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

Allstate (Brickyard) 400 Notes

The Allstate 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a pretty good race to follow today.

Reed Sorenson led the pack to the green flag while Jeff Green blew a tire early on lap 14, and lap 20 saw a multi car wreck when Ryan Newman, who had been dropping back through the pack spun out on his own.

The early battle was between Tony Stewart and dale Earnhardt Jr., as Jr. had the car to beat.

When the ESPN camera looked down the straight-a-way, you can see the cars making defensive moves, dodging low to block potential passers, making it 3 and 4 wide in the front stretch during the restarts and when traffic got tight.

Lap 37 saw Earnhardt with a 1.7 second lead over Stewart, Sorenson, J. Burton and J. Montoya. But the next lap saw Kasey Kahne get loose in turn 1, tapping Tony Raines into a spin, ending their days.

Then a junk yard broke out as a big wreck hit at lap 45, which included the 48 and 99, 26, 88, 10, 21, 18 cars. It looked like Jamie McMurray got loose and collected the 10 & 48 cars, but then it was all collateral damage after that for everyone else trying to whoa up in time.

Johnson made a bunch of pit stops during the yellow flag trying to fix the damage, but by lap 69, the damage proved too much as his LF tire blew, and he slammed into the turn 3 wall, and the car erupted in flames. While the car is sliding along the wall, Jimmie drops the window net, and as the car comes to a stop, Jimmie springs out quickly, and ok, except for burnt eyebrows.
(Resized image, courtesy of Fox Sports)
That’s 2 races in a row Jimmie is a DNF.

Lap55 saw Casey Mears get loose and get into Johnny Sauter, collecting Elliott Sadler & Kyle Petty, finishing their days. The entire Evernham entry field is now out of the race.

Lap 69 let us see Stewart, Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Montoya, Martin in the top 5 as Stewart got the adjustments he needed to be competitive finally. There were 31 cars on the lead lap.

We were treated to a debris caution on lap 76, but damage was to follow as in the pits, the 07 car of Clint Bowyer pulled out his pit and forced the 2 car of Kurt Busch up into the 33 car of Scott Wimmer. Scott gets forced into the outer pit road wall hard, and his fender ends up tearing off the rear panel of the Miller Lite car. Wimmer eventually goes down 14 laps from this incident, though he was having a good day.

There was another debris caution on lap 90, but we didn’t see the green flag until lap 98 because David Reutimann’s engine quit, and decorated track with oil.

Earnhardt Jr had a good car most of the race until he blew a motor on lap 136, retiring the Budweiser car. Jr’s car came to a complete stop on pit road, but NASCAR still let the field pit. The first of a few mystery calls on NASCAR’s part.

The last 20 laps had some drama going on as we watched Tony Stewart close in on Kevin Harvick, hearing his (Stewart) in-car radio broadcast, “Here kitty kitty”, and prophetically passed Harvick in turns 3 and 4 with 11 laps to go. Harvick tried to get back in there, they rubbed fenders a bit, but Stewart was too strong and the fender rubbing proved fateful for Harvick as he dropped to a final finishing spot of 7th.

Tony Stewart won the Allstate (Brickyard) 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with over a 3.5 second lead!

He was followed by Montoya, J Gordon, Kyle Busch, Reed Sorenson, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Dave Blaney & Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 10 spots.

There were 21 cars on the lead lap.
Chevy wins. The top Dodge was Montoya in 2nd. The top Toyota came in 9th under Dave Blaney, and the top Ford was brought in by Matt Kenseth in 10th.

The entire Home Depot team climbed the fence!!

A TONY OOPS: During his TV inteview, Tony said "This one is for everyone of those fans in the stands who pull for me and take the bulls**t for it every week".. that's going to be a few grand for TV Station and Driver. WELCOME TO CUP COVERAGE ESPN.

After the race, we never saw a Kevin Harvick interview because it was said that Harvick has been in the NASCAR trailer, presumably from Kevin coming up and rubbing on Tony’s car after the checkered, but we don’t know yet what NACAR is over reacting about.

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/20/data/results_unofficial.html

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/data/standings_unofficial.html

For more coverage about Stewarts expletive, and more in depth coverage, check out
http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/5706.html, by David Poole