Dale Earnhardt Jr took the lead from Scott Wimmer with 11 laps to go and held off a hard-charging Matt Kenseth to take today’s USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway for his first victory of the season. This was win #16 for Little E (he’s now tied for 40th with Jimmie Johnson on the all-time win list) and his first since he won at Phoenix last November. He’s the 9th different winner this season (we had 13 of ’em last year), and this was win #22 for DEI. It was worth a nice $325,033 from the over $5.8M in posted awards
Matt Kenseth (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Loudon last September.
Casey Mears (9th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Texas in April.
Stuart Kirby (31st) had his career-best finish today. His previous best has 37th at Kansas in September of 2002.
Carl Long (40th) had his best finish since he was 39th at Michigan last August (only 5 races).
STREAKIN….Tony Stewart has 4 Top-5’s in a row. Matt Kenseth has 3 Top-10’s in the last 4 races.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the week is Dale Earnhardt Jr (+24), followed by Jason Leffler (+23), Ricky Rudd (+21), and Rusty Wallace (+21). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Dave Blaney (-28 ), followed by Ryan Newman (-27), Travis Kvapil (-27), Mike Bliss (-23), Robby Gordon (-23), and Kasey Kahne (-23). This is Op #4 for Jr this season…he’s the leader in that category.
Bobby Hamilton Jr led today for the first time in his Cup career. He’s the 44th different driver to lead a lap this season….last year we had 50.
No major change in the race for 35th and the final exempt spot in quals. Scott Wimmer has moved up to 34th, Mike Wallace is still in at 35th, and Jason Leffler and the #11 team are now 13 points out (they were 17 markers back after Daytona). Jimmie Johnson pads his points lead this week….it’s up to 108. We’re down to just the Top-10 alive in the Chase as Dale Jarrett is now 409 out. We had three drivers (Dale Earnhardt Jr, Matt Kenseth, and Casey Mears) advance three spots this week, while Travis Kvapil (30th to 33rd) fell the same number of positions.(Stock Car Fans)(7-10-2005)
