Kyle Busch Motorsports Nationwide Series Race Report

via press release

On a cool summer Saturday night, Kyle Busch jumped behind the wheel of his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota in search of a victory, on a short track where he has enjoyed much success. The Kyle Busch Motorsports (KBM) owner-driver was looking forward to his second chance of the season, to continue the winning streak he has enjoyed at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. From a 10^th-place qualifying effort, the 27-year-old driver wheeled his black machine around the 'World's Fastest Half-Mile,' reaching as high as third, to accomplish the eighth top-five finish for his young team. It was Busch's 13^th top-ten result in 17 races at Bristol Motor Speedway, however, not the finish he was hoping for with his own team.

After rain showers drenched the .533-mile oval shortly before driver introductions were to start, track workers quickly dried the newly paved surface of Tennessee's famous short track, leaving 'green' asphalt for the race event. Busch began the Food City 250 in the 10^th-position and was working his way through the field, when the first of nine yellow-flag caution periods waved. The No. 54 team would pit four times throughout the course of the race, although not visiting pit road for their initial stop until lap 47 of the 250-circuit race.

The KBM team battled within the top-10 through the night, staying clear of any on-track car damage with competitors. Most of the team's focus remained with the car's handling, in particular the tires and how well the air pressures worked. "I'm sliding more than I have grip," described Busch early in the race. The team made good, clean pit stops all race long, only adjusting the car chassis once, with a track bar adjustment. The young owner-driver later commented, "the car wants to be tight and loose, I'm up out of the race track, can't make it stick where I need it."

Although he battled the feel of the car for most of the race, Busch remained near the front of the field, working among other series regulars such as Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Sadler and Kasey Kahne. In the last 50 laps of the race event, Kahne and Busch enjoyed a good battle, swapping positions over the course of 40 laps, when Busch finally prevailed to maintain his top-five status.

The final two yellow-flag caution periods would bunch up the field and give the KBM leader the opportunity to advance upon green-flag restarts. Busch worked his way up to third place before crossing the start-finish line at the checkered flag.

"It was a real good night for the Monster Energy Camry. All these guys -- they worked hard, they did a good job and we missed a little bit of something tonight - kind of like last year. Our car was not as good as it was in the spring here, but we made it work.  It seemed like the more we'd go, we would really lose rear traction. That seemed to be our struggle point tonight. Overall, the guys did a good job and I can't say enough about how we ran -- we came home third. We'll take that -- we probably shouldn't have been that good, but I wish we were better."

Logano recorded his sixth win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this year and 15^th of his career. Stenhouse Jr. finished in the second spot, while Busch, Austin Dillon and Sadler completed the top-five finishers. There were nine caution periods for 59 laps of the race along with seven lead changes across four drivers. The No. 54 Monster Energy team remains 10^th in the Owner's Point standings, 139 points from the leader.

The Nationwide Series continues action Sept.1 at the NRA American Warrior 300 from Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway. The television broadcast will start at 6:30pm EST on ESPN and on the MRN radio broadcast. Kyle Busch will make his 15^th start of the season behind the wheel of the KBM No. 54 Monster Energy Camry.

-KBM-

--

The Bristol 'Food City 500' Quickie Recap and Race Results

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race from Bristol Motor Speedway was the Food City 500 .  It was good racing...  where inside lines versus outside lines and older tires versus newer tires.  It was classic racing challenges all around, including when the first multi-car caution came out on lap 24.

Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick were collected in a wreck between Regan Smith and Kasey Kahne, with Kahne's car collecting the other teams.

The wreck happened while Fox was off on commercial and they played out the ads first before coming back and telling the viewers.

They showed a very angry Kyle Busch pound his roof while getting out of his car and Kasey Kahne's post-accident interview sounded like he was leaning toward blaming Smith for not backing off this early in the race.

Pitting had a ton of different strategies take place this early on, but AJ Allmendinger stayed out and took the lead.

The next caution was on lap 116 for Ken Schrader hitting the outside wall.  Looks like a RF tire set his date with the outside wall.  Kyle Busch is back out.. so there's one spot/point he'll gain.

Every point is precious...  Ask Edwards.

Once past the half-way point of the race is when you start paying attention... drivers start looking at the end game and where they're at and what they need to do to get where they want to.  Allmendinger had a strong car, but then something happened and he faded.

This is how things looked at lap 325, well past the half-way mark:

NACSAR 'Kobalt Tools 400' Mini Recap

Today's race was from Las Vegas, the Kobalt Tools 400, in the desert of Nevada.

Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the pack to the race starting green flag and by the end of the first lap, Dale Jr. had himself the lead, which he held onto for 70 laps.

Cautions today included a

• Lap 44 incident with Timmy Hill.
• 73:  A David Reutimann spin.
• 127: Travis Kvapil blew an engine.
• 204 & 229: debris caution.
• 244: Landon Cassill blew an engine.
• 255: Kurt Busch RR tire blew, sending him into the inside wall.
• 259: Kyle Busch LR tire, solo spin.

That that said,

Brendan Gaughan  hit the wall early... no caution, but hard enough to mess his day up.

Despite Dale Jr. pulling away and leading the entire first bit of the race, he had a scare when he started pitting on lap 44/5 when the caution came out... but he got back out in time and retained the lead for the restart.

On the restart, Dale Jr. again led them to speed...

On lap 71, car Nos 88, 17, 29, 16 and 14 were the front runners.

The lap 78 restart found Dale Jr. back in the pack for the first time today, in 16th after taking four tires while many took two!

The front runners included Kenseth, Harvick, Johnson, Stewart and Biffle.

A bit later Jimmie Johnson took the lead from Kenseth...

With around the 50 to go mark, we had Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth lead the pack to speed.

With 38 to go, we had a caution and the field piled onto the pits.  Two or four tires?  If any!?  Leaders were topping off only and everyone was ready for the last dash of the day.  (I thought)

But one more caution pulled everyone together for a restart but this restart cursed Brad Keselowski which was a shame... it looked like he might have won this race... but he had some sort of fuel issue.

But now the race looked like it was going to come down to Tony Stewart (leading) and Jimmie Johnson on his tail.  (I wonder if Jimmie might have been saying "Here kitty, kitty, kitty"?)

But then as they got going, the No. 51 car of Kurt Busch drove-piled the wall after his RR tire went away, bringing everyone back together and cooling those tires back down down.  Again.

(I don't think Kurt's having fun yet this season.) 

Again... with 9 to go, Stewart led them aggressively to the line and pulled away while Johnson spun his tires.

AND THEN KYLE BUSCH spins and lands it in the grass...  LR tire flat.

OK, once again, with feeling!

With 4 to go...  Stewart, Johnson, Biffle, Kenseth, Edwards... and Edwards shot down onto the apron to pass the pack and Kenseth gets into the outside wall... the closing few laps Johnson covered Stewart's butt like a blanket, trying to pass him.

With one to go, Johnson can't quite get there and Tony Stewart won the Kobalt Tools 400, Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd, followed by the 16, 39, 99, 16, 27, 1, 21 & 88 cars.

It was good to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. perform well in clean air but once he got in dirty air, he seemed to have a few more issues.

Plus, I was keeping an eye on Dale Jr. during restarts.  On SiriusXM radio, a caller had said earlier in the week that Jr sucked at restarts.  It seemed to be a bit of an iffy talent of his on this day.

But there you have it...  a snarky race recap from NASCAR Bits and Pieces on the Kobalt Tools 400.
NASCAR: Kobalt 400 results - unofficial

Now... we all wait until Tuesday when we'll hear about the No. 48 team appeal decision!  See ya there!

=-Bruce

Short Recap of NASCAR's 'Subway Fresh Fit 500' from Phoenix

Darian Grubb Continues His Winning Ways at Phoenix with Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin sent a message today at the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway by taking the checkered flag afte a hard-fought final set of laps.  And defending champion crew chief Darian Grub also sent a message by getting his driver into the winner's circle.

Those last few laps were pretty intense because for all intent purposes, it looked like Kevin Harvick was overtaking Hamlin and that it would be Harvick's to not win.  But with just over a lap to go, Harvick faded away from the back bumper of Hamlin's bumper, the conjecture being that he ran out of fuel.

Everyone was having fuel mileage concerns but Hamlin ran pretty good today at Phoenix.

Cars that had problems today included Clint Bowyer (tire), Kasey Kahne (Wall smack), Casey Mears (spin), Paul Menard (crash), collecting A.J. Allmendinger and Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann (engine), Ryan Newman (Crash) and Tony Stewart (FUEL INJECTION).

After 312 laps, 7 cautions, 15 leaders and 25 lead changes, Denny Hamlin showed that fear is not a factor... oh, wait, wrong show!

But Hamlin won, followed by Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, and Brad Keselowski.  Danica Patrick WAS NOT in this race, so the media coverage was minimal.  (snarc!)

Today's race propelled Denny Hamlin to the top of the driver points standings.  Other improvements from last week were Greg Biffle (now 2nd), Kevin Harvick (3rd) and Matt Kenseth is now sitting in 4th.

These big jumps in positions are to be expected for a few races until things settle out.

Results | Standings -Bruce

'Daytona 500': A Quick Recap, SF Victory Tour and D500 TV Ratings

Welcome to the Daytona 500 marathon.  Was this a long, long Speedweeks or what?  After a 6-hour event and all was said and done, Matt Kenseth outlasted, outwitted and out-drove the field of competitors and won the Daytona 500, and that, after all the rain and fire, he survived a George R.R. Martin version of a NASCAR race.

And poor Danica Patrick got the proper welcome to NASCAR, whether she wanted it or not!

Sunday's Daytona 500 festivities started out wet and raining.  For fans pouring (no pun meant) into the facility, for them, their Daytona 500 experience started on Sunday and did not end until early Tuesday morning.

.

But the rains persisted and NASCAR postponed, for the first time in the history of NASCAR, the Daytona 500.  It finally got going Monday evening at 7pm eastern time.    And Fox announced it would carry the D500 on all affiliate stations.  (But then that ticked off the House and Alcatraz fans, not to mention the non-sports fans of the TV viewing world. Rescheduled Show News.)

At least we had a chance to warn our readers!

We weren't past the start/finish line for more than 1 lap when Elliott Sadler tapped Jimmie Johnson into the outside wall, collecting Danica Patrick in the mess and sending her to the garage.  Trevor Bayne, David Ragan and Kurt Busch were also victims of the event.

With the no. 48 wrecking out early, does this mean we might see a negative set of points for the driver after the inspection failure of the C-post?  Because you know that announcement is still waiting to happen!

On lap 81, Jeff Gordon's engine expired in a fiery fashion of a flame out.

But of course the big event was when something broke on Juan Montoya's car during the caution, that sent him spinning into the jet dryer truck, causing a 2-hour red flag

But the fun was not over yet...

Lap 178 saw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. smack Aric Almirola and on lap 197 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (getting lots of camera time for his sponsor) turned Tony Stewart.

With the green-white-checkered finish (there was only 1), Matt Kenseth led the pack to the race finish and showing team solidarity, Greg Biffle got behind him and pushed him to the win, while holding off Dale Earnhardt Jr. from Kenseth's bumper.

All in all, the racing was fun to watch though I'm concerned the new aero package with all its cooling restrictions might have caused a failure or two... but that's a guess, not a fact.

In the end the top-5 Daytona 500 finishers were

1.     Matt Kenseth     Ford
2.     Dale Earnhardt Jr.     Chevrolet
3.     Greg Biffle     Ford
4.     Denny Hamlin     Toyota
5.     Jeff Burton     Chevrolet

More Results

-

Matt Kenseth To Visit San Francisco
Don't forget, that on March 1st, the Daytona 500 winner, Matt Kenseth, starts a victory rally at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco and take a victory lap around town.

http://www.infineonraceway.com/media/news/603152.html

2012 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona - A Recap

The first race of the year kicked off the NASCAR season in style.  NASCAR has been working hard to codify the fans who didn't like the tandem restrictor-plate drafting from the last few years.  I initially wasn't a fan of the draft, but it did generate some great, dramatic finishes.

-

As the 2012 Budweiser Shootout started it seems that all of NASCAR's tampering has paid off and I haven't seen any of the tandem drafting that we have become accustomed to over the last few seasons.  It's early in the race though.

The first incident 10 laps in collected a few cars, with Ragan getting in to Menard that collected 8 cars of the field.

In the past few seasons the tandem drafting pretty much did a decent job to minimize "the big one" in the race.  But with the tandem drafting possibly eliminated (As I write this early in the race), I have to wonder if we're going to start seeing more wrecks that collect more cars.

With 25 laps in the books, they pit for the intermission where teams get to work on their cars.

Coming back out after the pit stops, we saw our first 4-wide action in the competition.  Yea...  NASCAR got the cars right.

Later, Martin Truex Jr. sent Clint Bowyer sliding through the infield.  They were coming up on Carl Edwards, Bowyer went right, Edwards moved up and blocked and Bowyer tried to slide back down, but instead, spun off of Truex's front bumper.  I wonder if radio communication between drivers, which is now banned, could have possibly prevented that.  Probably not, but I had to wonder.

Then... with 28 laps to go, Kyle Busch got sideways...  and saved it.  That was impressive, but his stunt of using his side window to drive scattered the field a bit.  Kyle did the sideways stunt twice and still pulled it off.  He demonstrated yet again, his talent at the wheel of a car at 200mph!

NSCS Recap: Johnson on brink of 3rd title after Phoenix win

Jimmie Johnson performed just as his statistics predicted, and not far behind, so did Carl Edwards but it wasn't enough to cut into Johnson's lead. In fact, Johnson lengthened his lead.

Once he got past Jamie McMurray after the opening laps, polesitter Jimmie Johnson played his own version of “Catch Me If You Can” Sunday -- and nobody could -- in the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 and in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Though it took a green-white-checkered-flag finish to decide the race, the outcome was hardly in doubt, as Johnson dominated the race, leading 217 of 313 laps. Kurt Busch finished second, .295 seconds behind the two-time defending Cup champion.

With the victory, his seventh of the season, his third straight at Phoenix and the 40th of his career, Johnson widened his lead in the Chase to 141 points over fourth-place finisher Carl Edwards.

If Johnson finishes 36th or better in next Sunday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he will join a club that currently has only Cale Yarborough as a member: drivers to win three straight Cup titles.

Johnson's win did clinch Chevrolet’s 32nd manufacturers’ championship.

--

Of the 12 drivers who started the Chase, only Edwards has an outside chance to catch Johnson.

“I’m excited,” Johnson said. “I wish we could have left here and all we have to do is start (at Homestead), but Carl put up a great fight. They’ve been a strong, championship-caliber team all year. But as long as something doesn’t go crazy for us down in Homestead, we’re going to tie Cale -- and I can’t wait to start celebrating.”

