Wayne County Outlook
Monticello
Sat, May 17 2008
—
Bizarre might be a good description for Saturday night's Cup race at
Richmond International Raceway.
Polesitter, Denny Hamlin led a race-record number of 381 laps.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch provided a few laps of great racing
for the lead, a battle that ended with Earnhardt being spun out by Busch on
Lap 398. And that led to Clint Bowyer getting by both Earnhardt and Busch,
en route to his second career win in Cup competition.
"The fastest car does not always win," said Bowyer, "You know, you've
got to be able to be there for the taking, at least, and we were close
enough to do just that.
"It was pretty wild out there. It was bound to happen. I was watching it
and [owner Richard Childress] was on the radio saying, ŒIt's going to
happen,' and sure enough it did happen."
Hamlin owned the race until he had a tire go flat with the end in sight,
on Lap 383. He stopped his car on the track and NASCAR invoked a two-lap
penalty for intentionally causing a caution.
After the restart, Earnhardt and Busch battled several laps for the lead
with Earnhardt taking over, much to the delight of the fans. Their cheers
turned to boos a few laps later when the two drivers scraped together and
Earnhardt spun, hitting the outside wall.
That set the stage for a green, white, checker finish with Bowyer
holding off Busch for the last two laps.
"Just a bummer of a deal," said Busch, "We were both racing hard there."
With the crash, Earnhardt Jr.'s winless streak extended to 72 races.
"I'm out there trying to win and you saw it tonight, I came in with a
wrecked race car and finished 15th," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I could have let
Kyle go. He was faster and finished second or third or whatever. But I would
have got a lot of bad press for that. As mad as I am about that situation
and as much as is going to be made of it in the coming week, the real
injustice is this team didn't get what they deserved."
While Bowyer was celebrating in victory lane, Michael Waltrip was trying
to explain to NASCAR officials why he continued to push Casey Mears' car
after an accident between the two. Mears pinched Waltrip into the outside
wall, causing both cars to make contact. Waltrip continued the skirmish
after the cars slowed down.
It was another good performance for veteran Mark Martin, who finished
third. Rounding out the top-10 were Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan
Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne. Earnhardt
wound up 15th. Hamlin was 24th.
Top-12 Chase contenders after 10 of 36: 1. Kyle Busch-1495, 2.
Burton-1477, 3. Earnhardt-1391, 4. Bowyer-1372, 5. Harvick-1350, 6.
Hamlin-1349, 7. Johnson-1318, 8. Stewart-1297, 9. Biffle-1269, 10.
Edwards-1230, 11. Newman-1212, 12. Kahne-1162
Top-10 Nationwide Series leaders after 11 of 35: 1. Bowyer-1565, 2.
Edwards-1556, 3. Kyle Busch-1553, 4. Ragan-1434, 5. Bliss-1424, 6.
Reutimann-1407, 7. Keselowski-1382, 8. Leffler-1342, 9. M. Wallace-1297, 10.
Stremme-1177
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