Race 3 - UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400

Race 3 - UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400
After a rare week off early on in the 2007 campaign, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was back in action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The impromptu night race became the third consecutive race of the season to feature just 2 caution flags, and it also became the third consecutive race of the season to feature Clint Bowyer on the pole. That's right, last year's rookie of the year won the pole for the 3rd time in 3 races so far this season, and this time he improved on his showing.

At California Speedway, Bowyer failed to even lead a lap and dropped to 21st in the final running order, but he maintained a strong presence in this race. Bowyer led 65 of the first 66 laps, with his teammate Kurt Busch sneaking in to grab one. He dominated the event until two of his 3 teammates were eliminated in a lap 69 incident. Lapped traffic of Reed Sorenson was clipped by Busch, and those two plus Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Travis Kvapil, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all sustained heavy enough damage to knock them out of the race for good. After the crash, Matt Kenseth led the race and a green flag parade ensued.

Kenseth, last week's winner, looked solid once again, moving from a 15th place starting position to grab hold of the lead. But the star of the race was Las Vegas native Kyle Busch, who fought through traffic to move from a disappointing 23rd place starting position to take over the race lead on lap 81. Busch simply put on a show from that point on in front of the hometown crowd, perhaps making up for his older brother's early exit. Having yet to win a race but into his 3rd full season, Busch strutted his stuff, putting the field on notice that he intends to be a firm Chase contender this season. Aside from 2 rounds of green flag stops, Busch led every single lap from laps 81 through 244.

Lap 245 saw Busch make his final pit stop with 23 laps to go. Kenseth once again took the lead, and stretched his fuel to the limit by staying out another 8 laps under green. Kenseth intended to make his stop on lap 255, but a multi-vehicle crash on lap 254 triggered by Johnny Sauter and Kasey Kahne saw the caution wave. Sauter, with fresh tires, attempted to scoot past Kahne but found the wall instead, and ignited a vicious crash that included points leader Brian Vickers, who escaped with only minor damage, and last year's champion, Greg Biffle. The 3rd of 4 Richard Childress Racing cars was also eliminated in the incident, as Jeff Burton was clipped and sent tumbling down the turn 2 banking in a scary fashion. He was later released from the infield care center, uninjured.

However, the incident proved costly for Kyle Busch. He became trapped a lap down, as Kenseth and only 4 other cars remained on the lead lap. Kenseth took command at the lap 259 restart and coasted to an easy victory, earning his 2nd consecutive victory and the 14th of his career. Roush teammate Carl Edwards earned the runner-up position and was followed by Daytona 500 champ Casey Mears, Bowyer, and Jeff Gordon. Kyle Busch finished 6th.

Results:


Standings:

RCR TEAM STATEMENT:

"We had a really good start to the unsuspected night race here at Las Vegas. The Lap 69 and 254 crashes really hurt us. We're really lucky Jeff is not hurt. If we finish the way we run, our cars would be in a much better position. But it is what it is, and we move on to Bristol." - Richard Childress

Clint Bowyer, #07 Jack Daniel's Chevy

Started: 1st
Finished: 4th
Laps Led: 65
Points Position: 6th

Driver Comments: "We finally backed our pole up with a good Top-5 finish. But three poles in a row? If you ask me, that's pretty amazing. We're really lucky to be the only RCR car not involved in a wreck. Onto Bristol!"

Kurt Busch, #33 Monster Energy Chevy
Started: 2nd
Finished: 37th
Laps Led: 1
Points Position: 32nd

Driver Comments: "Well that race was just *explicit*. We were running pretty good (me and Clint) and then I had to get involved in that stupid accident. I was rooting for my bro Kyle there at the end, but he got trapped, which sucked. Hopefully we improve a ton at Bristol...32nd in points? Are you freaking kidding me?"

Jeff Burton, #31 Cingular Wireless Chevy
Started: 8th
Finished: 31th
Laps Led: 0
Points Position: 16th

Driver Comments: "I don't really think it's good when 3/4 of your team doesn't finish a race, right? I really hope our season doesn't continue to go this direction."

Kevin Harvick, #29 UPS Chevy
Started: 18th
Finished: 36th
Laps Led: 0
Points Position: 18th

Driver Comments: "Well our goal was to be up there contending for the win here today, but obviously that didn't happen. It just sucks that both me and Kurt were swept up in the same accident, and then Jeff also got wrecked. Onto Bristol I guess..."

Thanks jbraun57, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm having even more fun than I did before; I'm glad I chose to open it up to user participation.

Jack Roush Postrace Quote:
"I'm thrilled to get a 1-2 finish out here. The teams were thrown a curveball yesterday afternoon with the night race and with no practice or qualifying sessions with the sun down it was a challenge for these crew chiefs. People are going to look at the fact that Matt only won because Kyle Busch got caught a lap down, but he was 2nd place the entire race and was at the right place at the right time. It takes a little bit of luck to do well in these races. So we're really happy about Matt winning back to back races and Carl getting back to back top 5s. I have a feeling the wins will start coming for him as well. David had another nice run, but we experimented with his setup a lot and with a crew chief not used to setting up Cup cars we weren't expecting anything close to Daytona's result. The goal for him was pretty much track time and we got that. It's a shame that Greg had his trouble for the second race in a row. Once again he was running in the top 10, I think he was running 8th this week, when he got caught with bad luck. I mean he barely hit the 21 car, but it was badly placed and with just a handful of laps left there was no chance of getting him back out there. The worst part of the weekend is that Todd had another dismal race. I'm really proud of how he's handled himself though, the mechanical issues we had today were not his fault and even though his rookie season so far has been a disaster he's kept a positive attitude. All the other team cars are running well, so I know we'll get him up to speed soon, it's just a matter of luck right now. All in all a solid weekend, we just have to be a little more consistent and avoid situations that lead to bad luck."