Two Guys Sports
Bruce BostwickNASCAR Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Results - Loudon, New Hampshire
June 30th 2008 07:36
Who’ll Stop The Rain?
Tony Stewart led 132 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. That didn’t matter one bit. Kurt Busch happened to be leading the lap when the rains came. NASCAR waited all of about 10 minutes after the rain had begun to call the race on lap 284 of the schedule 301. Busch, as well as about a dozen others were playing a fuel strategy game when mother nature helped them out. No one expected to see Michael Waltrip, who hadn’t finished higher than 23rd all year, and J.J. Yeley who didn’t even make the field last week, in the top five on Sunday. Low and behold, Waltrip and Yeley drove home with their windshield wipers on to a 2nd and 3rd place finish.
The strategy began to play out on lap 215 when Jamie McMurray tapped the back of Aric Amirola’s #8 car, which led to his car tapping David Reutimann’s car. Amirola made an outstanding save and drove on. On lap 217 however, Kasey Kahne wiggled while on the inside of Amirola and smacked into the side of his car. Amirola nearly made another great save, but then lost it and spun out, just barely tapping the wall with the rear end of he car. The yellow flag came out, at this point pit road opened up, but not everyone headed to the pits since they wouldn’t be able to make it from this point to the end on fuel. In fact the first seventeen cars stayed out on the track, with tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson leading the pack. At the restart Kurt and Kyle Busch were running back to back in 18th, and 19th as the first cars that had pitted.
At around lap 224 they started pointing out how the rains were about 30 miles away from the track and on their way.
Then on lap 271, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was coming to pit road, Jamie McMurray (yes, he is about to get into the back of yet another car.) said he didn’t see him because he was looking elsewhere on the track (as he was driving on the apron of the track), and he crashed hard into the back of Junior’s car. After bouncing off of Junior’s car he turned back onto the track and also took out David Reagan’s car. This brought out the caution flag again. Remember those first 17 cars that didn’t pit earlier? They had to pit this time. Most just took fuel, but leader Tony Stewart took two right side tires as well. After pits stops that moved him into 14th place for the restart. At the head of the field now were Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex, Jr., and Elliot Sadler.
The field restarted with 21 laps to go. On the restart Sam Hornish, Jr. and Clint Bowyer wrecked putting the race right back under caution. After the yellow had waved and cars were slowing to pick up the pace car, Juan Pablo Montoya turned into Kyle Busch and spun him, as his car spun it caught Montoya’s car and spun him too. This nearly took out about five other cars. After the race Montoya clearly said he did it intentionally on camera in an interview. During Busch interview he was smart and explained how he was just trying to get around the lapped #40 car and had no idea why Juan did it. After the race they were called in to talk to NASCAR officials. Montoya was given a two lap penalty, moving his finishing spot from 26th to 32nd. It was and will be the only penalty handed down according to NASCAR.
Before they could restart the race the rain started. The race was red flagged and they parked the cars on pit road. As I said earlier they only wait 10-15 minutes before calling the race after 284 of the 301 laps. It was Kurt Busch’s first win in 29 races, the last one coming at Michigan International Speedway last August. It was also just his second top 10 finish since being the runner-up in the Daytona 500 to teammate Ryan Newman. He was 22nd in Sprint Cup Series Points coming into the race, but will leave New Hampshire in 18th place
His brother Kyle officially finished in 24th after being spun. This allowed Jeff Burton to move within 64 points of the leader in the standings. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. still sits in third 144 points out as they head to a restrictor plate race.
Next week they head to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola. Last year's winner was Jamie McMurray, let's hope he wan look in front of his car to see where he is going while at Daytona doing close to 200MPH.
2008 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Stats
Scheduled Laps: 301
Total Laps: 284
Distance: 318.458 miles
Lead Changes: 5
Kurt Busch won in New Hampshire with some help from mother nature.
Tony Stewart led 132 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. That didn’t matter one bit. Kurt Busch happened to be leading the lap when the rains came. NASCAR waited all of about 10 minutes after the rain had begun to call the race on lap 284 of the schedule 301. Busch, as well as about a dozen others were playing a fuel strategy game when mother nature helped them out. No one expected to see Michael Waltrip, who hadn’t finished higher than 23rd all year, and J.J. Yeley who didn’t even make the field last week, in the top five on Sunday. Low and behold, Waltrip and Yeley drove home with their windshield wipers on to a 2nd and 3rd place finish.
The strategy began to play out on lap 215 when Jamie McMurray tapped the back of Aric Amirola’s #8 car, which led to his car tapping David Reutimann’s car. Amirola made an outstanding save and drove on. On lap 217 however, Kasey Kahne wiggled while on the inside of Amirola and smacked into the side of his car. Amirola nearly made another great save, but then lost it and spun out, just barely tapping the wall with the rear end of he car. The yellow flag came out, at this point pit road opened up, but not everyone headed to the pits since they wouldn’t be able to make it from this point to the end on fuel. In fact the first seventeen cars stayed out on the track, with tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson leading the pack. At the restart Kurt and Kyle Busch were running back to back in 18th, and 19th as the first cars that had pitted.
At around lap 224 they started pointing out how the rains were about 30 miles away from the track and on their way.
Then on lap 271, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was coming to pit road, Jamie McMurray (yes, he is about to get into the back of yet another car.) said he didn’t see him because he was looking elsewhere on the track (as he was driving on the apron of the track), and he crashed hard into the back of Junior’s car. After bouncing off of Junior’s car he turned back onto the track and also took out David Reagan’s car. This brought out the caution flag again. Remember those first 17 cars that didn’t pit earlier? They had to pit this time. Most just took fuel, but leader Tony Stewart took two right side tires as well. After pits stops that moved him into 14th place for the restart. At the head of the field now were Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex, Jr., and Elliot Sadler.
