Although Pontiac was allowed to extend its front bumper by a half-inch to give it more downforce on the front tires and to a quarter-inch to the rear spoiler to give it downforce on the rear tires, Johnny Benson said it didn't play a major role in his sixth-place finish.

Benson said his MBV Racing team worked 48 nonstop hours on his Pontiac Grand Prix last week, and that was more pivotal in his best finish of the year than NASCAR's mandate issued last Wednesday.

"I think some of the new rules were a help - maybe not a big help - but, was a help," Benson said. "We're starting to get to where we're just a little bit behind instead of a lot behind. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year."

Benson drove the only Pontiac that finished on the lead lap. Tony Stewart finished 16th, while Bobby Labonte was 24th and Ken Schrader was 25th.

Pontiac and NASCAR currently are working on a new car for the 2003 season.

ANYTHING BUT BORING: Dodge said it will scramble to change its engine program in time for the July 3 deadline to conform to a rule that limits the size of a cylinder bore.

In the past 18 months, teams have had the option of using tall and skinning cylinder bores or short and fat ones. Starting with the Pepsi 400 at the Daytona International Speedway, the maximum size of the cylinders is 4.185 inches, essentially eliminating the short-and-fat combination.

Dodge officials said they needed to run a wider cylinder because NASCAR originally approved a heavier engine with bigger bore centers.

"One of the advantages we had was that we could run a bigger cylinder bore," said Ted Flack, who runs Dodge's NASCAR engine development program. "With this rule we can't, yet we still have to carry the weight of the engine. It hurts us more than anybody else. "Some Dodge teams chose to run bigger cylinder bores. The engines we deliver are under the maximum. They finish them the size they want. Some teams, it affects every engine they've got. It affects some engines on every team. That's for sure.

"Had that rule been in place when we designed the engine, we might have asked for a little forgiveness on the bore spacing to make the engine the size, the overall length, the other guys have."

POINTS RACE: Sterling Marlin finished 21st Sunday and it marked the first time he wasn't in the top 20 all year.

Nonetheless, he will take a 110-point lead over both Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon heading into next week's road-course race at Sonoma, Calif.

Marlin has 2,164 points. Johnson and Gordon each have 2,054 points, but Johnson is alone in second place because he holds a 2-0 lead in victories over Gordon.

Mark Martin is fourth in the standings at 1,990 points, followed by Matt Kenseth in fifth at 1,974, Rusty Wallace in sixth at 1,972, Tony Stewart in seventh at 1,935, Ricky Rudd in eighth at 1,870, Kurt Busch in ninth at 1,838 and Bill Elliott in 10th at 1,825.

Matt Kenseth was second in the points four weeks ago, but consecutive finishes of 40th and 35th dropped him back into seventh place before his victory Sunday at Michigan.

BROTHERLY HELP: Todd Bodine was scheduled to be in two places at the same time Sunday. Because of Saturday night's NASCAR Busch Series race at the Kentucky Speedway was suspended by rain, Bodine wasn't able to do double-duty by also driving in Sunday's Winston Cup Series race at Michigan.

Older brother Geoffrey Bodine filled in at Michigan, finishing 19th.

Todd Bodine, who's primary commitment is to a team that's co-owned by baseball legend Reggie Jackson, returned to Kentucky and won the race.

Reach Don Coble at doncoble@bellsouth.net.