NASCAR

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Six races left, and the Chase for the Sprint Cup is shaping up nicely.

Jimmie Johnson dominated at Kansas, running up front most of the day and holding off Kasey Kahne on a green-white-checkered restart for the win.  Brad Keselowski was third and Matt Kenseth fourth.  Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick came on strong at the end to finish fifth and sixth respectively.

It all fell apart at the end for Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.  Stewart gave up track position for four tires on a late stop, then had trouble getting into his stall on the final stop.  Gordon's engine blew to set up the GWC finish.  (Race results)

Six races left, and Edwards leads Harvick by one point in the standings.  Jimmie Johnson sits just four points back and we're heading to one of his best tracks, Charlotte Motor Speedway, next.

Six races left.  Eight drivers within 20 points of the lead.  (Points standings)

Cup - Kurt Busch Dominates at Sonoma

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Kurt Busch notched his first career road course victory Sunday, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.  He made it look easy, leading 76 of the 110 laps (including the final 23) and crossing the finish line 2.685 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

It was Busch's first Cup win of the season and the 23rd of his career, tying him with Ricky Rudd for 26th on the all-time wins list.

The real battle was for second place between Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards.  Both struggled early in the race, then seemed to appear out of nowhere at the end by staying out on old tires.  Gordon passed Edwards for second on the final lap.  Clint Bowyer finished fourth, followed by Marcos Ambrose.  (Race results)

The real story of the race was all the "boys, have at it" action going on behind Busch.  Juan Montoya played the part that Jeff Gordon played so well last year, tangling with everyone he got near.  Two incidents stand out:  On Lap 37, he tangled with Kyle Busch, shoving him off the track in Turn 11 and starting a multi-car pileup.  On Lap 104, he tried to force Brad Keselowski into the grass.  Keselowski returned the favor by spinning him out.

The first incident ended Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s day and started a feud between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers.  Stewart pushed Vickers into the cars that were slowing in front of him, then spun him around.  Vickers got his revenge on Lap 87.  Stewart was challenging Busch for the lead when they came up on Vickers.  After Stewart went by, Vickers turned him when he slowed for Turn 11.  Stewart came to rest with his rear end up on the tire barrier.

Montoya also tangled with Kasey Kahne, trying to force his way through when there really wasn't anywhere to go.  The move spun Kahne, but also cost Montoya a few spots.  Joey Logano got together with Robby Gordon early in the race, leaving Gordon to ponder doing "a Richard Childress" on the younger driver.

Edwards increased his lead in the series points standings by five; he now leads Kevin Harvick by 25 points.  Harvick rebounded from a tough day to finish ninth.  Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, but climbed two spots in the standings to third, 33 points behind Edwards.  Kurt Busch climbed three spots to fourth, 34 points out.  Kyle Busch (-37) is now fifth, followed by Matt Kenseth (-52) and Earnhardt (-65), who dropped four spots in the standings.  Clint Bowyer (-77), Gordon (-93) and Ryan Newman (-98) round out the Top 10.

Related articles

• Stewart, Vickers tangle at Infineon (msn.foxsports.com)
• WINNERS & LOSERS: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin among victims of rough race at Sonoma (scenedaily.com)

NASCAR: NSCS -- Fontana: Pepsi Max 400 Results

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Tony Stewart earned his first career victory at Auto Club Speedway, winning Sunday's Pepsi Max 400.  Jimmie Johnson began pulling away from the rest of the Chase field in the quest for his fifth straight championship.

Stewart's championship hopes were on life support after the first two Chase races.  After four, he suddenly finds himself back in contention again.  He was buried back in the field throughout the first half of the race, but his crew made the right adjustments and the car came to life in the second half.  It was Stewart's second win of the season and the 39th of his career, putting him in a 17th-place tie with Tim Flock on the all-time wins list.

The race turned on a debris caution on Lap 183 (of 200).  Paul Menard and Regan Smith took two tires and led the field to green on the restart with 13 to go.  Stewart got by Smith a lap later to take the lead, but another caution soon flew when David Ragan slid up the track and pinched Kurt Busch into the wall.  That set up a two-lap shootout and Stewart and Johnson led the field to green.  Stewart took the high line and got a good push from Clint Bowyer to keep him ahead of Johnson.  Bowyer and Johnson battled side-by-side through the final lap for second as Stewart pulled away to win by 0.466 seconds.

