Stewart Completes Road Race Sweep

Watkins Glen International is the second of the two road races on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule. Because it takes too long to get around the track, and there is little benefit to drafting, pit strategy plays a huge part in racing here. Who can make right turns the best and make all the right strategic moves to claim the 2005 Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen?

Qualifying

Rain ruled qualifying so they lined up by car owner points. This put Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson on the front row. Greg Biffle and Rusty Wallace make up third and fourth in points so they filled row number two. Kurt Busch and Mark Martin filled row number three.

Drop The Green Flag

When the green flag flew Tony Stewart took the lead and dominated the early part of the race. Given that he won last week at Indianapolis, won the road race at Sears Point earlier this year and also won this race last year there was no doubt that he would translate his pole position into an early lead.

Jeff Gordon was climbing rapidly towards the front and figured to be a factor before this race was over. He moved up from his 14th place starting spot to fifth by lap 15. Robby Gordon also made huge gains in traffic as the road racing expert figured to reverse his misfortunes in 2005 with a good finish.

Storylines

Pit strategy and fuel mileage. Many times this race has been decided by who can make their final pit stop first. In order to be able to make that winning pit strategy call you need to get great gas mileage.

Chasing The Checkers

Tony Stewart really had them covered all day long. The only guy who managed to mount any kind of challenge was Jeff Gordon. However, Jeff had a problem with a flat tire that messed up his pit strategy and he was not a factor in the race after that.

When it came down to the final green flag run the only remaining question was whether or not Tony could bring it home. As long as he didn't make a mistake or have a mechanical problem this race belonged to his Home Depot #20.

No serious problems were had. Tony lead 83 of the 92 laps and coasted home for his fifth win in the last seven races. Tony is hot right now as his team is peaking in time for the 2005 Race for the Chase. Top Ten

1. Tony Stewart
2. Robby Gordon
3. Boris Said
4. Scott Pruett
5. Jimmie Johnson
6. Rusty Wallace
7. Mark Martin
8. Brian Vickers
9. Joe Nemechek
10. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The Points

Point leader Tony Stewart domnated the race and extended his point lead over Jimmie Johnson. At the scary end of the top ten Dale Jarrett's wreck dropped him out of the top ten and made room for Jamie McMurray to sneak in.

1. Tony Stewart -0
2. Jimmie Johnson -105
3. Greg Biffle -252
4. Rusty Wallace -258
5. Mark Martin -331
6. Kurt Busch -421
7. Jeremy Mayfield -429
8. Ryan Newman -467
9. Jamie McMurray -514
10. Carl Edwards -520

Next Week

Next Sunday the NEXTEL Cup drivers head north to Brooklyn Michigan to Michigan International Speedway and the GFS Marketplace 400. Michigan is fast and wide. Sometimes this translates into awesome side-by-side racing and sometimes this race becomes a boring fuel mileage runaway.