Rewind | Everyone had the same opportunity as laps wound down

DAVID POOLE and JIM UTTER

The Charlotte Observer

Sunday, Jun. 29, 2008

• Slideshow | Sunday's action at the track
• Videos | Sunday's postrace news conferences and more

Rewinding Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:

DAVID POOLE'S REAR-VIEW MIRROR

• Kurt Busch won the Lenox 301 on Sunday. Certainly the circumstances were unusual, but every team on the lead lap had the opportunity to play pit strategy exactly the way the top finishers did. Busch, runner-up Michael Waltrip and everyone else put themselves in position to capitalize on an opportunity to stay out on the last caution and cash in when it rained thereafter. What would have happened if it hadn't rained? We'll never know, and guess what? It doesn't matter.

• A half-hour after Sunday's race was called the weather turned frightening. As fans tried to leave vivid lightning flashed and torrential rain turned roadways into small rivers. There's really nothing anybody could have done differently, since you can't call a race just because it looks as if a storm's going to hit. But it's scary when you've got 90,000 people sitting in mostly metal grandstands and there's lightning zipping through a sky that's nearly as black as night.

• I know this isn't about Sunday's NASCAR race, but Doug Herbert won the Top Fuel final in Sunday's National Hot Rod Association event at Norwalk, Ohio. It's Herbert's first win since his two sons died in a car wreck in January. Herbert also was very close to Scott Kalitta, the Funny Car driver who was killed in last weekend's race. The driver, whose team is based in Lincolnton, N.C., is a good man who deserved some good news.
More on Herbert's win, NHRA stats

PIT STOPS

Good finish gives Truex a boost

Martin Truex Jr. stayed out when others came to pit road late in Sunday's race and that helped him grab a much-needed fourth-place finish that vaulted him three spots in the series standings.

He's now just 71 points outside the cutoff for the Chase with nine races still to go. It was Truex's best finish of the season and came just in time to jump-start his chances to contend for the series title.

"This year we'll take anything we can get," Truex said. "I'm proud to get a good finish for all the guys. They're working hard. ... That's kind of the way it has been all year. We run really good at times (and) we can't seem to finish the deal."

Sadler's finish a season's best

Elliott Sadler's luck finally turned to the good on Sunday.

He was among those who stayed on the track on a late caution and that translated to a fifth-place finish. It was his first top-five of the season.

"We played the pit strategy game today," Sadler said. "I am proud of my guys. They didn't give up. We made the car really bad and got a lap down and then we made some good adjustments. We got the lucky dog and we were driving back up through the pack."

Sadler said the good finish makes up somewhat for his bad luck a week ago at Infineon Raceway, where he lined up fifth for a green-white-checkered finish but had a flat tire and had to hold on for 19th.

Smith still working on plans for track

Speedway Motorsports Inc. chairman Bruton Smith met the New England media Sunday morning and said he's still trying to decide what changes he might make to New Hampshire Motor Speedway after adding it to his company's portfolio.

"But we are going to make it better," Smith said.

Smith said he's found "a little bit of California here. You have to get a permit for everything," but added that he was pleased with the NASCAR modified and Nationwide races on Saturday.

"The track seemed a little racier than I thought it might be."

Smith said his engineers have looked at the idea of building a new track elsewhere on the property here so that racing on the current 1.058-mile oval would not be interrupted by construction.

"That has come up and we have not ruled it out," Smith said. But he also said he's confident that changes could be made in phases that would allow work to be done while racing continues on the current track.

Smith said the passion for racing he's found from fans in the area and the warm reception he has received reminds him of another place where he made big changes.

"It reminds me a great deal of Bristol," Smith said. "If I had known it was going to be this good, I would have paid Bob (Bahre) more." Smith paid the Bahre family $340 million for the track in a deal that closed in January.

Smith and Jerry Gappens, the New Hampshire track's executive vice president and general manager, said SMI is negotiating with the Indy Racing League to add IndyCar dates at New Hampshire and Las Vegas to ones already held at SMI tracks in Texas, Kentucky and Infineon.

But Smith said he does not plan to add drag racing at the facilities here.

Briefly

• Rookie Patrick Carpentier, who started from the pole, finished two laps down in 31st. "We lost the brakes," he said. "I don't know what happened there. I don't know if I used them too hard."

• There is now a 154-point separation from Tony Stewart, who moved up two spots to ninth in the Cup standings, to David Ragan, who is 17th in the standings. Kevin Harvick moved back into the top 12 Sunday, finishing 14th, passing Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th.

• Reed Sorenson finished sixth Sunday and moved his No. 41 team off the bubble for being in the top 35 in owner points. The team is now 31st, up four spots. Michael McDowell is now 35th, just 25 points ahead of Scott Riggs' No. 66 Chevrolet team.

KEY MOMENTS

Lap 140

A caution for debris on the track brings out a yellow at a very interesting time. Tony Stewart's team gets him the lead, but teams know that with 160 laps left they will not be able to make it on just one more pit stop. The strategy game is on.

Lap 202

A.J. Allmendinger loses an engine, bringing out a yellow that lets the leaders make pit stops. Again, the timing is critical. Nobody can go the distance, so it sets up what happens from here to the end of the race.

Lap 218

Kurt Busch's crew chief, Pat Tryson, is among several to bring their cars in for fuel on a caution as 17 cars elect to stay out. As important as track position was all day it wasn't an automatic call, but it will wind up being the best call of the day.

Lap 271

Dale Earnhardt Jr. slows to come to pit road and Jamie McMurray doesn't realize that is what's happening. McMurray hits Earnhardt Jr. and ricochets into David Ragan, bringing out the yellow that brings the leaders in for the fuel they'll need to finish.

Lap 279

Kurt Busch keeps his car pointed the right way as he's getting rubbed by Robby Gordon's lapped car on the restart. Moments later, Clint Bowyer and Sam Hornish Jr. wreck to bring out the final caution. The rain arrives and Busch is the winner.

NEXT RACE

Coke Zero 400

Where: Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

TV: TNT.

Radio: Performance Racing Network.

Last year's winner: Jamie McMurray.

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