Bowyer won the battle and nipped Johnson at the line for second.  Kasey Kahne was fourth.  Ryan Newman was fifth.  (Race results)

After the race, Bowyer seemed disappointed with a second-place finish.  He blasted NASCAR for the debris caution, claiming that he would have won easily if the race had stayed green.

Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon finished seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively to keep Johnson in sight in the championship hunt, but it wasn't easy for any of them.  Harvick and Gordon overcame pit road speeding penalties.  Hamlin had to start the race in the rear of the field after his crew changed his transmission after qualifying.

The rest of the Chase contenders had terrible days.  After his run-in with Ragan, Kurt Busch limped home in 21st place.  That was two spots ahead of Jeff Burton, who ran yet another lackluster race.  Kyle Busch's engine blew on Lap 155; he finished 35th.

After all their past success at Fontana, it was surprising to see the whole Roush Fenway Racing organization's title hopes go up in smoke.  Greg Biffle's engine blew just 40 laps in, giving him a 41st-place finish.  Just a few laps later, Carl Edwards lost power and had to be pushed to the garage.  The trouble was finally traced to a distributor problem and he returned to the track to finish 34th.  Matt Kenseth also had engine problems.  His car was smoking badly at the end, but he nursed it home to finish 30th.

Johnson now leads Hamlin by 36 in the points standings.  Harvick (-54) and Gordon (-85) are the only other drivers within 100 points of the four-time champion.  With his win and the other Chasers' misfortunes, Stewart climbed five spots in the standings to fifth.  He is now 107 points back with six races remaining.  Kurt Busch (-140), Edwards (-162), Burton (-177), Kyle Busch (-187), Biffle (-215), Kenseth (-241) and Bowyer (-247) round out the Chase field.

NASCAR: Loudon Results

Image via WikipediaNSCS: the Sylvania 300

Clint Bowyer's fuel gamble paid off.  Tony Stewart's did not.

Coming out of Turn Four with the lead on Lap 299 (of 300) with the white flag in sight, Tony Stewart ran out of gas.  Clint Bowyer, who was also running on fumes, flew past him on the frontstretch and held off Denny Hamlin over the final lap to win the first race in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sunday's Sylvania 300 at Loudon, New Hampshire.

Bowyer ran out of gas while doing his victory burnout and had to be pushed to Victory Lane by a wrecker.

Bowyer didn't back into the win.  He dominated the race, leading seven times for a race-high 177 laps, but a sputtering carburetor gave him problems on restarts, forcing him to drop back until he could get the car up to speed.

Denny Hamlin also had issues.  On Lap 214, Hamlin was rolling through Turn Four when Carl Edwards slid up the track into him causing him to spin.  That dropped Hamlin from third to 22nd, but sent him to pit road, allowing him to avoid the fuel issues of the cars that were ahead of him at the end.

Bowyer crossed the finish line 0.477 seconds ahead of Hamlin.  Jamie McMurray finished third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Kevin Harvick struggled all day with handling problems and slow pit stops, but rallied to finish fifth.  Stewart coasted around to finish 24th, the last car on the lead lap, a swing of 94 valuable points in the championship race.  (Race results)

The win snapped an 88-race winless streak for Bowyer dating back to the May 2008 race at Richmond.  It was Bowyer's third Cup win and his second at Loudon.  His first Cup win came in the 2007 Sylvania 300.

Kurt Busch had an ill-handling car and was involved in two incidents.  On Lap 221, he got together with Jeff Burton and they both spun.  That resulted in Jimmie Johnson getting into the rear of Kyle Busch, causing those two to spin as well.  Later, on Lap 241, Kurt Busch slid up the track into Joey Logano, putting him into the wall.

Johnson later developed a vibration and had to make an unscheduled stop for tires, putting him a lap down.  He couldn't get the lap back and finished 25th, worst of the Chase drivers.

Burton ran out of gas seconds before Stewart, but got it re-fired enough to finish 15th.

Matt Kenseth struggled mid-pack all race and was spun by Brad Keselowski  .  He finished 23rd.

