Qualifying
Scott Riggs put his Valvoline Evernham Motorsports car on the pole position for the second time in his career. His Evernham Motorsports teammate Jeremy Mayfield started on the outside of the front row. Point leader and runaway favorite Jimmie Johnson started third. The rest of the top five were Joe Gibbs Racing teammates J.J. Yeley and Bobby Labonte.
Drop The Green Flag
The very first lap saw Dale Jarrett get clipped by Robby Gordon and find the outside wall. One lap and one caution, this was not starting out very well. However, after the early incident Scott Riggs and Jeremy Mayfield settled in one-two and the drivers started putting some laps on the board.
It didn't take long for Jimmie Johnson to make his presence felt as he moved up into second place on lap 8. Jimmie Johnson was patient and didn't make his way to the lead until lap 69 of the 400 lap race.
Storylines
On lap 34 Tony Stewart, who wrecked hard in yesterday's Busch Series race, cut a right front tire and got into the outside wall again. It was a bit of a scare as Tony took his time getting out of the car but fortunately Tony is ok after two hard hits in two days. Tony broke the bottom of his shoulderblade. This injury shouldn't prevent him from racing next week, but Dover is a tough place to be when you're not 100.
Tony was second in points coming into today's race. This crash relegated him to a 42nd place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 and dropped him back to fourth in points. his problems may not be over yet. Tony may not have as good of a finish next week while he recovers.
Chasing The Checkers
The field took the green with 33 laps to go. Carl Edwards lead them to the green with Jimmie Johnson hot on his heels. Kasey Kahne was fast all night and restarted in third.
Kahne made the top work and took second place over Johnson. Just one lap later he ducked under Edwards and took the lead. Jimmie Johnson was able to get around Edwards to get second but just didn't have enough to get around Kahne and claim his fourth Coca-Cola 600 in a row.
Kasey Kahne lead the most laps tonight and charged home for the easy win over Jimmie Johnson.
Top Ten
- Kasey Kahne
- Jimmie Johnson
- Carl Edwards
- Mark Martin
- Matt Kenseth
- Jeff Burton
- Greg Biffle
- Jamie McMurray
- Denny Hamlin
- Reed Sorenson
The Points
Jimmie Johnson had a strong second place finish. Tony Stewart suffered a bad finish. This allowed Jimmie Johnson to stretch his overall point lead.
Jeff Burton strengthened his position in the top ten and moved up two spots to eighth. While Casey Mears in eleventh remains there, unable to crack the critical top ten this week.
The top ten in points are now:
- Jimmie Johnson -0
- Matt Kenseth -109
- Mark Martin -209
- Tony Stewart -231
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -271
- Kasey Kahne -292
- Jeff Gordon -410
- Jeff Burton -411
- Kyle Busch -424
- Kevin Harvick -435
Next Week
"The Monster Mile" at Dover International Speedway will greet the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series stars next week. The NEXTEL Cup race in Dover is a grueling 400 miles on the one-mile concrete oval. The track starts out with one groove but before long the cars start working their way up the race track and open up some alternate lines in the turns.
