Evergreen Speedway, located north of Seattle, Wash., is one of seven facilities appearing on the schedule in 1995, the inaugural season of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
The 2000 schedule contains seven short track events with the Sears 200 representing the "middle' or fourth race. The next race on a track of less than one mile in length doesn't appear until Aug. 3 when the tour journeys to Indianapolis. Sprague and, Wallace have scored the most points in 2000 short track races - 515 apiece. There have been five consecutive different winners in short track competition. The last driver to win back-to-back short track races? Biffle, at Indianapolis and Richmond.
The next short track lap veterans Marty Houston and Lance Norick lead will be their first. Among current series drivers, Sprague has headed the most short track races - 20 - and laps - 926. Jimmy Hensley is No. 2 in laps led at 749/
No past NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion has won at Evergreen Speedway in his title year. Two of the three, Sprague and Ron Hornaday, count a combined three victories at the speedway. Past champions boast an average finish of 5.3 at the facility. Only two previous Evergreen Speedway events have been decided by less than one second, The closest finish, a 0.319-second margin, came in 1997, The widest finish, last year, is 2.509 seconds.
The latest winning pass at Evergreen Speedway occurred on the 195th lap of the 1996 event when Mike Bliss dispatched Hornaday.Ultra Motorsports, which fields Team ASE Racing Fords for Wallace, counts four top-10 finishes at Evergreen Speedway, most by any team. Wallace has placed fifth in each of the past two events.
Joe Ruttman is the only entered driver to have won a Bud Pole at the Washington facility. Think qualifying doesn't mean a lot at Evergreen Speedway? Consider the Sears 200 has been won four times out of five from the front row - two each by No. 1 and No. 2 starters. Race winners have led an average of 156.6 laps or 82.7 percent of the distance, Sprague and Rick Carelli are the only entered drivers to have competed in all five previous events held at Evergreen Speedway.
1999 REVIEW: The Pacific Northwest weather barely cooperated but the NAPACard 200 started 30 minutes late and required nearly three hours to run 50 laps. Then, skies began clearing, allowing a surprisingly large crowd to see a great sprint race, which, for the first time in the series at Evergreen Speedway, was punctuated by "live" pit stops.
Pit road, however, was the only place where Ron Hornaday was beaten - and only once, by Ron Barfield. The 1996 race champion moved past Barfield's Ford on lap 95 and led all but three of the remaining laps to collect the 100 grand Craftsman bonus. Jack Sprague was second, by 2.509 seconds, to reverse the finish of the previous year's event. Barfield, Stacy Compton and Mike Wallace completed the top-five.
