NASCAR Cup

Daytona II: Jack Sprague preview

Jack Sprague and the NetZero HiSpeed Racing team return to Daytona International Speedway, the site of their best finish of the 2003 season back in February, this weekend. Sprague started the event in 24th place and was the highest finishing ...

Published: Jul 3, 2003, 11:43 AM

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Jack Sprague and the NetZero HiSpeed Racing team return to Daytona International Speedway, the site of their best finish of the 2003 season back in February, this weekend. Sprague started the event in 24th place and was the highest finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate with a 14th-place finish.

SPRAGUE ON THE KEY TO A GOOD FINISH IN THE PEPSI 400 -"You've gotta miss the big one. That's it. We've got the same car that we raced in the Daytona 500 and actually, we raced it at Talladega too, though we got caught up in the early wreck there. At Daytona we had a good car. The NetZero Pontiac drafted good and ran well and I think now it's actually even a little better. I just do what Furr (crew chief Tony Furr) tells me and hope for the best. The biggest thing is to mind your own business and stay out of the three and four wide stuff. That's a bad thing, when you go to a racetrack and hope to miss the wreck, but that's what every single driver wants to do when we go to these restrictor plate tracks.

"The only thing I've found to finish well at Daytona is to ride around and wait to the end and miss the wreck. It didn't work at Talladega but it did work at Daytona this year and last year in the Busch car so we're just going to go and do the same thing. I have a lot of confidence in this team. Hopefully we'll be around at the end like we were in February."

DAYTONA FAST FACTS

Sprague made his first NASCAR Winston Cup start at the 2.5-mile facility earlier this year in the 2003 Daytona 500. His 14th-place finish was the best of the season for the NetZero HiSpeed Racing team thus far.

Sprague made his first Daytona appearance in the 1990 Goody's 300 Busch Series event starting 26th and finishing 40th (accident).

Sprague's best Daytona qualifying effort is second in the 1991 Goody's 300 NBS event. His best Daytona finish is fourth in the 2002 International Race of Champions (IROC) event.

Sprague is a three-time NCTS champion (1997, 1999, and 2001).

Sprague is a 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate and currently holds down fourth place in the overall standings.

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