Edwards knows his title hopes depend on major disaster for Johnson’s team.

“He (Johnson) did a great job,” said Edwards, who finished one position behind Roush Fenway Racing teammate Jamie McMurray. “It’s still possible, just not probable. We’ll just have to go there and hope that something happens. You saw it with the 24 today.” (Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon blew his engine Sunday and finished 41st.)

Denny Hamlin finished fifth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and David Ragan.

---

For the first 273 laps, Johnson easily put distance between his No. 48 Chevrolet and whatever car happened to be running second. After a restart on Lap 267, following a caution for debris in Turn 3, Johnson pulled away steadily from Kurt Busch until a massive crash in Turn 3 stopped the action on Lap 273.

The wreck left the No. 38 Ford of David Gilliland on top of the roof and hood of Scott Speed’s No. 84 Toyota, and NASCAR red-flagged the race for more than 17 minutes (The 2nd of the race) while the safety crew winched the cars apart. Gilliland and Speed were examined in the infield care center and released.

By then, Johnson already had locked up a five-point bonus for most laps led, as Edwards continued his slow, methodical climb from his 15th-place starting position.

A succession of excellent pit stops, coupled with positions gained on the racetrack, left Edwards in the fourth position for a restart on Lap 267, but he was unable to gain another spot. Though there were four more cautions and four more restarts in the final 40 laps, Johnson, who led the final 95 laps, finished the event without a serious challenge.

The end of the race was interesting as there was conflict going on all over the track.

A caution came out with 20 Laps to go. During the caution, ABC showed Tony Stewart ramming the back bumper of Greg Biffle. Elsewhere, they covered Paul Menard rubbing bumpers with Jeff Burton. There was angst everywhere near the end of this long day.

With 6 to go, it looked like to me that Kenseth was crowding A.J. Allmendinger down into the turn and 'Dinger's car got a touch loose and tapped out Kenseth. Kenseth's spin collected the already irritable Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon.

In the Green / White / Checkered dash, as the cars were coming across the line, Kenseth appeared to come down off his outside line across A.J. Allmendigner's nose sending 'Dinger spinning into the wall and collecting at least 10 other cars at the finish line.

It seemed retaliatory on Keneth's part and if that is the case, I assume we'll be seeing some discipline from NASCAR come Tuesday.

Source: NASCAR Press Release: By Reid Spencer of Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

First Time Winners and Race Ending Squabbles

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

What happens when you put a good driver in good equipment? You get a first time winner, that's what you get. In the past I've noted how the Penske shop seems to never quite get the No.12 car in a consistent performance mode. In the long run, we see the driver, the face of the team as the icon of the performance. I've been a tolerant and patient fan of Ryan Newman since his 2nd year scene on Cup and it's nice to see that when he gets put into decent equipment, he takes advantage of it.

Today (Saturday, Oct 25) in Ryan Newmans first start in the Craftsman Truck Series, he took the win in the E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Newman took the race lead with 8 laps to but Ron Hornaday Jr still had something to say about it as they swapped the lead one more time. Newman stayed in the high line and thus, had the momentum in the corners.

Behind it all, Denny Hamlin came in third, Todd Bodine fourth and the spirited Scott Speed rounded out the top 5.

This win puts the count for Ryan Newman at 21 victories in the top three series in NASCAR.

• 13 wins in Sprint Cup.
• 7 wins in the Nationwide Series.
• And now,
• 1 in the Truck Series.

Being a first time starter / winner makes him the fourth driver to win his Truck Series debut. The other drivers are Mike Skinner, Robert Pressley and Kasey Kahne.

Does this bode well for Ryan? Getting this win is his first in a Chevy. He's moving to a Chevy in the Cup Series driving for Stewart-Haas Racing next year. (2009)

NASCAR.com:
Truck Results | Points

(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Related Links
The 12 Car Gets Yet A New Driver
Rumors: Stremme to the No. 12

-----------------------------------

NASCAR Nationwide Series

At a time when he needs it most, Carl Edwards won the Kroger 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park. The race ending was pretty exciting and was an exemplary demonstration of good clean racing.

With a green / white / checkers restart, David Reutimann was on Edwards bumper but never tried moving him with his bumper... good clean racing. In a post race interview, it seemed that Reutimann was regretting not moving Edwards for the win but reconciled himself that he races clean.

Edwards and Reutimann were two of the seven cars left on the lead lap as they were followed by Kenny Wallace in third, Austin Dillon finished fourth and Joey Logano was fifth.

Even though the finish up front was exciting, the action was back in 13th when Bobby Hamilton Jr. spun off the bumper of Landon Cassill, relegating Hamilton to 21st. After the checkers, Bobby cut Cassill off on pit road, got out and had a chat with Cassill in his window. It looked like Bobby reached in the window but I'm not sure what came of that. According to Cassill, Bobby's head was in his window and bobbed up and down and left and right, but since Bobby never lifted his face plate, he didn't know what he said. LOL.

We'll see what comes of this later on, early next week.

Don't forget:
Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 26th) the Cup Series race is at Atlanta, on ABC at 1 p.m. ET.

NASCAR.com:
N'wide Results | Points

(Photo Credit: Dak Dillon for NASCAR)
-----

Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Race Report (Stewart Wins?)

Travis Kvapil, on his first NASCAR Cup Series pole, leads the pack to the green flag for the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega.

-There have already been 3 leaders by lap 10, Jimmie Johnson being in the back, looks like he's lost the draft, 17 seconds behind the leader. They're thinking that a team mate needs to drop back to help him out. Kenny Schrader has lost the draft and is 11 seconds back while the pack runs 2-wide, 14 rows deep, more or less.
-Lap 23: Schrader and Johnson are drafting now, but the pack is coming up on them fast and lap 26 sees them a lap down now.
-Lap 25: David Ragan is leading the pack in front of Kvapil, Almirola, Menard and Gilliland.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr takes the lead by Lap 26, Ragan behind him now.
~
-Lap 34 Caution for Debris.
Having just been lapped, Robby Gordon is in front of Jimmie Johnson and Robby will be the Lucky Dog.
Ragan gets spun on pit road, no damage. Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace: speeding on pit road.
Robby Gordon, lost the lucky Dog bonus for fueling twice.
-Lap 39 Restart: 24, 1, 31, 33, 88.
~
-Lap 46 Caution for Debris in the tri-oval:
Jimmie Johnson gets the Lucky Dog. Yes: THey showed the debris. Oddly, the Lowe's pit crew seemed to tbe the ones who let NASCAR know about it.
Everyone is pitting. Dang, it looks like a bunch of figure-8 races as cars pull in and pull out of their pits. Harvick stays out and leads a lap.
-Lap 49 Restart:19, 5, 18, 24, 11.
Ryan Newman has dropped a cylinder. Dave Blaney: Electrical problems, is in the back of the pack.
~
-Lap 54 Caution:
Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann spinning. Gordon has body damage. His day may be done.
Reutimann's RR tire blows, and Jeff dodges to the right and hits the wall and the 21 car.
That's the 2nd RR tire to just ... blow, that we know of.
Is something wrong with the 48 car? They're working on a splitter brace on the RF in the pits.
Kurt Busch's hood is up. Engine is missing.
Edwards to the end of the longest line. Pitted while the pits were closed.
He's been on pit road a few times.
-Lap 58 Restart: 83, 28, 84, 18, 15.
Kurt Busch to the garage after the restart.
~
-Lap 68 Caution:
No 83 RF tires blows up while running up there in the top 5. Nine cars in all were collected.

