This weekend's road race was an opportunity for the road racing experts to shine. Can Infineon Raceway lead Jeff Gordon back into "The Chase for the NEXTEL Cup?" Will a dedicated road race ace like Boris Said or Scott Pruett break through with a surprise win?
Qualifying
Jeff Gordon got his weekend off to a good start when he took the pole for the race with teammate Jimmie Johnson starting along side. Former road racing guru Mark Martin started third with road racing ringer Boris Said rolling off fourth.
Drop The Green Flag
Jeff Gordon got away early on and settled in for the long haul. Tony Stewart moved up quickly from his 7th starting spot to run second and Robby Gordon, former winner of this race settled in third.
On lap three NASCAR's Chosen One Dale Earnhardt Jr. cut down a tire and crashed on the front straight. He desperately needs to get something going, but this won't be his week. Maybe Daytona will give him an opportunity to get some momentum?
Storylines
Transmission troubles really plagued drivers. In particular the Chevy drivers seemed to have a lot of transmissin problems as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jimmie Johnson, Robby Gordon, Jeff Gordon (who lead the first 32 laps) and Kyle Busch all had transmission troubles. Even race winner Tony Stewart had already lost fourth gear and was starting to lose third gear at the end of the race.
This race marked the end of NASCAR on FOX for the 2005 season. Beginning with the Pepsi 400 from Daytona the NASCAR coverage will be brought to you by NBC Sports.
Fox tends to be a little more creative and have more non-race related fluff while NBC gets criticised for being too boring because they focus on actually showing the race.
For my taste "Hooray for NBC!" No more Boogity! No more Hollywood Hotel! No more Visa Race Breaks where they spend five minutes showing what already happened at the expense of the action on the track now. And maybe, just maybe, we'll actually learn about some other drivers besides Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Welcome back NBC!
Chasing The Checkers
Ricky Rudd won the battle of pit strategy and had the lead late in the race. However, he was no match for a very fast Tony Stewart who had much fresher tires.
With 11 laps to go Tony finally found a clean line around Rudd and the race was never again in doubt. Rudd held on to finish second and Kurt Busch finished third.
Top Ten
- Tony Stewart
- Ricky Rudd
- Kurt Busch
- Rusty Wallace
- Dale Jarrett
- Elliott Sadler
- Jeremy Mayfield
- Ron Fellows
- Ryan Newman
- Brian Simo
The Points
For the first time in his career Greg Biffle is the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup points leader. Biffle didn't have a great day (14th) but Jimmie Johnson's transmission troubles dropped him deep in the field and allowed Biffle to take the points lead. Jamie McMurray got back into the top ten with a good run and bumped Kevin Harvick out of the 10th spot.
- Greg Biffle 0
- Jimmie Johnson -22
- Elliott Sadler -177
- Tony Stewart -198
- Mark Martin -228
- Rusty Wallace -237
- Ryan Newman -256
- Kurt Busch -272
- Carl Edwards -287
- Jamie McMurray -327
Next Week
Back to Daytona International Speedway for the halfway point of the season. Restrictor plate racing under the lights is impressive to see. Watching the brightly colored cars door-to-door in a huge pack as they twinkle under the lights is impressive to see. NBC is back and they kick off the second half of the season Saturday night in Daytona.
