Race 23 - 3M Performance 400Pre-Race Notes: Hendrick Motorsports has been on a tear lately, and today it seems like it won't be any different. Jeff Gordon captured the pole on Friday and the 4 car team placed all of its Chevy Monte Carlo SSs in the top 5 for the start of today's event. Meanwhile, some of the drivers on the Chase bubble did not qualify in the top 10, namely Joe Nemechek, Travis Kvapil, Matt Kenseth, Jeremy Mayfield, and Tony Stewart. Fuel mileage often factors into these races at MIS, so we'll keep an eye on pit strategy all race long to see whether we'll get a big shakeup in the Chase standings with just 4 races before the playoffs.
Green flag-Jeff Gordon leads the field to the green flag for the start of the 3M Performance 400.
Lap 2-Robby Gordon is blowing up. For the second week in a row, he'll complete just one lap.
Lap 3-Wow! Casey Mears with a daring 3 wide pass on the outside of turn 2 to pick off Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson in one fell swoop. He moves up from 6th to 2nd in one lap. Meanwhile, Mears' teammate Ryan Newman just got a piece of the wall and looks to have a minor tire rub.
Lap 4-Mears to the lead as both Johnson and J.J. Yeley scrape the turn 1 wall.
Lap 6-Todd Kluever blows an engine entering turn 1 and goes up into the wall after getting rear-ended by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kluever is done, and while the damage to the 8 car doesn't look too bad, Dale Jr. says the tow was knocked out. He's off pace but will stay on the track and hope for a yellow flag.
Lap 7-Kyle Busch to the lead.
Lap 8-Joe Nemechek is the latest driver to clip the outside wall entering turn 1.
Lap 9-Michael Waltrip becomes the third driver to suffer an engine related DNF in the first 10 laps. Certainly not a good omen for....well...the entire field.
Lap 10-Newman to pit road.
Lap 14-Nemechek also now pits to fix the right side damage and get new tires.
Lap 24-Ward Burton clips the wall.
Lap 39-Jamie McMurray makes a pit stop. A little premature to be the start of the first round of green flag stops, but he may just be shortpitting to gain track position.
Lap 47-Yeley hits pit road.
Lap 48-Here comes the first big wave of pitters. Johnson, Gordon, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Kvapil, Kenseth, Elliott Sadler, and Ward Burton in for service.
Lap 49-Even more cars making stops as Vickers takes the lead. Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Mears, Reed Sorenson, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Danny O'Quinn Jr., Jon Wood, Jeff Burton, Stewart, Mayfield, Martin Truex Jr., David Stremme, Earnhardt Jr., Dave Blaney, and Kasey Kahne all get 4 tires and fuel.
Lap 50-Mike Bliss, Scott Riggs, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Sauter, Johnny Benson, Aric Almirola, and Jason Leffler all pit.
Lap 50-CAUTION FLAG #1-Oh boy! Hard crash in turn 1. Jeff Burton appeared to hook Jon Wood when the 21 spun the tires while upshifting and exiting pit road and Wood spun into traffic where he was creamed by Matt Kenseth and Travis Kvapil. That might be the knockout punch for Kenseth's Chase hopes, as his car is demolished. Kvapil will continue, albeit damaged, and he'll have to hope that attrition will give him a better finishing position. Meanwhile, almost the entire field is getting trapped a lap down or on the tail end of the lead lap due to this poorly timed accident.
Lap 55-Green flag, with Riggs in front of Vickers, Carl Edwards, Kyle Petty, and Derrike Cope. Yes you read that right. 21 cars are on the tail end of the lead lap, while 11 are one lap down, including frontrunners Gordon and Newman.
Lap 56-Kurt Busch and McMurray lose a lap.
Lap 57-Penske teammates Kvapil and Mears get knocked a lap down.
Lap 58-Vickers gets by Riggs for the lead as O'Quinn Jr. fights his way back to the lead lap.
Lap 61-Nemechek down a lap.
Lap 63-O'Quinn Jr. has been relapped.
Lap 64-Feistiness from the 06 car. O'Quinn Jr. may not be a part of Roush Racing's 2008 plans, but he is not going down a lap without a fight. He's back on the lead lap for the time being.
Lap 65-Stewart and Kyle Busch lose a lap.
Lap 66-Vickers just made an incredible lap. Johnson, Benson, O'Quinn Jr., and Hamilton Jr. all just got lapped in the span of 2.0 miles. Impressive run by the 25 car.
Lap 68-Kahne gets lapped.
Lap 69-Blaney and Labonte go a lap down.
Lap 76-RYR teammates Sadler and Mayfield both get lapped simultaneously.
Lap 78-Biffle gets lapped. You just know the driver of the 16 won't go down quietly though.
Lap 79-That didn't take long. Biffle gets back around Vickers to unlap himself.
Lap 80-Harvick goes down a lap.
Lap 81-Happy Harvick is happy because he just earned a lap back with a nice pass to the outside of Vickers.
Lap 82-Biffle relapped. This is pretty crucial for The Biff. He needs to run top 5 if he wants to sniff the Top 12.
Lap 83-Harvick also gets relapped.
Lap 84-Truex Jr. goes a lap down.
Lap 86-Jeff Burton gets lapped.
Lap 88-CAUTION FLAG #2-Trouble on the backstretch! A gaggle of cars ran out of real estate and now cars are still wrecking! A lot of hard hits in this one. It looks like it started when Tony Stewart, Danny O'Quinn Jr., and Ward Burton simply ran out of room exiting turn 2. They all pinched together and Burton went around and started getting pinballed around. Bobby Labonte spun off of Joe Nemechek's nose in the back but both of them, plus Stewart and O'Quinn Jr. escaped relatively unscathed. Other drivers that piled in and are now eliminated from the race include Burton, Kurt Busch, Sorenson, Bliss, Riggs, and Stremme. Kahne and Edwards also received minor damage.
Lap 93-Green flag just shy of halfway. Here's a full-field rundown.
Lead lap: 25, 45, 74, 99
Tail End of lead lap: 78, 07
-1 lap: 29, 31, 15, 38, 16, 34, 88, 48, 23, 06, 01, 2, 5, 22, 18, 19, 43, 20, 9, 77, 42, 12, 24
-2 laps: 11, 8
OUT: 91, 0, 33, 40, 02, 41, 21, 17, 55, 6, 7
Lap 94-Harvick to the lead lap. He just won't quit.
Lap 95-Burton also unlaps himself.
Lap 104-Bowyer gets lapped.
Lap 106-Bowyer unlaps himself as Harvick goes back a lap down.
Lap 108-Harvick to the lead lap. The RCR cars are just playing around with Vickers at this point. He's gotta be sick of that whole team right about now.
Lap 110-Burton and Harvick both get lapped.
Lap 111-Bowyer is lapped once again.
Lap 112-Harvick unlaps himself as....Kyle Petty takes the lead!? Yes, that's right. All of the battling for position between the cars racing to stay on the lead lap has held up Vickers and created enough of a logjam that Petty was able to sniff a draft off of the 25's bumper and catch up, and now he's taken the lead.
Lap 113-Burton goes a lap down as Petty holds steady in first.
Lap 114-Burton, Bowyer, and Biffle unlap themselves as Vickers tries to regain composure. He's not happy with the way the RCR cars were racing him.
Lap 115-Johnson unlaps himself.
Lap 117-CAUTION FLAG #3-Debris on the backstretch brings out the yellow. Supposedly it fell off Kasey Kahne's injured machine.
Lap 121-Green flag. 11 cars on the lead lap with Petty, Vickers, Edwards, Cope, and Sauter making the top 5. Apparently the 45 and 74 teams think we're in 1990.
Lap 123-Vickers gets back to the lead now that he's got clear racetrack ahead of him.
Lap 132-Truex Jr. slapped the wall in turn 1.
Lap 138-Kyle Busch kissed the wall as well.
Lap 151-O'Quinn Jr. has also just scraped the turn 1 SAFER barrier.
Lap 152-Busch hits pit road to make a stop. He's really pushing it on fuel, but he could not drive that tight #5 machine any longer.
Lap 153-Benson unlaps himself as Vickers is taking it easy with a comfortable lead. Truex Jr. has hit pit road as well.
Lap 154-O'Quinn Jr. has a major tire rub now and will make a pit stop to repair it and grab 4 tires and fuel.
Lap 162-Edwards and Kahne begin the final pit stops of the afternoon.
Lap 163-Blaney, Kvapil, Earnhardt Jr., and Benson hit pit road.
Lap 164-Burton, Petty, Sauter, Stewart, Leffler, and Almirola make their final stops of the day.
Lap 165-Harvick, Hamilton Jr., Newman, Gordon, Bowyer, Labonte, McMurray, and Cope hit pit road.
Lap 166-Johnson briefly grabs the lead as he pits along with Vickers, Mears, Biffle, Mayfield, Nemechek, Sadler, and Yeley.
Lap 167-Burton has taken the lead through the cycle of stops and Hamilton Jr. has gotten in front of the leaders to regain a lap. Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports' day has turned sour as Vickers is now in 3rd, and Jeff Gordon is stuck on pit road with an unspecified electrical issue.
Lap 175-Jeremy Mayfield's engine has blown up with 26 to go. That's a big blow to his Chase hopes. He had quietly put himself in a nice position before this afternoon's misfortune.
Lap 184-Harvick to the lead past his teammate.
Lap 187-The two RCR teammates are in HEAVY traffic right now. They are going nose to nose for this one, as Burton leads at the stripe.
Lap 189-Harvick gets back around his lame duck teammate. Neither one of these guys has a win this season, and getting to Victory Lane would be a HUGE boost of momentumm heading towards the Chase.
Lap 191-10 to go as Cope falls a lap down.
Lap 192-Hamilton Jr. is now lapped. Harvick is getting through traffic much more efficiently than Burton right now.
Lap 196-5 to go, Harvick with 0.8 second lead. Vickers is right behind Burton. But remember a little while ago? Harvick and Burton were a lap down. Now, they're trying to give RCR a 1-2 finish. Clint Bowyer is in 4th, so even if Vickers gets through, putting 3 cars in the top 5 is not too shabby of an effort.
Lap 198-Vickers is now in 2nd place with 3 to go. He's 6 tenths of a second behind Harvick but he's got a couple lapped cars to deal with.
Lap 199-Vickers a half second back now with 2 to go. Kyle Busch has run out of gas and coasts to pit road for a splash and go.
Lap 200-White flag in the air for Kevin Harvick! His lead has stabilized at half a second, and as long as he drivers smoothly this final lap, the victory is his.
Checkered flag-Kevin Harvick rallies from a lap deficit to capture his first victory of 2007 with a strong closing performance in the 3M Performance 400. Vickers gets another top 5 and is followed by Burton and Bowyer in a strong RCR run today. Greg Biffle rounds out the top 5 with a much-needed 5th place showing. Kyle Busch, despite running out of fuel with 2 to go, finishes 16th and joins Vickers as the only drivers to clinch spots in the 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup.