With one Chase race down and nine to go to crown a champion, Hamlin stretched his lead in the point standings to 35.  He now leads Bowyer, who moved up ten spots into second place.   Harvick (-45) remains in third.  After finishing ninth, Kyle Busch (-62) remains in fourth.  Jeff Gordon (-75) finished sixth and moved up three spots to fifth.  Johnson (-92) dropped five spots to seventh.  Stewart (-124) dropped five spots to eleventh.


NCWTS:  TheRaceDayRaffleSeries.com 175

Kyle Busch drove into James Buescher and the wall to win Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Loudon.

The race was a battle between Busch and Kevin Harvick, but Buescher snuck in there at the end and almost came away with his Truck Series win.

On Lap 166 (of 175), Harvick forced Busch up the track and Buescher dove underneath the two to take the lead.  Busch took the lead and the race on a restart on Lap 174.  Buescher restarted on the outside and led Busch into Turn One, but Busch battled ahead coming out of Turn Two.  Before he was clear, he moved up the track into Buescher's left front, then slapped the outside wall.

Busch beat Buescher to the finish by 0.280 seconds.  Harvick, who traded the lead with Busch fourteen times, finished third, followed by Matt Crafton and Austin Dillon.  (Race results)

After the race, Buescher took exception to Busch's tactics:

"He just went to the fence," Buescher said. "He wasn't clear at all. He drove like he had no truck on his outside, and he hit my left front and ended up in the wall. He just drove us dirty and got the win, and we hung in for a second-place finish."

 Todd Bodine finished ninth and has a commanding 257 point lead over Aric Almirola, who finished eighth, with just six races to go.  (Point standings)

NASCAR: Atlanta -- Emory Healthcare 500 Results

Image via WikipediaTony Stewart pulled away from Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson to pick up the victory in Sunday night's Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was Stewart's first victory in 31 races dating back to October 2009 at Kansas. It was Stewart's third win at the track and the 38th of his career. Stewart led eight times for a race-high 176 laps, including the final 25.

Edwards beat Stewart out of the pits after the seventh caution of the night on Lap 295 (of 325), but Stewart quickly got by him after the restart. Stewart had trouble on restarts all night spinning his tires, but held on and pulled away on the final restart, which came out for debris from a collision caused by Ryan Newman getting into Kasey Kahne which put him into Kurt Busch on Lap 302.

Carl Edwards finished 1.316 seconds behind Stewart with Johnson right behind. Jeff Burton went a lap down early, but rallied to finish a distant fourth. Kyle Busch overcame a terrible pit stop on Lap 49 to finish fifth. Busch was clocked too fast entering pit road, then his rear tire changer had issues with the gun, leaving him with a loose wheel which he had to make an unscheduled stop to fix. (Race results)

Kahne ran up front most of the night, but the contact by Newman brought on a flat tire that ended his chance of making the Chase.  Kahne retaliated with a minor bump to Newman after he got back on the track.  Earlier, on Lap 152, Newman got into Greg Biffle and knocked him into Elliott Sadler.  Kasey Kahne had a flat tire on Lap 178 that extinguished his slim hopes of making the Chase.  Denny Hamlin had a strong car through the early part of the race, but blew his engine on Lap 143 and finished last.

Eight more drivers clinched spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, joining Kevin Harvick and Johnson, who clinched last weekend at Bristol.  With only Saturday night's race at Richmond left before the Chase begins, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer have a virtual lock on the final two spots in the Chase.  Biffle only needs to show up at Richmond and finish 42nd or better to clinch his spot.  If Ryan Newman, who moved into 13th position after finishing eighth at Atlanta, picks up the maximum 195 points at Richmond by winning and leading the most laps, Bowyer only needs to finish 28th or better.

Other than that battle to clinch the final two spots in the Chase, the point standings are meaningless.  After Richmond, the points will be reset with each driver receiving 5000 points plus ten bonus points for each win.  This is the way the Chase points work out as of now:

1.  Jimmie Johnson 5050
2.  Denny Hamlin 5050
3.  Kevin Harvick 5030
4.  Kyle Busch 5030
5.  Kurt Busch 5020
6.  Tony Stewart 5010
7.  Greg Biffle 5010
8.  Jeff Gordon 5000
9.  Carl Edwards 5000
10. Jeff Burton 5000
11. Matt Kenseth 5000
12. Clint Bowyer 5000

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