Qualifying
Elliott Sadler put his Ford on the pole. Tony Stewart put his Chevy on the outside of the front row. row number two consisted of the Fords of Carl Edwards and Dale Jarrett.
After this strong showing in qualifying the Ford camp was hopeful that they could again break the Chevrolet juggernaut that had dominated racing at Talladega recently. Chevy has won 14 of the last 15 races coming into today's event.
Drop The Green Flag
An impressive number of fans were able to stick around for the start on Monday afternoon. I've never seen such a great turnout for a rained out NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race. NASCAR fans are a ver dedicated bunch.
When the green finally came Elliott Sadler moved the inside line to lead the first two laps. However, every position on the race track changed many times during the day so an early lead was meaningless.
Storylines
The Big One, the big wreck that restrictor plate racing tends to breed, came early today. On lap nine the greatest stock car drivers in the world had to learn the hard way that going five-wide is a bad idea.
Brian Vickers was on the very bottom next to Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr as too many cars were in too small of a space. It looks like Carl Edwards just touched Kyle Busch and got him loose. A chain reaction crash followed from there. When they are all packed together like that it doesn't take much to cause a mess.
This incident ended the day for twelve cars, but fortunately no one was seriously injured.
It is a shame that plate racing needs to be a fact of life in NASCAR. As long as it is there it is even more of a shame that the drivers feel the need to be five-wide that early in the race, when positions are meaningless.
Move Of The Day
On lap 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. got loose and spun in the middle of the turn. Earnhardt spun up towards the wall and then came down in front of oncoming traffic.
Travis Kvapil made a beautiful move to miss him. Kvapil went from the bottom to the top avoiding both Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin who was sneaking by on the outside. This was a world-class move to avoid making serious contact.
Chasing The Checkers
The final caution of the day came as five drivers got crossed up in the tri-oval. Reed Sorenson, Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Kevin Lepage were all involved. This set up the final nine lap sprint to the finish.
Tony Stewart lead Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson to the green flag. It was a frantic final five laps as Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Brian Vickers looked like they were going to bring it home one-two.
Vickers had to try for his first NEXTEL Cup win and made a move taking the top spot. Then another Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson came from third with a good push from Tony Stewart. Johnson and Stewart took the lead and were able to protect it all the way to the finish line.
Top Ten
- Jimmie Johnson
- Tony Stewart
- Brian Vickers
- Jeff Burton
- Jamie McMurray
- Matt Kenseth
- Kurt Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Scott Riggs
- Robby Gordon
The Points
Jimmie Johnson's big win moved him back into the point lead over Matt Kenseth. The top three have broken away just a little bit as Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne both had bad luck today.
Dale Jarrett is the only driver in the top nineteen in points that does not have a top five finish yet in 2006. However, his consistency has moved him past Casey Mears to claim a spot in the top ten in points.
The top ten in points are now:
- Jimmie Johnson -0
- Matt Kenseth -21
- Tony Stewart -78
- Kasey Kahne -181
- Mark Martin -184
- Jeff Gordon -221
- Kevin Harvick -256
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -274
- Kyle Busch -317
- Dale Jarrett -328
Next Week
The NEXTEL Cup circus moves to Richmond International Raceway in Virginia for a Saturday night short track shootout under the lights. Richmond is a fantastic raceway that allows two full grooves of racing. This is another fan favorite and a race worth planning your weekend around.