The field restarted with 21 laps to go. On the restart Sam Hornish, Jr. and Clint Bowyer wrecked putting the race right back under caution. After the yellow had waved and cars were slowing to pick up the pace car, Juan Pablo Montoya turned into Kyle Busch and spun him, as his car spun it caught Montoya’s car and spun him too. This nearly took out about five other cars. After the race Montoya clearly said he did it intentionally on camera in an interview. During Busch interview he was smart and explained how he was just trying to get around the lapped #40 car and had no idea why Juan did it. After the race they were called in to talk to NASCAR officials. Montoya was given a two lap penalty, moving his finishing spot from 26th to 32nd. It was and will be the only penalty handed down according to NASCAR.
Before they could restart the race the rain started. The race was red flagged and they parked the cars on pit road. As I said earlier they only wait 10-15 minutes before calling the race after 284 of the 301 laps. It was Kurt Busch’s first win in 29 races, the last one coming at Michigan International Speedway last August. It was also just his second top 10 finish since being the runner-up in the Daytona 500 to teammate Ryan Newman. He was 22nd in Sprint Cup Series Points coming into the race, but will leave New Hampshire in 18th place
His brother Kyle officially finished in 24th after being spun. This allowed Jeff Burton to move within 64 points of the leader in the standings. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. still sits in third 144 points out as they head to a restrictor plate race.
Next week they head to Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola. Last year's winner was Jamie McMurray, let's hope he wan look in front of his car to see where he is going while at Daytona doing close to 200MPH.
| Pos | Driver | Car# | Make | Started | Laps | Led |
| 1 | Kurt Busch | 2 | Dodge | 26 | 284 | 10 |
| 2 | Michael Waltrip | 55 | Toyota | 36 | 284 | 0 |
| 3 | J.J. Yeley | 96 | Toyota | 30 | 284 | 0 |
| 4 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | Chevrolet | 8 | 284 | 0 |
| 5 | Elliott Sadler | 19 | Dodge | 11 | 284 | 0 |
| 6 | Reed Sorenson | 41 | Dodge | 6 | 284 | 0 |
| 7 | Casey Mears | 5 | Chevrolet | 24 | 284 | 53 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota | 12 | 284 | 0 |
| 9 | Jimmie Johnson | 48 | Chevrolet | 23 | 284 | 0 |
| 10 | Bobby Labonte | 43 | Dodge | 2 | 284 | 0 |
| 11 | Jeff Gordon | 24 | Chevrolet | 19 | 284 | 0 |
| 12 | Jeff Burton | 31 | Chevrolet | 31 | 284 | 0 |
| 13 | Tony Stewart | 20 | Toyota | 28 | 284 | 132 |
| 14 | Kevin Harvick | 29 | Chevrolet | 3 | 284 | 54 |
| 15 | Ryan Newman | 12 | Dodge | 16 | 284 | 0 |
| 16 | Brian Vickers | 83 | Toyota | 40 | 284 | 0 |
| 17 | Carl Edwards | 99 | Ford | 17 | 284 | 0 |
| 18 | Matt Kenseth | 17 | Ford | 9 | 284 | 0 |
| 19 | David Reutimann | 44 | Toyota | 29 | 284 | 0 |
| 20 | Joe Nemechek | 78 | Chevrolet | 43 | 284 | 1 |
| 21 | Greg Biffle | 16 | Ford | 15 | 284 | 0 |
| 22 | Clint Bowyer | 7 | Chevrolet | 18 | 284 | 0 |
| 23 | Aric Almirola | 8 | Chevrolet | 39 | 284 | 0 |
| 24 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 88 | Chevrolet | 5 | 284 | 29 |
| 25 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 27 | 284 | 0 |
| 26 | Robby Gordon | 7 | Dodge | 22 | 284 | 1 |
| 27 | Regan Smith | 1 | Chevrolet | 25 | 283 | 0 |
| 28 | David Gilliland | 38 | Ford | 33 | 283 | 0 |
| 29 | Paul Menard | 15 | Chevrolet | 42 | 282 | 0 |
| 30 | Kasey Kahne | 9 | Dodge | 14 | 282 | 0 |
| 31 | Patrick Carpentier | 10 | Dodge | 1 | 282 | 4 |
| 32 | Juan Pablo Montoy | 42 | Dodge | 32 | 282 | 0 |
| 33 | Dave Blaney | 22 | Toyota | 41 | 281 | 0 |
| 34 | Scott Riggs | 66 | Chevrolet | 4 | 281 | 0 |
| 35 | Terry Labonte | 45 | Dodge | 34 | 281 | 0 |
| 36 | Travis Kvapil | 28 | Ford | 21 | 281 | 0 |
| 37 | Johnny Sauter | 70 | Chevrolet | 37 | 280 | 0 |
| 38 | Dario Franchitti | 40 | Dodge | 7 | 280 | 0 |
| 39 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 77 | Dodge | 20 | 280 | 0 |
| 40 | David Ragan | 6 | Ford | 35 | 272 | 0 |
| 41 | Jamie McMurray | 26 | Ford | 13 | 270 | 0 |
| 42 | Michael McDowell | 0 | Toyota | 38 | 209 | 0 |
| 43 | AJ Allmendinger | 84 | Toyota | 10 | 202 | 0 |
2008 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Stats
Scheduled Laps: 301
Total Laps: 284
Distance: 318.458 miles
Lead Changes: 5
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