Racing Arizona
Phoenix was a wreck for some drivers. The No. 24 car survived a wreck-filled race Sunday to win the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, ending a 66-race winless streak and moving into a tie with Cale Yarborough for fifth in all-time career Cup wins. With 83 total triumphs, Gordon is one from sharing third with Bobby Allison and NASCAR on FOX's Darrell Waltrip.
The race ended just in time for Gordon, who had to be pushed into victory lane by a tow truck after blowing his engine while celebrating with infield burnouts. In winning, Gordon denied Kyle Busch a second career weekend sweep of the Camping World Trucks, Nationwide and Sprint Cup races in one weekend. Busch had won the first two events earlier in the weekend at Phoenix.
With nine laps to go, Gordon got on Busch's rear, went down low and blew past Busch. The cat-and-mouse game was over, and Gordon held his lead and took the checkered flag for his second win at Phoenix.
Many drivers weren't so lucky. Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne's day ended on the 50th lap. Bayne was trying to get in line when he pushed his luck and clipped Travis Kvapil. Bayne's No. 21 Ford went into the wall, sustained heavy rear end damage and brought out the third caution.
“I don’t know what happened," Bayne said. "We were battling with the 13 car (Casey Mears) a little bit, and I don’t know if it was the 38 car (Kvapil) behind us or who, but something happened. Either I came up, or he poked his nose in there at the last second on the top of us getting into one. After that, there was nothing we could do."
Mark your calendars now. Coverage of the Kobalt Tools 400 begins March 6 at 2:30 p.m. on FOX.The race came to a standstill thanks to a big wreck on Lap 66. Several drivers involved, including pole-sitter Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer and David Reutimann later returned to action.
David Ragan blew a tire and hit the Turn 4 wall hard on Lap 126, causing an engine fire and bringing out the sixth caution of the day. Ragan checked out OK and was released from the infield care center. On the restart, 21 cars were on the lead lap, with Juan Pablo Montoya getting the free pass to get back on the lead lap.
But once the dust settled from all of the earlier wrecking, the drivers' tempers appeared to have settled down and the usual championship contenders were holding the top five spots with 73 laps to go: Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.
With 31 laps to go, Stewart overtook Harvick for the third spot. Kyle Busch, Gordon and Stewart pitted with 30 laps to go, followed by Johnson with 28 laps to go. The leaderboard changed again when the eighth caution of the day was out after Andy Lally hit the wall, Stewart moving to first place with 27 laps to go.
But Stewart got there by taking only took two tires, and that may have cost him the race. With only two fresh tires, Stewart was down to seventh with 11 laps to go. Meanwhile, Kyle Busch clung to his precarious lead over Gordon, who was strongly challenging him every lap before his final, race-winning move.
Throughout the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had been relatively quiet, deftly avoiding the wrecks that — almost midway through the 312-lap race — had involved 24 cars. Earnhardt, to no one's surprise, had been voted Pizza Hut's Fan Favorite for the second straight week.
Joey Logano, who was hampered throughout the day with engine problems, finally watched his motor blow up on lap 218 and the seventh caution was out for debris on the track.
The tone of the first 100 laps was established early as Kurt Busch overtook Edwards to lead after one lap.
The first caution of the day came at lap 19 due to debris on the track. On the restart, there was plenty of rubbin' and three-wide racing on the one-mile track. Robby Gordon got a little bump by Marcos Ambrose on the 34th lap which sent Gordon's car into a spin and causing the second caution of the day. NASCAR had designated lap 40 a competition caution due to the heavy rains on Saturday, but that second caution took its place.
Nine laps later, Kurt Busch got loose and had contact with Edwards, leading to a wreck involving six drivers. Edwards was upset, and said he hoped it was in "inadvertent move" by Kyle Busch. On the radio, Kyle Busch was frustrated, saying, "All we're doing is being a ping pong ball here. It's pathetic."
After a restart on lap 66, Brian Vickers got sideways after some minor contact from Matt Kenseth and for the second straight week, a huge wreck followed, this time involving 13 cars, including Jaime McMurray, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton. Twelve cars were sent to the garage. Boywer was clearly angry, saying, "Pretty disgusted with the whole thing to be honest with you. We're all professionals, we should be driving like it."
Earnhardt was caught speeding on pit road and was sent to the back of the pack on the restart. Jeff Gordon took the lead at lap 74 and stretched out his lead to almost two seconds after 10 laps, but Tony Stewart grabbed the lead on the 92nd lap after Gordon's car collected some debris on his grill and caused him to back off the lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment