Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

My goodness! Can Jeff Gordon get any more dominant? Love him or hate him, he can drive a race car, you have to give him that. I have said before that I am not a Jeff Gordon hater, I don’t like him but I don’t hate him either. There is just something about him that rubs me the wrong way. There was a time when it wasn’t Jeff Gordon that did all the winning. Darrel Waltrip was winning all the time and dominating on track after track. Fans started to dislike Waltrip too. There is something to be said about dominance that gets the fans riled up and in the “Booing” mood. Dale Earnhardt Senior once said to Jeff Gordon that if the fans are “booing” you, you are doing something right. When they don’t make any noise is when you need to worry. I didn’t hear any “booing” last night as Jeff Gordon won for the 6th time this year and adding one more win to his career high of 81 wins. This makes two in a row for Jeff Gordon as he won last week in Talladega. The Dupont Chevy team now has a 68 point lead over team mate Jimmy Johnson, Who is usually the dominating force at “The Lowes Motor Speedway.

HOW THE FINAL LAPS SHOOK OUT

I love night racing as I have mentioned before. All the flash and smoke, the cars resting on the front stretch in front of the fans instead of the pits. Its all great except for one thing. Man does it go on into the night. 15 cautions don’t help things either. As the last few laps were winding down, It looked all but certain that this was going to be between Jeff Gordon and Lame Duck Team mate Kyle Busch. Then the 14th caution came at lap 321 when Johnny Sauter spins out taking Bobby LaBonte with him. Debre must have gotten the radiator of Jeff Green as he was soon spewing fluids all over the track. With the laps being in the “Very Few Left” category, Nascar decided to red flag the race while they got the track cleaned up. Once the yellow flag was out again and the cars were rolling behind the pace truck, Rick Hendrick was heard on Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch’s radio’s telling the two drivers not to wreck each other.

As the green flag came out setting up a five lap dash for the cash. Kyle Busch tried low first then tried to go high on Gordon but couldn’t because pole sitter Ryan Newman was there rocketing past both of them on the outside. Man where did he come from? He shot past them and was checking out on the field when disaster struck the Alltel Dodge! A left rear tire blew out sending the pole sitter into the wall, ending his chances of breaking his win-less streak. Now all the chips were on the table, and a few more that Jeff Gordon didn’t want. During the caution laps as the track was being cleaned up, The Dupont Chevy was sputtering as Jeff Gordon waited for the “Green White Checker” finish. He was running out of fuel when he was up on the banking, and so was Kyle Busch. During the caution laps the two Hendrick Motor Sports cars ran around the bottom of the track and on the apron trying to get fuel to the right rear corner of their fuel cells, where the fuel pickup tube is located. During green flag racing, fuel is sent there by the centrifugal force of the car going around the track. If they ran them out of fuel during the caution laps its all over.

Green flag and Jeff Gordon cruises to his 6th victory this season. He does some great burnouts and still has enough gas to get to Victory Lane! At this point I was so tired that I didn’t even wait for the interviews after the race. I grabbed the remote and shut it off. I was beat. I was hoping for Clint Boyer to win, who was right behind Gordon on the last restart. He tried to get to him but Gordon’s car was just too good and he just pulled away from him.

HOW THEY FINISHED

Jeff Gordon Of course got the win followed by Clint Boyer in second. Third went to Kyle Busch, Fourth to Jeff Burton, and fifth to Carl Edwards. The rest of the top ten were Dave Blaney, Tony Stewart,Kasey Kahne,David Stremme, Micheal Waltrip in Tenth. Good Job Michael Waltrip. Nice to see things coming around for him. Here is how the field looked after the dust settled.

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 4 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 190/5 337 Running
2 25 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 175/5 337 Running
3 13 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST 170/5 337 Running
4 27 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet AT&T Mobility 160/0 337 Running
5 18 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot 155/0 337 Running
6 34 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar /
CatUsed.com 155/5 337 Running
7 29 20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet The Home Depot 146/0 337 Running
8 5 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Mopar / Dodge Dealers / UAW 142/0 337 Running
9 28 40 David Stremme Dodge Target 138/0 337 Running
10 19 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 139/5 337 Running
11 33 88 Ricky Rudd Ford Snickers 130/0 337 Running
12 3 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios Racing / Pink for the Cure 127/0 337 Running
13 39 18 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 124/0 337 Running
14 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 131/10 337 Running
15 30 84 A.J. Allmendinger * Toyota Red Bull 118/0 337 Running
16 12 01 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 115/0 337 Running
17 32 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 112/0 337 Running
18 42 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Tire Kingdom 114/5 337 Running
19 22 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 106/0 337 Running
20 11 11 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet FedEx Kinko’s 103/0 337 Running
21 9 25 Casey Mears Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC 100/0 336 Running
22 17 15 Paul Menard * Chevrolet Rain-X / Menards 97/0 336 Running
23 23 70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Yellow Trans. 94/0 336 Off Track
24 6 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 96/5 336 Running
25 21 38 David Gilliland Ford M&M’s / Susan G Komen for the Cure 88/0 335 Running
26 8 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 90/5 335 Running
27 10 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 82/0 334 Running
28 1 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 84/5 334 Running
29 20 00 David Reutimann * Toyota Dominos.com 76/0 333 Running
30 26 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Fujifilm 73/0 333 Running
31 41 96 Tony Raines Chevrolet DLP HDTV 70/0 331 Running
32 37 66 Jeff Green Chevrolet Best Buy / Garmin 67/0 330 Running
33 24 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 64/0 330 Running
34 7 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Carhartt for Women 66/5 283 Running
35 35 21 Bill Elliott Ford Ore-Ida Extra Crispy / Heinz 58/0 282 Running
36 14 10 Scott Riggs Dodge Stanley Tools / Valvoline 55/0 279 Out of Race
37 36 42 Juan Montoya * Dodge Texaco / Havoline 52/0 274 Out of Race
38 40 7 Robby Gordon Ford Motorola Digital Audio Players 54/5 270 Running
39 38 36 Jeremy Mayfield Toyota 360 OTC 46/0 254 Running
40 31 6 David Ragan * Ford AAA 43/0 231 Running
41 16 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW 40/0 228 Off Track
42 43 49 John Andretti Dodge Paralyzed Veterans of America 37/0 207 Out of Race
43 15 4 Ward Burton Chevrolet Lucas Oil / State Water Heaters 34/0 84 Out of Race

And your chase standings looked like this after the race.

RANK +/- DRIVER POINTS BEHIND STARTS POLES WINS TOP 5 TOP 10
1 — Jeff Gordon 5880 Leader 31 6 6 19 25
2 — Jimmie Johnson 5812 -68 31 3 6 16 19
3 — Clint Bowyer 5802 -78 31 2 1 5 15
4 — Tony Stewart 5682 -198 31 0 3 10 22
5 +1 Carl Edwards 5640 -240 31 0 3 9 13
6 +2 Kyle Busch 5600 -280 31 0 1 9 17
7 — Kurt Busch 5565 -315 31 1 2 5 11
8 -3 Kevin Harvick 5552 -328 31 0 1 4 12
9 — Denny Hamlin 5531 -349 31 1 1 11 16
10 +2 Jeff Burton 5514 -366 31 0 1 8 14
11 -1 Martin Truex Jr. 5502 -378 31 0 1 6 11
12 -1 Matt Kenseth 5438 -442 31 0 1 8 17

From where I sit it does not look like there will be anybody able to catch Jeff Gordon except Jimmy Johnson and Clint Boyer. Tony Stewart will HAVE to win some races and have Johnson and Gordon have some bad luck to catch them at this point in the chase. There are only FIVE races left in the chase so he better get going now. I like Tony Stewart but I don’t think they are going to be a factor in this anymore. Maybe they will prove me wrong? Don’t know.

NEXT WEEK WE GO TO MARTINSVILLE VIRGINIA.

Martinsville Speedway, home of the world famous Martinsville Hotdogs. I have never been there but the hotdogs are talked about about as much as the race. Just ask any driver or crew member what is their top five reasons for going to Martinsville are and the Hot Dogs will be in the top five. The Subway 500 will start its Telivision broadcast on Friday with Bud Pole Qualifying on ESPN2 at noon eastern time. Green flag coverage is on ABC at 1P.M. eastern time Sunday. Live leader board coverage for the two practice sessions can be found on Nascar.com Friday at noon eastern time and Saturday at Ten A.M. and 7 P.M. both eastern times. I’ll be here after they run the Bud Pole Qualifying to let you know how that turned out and who is on the pole for the Subway 500. Until then stay safe out there and thank you for what you do for our country.