Issue Date: February 15, 2004

The lords of NASCARNATION

To celebrate the kickoff of the 2004 racing season, we gathered together all eight active Cup champions for an afternoon of photos and fun.
By Dennis McCafferty

Clockwise from bottom: Kenseth, Wallace, Jarrett, Bobby Labonte and Elliott. "When you're a champion, everybody's gonna race you just a bit harder. You have to be ready for that."

The actual Cup hasn't been some puny thing like an Oscar. No, NASCAR's Holy Grail has been a 45-pound, waist-high, walnut-wooded bear of a prize -- about as easy to lift as a dorm fridge stocked with Bud. It's one that's befitting of the nine months and more than 14,000 miles of wheel-gripping racing it takes to win it.

One day last season, after all the mathematical possibilities are pondered and it's clear that no one is going to keep a young gun named Matt Kenseth from his first Cup, Kenseth spends a long afternoon with the cherished hardware at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway. It's just a couple of days before 2003's final race. And he has company. One by one, seven other drivers trickle over to Winner's Circle to take part in a first-time-ever, exclusive poster shoot for USA WEEKEND. As the 2004 season kicks off this weekend with the Daytona 500, it's a good time to celebrate these drivers and what they represent, as they share a notable distinction: They are the only active NASCAR drivers to have won a Cup. This is a day to relish those championship moments, as their sport enters its most daring, potentially explosive era.

That's because that big ol' trophy will be called the Nextel Cup for the indefinite future. It's even due for a facelift, although details are still to come. Previously, since 1971, it was known as the Winston Cup, sponsored by tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. It's one of a series of image-shredding moves for NASCAR, which is second only to football as the most watched television sport. Recently, NASCAR has shifted more races to be near big-city venues at the expense of its more traditional, small-town locations. It has staged more prime-time events for national TV. It has launched a diversity council to broaden fan and participant demographics. And it has slapped the logos of some very modern-sounding companies -- Viagra, Alltel, Cingular and AOL -- on the cars as sponsors along with such old-school names as Caterpillar, Interstate Batteries, Havoline and Goodwrench. Given all that, the Nextel move makes a lot of sense -- a statement that puts an exclamation point on NASCAR's effort to, if not entirely shirk its moonshine-, beer- and tobacco-fueled roots, at least distance itself from them and stake a claim as a standard sport of the Digital Nation.

And these eight drivers, who represent so much of the sport's past, are leading the charge into its future. They are beloved veterans Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte and Rusty Wallace, who remember when drivers stayed in budget hotels with fans on racing weekends. They're consistent winners Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte (Terry's kid brother), both of whom are enjoying success year after year as they reach mid-career. And they're younger competitors like Kenseth and Tony Stewart, who reached the top early on and are hungry for more. No matter what generation these drivers represent, they are a testament to consistency and a commitment to excellence: All but one of the eight drivers finished in the top 15 in 2003, and six finished in the top 10. The only one out of the top 15, Jarrett, previously had finished in the top 10 every year since '96.

On this day at Homestead, Kenseth shows up first and, with several of the veterans, stays the longest, the buzz still strong from officially winning the championship the week before. Then, as Gordon, the Labonte brothers, Wallace and the rest arrive, the guys take cover from a classic Florida afternoon shower under a breezeway by Winner's Circle. When it's time for the photo shoot, a playful Stewart holds up an umbrella for his on-track rivals Gordon and Wallace. "Am I holding it where you need it?" he asks them both, with a grin. In between shots, the fellas give Kenseth plenty of advice about his acceptance speech, which he would end up giving in December on national TV (TNT) at a lavish black-tie banquet in New York.

"That's the hardest thing you'll ever have to do as a champion," Wallace says, "so you better practice."

Gordon, who's been through the routine four times, is less foreboding. "Ahh, don't stress out over it," he says. "You can do it either one of two ways: by practicing in advance, or just writing it up at the last minute. Either way, you'll be fine." But Jarrett hints at when the real challenge begins: right now, with the 2004 Daytona 500. "When you're a champion," he says, "everybody's gonna race you just a bit harder. You have to be ready for that."

As the sun sets and the shoot wraps up with the remaining racers -- Bobby Labonte, Wallace, Jarrett, Elliott and Kenseth -- it's clear that this was a moment to savor. But it's not one to dwell on. For each of these eight drivers, as well as the dozens who'll be gunning for their first Cup ever this year, the fun is just about to begin.

Cover photograph by Brad Trent for USA WEEKEND. Check our Newspaper Partners to get USA WEEKEND Magazine in print for our two page NASCAR 2004 picture.