Kurt Busch started the race 36th & took the lead at lap 389 & then again Lap 410 he led the final 91 laps en route to his 2nd win holding off Johnny Benson by 0.460 of a second. Kurt led 2 for 111 laps 22% (Led 58 Miles) Johnny got his 3rd 2nd place finish in his career his other 2 were in 2000 at Bristol (Spring) & Dover (Fall) 'till the next week at Rockingham Johnny would get his first & last win in his career. 23. JL70fan posted: 01.04.2013 - 2:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kirk Shelmerdine's sponsor was Duncan Automotive Network 24. joey2448 posted: 04.03.2013 - 4:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) My god, look at the lack of attrition. Last place driver completed 400 of 500 laps, Bill Elliott had a crash, finished 76 laps down (424 of 500) and finished 42nd (second to last)??? And most impressive of all, Joe Nemechek completed all but four laps and finished 41st??? Wouldn't see that nowadays... 25. joey2448 posted: 04.03.2013 - 4:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Quick story. It was around this time that I really started watching NASCAR on a week-to-week basis, and I remember the week before when Jamie McMurray had won his first ever race at Charlotte. I wanted to get up early to watch this race (I live in Alaska so a 1 p.m. starting time is 9 a.m. here) so I slept on the couch in the living room. That night, I had dreams of McMurray doing burnouts on the frontstretch at Charlotte in that silver Coors Light Dodge, and cars wrecking around him (probably due to the big pileup on the frontstretch in the same race). For some reason my alarm I had set didn't go off, and by the time I woke up and turned the TV on, it was about 40-some laps into the race (on the Hermie Sadler spin). Nevertheless I enjoyed the race and was quite pleased that Kurt Busch won. For a couple years there, Kurt was my second-favorite driver, behind Jeff Gordon. 26. Anthony posted: 03.24.2014 - 7:34 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not easy to win at Martinsville from 36th thats tough. 27. Evan posted: 09.13.2014 - 9:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is one of the races that shot Kurt Busch up my like-list at that time. He won Bristol in the spring about 2 more races that year at Atlanta and then Homestead, then after this year he had a 2003 season that really tested Kurt's maturity level, when he had the best car he did not have issues but once he started to let his emotions get the best of him and he'd show his ass on a daily basis, that's when I realized he was a talented, yet temperamental star. Johnny Benson was a heck of a racer to race Kurt clean and not throw the bumper to him, if it was Harvick, Gordon, Stewart, Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, or Rudd in that 10 car's spot, Kurt would probably have put the bumper to him and he would have lost this one. 28. mister83 posted: 07.15.2015 - 5:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great qualifying run by Hermie Sadler. 29. 18fan posted: 11.25.2016 - 3:22 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) This was the only race in a span of 11 Martinsville races that Jeff Burton finished outside of the top 10. Burton had 7 top 5s in that stretch, but did not win as his only Martinsville win predated this stretch. 30. Anonymous posted: 05.25.2017 - 4:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Time A Ford Driver Won Martinsville until Brad Keselowski in the 2017 spring race 31. 34McDowellFan posted: 02.22.2019 - 3:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last cup race until Atalanta in 2019 without Jamie McMurray in the field 32. Anonymous posted: 02.22.2019 - 4:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the last time Ward Burton led the most laps in a cup race, and was also his last top 5 finish. 33. SweetRich21/43 posted: 07.31.2020 - 10:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach. The pit road reporters were Bill Weber, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider and Dave Burns. 34. Mile501 posted: 08.20.2020 - 2:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Due to the lack of attrition, Fukuyama ran 43rd for nearly all of the first 400 laps. All 43 drivers were still running until he crashed and dropped out at lap 408. Ricky Rudd lost 2 laps due to a flat tire early on but made those up and quickly drove to the front. He kept losing ground on pit stops; otherwise, he likely would have won this race. He clearly had the best car that day. 35. ScottB posted: 08.20.2020 - 2:53 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) It feels good to see mid-level teams like Nelson Bowers, Bill Davis and Cal Wells leading laps and finishing in the top-10. Wish we could get the competitive balance back to that point. 36. Mile501 posted: 08.20.2020 - 5:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @35 - Indeed. I just finished watching this race (I've been working my way through the 2002 season over the last few months, after watching 2001 last year) and it is truly amazing just how many competitive teams there were during this era. 37. Mile501 posted: 08.20.2020 - 5:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) For the second time in three races, Jimmie Johnson encountered trouble while the race was not under the green flag. Two weeks before, at Talladega, he was hit by Mark Martin on the pace laps when Martin had a bizarre steering problem. In this race, he was hit by Steve Grissom during a late caution when the field was lining up for the restart. Based on replays, it wasn't clear exactly why Grissom veered right into Johnson. Thankfully, since this is a short track, the damage to Johnson's car didn't really affect him and he went on to finish 6th. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: