Qualifying
Future Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin took the pole in the FedEx #11 car. Denny is just running a few races in 2005 in preparation for a full schedule in 2006.
Second in points Jimmie Johnson started second and Carl Edwards started third from his third place points position. Greg Biffle and Bobby Labonte rounded out the top five starting spots.
Drop The Green Flag
Denny Hamlin lead the first fifteen laps before Greg Biffle took over the top spot. Those two were very fast and checked out on the rest of the field.
Storylines
The biggest story of the week, by far, is that eighth in points Kurt Busch was not in it.
On Friday night Kurt Busch was taken into custody by Phoenix area authorities for suspicion of drunk driving. Kurt was pulled over for driving 60 in a 45MPH zone and running a stop sign. Apparently he was uncooperative with the officer, that officer also detected the smell of alcohol. Kurt refused to take the field sobriety test but the officer's breathalyzer detected the presence of alcohol. Kurt was later charged only with reckless driving and released.
On Sunday morning team owner Jack Roush suspended Busch for the rest of the 2005 season.
Chasing The Checkers
Greg Biffle had lead the majority of the race but late pit strategy put Kyle Busch in the lead. It took Greg a few laps to get to the lead, but when he caught Busch with 31 laps to go he didn't take too long getting past.
However it wasn't to be quite that easy. A lap or two later Kyle got back around Biffle for the lead. Greg Biffle wasn't able to get back to him again to apply pressure and Kyle Busch, younger brother of Kurt Busch, scored the second NEXTEL Cup win of his rookie season.
Top Ten
- Kyle Busch
- Greg Biffle
- Jeff Gordon
- Tony Stewart
- Bobby Labonte
- Carl Edwards
- Jimmie Johnson
- Robby Gordon
- Dale Jarrett
- Travis Kvapil
The Points
Tony Stewart finished in fourth, three positions in front of Jimmie Johnson. This allowed him to stretch his lead slightly to fifty two over Johnson. Carl Edwards is now 87 points out of the lead.
It all comes down to Homestead next week. Tony Stewart is in command but doesn't have a very comfortable margin.
The Chase points are now:
- Tony Stewart -0
- Jimmie Johnson -52
- Carl Edwards -87
- Greg Biffle -102
- Mark Martin -162
- Ryan Newman -207
- Matt Kenseth -228
- Rusty Wallace -399
- Kurt Busch -441
- Jeremy Mayfield -476
Next Week
Ford Championship weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway hosts the season finale for all three of NASCAR's top touring series. The Craftsman Truck Series will crown its Champion on Friday, the Busch series will brown a Champion Saturday and the NEXTEL Cup title will be decided on Sunday. This will be an exciting week of racing.
