#87-Joe Nemechek started last and finished first in Saturday’s O’Reilly 300 Busch Series race, but for the second straight day that part of the story took a backseat to NASCAR’s version of justice at Texas Motor Speedway. One day after NASCAR took away Tony Stewart’s car after it failed inspection, Brian Vickers felt Saturday that he had a victory taken from him by a black flag for passing a car on the left illegally on a Lap 179 restart. “We had the race won today and it got taken away from us,” said Vickers, the 19-year-old driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet owned by Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers’ disappointment was compounded further a few laps later when, after accepting the punishment he didn’t think was deserved, he got caught up in an 11-car wreck going into Turn 1 that also wiped out several more cars seemingly destined for good finishes. One of those was Todd Bodine’s #92-Chevrolet, which had the lead on a restart following the red flag for that big wreck. Bodine’s car, however, had been clipped in the right rear by the spinning car of Mike Bliss in the wreck, however, and had a flat tire. When Bodine had to make a pit stop to fix that flat, Nemechek inherited the lead and pulled away after the green flew again on Lap 196. After Hermie Sadler got nudged into the wall on Lap 197, Nemechek got to make the final three laps under yellow to take his 14th career Busch series victory and his second this year. “You have to have luck on your side sometimes,” Nemechek said. “Last year here, thunderstorms were coming and going and we came in to pit and decided to take four tires. Jeff Purvis took two and won. You never know.” Nemechek had his own peril to avoid during his afternoon. He’d been forced to start at the rear of the field after changing engines Friday and gradually worked his way into contention when, on Lap 171, Bruce Bechtel bounced off the outside wall and then careened hard into the inside wall on the backstretch, hitting it so hard the temporary barrier cracked and had to be replaced under a red flag. Nemechek ran right through the debris flying from Bechtel’s car, suffering a flat tire that brought him in for a pit stop. That left Vickers, who led 87 laps in his Chevrolet, in the first position but sitting behind several cars on the end of the lead lap in front of him for the restart. Chad Blount was one of those cars, and when the green flew again Blount’s car got loose just in front of Vickers as the cars came toward the start-finish line. When Vickers dove inside to avoid hitting Blount in the rear, the nose of his car was even with the rear wheel well on Blount’s as they crossed the line. NASCAR rules prohibit cars from passing to the left – the inside – until after the start-finish line. Jim Hunter, NASCAR corporate vice president for communications, defended the call, saying there was room for Vickers to stay behind Blount’s car until they had reached the start-finish line. “They normally make really good calls, but I’m sorry, I am going to have to disagree with them,” said Vickers, who wound up 25th. “They really made a bad one. …Nobody’s perfect. We had the race won today and it got taken away from us. I guess that happens.” Scott Riggs, who’d crashed his primary car in practice before Thursday’s qualifying, found his way through the trouble to get second. Shane Hmiel had a career-best third-place finish with Bodine and Blount rounding out the top five. Bodine still leads the Busch Series standings, 104 ahead of Jason Keller, who ran out of gas at one point on his way to an 18th-place finish Saturday. Jamie McMurray, 14th on the day, is three points behind Keller in third.(ThatsRacin.com)
See results at ThatsRacin.com, BGN Racing, MotorsportsOne or NASCAR.com.(3-29-2003)
