7-10-13 —     Jimmie Johnson won Saturday night's Sprint Cup race in a green-white- checkered finish. He became the first driver to sweep both NASCAR events at Daytona in one season, since Bobby Allison in 1982.

    On the way to his fourth win of the season, Johnson led 94 laps of the 161-lap race.

    "I had a great horse," said Johnson. "It was an amazing car all night. Been in some very close battles at the end and have surged by to win. But from a laps led standpoint, this has to be the most dominant performance we've had on a plate track."

    As Johnson neared the finish line, two multi-car accidents happened behind him. The second, third and fourth-place cars were able to avoid them.

    "I didn't get as good a restart as I wanted," said second-place finisher, Tony Stewart. "But I think it kind of worked to our favor.  

It got Clint (Bowyer) a little bit ahead of me and it got Kevin

(Harvick) a little bit ahead of Jimmie (Johnson). That let Jimmie and me both tuck down to those two guys and get going.  Kurt Busch gave us a really good push from behind there and that got us back to getting Jimmie the shove he needed. It got us far enough ahead to where we could worry about racing him."

    The second-place finish was Stewart's fourth top-five finish this season, and vaulted him six spots to  10th in the championship standings.

    "It was definitely a good points night," Stewart said. "If you can't win, you always want to run second. With these things being as crazy as they are, you're pretty happy if you can end up with a top-two, because normally if you leave here in the top-two, you've got a straight race car too."

    Kevin Harvick was third, but it was a bittersweet finish for him.

    "Yeah, we didn't win," he said. "That was our expectation coming here. I'm kind of disappointed just for the fact that I felt like we were in the right position."

    Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Casey Mears, and Ryan Newman were the remaining top-10 finishers.

    Top-12 leaders after 18 of 36: 1. Johnson-658, 2. Bowyer-609, 3.  

Edwards-587, 4. Harvick-585, 5. Earnhardt-548, 6. Kenseth-540, 7.  

Kyle Busch-533, 8. Biffle-516, 9. Kurt Busch-501, 10. Stewart-499, 11. Truex-493, 12. Kahne-490.



KENSETH GETS

DAYTONA

NATIONWIDE RACE

    Matt Kenseth won Friday night's Nationwide Series race in a green- white-checkered finish. Kenseth received a push from James Buescher for the remaining two laps to get his first Nationwide win of the year.

    Buescher was second, followed by Elliott Sadler, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Sam Hornish, Regan Smith, Joey Logano, and Trevor Bayne.

    Top-10 leaders after 16 of 33; 1. Smith-558, 2. Hornish-552, 3.  

Sadler-544, 4. Allgaier-543, 5. A. Dillon-541, 6. Larson-516, 7.  

Vickers-505, 8. Kligerman-501, 9. Scott-494, 10. Bayne-488.



LESS NASCAR SEATS, HIGHER PRICES

    Are you on a tight budget?

    Is it a struggle to find money for a NASCAR race weekend?

    If the answer is yes, you are in trouble.

    Ticket prices at 13 different tracks are going up.

    Daytona Speedway announced earlier in the year they would be removing some spectator seats. Last week in a teleconference call to Wall Street bond analysts, John Saunders, Pres. of International Speedway Corporation, which owns Daytona Speedway and 12 other tracks said, "Too many empty seats are keeping the lid on ticket prices.  

We're looking at removing more seats at all our tracks."

    Saunders admission of empty seats was an acknowledgement that "the NASCAR Experience" is losing steam.

    From my own experience of attending races, I can tell there are more empty seats now than four or five years ago. Taking out or covering up some seats might make it appear to the television audience that the track is full of fans, but would it help those fans attending races?

    "Removing seats also would enhance the race experience for the remaining spectators and help encourage patrons to return," continued Saunders.

    Exactly what does that mean? Will there be additional entertainment of some type? Does it mean each individual seat will be widened and padded? If there are fewer fans, will there be shorter bathroom lines? What about concession prices? Fewer people means less beer and hot dogs will be sold, so those prices must go up also.

    If you can buy into Saunders' statement, stay away from men in white coats from the "funny farm."

    A race fan would have to suffer from delusions if he/she believe ticket prices, and all associated costs of attending races aren't going up.

    It isn't just track prices, but transportation and lodging as well.

    With the cost of a race weekend escalating, it doesn't bode well for the average fan.

    Tracks really shouldn't consider raising ticket prices, because they receive most of their revenue from television. The TV contract is set up where tracks get 65 per cent; teams-25 per cent, and NASCAR-10 per cent.

    Although ISC is controlled by the France family, it is separate from NASCAR. About 35 per cent of the stock in ISC is owned by the France family and the remainder is owned by shareholders.

    ISC is working to replace the current Daytona complex with a development called "Daytona Live!" which will include a movie theater, restaurants, and hotel.

    The Daytona renovation also includes reducing the track's seating capacity from 146,000, down to 100,000.

    In addition to Daytona, ISC owns: Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland, Darlington, Homestead-Miami, Kansas, Martinsville, Michigan, Phoenix, Richmond, Talladega, Watkins Glen, and Route 66.

If you are an average working person reading this column, and hoping to attend future NASCAR races, you might want to consider a second job.



    Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at the 1-mile New Hampshire Speedway, while the trucks race at the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway.

    Sat., July 13, Nationwide Series race 17 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: ABC.

    Sat., July 13, Camping World Truck Series, race 9 of 22; Starting

time: 8:30 pm ET: TV:SPEED.

    Sun., July 14, Sprint Cup race 19 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV:  

TNT.



    Racing Trivia Question: Terry Labonte, former NASCAR Cup champion is in negotiations to buy James Finch's No. 51 Cup team. How many Cup championships did Labonte win?

    Last Week's Question: What old-time driver had three stints in NASCAR —1950-'54, 1971-'78, 1980-93, and didn't retire from racing until 2001? Answer. It was Herschel McGriff.



    You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.