Qualifying
Toyota had the best qualifying results of it's NEXTEL Cup career as it swept the top three spots and five of the top six. Michael Waltrip and Dave Blaney made up row number one. Brian Vickers started third in his Camry. "Front Row" Joe Nemechek just missed living up to his nickname by rolling off from the number four starting spot. Nemechek was the only non-Toyota in the top six spots. David Reutimann rounded out the top five in another Toyota Camry.
Drop Of The Green
The front of the pack stayed in line two-by-two for the first lap. The outside line inched ahead and Dave Blaney lead lap one.
The field was soon three wide all the way back. The Car of Tomorrow seemed to provide some good racing. I did notice that the closing rate seemed to be larger than with the old car. That is, in "regular" restrictor plate racing it seemed like the speed difference between a fast car and a car being passed was greater. This could be because of the giant hole that the Car of Tomorrow punches in the air.
The big pack was short-lived and by lap 35 the entire field had settled into a single-file line running around the top of the race track. Nobody had any interest in passing or being passed. Everybody just wanted to stay in line and tick off some laps.
Storylines
This was the first restrictor plate race for the Car of Tomorrow. The boxier, less aerodynamic Car of Tomorrow was a big question mark coming into the race. The result was as good as NASCAR could have hoped for.
Even though the cars ran single-file most of the day it wasn't because the car wasn't capable of good racing. The drivers used their heads for most of the day but when it became time to race the drivers were able to run a stable three-wide.
"The Big One" finally came with 44 laps to go. Bobby Labonte was running fifth when he lost control in front of the field. When the smoke cleared nine cars were involved. Fortunately no one was injured
Chasing The Checkers
With about 60 laps to go the drivers decided it was time to race. The field immediately stacked up again two and three wide all the way through the pack.
With six laps to go the Hendrick Motorsports teammates moved past Tony Stewart into the lead. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears jumped to the top three spots. The Car of Tomorrow had little effect on the finish as this was a classic restrictor plate scramble.
Johnson and Gordon lead the inside line as they came to the white flag. The middle line was lead by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch. The outside line was lead by Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne.
Jeff Gordon abandoned his teammate on the final lap and jumped to the top line. He got a push from Tony Stewart and then moved back to the bottom in front of his teammate. Gordon scored the win and Jimmie Johnson followed him across the line to finish second.
Top Ten
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson
- Dave Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Newman
- Casey Mears
- Kurt Busch
- Tony Stewart
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
The Points
Jeff Gordon moved past his teammate to take over the point lead by just four points. Jimmie Johnson is second and Clint Bowyer maintains his third place spot as the only other driver within 100 points of the lead.
The top twelve are now:
- Jeff Gordon
- Jimmie Johnson -9
- Clint Bowyer -63
- Tony Stewart -154
- Kevin Harvick -202
- Carl Edwards -205
- Kurt Busch -215
- Kyle Busch -260
- Denny Hamlin -262
- Martin Truex Jr. -300
- Matt Kenseth -318
- Jeff Burton -336
Next Week
There is only one night race in the Chase. Lowes Motor Speedway has the honor of this weekend's race as the NEXTEL Cup stars will race under the lights on Saturday night.
