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Stock Car Fans – Rumblings – Lowe’s Motor Speedway:

May 30, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • Jimmie Johnson led early, led often, and pretty much blew away the field in tonight’s 600 miler. He led 8 times for 334 laps (that’s 500 miles) and seemed to be able to run away at will. We ran the first 240 miles caution- free, and that (combined with that #48 Chevy) put a lot of cars laps down early. We were actually fortunate to have 13 cars on the lead lap by race’s end. Quite a show for Lowe’s…..don’t know what they’re paying, but they sure got their money’s worth this weekend. Two poles, two wins, and a couple million mentions in every media known to mankind! For a while it looked like we may finish before Indy did (and when you figure they had almost a 6 hour head start that would be something).
    For Jimmie Johnson, this was win #8 (he’s now tied with Kyle Petty for 54th on the all-time win list), his second of the season (he won at Darlington in March) and his second Coke 600 in a row. This was win #121 for Hendrick Motorsports, with 10 of those coming at this speedway (7 in this race alone!). Johnson becomes the 8th winner of this race to do it from the pole (the last was teammate Jeff Gordon in 1998), and his take of the over $6.2M in posted awards was a smooth $426,350.
    Michael Waltrip (2nd) had his best finish since he won at Talladega last October. His Top-5 marks the 19th different driver to score a Top-5 finish this season….last years number was 30!
    Jamie McMurray (4th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Las Vegas in March.
    Casey Mears (7th) tied his career-best finish today. He’s been 7th two other times in his career (both this season)….Vegas in March and Texas in April.
    Jeremy Mayfield (8th) had his best finish since he was the runner-up at Atlanta in March.
    STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 6 Top-10’s in a row.
    Dale Earnhardt Jr has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races.
    Matt Kenseth has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
    This Week’s Elevator….UP: Matt Kenseth (+34) is the Operator of the Race for the 5th time this season! He was followed by Kurt Busch (+21). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Ryan Newman (-33), followed by Jeff Gordon (-27), Brendan Gaughan (-26), and Kevin Lepage (-21). In just 12 races this season, Kenseth has now matched his winning total from last year (5). We’re headed for a record.
    We pushed another two drivers below the “Stayin Alive” line tonight…it’s down to twelve now [under 400 points]. Michael Waltrip (30th to 24th) made the best move forward in the Top-30 tonight, while Johnny Sauter (24th to 30th) fell the most spots.(StockCarFans.Com Nextelcup Newsletter)(5-30-2004)