Jeff Gordon Online

Crystal Ball

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By Steve Samples

The 2002 Daytona 500 is now history. And with a plethora of unlikely top five finishers, speculation has begun on the remainder of the Winston Cup season. Unfortunately most of those predictions are geared toward creating hype, selling newspapers, and otherwise creating a stir. So let's take a venture into the prediction arena and look into Steve's crystal ball for 2002, to see exactly what WILL happen.

To begin with, Jeff Gordon will win Winston Cup championship number five, and it won't go down to the wire. Sterling Marlin will have a career best season, providing he can stay in his car during red flag situations. Geoffrey Bodine, one of Winston Cup's all-time greats, will find that coming back at the age of 52 was a mistake. Mother nature can't take away experience, but she does play havoc with reflexes and agility. People who are 52 simply cannot do the same things they did a decade earlier.

Kyle Petty will make the field more often than last season, but will put another zero win year on the books.
Mark Martin will be a surprise winner.
Jimmie Johnson will earn more money in purses than any first year driver in NASCAR history.
Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart will progress from stars to superstars.
Ricky Rudd will prove his 2001 season was no fluke.
Four makes of car will win races.
Jeff Gordon will win 30% more money than anyone else on the circuit.
Kurt Busch will prove he is a year away from being a quality Cup driver.
Todd Bodine will wipe out a dozen cars while battling for 22nd position at a key race. Hopefully it will not happen at Daytona or Talledega.

Rusty Wallace will put Ford's first short track win on the board. He has aged well, and can still get it done.
More rules changes will occur by mid year.
Some fans will continue to boo Jeff Gordon.
Jeff Gordon's trailer will continue to sell more merchandise than any other.
Ticket sales will reach all time highs, and NASCAR races will be seen by more people world wide than ever before.
And next year they will do it all over again.

Well, there you have it. Everything that is going to happen before it actually does. Now sit back, enjoy the season, and watch Jeff Gordon assault the record books. Oh, he will never win 200 races. Primarily because he will never get 1,000 starts. Then again, watching someone of Gordon's talent level, making circles around a quarter mile track in a car that is a second a lap faster than the second best car, is hardly sport anyway. Richard Petty did it for years. Gordon will have no such opportunity. But rest assured of one thing: When Jeff Gordon hangs up his helmet, Petty and Dale Earnhardt will be in second place on the all-time Winston Cup titles list. And the all time money winner will be, you guessed it, Jeff Gordon.