THE BIG ONE happens while off to commercial...
Martin Truex looks a bit daffy, holding his head walking back to the medical center.
Red Flag Out.
Those involved
Vickers, Gilliland, Truex Jr., Kahne, Skinner, McMurray, Labonte, Raines & Almirola.
18 minutes later:
-Lap 73 restart: 88 15 31 29 42
~
Despite the wreck, the pack gets back together and is back to being racey.
Stewart finally gets the front spot in the race, making him leader # 23 after 35 lead changes.
-Lap 81 Caution: Mike Wallace loses a right side tire... again.
-Lap 87 Restart: 18, 88, 42, 20, 17.
~
-Lap 99 Caution: Denny Hamlin RF tire puts him in the wall. 2 debris, 4 tire cautions.
They're carting Denny away on a stretcher, but I believe as precautionary.
-Lap 105 Restart: 66, 15, 8, 18, 20.
Denny is awake and alert and headed to the hospital for further evaluation.
-Lap 133: So far, pretty uneventful in as much as any additional cautions.
29, 6, 20, 8, 18.
~
Caution with 50 to go: Jeff Gordon blowing and slowing. Engine fried.
Edwards spins exiting pit road.
When the No. 00 car led the race, ESPN noted McDowell was leading, but truth in fact: Kenny Wallace is driving that car.
Everyone trying to top off on fuel
Restart with 44 to go: 18, 6, 28, 20, 48.
Now it's going to start getting racy!
25 to go: We're getting three wide now. 88, 31, 42
The 55 car is up in the top 5.
~
Caution with 24 to go: Harvick gets sideways into the grass off of Ragan's bumper... but it doesn't look like he took damage.
Restart with 19 to go: 42, 5, 15, 07, 88
~
-Lap 174: the other BIG ONE hits the field!
Carl spun Biffle and this collected the rest of the field.
Wow, a lot of Cup Chasers involved.
The 2nd red flag today.
Restart with 10 Laps to Go: 20, 78, 5, 19, 6
Stewart and Nemechek bolt out in front of the pack. Go Joe, Go.
The draft bailed on Nemechek.
Sadler locked on the back bumper of Stewart.
Subway leads McDonalds around the track!
5 to go: 20, 01, 15, 8, 31
~
Caution with 4 to go: RR tire on the No. 26.
I suspect Tony may pull this off but DEI is lurking on Stewart's bumper in the next three positions.
Restart with 3 to go:
20, 01, 15, 8, 19.

On the last lap, in the tri-oval, with Regan Smith passing Tony Stewart below the yellow line, he passed and crossed the line first, but NASCAR gives the win to Tony Stewart.

Smith may argue with the issue that Stewart forced Smith below the line.
We'll see how it pans out before the afternoon (evening?) is over.


The Winner is Tony Stewart, the cars crossed the line in the following order:
01, 20, 15, 6, 31, 07, 43, 66, 7 & 48.
This is the unofficial order.

To be continued in a later post!
Thanks for coming by and be sure to check for updates on the drama of the end-race scenario.
Does NASCAR stay with who won, or do they use the same rule of application when a driver can see the checkered flag, anything goes rule?

Jimmie Johnson Barely Wins the Camping World RV 400

by Bruce E. Simmons :

Woes before It even Starts At Kansas
Jeff Gordon starts the race very sick and a back up driver sits in the wings, waiting.
Jeff Burton stays on pit road when everyone else pulls off due to a bad tach that the crew fixes. Burton heads to the back of the pack. That's from 37th to 42nd.

Race Start:
Jimmie Johnson leads the pack to the green flag. Clint Bowyer in the No. 07 Chevy gets black flagged for passing on the start before the start / finish line.

Lap 17: Matt Kenseth in the No. 17 Ford takes the lead from Jimmy Johnson while Bowyer is still on the lead lap, barely in front of the leader.

Lap 27: It's reported that Kyle Busch's engine is failing. Seems too early, but when Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish passed him, I started to believe it.
Lap 42: Martin Truex Jr. takes the lead from Kenseth.
Lap 44 top 10: 1, 17, 83, 48, 19, 5, 24, 8, 84 21

Lap 50 starts green flag pit stops.
Brian Vickers parks it almost sideways as he comes across the nose of the 99 car and slows the 20 car trying to exit their pits. Valuable time lost.
Waltrip stayed out and led a lap before pitting. The beleagured No. 18 does the same.
21 and 77 cars too fast on pit road.

Lap 71 sees Jimmie Johnson take his lead back from Truex Jr..

lap 75: Caution for debris off the No. 12 Dodge of Ryan Newman repainting the outside wall. Kyle Busch is saying that his car is coming back to him as if whatever the problem was got "burned away".
Loose tire on pit road. No one hits it, but Dave Blaney slams into the No. 31 car, and bounces into the No 99 car.

Lap 80 restart: 5, 1, 24, 48, 19.
Lap 94 caution for Kyle Petty spinning ... all by himself. Scott Riggs drive shaft came apart.
The No. 18 car is back on the lead lap.

Lap 99 restart and the top 10 leading them to the green flag:
5, 8, 31, 19, 48, 16, 24, 1, 88 & 9.
Mears (5) did not pit. 8 & 31, two tires only.
Lap 117 caution for Joey Logano adding his car colors to the wall in his HOF No. 96 car.
20 car to the back of the pack for speeding.

Lap 122 restart: 1, 28, 07, 16, 31
Lap 123 caution - Kenseth wants to see who's behind him and spins it through the corner of turns 1 & 2.

Lap 126 restart: 1, 48, 07, 16 & 24
Lap 130 caution for Tony Stewart mowing the infield with his No. 20 Home Depot lawn mower. Tony, there are cheaper ways to mow the grass. He bounced off the No 83 car of Vickers. (the 20 and 83 have been having pit issues today.)

lap 134 restart: 1, 48, 16, 07, 24
Lap 150 top 10: 48, 1, 16, 99, 24, 88, 31, 29, 07, 6, 5, 26, 19, 11, 17 (So I can't count!)
92 laps to go, green flag pit stops start. stop, start... commence..
75 to go: 99, 48, 16, 1 & 24. Stewart makes costly stop to repair his splitter.
Caution with 49 to go as Travis Kvapil adds his distinctive paint scheme to the wall.

Restart with 45 to go: 48, 99, 24, 31 & 16
Caution, 42 to go: The NO. 6 car bumps the No. 55 car and he dances down the front stretch in a slide.

Restart 38 to go: 48, 99, 24, 31, 16
Truex has issues and pits. Broken shifter.
I think we just heard the radio communication of the No. 1 car and I heard "It's F*d up...". Not sure... volume wasn't quite loud enough with a truck going by outside.

22 to go: It's 48 and 99 out front, followed by the sick boy in the No. 24 car.
12 to go: Waltrip LF tire evacuates from the car, but all the debris is on the inside line of the track... mostly. NASCAR keeps it green.
10 to go: 48, 99, 24, 16, 17

with 2 to go: The No. 99 Ford reels in the No. 48 Chevy to within 2 car lengths.

In the last lap headed into turn 3, Carl Edwards passes Jimmie Johnson as if he's standing still, but hits the turn too fast and slides up into the wall, leaving the Office Depot colors on the wall and Jimmie goes back inside him and takes the win by a few car lengths!!

Now that was fun to watch!

The top 10 finishers:
Jimmie Johnson,
Carl Edwards,
Greg Biffle,
Jeff Gordon,
M Kenseth,
K. Harvick,
J. Burton,
D. Ragan,
A.J. Allmendinger,
E. Sadler.

Carl Edwards says
"... in the video game, you can hit the wall and still win!! It didn't work out quite like the video game."
Before you smack down on it, I know which "game" he's talking about and all the physics in this "game" which is called more a simulation than a game is dead on.

With that said, LOL... I kind of expected more from Carl than employing simulation tactics!

Interview of Kyle Busch:
Reporter: "What are you feeling right now?
Shrub-bub: "I think it's pretty self explanatory out there." Wah!!

Actually, despite picking on him, I don't blame him for the short draw of the luck he's got going, I understand his take... today.

For the complete results, see Cup Series Results

Chevy Rock and Roll 400 From Richmond - Jimmie Johnson Wins

The field is led to the green flag by Kyle Busch who got a strong start and takes the lead.

Lap 19: 18, 29, 88, 48, 24, 20, 99, 11, 31 & 17

There's a lap 35 competition yellow scheduled, but as we approach the 35th lap, Harvick caught Ky Busch and by lap 30, Harvick got on the outside of Busch and took the lead. Harvick is running a line around everyone else.

The 29 car is lapping cars and the 88 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr is on his bumper as the competition yellow comes out.

Lap 43 restart: 24, 29, 88, 11, 99, 20, 17, 18, 07 & 44. 2 laps later the 29 car took the lead back.

Lap 80: 11, 88, 29, 20, 07, 18, 24, 31, 48 & 6

Hamlin takes the lead forcing Harvick to go low, and Earnhardt takes advantage and passes Harvick and lets Hamlin know he's there with a bump thud going into turn 3. Hamlin rubs up into Jr going into the front stretch.

The telecast reported that NASCAR came over the radio to remind them to take it easy. Jeeze... quit playing big brother and let them race Helton or who ever is watch dogging the very same field you said you'd let police themselves.

Jr. did finally take the lead by the 88th lap. (He had it before that, but I thought it cool to report that the 88 car is leading on lap 88.)

Edwards had to pit with a RR tire going flat previous to this, so he's off the lead lap right now.

Lap 97: Johnny Sauter loses a RF tire. CAUTION is out.

Lap 102 restart: restart sees Dale Jr. lead Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and the rest of the pack to the green then the No 55 Toyota of Michael Waltrip got turned around on the restart by the No. 12 Dodge of Ryan Newman aaand we are back under caution!

Lap 109 restart: 88, 11, 29, 18, 17, 07, 20, 6, 31 & 48 cars lead the pack.

Bubble spotters: 11 (2nd), 07 (6th), 6 (8th), 24 (12th), 9 (26th). It's not looking good so far for the No. 9 Dodge of Kasey Kahne.

Lap 116 Caution for the No. 16 of Biffle hitting the wall... well, he slid it sideways up into the wall, tapping the RR corner of the car. The rest of the car seems fine.

Lap 120 (??)t: Kenseth and Ragan get together and slide up into the wall. Big for the two chasing the Cup Bubble. (??: I was distracted by my snacks!!!)

Ragan just lost it and slid up into the wall while Kenseth, though not near him, started sliding up into the wall with him. It looks like they both slipped on something. Kenseth echoed the premise of oil on the track. The No. 6 car does not look good, the 17 car looks worse.

This spot, going into turn 1, has taken it's toll on the Roush garage. It's the same spot Biffle spun out on.

Lap 128 restart: 88, 29, 11, 18, 07, 20, 48, 31, 24 & 1

Lap 135 sees Harvick take the lead back from Dale Jr.

Lap 160: Hitting the wall has not agreed with the No. 6 Ford of David Ragan or the No.17 of Matt Kenseth. The 17 is 32nd, the no. 6 is 33rd. Meanwhile, Kasey Kahne is running 18th.

Lap 163 Caution: The No. 42 and 19 cars spin... not together. The 42 got up into the wall, the No 19 has a flat RF tire.

Ragan just went a lap down and is the lucky dog. He's probably not feeling that lucky right now.

Kenseth isn't locked into the Chase, but for him to get booted out Kasey Kahne has to lead a lap and do really really well.

Lap 170 Restart: 88, 29, 18, 11 & 48 cars lead the pack. The No. 17 car is getting black flagged for loose sheet metal. (He stayed out and led a lap under caution.)
~

Lap 200 halfway mark:
18, 88, 11, 29, 20, 48, 07, 31, 24, 12, 2, 5, 16, 8 & 1 are the top 15 cars in the field.

As the field gets past the 1/2 way mark, the No 1 and 77 cars get together and spin away in a fine synchronized spinning demonstration.

Lap 209 restart: 18, 88, 20, 48 & 29 cars lead the pack to the green.

Lap 212 CAUTION: Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kyle Busch get into each other and that sends Busch hard into the wall, HARD!!

Oh shades of last years race! LOL.... It did just look like hard racing as Jr was below Busch and Kyle came down on the 88 car and got himself spun out. Jr just converted a bunch of Shrub hatin' fans!!!

Is it coincidental that it was caution number 8? Or that the lap numbes added up, 2+1+2 equals 5. All the numbers add up to both drivers old car numbers! Freaky!! Sometimes I like destiny.

Now, does the Shrub come out to get even, or to keep the car going on the track? The back end looked pretty bad.

Lap 217 restart: 88, 20, 48, 29 & 11 cars lead the pack, and we see the 18 car get back onto the track as the cars take the green flag.
~

Lap 226 Caution with another flat RF for Sadler in the No. 19 Dodge.

Lap 233 restart: 88, 20, 48, 29 & 07. TV is reporting a vibration from the No. 88 car of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Lap 236 Stewart takes the lead and Johnson follows suit and Jr goes to third.

Lap 242 Caution for Kyle Busch has a spin with the help of Elliot Sadler. Busch's day is not very optimal.

Lap 246 restart: 44, 8, 1, 55 & 00 lead the pack to the green. When many pitted, 14 cars stayed on the track. Check it out, Michael Waltrip Racing cars are all in the top 5! (OK, am I being mean?)

I was going to do a lap 250 rundown, but the pitting strategies of the 14 cars messed it up! As it stands,

44, 8, 1, 00, 55, 01, 41, 6, 43 & 11. That's a unique looking top 10.
~

Check this out: Cup Bubble Drivers on Lap 279 sees Ragan in 14th and Bowyer in 25th. The 17 ca is running 39th.

Lap 297 Cuation with the No 83 Toyota hitting the wall from a RF tire of Vickers. This is going to bring the field back together and it probably isn't going to look good for Reutimann in the No. 44 car.

Lap 305 Restart: 44, 20, 31, 88, 8, 1, 48, 11, 5 & 00

Caution With 86 to go: 21, 99 and 43 cars do the fender dance as the 43 car gets loose and his sideways slide collects the 21 and 99 cars with him. Nothing serious for damage. This yellow will put Kyle Busch back on the lead lap.

Restart with 80 laps to go: 44, 20, 88, 8 & 48.
~

Some replays showed Bowyer and Ragan playing hard. Bowyer rubbed up into the LR of Ragan, then Bowyer bumps a car up and out of the way. That car slides up into the No. 6 car of Ragan, forcing him back several spots. Clint! What are you doing? Oh yea, fighting for that 12th spot! Never mind!

With 53 to go, Stewart threatens Reutimann for the lead and with 52 to go, Stewart takes the lead. Johnson tries to follow suit.

With 50 to go: 20, 44, 48, 88, 8, 31, 11, 1, 29 & 5. There's some good racing going on here today.
~

Caution for the No. 66 car of Scott Riggs.

Restart with 37 to go: 1, 48, 20, 88, 31, 16, 44, 11, 2 & 8

Johnson goes for the lead and has it with 33 to go, followed by Stewart, putting that one car behind them.

Caution with the 15 car hitting the wall with 31 to go.

Restart with 26 to go: 48, 20, 88, 1 & 31
~

15 to go: 48, 20, 88, 11 & 31

10 to go: 20, 48, 11, 88 & 8

Great race between Stewart and Johnson. I think Stewart needs to get on the outside of Johnson, otherwise Johnson will have the momentum every time off of turn 4.

5 to go: 48 leads the 20. I think Stewart used up his tires fighting from the inside line.

3 to go: 48 leads the 20. Johnson is pulling away slowly.

The excitemet is done as Johnson is pulling away, inch by inch.

1 to go: 48 car clear by one.

At the Start finish line it's
48(Jimmie Johnson)
20(Tony Stewart)
11(Denny Hamlin)
88(Dale Earnhardt Jr.)
8(Mark Martin)
31(Jeff Burton)
29(Kevin Harvick)
24(Jeff Gordon)
44(David Reutimann)
2(Kurt Busch)

Jimmie Johnson Wins the Pepsi 500 - A terse Recap

It was Jimmie Johnson's race to lose. That's all there was to it. He had the pole, he owned the lead, and his team made all the right adjustments through all the changes of the race that turned from day to night.

Impressive or expected? Does it matter? Nope. He pulled it off.

Here's a quick recap of the race:

Jimmie Johnson led them to the green flag, but by the end of the lap, A.J. Almendinger had led himself a lap, but quickly lost it back to Johnson. The first few laps had the usual side-by-side rows of high octane burst of acceleration that slowly whittled down to a single file line of cars that was interrupted by a flat tire on lap 3 for Jamie McMurray.

Lap 8 Restart: 48, 84, 24, 9, 1, 18, 2, 19, 22 & 44 lead the pack across the line! Go 'Dinger!!

Lap 13 we see J Gordon's splitter smokin off the ground. ( We presume it's splitter smoke right now )

Lap 20 Caution for a BIG piece of debris - the caution light got blown off it's post by the wind of the cars flying by at 205+ mph at the end of the front stretch! McMurray gets the lucky dog and now all cars are on the lead lap.
-Lap 25 Restart: 48, 9, 84,83, 88, 16, 18, 44, 24 & 1

Lap 43 Caution for Kurt Busch losing a LR tire.
-Lap 47 Restart: 48, 16, 84, 83, 88, 9, 29, 11, 17 & 99

Lap 69 Caution: Nemechek hard in the wall out of turn 2. Knocked his drive shaft out of the car. He be done!
-lap 73 Restart: 48, 16, 11, 29, 17, 99, 44, 9, 84 & 88

Lap 100 48, 16, 11, 29, 83, 9, 44, 42, 17 & 07

Jimmie Johnson clinches a spot in the chase.

Lap 137: 48, 16, 83, 11, 29, 44, 9, 17, 99 & 42
21 cars on the lead lap

Caution for debris. Ryan Newman is the lucky dog, putting 19 cars on the lead lap.
-Restart with 98 laps to go: 48, 16, 11, 29, 83, 44, 99, 9, 17 & 20

Caution lap 160: Debris. Another piece of track light came down!! Wow!
The track is falling apart!
-Restart with 85 laps to go: 16, 99, 84, 83, 12, 48, 29, 11, 9 & 17
2 tire gambles on some of the cars.

A few laps later, the 48 car was hunting the 16 car down and with 82 to go, took the lead back.

70 Laps to go Robby Gordon Spins... one more caution!
The 48 team had an issue in the pits.
Restart with 65 laps to go: 44, 16, 99, 48, 11, 29, 12, 17, 9 & 18.
(uh ho, here comes the 18 car.)

Is this the final restart of then night?
Restart with 28 to go 16, 48, 11, 99, 29, 17, 18, 9, 07 &, 44
by the end of the lap, the 48 car was leading the way.


We're watching 3 and 4 wide in mid pack. It's pretty exciting.
There's a lot of dancing between the 83, 84, 12 and 88 for 11th spot.
With 20 to go, we have 48, 16, 11, 29 & 17 lead the pack.

15 to go: 48, 16, 11, 29, 17, 99 & 18 !!??!!

10 to go: 48, 16, 11, 29 & 17

The winner of the Pepsi 500 at CA is Jimmie Johnson!
He led oodles of laps and was followed across the line by
16, 11, 29, 17, 99, 18, 9, 44 & 07 cars.

Check out the details over at NASCAR:
Cup Series Results
Cup Series Standings

I'll break things down later!

But I'll tell you what, back in June I said David Ragan is my favorite dark horse driver in this whole bunch because he's quietly there, lurking just outside the top 12. Not screwing around too much. He doesn't have a top performing car, but the No. 6 team is quietly getting it together.

Next year, he is either going to be a contender or will fade to black.

Sharpie 500 at Bristol - Carl Edwards Wins and Spins

Carl Edwards and David Reutimann leads the field to the green. Carl got a great start, and Jeff Gordon got in under Reutimann and Reutimann was isntantly relegated to third. So much for the bonus points for the No 44 Toyota. Earnhardt Jr. seemed a bit loosey goosey at the start.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was black flagged for passing before the start/finish line. Wow, devastating start to the race. He was caught on a scenario that is legal on restarts, but not the initial start of any race.

Lap 25 see's Jimmie Johnson into the wall after tangling with Sterling Marlin. He pits to fix the damage under green.

Kyle Busch took the lead on lap 54.

Lap 97: No. 1 car looses a tire and takes the No 84 car with him into the wall.

Lap 195: The No. 77 comes up across the nose of the 09. The 09 slows in front of the 20 car. The 20 car spins the 09 car and the 09 collected the 31 car. Hmm, one of my new rules says that the car number mentioned the most, is the cause of the incident. That would be the No 09 car of Sterling Marlin.

Lap 206 restart sees Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman lead the pack to the green.

Lap 216: Big wreck> 07, 7, 77, 5, 9, 21, 41, 44 cars pile up into or scraped up a bit into a wrecking yard.

The No 9 Budweiser car looks like toast, who was 12th in points.
The No 07, 13th in points, just got rubbed up a bit while the other cars in the pile ended up reshaping their cars on a serious note.

It looks like the No. 5 car comes up into the LF corner of the No. 55, getting spun into the wall, and the 5 car collected the rest of the victims. Mears said his spotter called "clear, clear, clear" and his spotter was mistaken.

In the replay from Clint Bowyer, the car radio of Clint says "Michael Waltrip is the worse driver in NASCAR. I can't believe NAPA signed back up with him." LOL.

Everyone involved is OK.

Lap 221: Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards leads the pack to the restart.
18, 99, 24, 11, 20, 12, 29, 16, 44 & 15 are the top 10.

Lap 281: The No 22 car slaps the inside wall.

Lap 293 restart: Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards leads the pack to the green. ... Didn't I already say this?

Lap 320: Kyle Busch leads the pack still. The man is unstoppable! 18, 99, 24, 11, 29, 12, 20, 07, 8 & 26

Lap 344 debris caution for parts coming off the No. 44 car. The back bumper / TV panel came off all by itself after being abused throughout the race.

Lap 349 restart sees the 18 and 99 lead the pack to the green.

Lap 350 front 10 of the blender called the Sharpie 500:
18, 99, 24, 11, 29, 12, 07, 20, 8, 6

lap 355 Edwards starts looking under Kyle for the lead, but Kyle holds him off.

Lap 357 Edwards looks outside to pass him. No go.

Despite being caught up in a few incidents, and the front end toe-in being more or less toe-out,ed, the 07 car of Bowyer is in 7th.

Dale Jarrett said that in some race in his past, he had gotten in wreck and his front end was toed out and it handled pretty good the rest of the day.

Lap 365 Caution

Lap 370: Oh for cyin' out loud, you'll never guess what 2 guys led the pack to the green! But now, Jr. is the first car a lap down and if circumstances are right, he can get his lap back at the next yellow.

Lap 400 top 10: 18, 99, 24, 11, 29, 12, 8, 20, 07 and 6

lap 451 caution.

Restart with 41 laps to go: 18, 99, 11, 24, 29, 12, 07, 20, 17 and 6.

A few laps later, another debris caution for a piece off of the No 2 car of Kurt Busch.

With 30 to go, Edwards takes the lead. First time since lap 55 someone other than Kyle leads, and he drops to 3rd as Hamlin passes him too.

20 to go, Kyle gets past Hamlin.
10 to go: 99, 18, 11, 29, 24
5 to go: 99, 18

The order of the top 10 cars across the finish line!
99 - 18 - 11 - 29 - 24 - 12 - 07 - 20 - 17 - 6

Remember when Carl Edwards passed Busch?

Edwards gave Busch a budge to get by him, a typical Bristol pass. Busch nudged him right back immediately afterward, but it did not move Edwards and Edwards went on to win.

After passing the start finish line, Kyle (The Child) Busch rammed the side of the No 99 car. Edwards then turned the 18 car around on the front stretch, to the immense pleasure of the cheering crowd.

Ahh, Bristol. Gotta love it.

Afterward, Edwards DID NOT apologize for it. He said Kyle's always raced him like that before, and decided to move him. You go Carl!!

Thanks to NASCAR for auto stock image snip.

Busch (The other one) wins at New Hampshire

The top 10 starting grid for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 was :

1 Patrick Carpentier*
2 Bobby Labonte
3 Kevin Harvick
4 Scott Riggs
5 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6 Reed Sorenson
7 Dario Franchitti*
8 Martin Truex Jr.
9 Matt Kenseth
10 A.J. Allmendinger

Interesting observation: Lap 100 saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9th, he was followed by his old sponsor Budweiser, who was followed by Jr.'s old car, the No. 8!

After 111 Laps, and only one caution, the field settled out with the biggest position changes from the start being:

Scott Riggs dropped 36 spots to 40
Dario Franchitti dropped 36 spots to 43rd
Brian Vickers climbed 36 spots to 4th
Patrick Carpentier dropped 30 spots to 31st
Tony Stewart climbed up over and around 25 other cars to 3rd
Casey Mears snuck up 23 spots to 1st by not pitting under caution
Elliott Sadler slid back 21 spots to 32nd
Sam Hornish Jr. regressed 19 postiions to 39th
Jeff Burton came 19 spots from 31st to 12th
Travis Kvapil dropped 17 spots to 38th
Jimmie Johnson gained 16 spots to be in 7th

Stewart took the race lead on lap 141 coming out of the pits from a caution stop and held the lead until the very end.

The last half of the race was a race as teams had a feel that the weather was coming, but the real excitement wound up with around 25 laps to go the word rain was mentioned.

The race pace was slowed by 2 cautions in the last 25 laps.

Lap 271 saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. get speared by Jamie McMurray as the 88 car was pitting for fuel.
Lap 280 saw some excitement as Hornish spun and collected Bowyer in his mess. The ensuing pace lap saw Montoya hit Kyle Busch and Busch spun.

The 2 cautions slowed down the race enough to let the rain come in. The irony was that the top 15 cars had pitted for fuel since they couldn't make the whole length of the race. Others made the gamble and stayed out.

The others that stayed out, being Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson were the top 10 cars when the red flag came out for rain and subsequently, the top 10 finishers when the race was called for rain.

Go figure, a 2nd place finish for Michael Walrip!

NASCAR Unofficial Results

The Last Busch Sponsored Race

The last Busch sponsored series race was won by Jeff Burton who was proud to be the race winner of the final race sponsored by Busch.

He was followed by Mark Martin who pushed hard for the 2nd place finish followed by
Matt Kenseth,
Carl Edwards and
Stephen Leicht filling out the top 5 spots for this historical last race.

See the Ford 300 results over at Scene Daily.

Bank of America 500 at Lowe's - A short recap

The writing was on the wall, the turn 4 wall that is. Turn 4 was labelled by the broadcast as calamity corner, and that title sure held up as we saw our first caution before the 1st lap even completed with David Reutimann smacking the wall in turn.

The pole sitter, Ryan Newman, led the first few laps, a few laps in the end, but smacked the wall before attaining the much desired win.

The racing wasn't too bad for the night, but some chase contenders did not fare too well.

At the front of the race, a few contenders showed their hand early, as Jamie McMurray took the lead for a while and Jimmie Johnson took over the house on lap 17 but through various yellow flag events, the lead changed hands often.

Kevin Harvick had pitted under green on lap 32, thinking he had a right side tire going down. It was a bad call as he had to pit again under green on lap 43 to replace all 4 tires. Two stops under green doomed him for the rest of the night.

Through out the night, Jimmie Johnson kept showing up front after the race restarts showing he had the car to chase, not beat but after a spin on lap 232, he wasn't the contender we were all hoping for.

Matt Kenseth did not have a good night at all. Around lap 65, the first of Matt Kenseth's woes kicked in with a bad battery. By lap 157, he smacked the wall hard in turn 4, and again later on in the race. Sadly, he was toast for the night.

Pit road proved to be a mix-it-up zone for Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. (No, they didn't hit each other)

On lap 190, Kurt Busch hit Mark Martin as he pulled out of the pits, messing up his right front fender, but by lap 275, he lost a cylinder and the team couldn't do much about it under green flag stops.

Tony Stewart had worse issues, as on lap 176 one car pulls down in front of him and scrapes his Rf, but than as Tony gets going again, Kasey Kahne, with the pit road momentum, pulls in, and Tony hits and spins him, causing sufficient RF damage to the 20 car to warrant repair issues with lots and lots of tape.

Denny Hamlin ran into gearing problems late in the race, and on lap 323 Jeff Green spews oil and brings out a red flag.

Here's where the drama starts.. it seems Jeff Gordon started having what he thought were fuel pickup issues and thought he was running out of gas, but his crew chief said he shouldn't be.. and on the restart of lap 329, Gordon slowed, holding up the front contenders and Ryan Newman, right place, right time, flew past the group on the outside to take a big lead.... but lost it in turn 2 on lap 331.

On the ensuing restart, Jeff Gordon had the same problem again, but Clint Bowyer, having now where to go, ended up bump drafting him into keeping the lead and once up to speed, that's all she wrote for the winning hopefuls.

Jeff Gordon won the race, followed by Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton & Carl Edwards. You can see the entire results at nascar.com

UAW-Ford 500 Notes and Recap

by Bruce Simmons

If you only count the last 50 laps or so, that was an exciting race.. and more to the point, it was a fun finish to watch the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

But the first 168 laps was anything but super with the new aero package in the form of the COT and everyone having to deal with NASCAR's new restriction on anyone bump drafting, the race was a nothing but a high speed train of cars through most of the event.

With that being said, we were still treated to a few engine failures, wall scrapings and the wreck that ABC called the "Big One", which it only involved a few cars, but ABC did it's best to drum it up for the audience.

The bigger wreck of the day occured on lap 145 for the 6th yellow as Bobby Labonte's car just lost it, and that event collected Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jamie McMurray, David Reutimann Paul Menard, Dave Blaney, Brian Vickers, David Ragan and Robby Gordon.

Michael Waltrip showed he still had his restrictor plate skills, but his day was cut a bit short when he had a flat tire around lap 176, which ended up also involving Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle and Tony Raines.

This was the last yellow that led to the 20 lap dash to the checkers.

We watched Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch working together, but then the garage as a whole seemed to show who they'd rather do with as Jimmie Johnson pulled down on the inside and everyone followed suit, leaving the Penske cars to fend for themselves.

The battle was between Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dave Blaney, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Juan Montoya but on the last lap, as Stewart went to the outside to pass Johnson, Jeff Gordon leapt from behind Johnson to tag along with Stewart, but when Stewart chose to block another line of cars, Jeff Gordon ducked down inside and took the lead in the backstretch on the last lap to win the race. This victory netted Jeff Gordon his 12th career plate win.

Unlike the rest of the race, this was fun to watch. Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. both suffered blown engines, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. even said it was a boring race to be in during his post race interview, but NASCAR had to do what it needed to, to make sure this first COT restrictor plate event came off without a hitch. Hopefully, they let the excitment back in at the next event.

The top 10 finishers for the day were:
1. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet
2. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet
3. Dave Blaney Toyota
4. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet
5. Ryan Newman Dodge
6. Casey Mears Chevrolet
7. Kurt Busch Dodge
8. Tony Stewart Chevrolet
9. Tony Raines Chevrolet
10. Reed Sorenson Dodge

See the unofficial results at nascar.com

Life Lock 400 - Cautions and Rain

If the rain didn't get the drivers, the cautions did and what could be a NASCAR fans dream or nightmare, the Kansas Speedway, Life Lock 400 race, from the start of the pre-show at 10 am pacific time, took over 7 hours to complete.

For me, this worked out great. I found myself moving this weekend, so between TV's on at both places, VCR's going in case I missed anything, and Sirius Satellite Radio for the transit time between new and old places, the race kept me mentally occupied during the otherwise painful move. I'm betting if I wasn't moving, or busy in some way, this would have been too long of a day for me.

Otherwise, the race found the entire front row moved to the back of the pack for car changes (Johnson crashed in practice) and qualifying penalties (Newman's car found too low after his qualifying run).

We got in a little over a dozen laps before the Red Flag for rain came out, but the race got underway again within 90 minutes of that.

After a few wrecks, another rain delay, in which Tony Stewart was in the lead for, lasted a few hours, but they got the race back underway and we saw even more wrecks in the closing laps, which did take Tony Stewart out of contention via a small fender rub that took out his LF tire, and in the ensuing issue, collected Kurt Busch.

The day took out the majority of the Chase Contenders.

Greg Biffle, under much scrutiny and question, was named the winner as the race finished under the yellow flag under the enveloping cover of darkness.

The first 10 finishers of the Life Lock 400 were:
Greg Biffle,
Clint Bowyer,
Jimmie Johnson,
Casey Mears,
Jeff Gordon,
Kevin Harvick,
Reed Sorenson,
Elliott Sadler,
Kasey Kahne &
Dale Earnhardt Jr..

Biffle's win came into question because it seemed he could not maintain the pace speed in the last few hundred yards, as required by NASCAR under Yellow flag rules, yet NASCAR quickly addressed the issue by stating the field was "locked" when the the yellow flag flew.

(Ya gotta wonder if Robby Gordon is confused by this, or as Jimmie Johnson was quick to point out the maintaining pace under Yellow rule in his post race interview.)

There's a more detailed race recap at FoxSports, and the unofficial results are at NASCAR.com

Busch Race - Yellow Transportation 300

After overcoming a speeding penalty on pit road, Kyle Busch fought his back to the front to duke it out with Matt Kenseth in the closing laps and put on a great show with the 2nd closest finish this year in the Busch Series.

Though I was expecting the usual D-Oval racing from Kansas, it turned out to be a pretty good Busch race to watch today with 2, 3 and 4 wide racing throughout the day.

I admit, I like the restarts after a caution period, and that probably contributed greatly to the amount of racing I saw.

Carl Edwards got rubbed the wrong way, literally, by Matt Kenseth in the early going that took Edwards' LF tire out, and then there was nothing but troubles all day dealing with the after affects of the flat / shredding tire, to the point, that after making repairs in the garage, when Carl came back out on the track, ended up nosing hard into the wall, ending his day.

He was noticeably upset with Kenseth, but said he hopes this can be put behind them. In his post wreck interview, he ended it by looking at the camera and saying it is really hard being this mad with camera's in his face!

Unofficially, (And right now, that is important today), Kyle Busch won the Yellow Transportation 300, followed by
Matt Kenseth,
Casey Mears,
Clint Bowyer,
Jamie McMurray,
Denny Hamlin,
Paul Menard (Who was pretty competitive most of the day)
Jeff Burton,
Brian Vickers &
Greg Biffle rounding out the top 10.

See the rest of the results at nascar.com

Dodge Dealers 400 - An Attrition Test

by Bruce Simmons

Carl Edwards won one heck of an attrition test in the Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway.

Everyone thought New Hampshire was going to be the mixer, but Dover turned to look more like a post Bristol race rather than a 1 mile track! 13 Cautions, 9 leaders with 14 lead changes and 66 laps under caution.

Denny Hamlin showed his cards early, but didn’t hold on to the lead as Matt Kenseth came to the front early on after that and showed he had this track under control, until he blew up with 26 laps to go and Carl Edwards took over from there as he led the field through a few caution periods, with Greg Biffle coming in 2nd, Dale Earnhardt Jr in 3rd, Mark Martin 4th and Kyle Busch 5th.

This was a hard race on the Cup Contenders.
Jeff Burton (7th) slow at the front end of the race;
Tony Stewart (9th) off the lead lap;
Clint Bowyer (12th) accident;
Martin Truex Jr (13th) caught up in the Kurt Busch pile up;
Jimmie Johnson (14th) flat tires;
Kevin Harvick(20th), flat tires;
Kurt Busch (28th) loses a tire and wrecks in the closing laps;
Denny Hamlin (38th) accident;

There were only 6 cars on the lead lap at the end of the race.
Unofficial Results

As far as the Chase standings go:
Jeff Gordon assumed the lead with 5340 pts
Tony Stewart 2nd with 2 pts back.
Carl Edwards 3rd, with 3 pts back.
Jimmie Johnson 4th, 4 pts behind the leader.
Kyle Busch 5th, -10 pts.
Clint Bowyer 6th, -18 pts.
Followed by Martin Truex Jr, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch & Denny Hamlin.

Right now, it’s pretty a tight points race up front! 8 races to go!
Unofficial Standings