Joe Nemechek’s #87 Chevrolet — complete with a smashed right-front fender and buckled hood — clearly showed the signs of battle. Nemechek took out one leader of Saturday’s Mr. Goodcents 300 and nearly clashed with another before snatching the NASCAR Busch Series victory away at Kansas Speedway. Tony Stewart, driving the #81 Chevrolet for Chance2 Motorsports, dominated most of Saturday’s race, but Nemechek was able to pull alongside Stewart with two laps of the scheduled 200 laps remaining. Stewart then pinched Nemechek up to the outside wall exiting Turn 2 on Lap 199, then came down.
Nemechek headed for the outside again on the backstretch, but this time the two made contact, sending Stewart’s Chevy into the wall and bringing out a caution. “At the end there, I was better than Stewart,” Nemechek said. “I got to apologize to Tony Stewart. I don’t ever turn people, especially on purpose. I got a heck of a run there in Turn 1 and had my nose inside and kept coming and coming. I said, ‘Please do not squeeze me up here’ and, finally, he did.” #60Greg Biffle, who was running third at the time of the wreck, said Stewart was trying to do all he could to keep Nemechek behind him. “Tony was trying to block (Nemechek), which I guess anyone who is leading is going to try to do,” Biffle said. Nemechek “just had a great car.” Nemechek suffered some damage to his Chevy, but he still needed to finish the race to secure the win. NASCAR restarted the race on Lap 203 for a green-white-checkered finish. This time, it was Biffle who caught Nemechek and passed him to the inside on the final lap, only to see Nemechek battle back on the outside and just nip Biffle at the finish line. The win is Nemechek’s first this season and 16th of his career. Nemechek’s 0.041-second margin of victory over Biffle was the series’ closest finish of the season. #32-David Stremme finished third, #46-Ashton Lewis Jr. was fourth and #2-Ron Hornaday completed the top-five. Series points leader #8-Martin Truex Jr. finished 30th, but still holds a 149-point lead over rookie #5-Kyle Busch because both drivers found trouble Saturday. Truex was hit by Hornaday on Lap 3 and hit the Turn 2 wall, sending him to the garage for repairs. It looked like Busch would be able to gain a lot, but he, too, was caught up in a wreck on Lap 81 and finished 29th. The race was slowed eight times by caution for 39 laps. There were 11 lead changes among nine different drivers, with Stewart leading the most (115).(Thatsracin.com), pole sitter, #11-Paul Menard finished 17th.
See race results at:
ThatsRacin.com
MotorsportsOne
BGNRacing.com
NASCAR.com.(10-9-2004)
