Jimmie Johnson dominated today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and drove off with the win in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400. Tho he didn’t lead till lap 147, he led all but 14 of the laps to the finish. That’s five times for 107 circuits (including the final 55) and it led to career win #15 for JJ and #132 for Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson moves into a three-way tie with Dale Earnhardt Jr & Ernie Irvan for 40th on the all-time win list with the victory…..and it was worth $379,625 from the over $6.1M in posted awards. But the big story of the day has gotta be the Vegas home boys, the Busch Brothers. Kyle Busch (the “shrub”) got his career-best finish today with the runner-up spot, and his older brother Kurt was 3rd.
We set a record (by a mile) for cautions today (10 of ’em), and probably set a record for tire bills as well. Some of those cautions were pretty good melee’s too! Dale Jr and Brian Vickers got together in a four-car job on lap 12, and Matt Kenseth & Elliott Sadler were involved in a six-car tussle on lap 65. We also can report we saw more side-by-side racing than we’ve seen in quite awhile….and we sure hope this becomes a trend.
Casey Mears (7th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Watkins Glen last August.
Matt Kenseth (8th) had his best finish since he was the runner-up at Loudon last September.
Bobby Hamilton Jr (11th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Richmond last September.
Dave Blaney (13th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Texas last April.
Jason Leffler (22nd) had his best finish since he was 10th at Homestead in October of 2001!
Mike Wallace (24th) had his best finish since he was 18th at Talladega last October.
STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 9 Top-10’s in a row.
Kurt Busch has 6 Top-10’s in a row.
Jeff Gordon has 5 Top-5’s in the last 6 races.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: The Operator of the week is a lonely Kevin Harvick (+37). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Kasey Kahne (-31), followed by Elliott Sadler (-27), Scott Riggs (-27), and Travis Kvapil (-20). It’s a shame this infamous contingency doesn’t pay enough to cover what the #29 team is gonna get hit with on Tuesday.
Travis Kvapil led today for the first time in his Nextel Cup career. In just three races we’ve already had 27 different drivers to lead a lap.(StockCarFans.Com Nextelcup Newsletter)(3-13-2005)
