Matt Kenseth is the points leader with one win, seven top-10s and an amazing record of completing 2,907 of 2,908 laps.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has led the most miles with 605.8, and Jeff Gordon has led the most laps with 604.

OPEN SEAT IN OPEN WHEELS: Tony Stewart's decision to skip this year's Indianapolis 500 might have opened up a seat for Robby Gordon.

Dario Franchitti will miss the next three months on the IRL IndyCar Series season after fracturing his back in a motorcycle crash earlier this month. Stewart, the defending NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, immediately became a leading contender to replace the open-wheel driver for the Andretti-Green racing team.

Stewart, however, withdrew from consideration Monday.

That promoted Gordon, another stock car driver with IndyCar ties, into contention.

Team owner Michael Andretti will be making his final IndyCar start at May's Indianapolis 500. Another option is team owner Michael Andretti's cousin, stock car's John Andretti, who has been actively looking for a ride at the Brickyard.

Stewart drove all 500 miles at Indianapolis, then another 600 miles at the Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C., in a key Winston Cup Series race two years ago. He skipped the doubleheader last year.

The chance to drive a factory-backed Honda apparently is very alluring to both Gordon and John Andretti, who still might be in to drive for Andretti-Green. Tony Kanaan, another Andretti-Green driver, broke his arm last week at Japan and might not be able to drive.

NLPC vs. NASCAR: The National League and Policy Center pushed its protest of NASCAR's contributions to Jesse Jackson to television last week.

Peter Flaherty, president of the NLPC, contends Jackson abuses his nonprofit privileges and that NASCAR has made $250,000 in donations in the last two years to his organizations to create the guise of diversity.

"Our message to NASCAR is you don't take short cuts to diversity by paying off Jesse Jackson," Flaherty told The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly. "This whole thing started in 1999, when Jesse Jackson complained to NASCAR that they had no black drivers at the Winston Cup level, which is the major league of stock car racing."

Flaherty said IRS records show NASCAR is Jackson's top contributor among professional sport organizations.

"I think what (NASCAR) is trying to do is insulate themselves from charges of racism," Flaherty said. "I think it is an insult to the NASCAR fan."

O'Reilly, who said if Jackson is "shaking down" NASCAR it's an insult to "every American," asked NASCAR to participate in the show, but the racing organization declined.

PIT STOPS: Officials at Phoenix International Raceway are going to ask local and state governments for help in adding lights and improving roads into the one-mile speedway with hopes of impressing NASCAR to approve a second racing date each year. ... While Ford said its Taurus model may be pulled out of production as early as 2006, it said it will remain on the Winston Cup Series until at least the end of the 2004 campaign.

Reach Don Coble at doncoble@bellsouth.net.

--From the Thursday, April 24, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle