September 25, 2005

NASCAR at Dover

(Filed under: Race Recap)

Robby Gordon: Do Not Throw HelmetI've got the laptop while I'm watching today, so let's do a little NASCAR blogging. The race starts and Robby Gordon's helmet says "Do Not Throw." Let's hope he keeps that in mind. Early in the race it's been the Roush show. For a while it was Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth in the top 5.

Like last week one of the big stories is Chase guys having trouble. Tony Stewart has been running towards the back of the field most of the day, but he has been moving up. Matt Kenseth had been running well but then ran over debris and had to pit during green flag racing. Now he's a lap down and trying to get it back. Kurt Busch had a close call when Kevin Lepage spun out and hit the wall. Lepage's car came down and narrowly missed Busch.

Of course that shuffles up the points pretty good. It's not over yet, but at one point the title standings showed Greg Biffle leading, with Jimmy Johnson 43 points back, and then Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Tony Stewart all 44 points back.

There goes Robby Gordon into the wall, thankfully he kept driving and took it behind the wall before he could throw anything at anybody.

Jamie McMurray spins and Tony Raines goes high and puts Jeff Gordon into the wall, continuing Gordon's season o' crapiness. Gordon takes a page from the other Gordon's book (Robby) and immediately blames McMurray. It looks like Gordon should really be blaming Raines (or himself for being so deep in the field). This is Gordon's sixth DNF of the year.

And lookie there--Matt Kenseth gets the lucky dog and is back on the lead lap.

Lap 301 Greg Biffle hits pit road with a flat tire. Doh. At that point in the race he was leading the championship standings. This puts the top 5 in points all within 10 points of each other.

Lap 321 or so Mark Martin goes by Kurt Busch to lead a lap and get those valuable 5 bonus points. Those points put him in the lead for the championship as things run now. But it's not over until it's over. After four runner-up finishes in the Championship it's good to see Martin on top. But it's not for long, as Busch passes him right back and a few laps later Jimmie Johnson goes by. Better watch out, Jimmie's starting to get good.

Lap 338 or so and Jimmie Johnson takes the lead. Kurt Busch has locked up the 5 bonus points for leading the most laps and is on his way toward making up as much ground as possible after his dismal finish last week.

Gotta love the TV coverage. They take a commercial break, come back for less than a lap to tell us that Jimmie Johnson is putting some distance between himself and second place Mark Martin and then go back to commercial. Apparently green flag pitstops are coming up. Whatever.

Lap 368 Kurt Busch makes a scheduled green flag pit stop, almost spinning out as he comes to pit road (as the announcers mention that his team reminded him to be careful).

Matt Kenseth has a tire go down and hits the wall, spraying brake parts all over the track. Caution comes out and Kurt Busch is caught one lap down. This could be trouble for Kenseth who has only 30 laps to fix his car and get back out to make up some ground.

Now it's pit strategy as Mark Martin takes two tires to get out front. Could be a good idea, except nobody else took two tires. Ouch. He'll have the lead, lets see how long he can keep it.

They restart and at lap 22 Kurt Busch has a tire go down and hits pit road. Whoops. And now he's too fast on pit road and has to go back in. Double whoops.

15 laps to go and Kyle Busch passes Mark Martin for second. Now it's Hendrick cars one-two, a big reverse from the earlier Roush show. Though with all the attrition and a little perseverance Carl Edwards is running in the top 10 after hanging out around 20th all day.

The caution is out and this might give Martin a little help. Kyle Petty is now running 8th, and with 11 cars on the lead lap he's almost guaranteed a good finish, assuming he doesn't get into trouble. I've always wondered how someone like Petty can keep racing every year when they're always in the back of the pack.

Less than three laps to go and Joe Nemecheck spins to bring out the caution and we'll have a green-white checkered finish. Jimmie Johnson is leading and looks strong. Kyle Busch is second, Rusty Wallace third and Mark Martin fourth. Busch claims he could have passed Johnson at the last restart but he had to slow down because of debris in the corner. This should be a good finish.

And... Jimmie Johnson wins it with Kyle Busch right on his bumper. If they had another lap Busch probably could have done it.

Posted by kevin at September 25, 2005 2:43 PM

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