Qualifying
Qualifying was one of the big stories of the weekend. Boris Said was holding down the pole on Friday with just fourteen cars left to qualify. Unfortunately the rains came and NASCAR was unable to get the rest of qualifying in. In that case all of the qualifying times are thrown out and the field is set by car owner points. This bumped Boris from the pole and caused him to miss the race entirely.
This bad break for Boris Said caused a lot of people to be talking about NASCAR's qualifying process and whether or not it was time for some changes. While agree that NASCAR needs to make some changes most of the solutions I heard suggested would still not have allowed Boris Said to make the race.
The start of the race was lined up by car owner points so the top five starters were: Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton.
Drop Of The Green
Jeff Gordon lead lap number one but Denny Hamlin got around him on the outside on the next lap and lead his teammate Tony Stewart.
Tony Stewart was running a fast second place when he got into the back of Denny Hamlin on lap 14. Denny crashed and spun up into Tony Stewart taking both drivers into the wall. Stewart won this event in 2005 and again in 2006 but this incident ended his chances for a three-peat.
This early incident also collected Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson, Bobby Labonte and others as cars scrambled to avoid the wreck.
Storylines
Many of tonight's favorites found trouble in the first third of the race.
- Tony Stewart had won the last two Pepsi 400s.
- Tony's teammate Denny Hamlin was leading the race at the time of his wreck.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a perennial favorite at the restrictor plate races.
- Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500 in February.
Chasing The Checkers
Joe Nemechek and Brian Vickers spun with 10 laps to go. Somehow everyone managed to miss the wreck but this was the final yellow of the night. The heat was on and it was a no-holds barred battle from there to the end.
Jeff Gordon was the leader when the yellow came out and would lead them back to the final green. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Casey Mears was running second. Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
It was a mad scramble at the front. Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch took the white flag side-by-side for the lead. They came back to the checkered flag still side-by-side. Jamie McMurray beat Busch across the line by just a few inches to take the 2007 Pepsi 400. Officially the margin of victory was .005 seconds.
Top Ten
- Jamie McMurray
- Kyle Busch
- Kurt Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Jeff Gordon
- Greg Biffle
- Clint Bowyer
- Matt Kenseth
- Kasey Kahne
- Jimmie Johnson
The Points
Jeff Gordon again posted a top five finish and second place Denny Hamlin was caught up in an early wreck. Gordon extended his already strong lead over Hamlin.
The Race to the Chase remained the same as Jamie McMurray moved up into thirteenth place, one spot out of a Chase position.
The top twelve are now:
- Jeff Gordon -0
- Denny Hamlin -277
- Matt Kenseth -383
- Jimmie Johnson -407
- Jeff Burton -428
- Carl Edwards -465
- Tony Stewart -539
- Kyle Busch -583
- Kevin Harvick -601
- Martin Truex Jr. -616
- Clint Bowyer -631
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -733
Next Week
Next Sunday the NEXTEL Cup stars will head to Chicagoland Speedway. This 1.5 mile 'D' race track was one of the race tracks that created the term "cookie-cutter" race track. The racing is fine at Chicagoland but NASCAR has not yet seen truly great racing in Chicagoland.
