Qualifying
Rain, sleet and snow forced NASCAR to cancel qualifying on Friday. The starting lineup was set by last year's car owner standings. This put Tony Stewart on the pole for the Food City 500 with Greg Biffle beside him. Carl Edwards and Mark Martin made up row two. Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.
Starting next week in Martinsville NASCAR will begin using this year's car owner standings if qualifying is cancelled for any reason.
Drop The Green Flag
Right as the race got started point leader Jimmie Johnson had a flat tire and his car just didn't go. he got some front end damage and was a couple of laps down before he even got started.
Tony Stewart lead the first couple of laps before Greg Biffle took command. The first caution only took a few minutes as lap 12 saw Brent Sherman spin with some help from Kevin Lepage.
Biffle lead to lap 57 and then he had a flat tire under green, hit the wall and lost a couple of laps getting down pit road to get it fixed. Just four laps later Kurt Busch had a flat tire while running in second and he had to pit under green. This put Tony Stewart back up front.
Storylines
There were at least five cut tires in the first 100 laps. The source of the problem remained a mystery though. There didn't seem to be any debris on the race track. Was there a seam in the concrete that was sticking up? This was a significant problem since it knocked some very fast cars out of contention very early in the race.
Wow, how many times was Brent Sherman involved in incidents today? I wasn't keeping track early in the race but he must have caused/been involved in at least five cautions. I realize that Sherman is a rookie this year and this is his first race at Bristol in a NEXTEL Cup car but he really needs to calm down and get some experience at a tough race track like Bristol. Spending his time spinning and wrecking doesn't teach him as much as he would just clocking off laps safely in the pack.
Chasing The Checkers
Kurt Busch had been leading when the leaders all made their final it stop. Matt Kenseth's crew got him out first ahead of Busch. With ten laps to go Busch was on his bumper as Kenseth got bogged down in lapped traffic. Kenseth didn't give Busch any openings so Kurt made a hole.
Kurt Busch gave Kenseth a nudge with just five laps to go. Kenseth slid up the track and fell to third place as Kevin Harvick also got past. The top three ended just like that as Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon got together on the track in a tough battle for third.
After the race Matt Kenseth drove up by Kurt Busch and brushed past him to let him know that he wasn't happy with the pass. Then Matt walked down to Jeff Gordon's car to attempt to apologize for spinning him late in the race when they were battling for third. Jeff, still wearing his helmet, met him with a shove and others jumped in between them and broke up the incident.
This is why the fans love Bristol.
Top Ten
- Kurt Busch
- Kevin Harvick
- Matt Kenseth
- Carl Edwards
- Bobby Labonte
- Mark Martin
- Greg Biffle
- Kyle Busch
- Ryan Newman
- Kasey Kahne
The Points
Jimmie Johnson's lap one flat tire cost him the point lead. Matt Kenseth now holds a slim lead over Kasey Kahne as Jimmie Johnson has fallen to third.
Tony Stewart makes his way back into the top ten this week as rookie Clint Bowyer drops out.
The top ten in points are now:
- Matt Kenseth -0
- Kasey Kahne -8
- Jimmie Johnson -19
- Mark Martin -32
- Kyle Busch -105
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -118
- Jeff Gordon -138
- Casey Mears -140
- Tony Stewart -181
- Dale Jarrett -189
Next Week
Next week the NEXTEL Cup series continues short track racing as the series visits Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. This short, flat, paperclip shaped speedway is like driving up one lane of a dragstrip, turning around, and then charging back up the other lane. Tempers will continue to run hot as there will be more short-track beating and banging again next week.
