We had a short-track disguised as a road course today…. In a slam-bang affair, Kevin Harvick bested Tony Stewart in a five lap shootout to take the AMD at the Glen for his second win of the season. Harvick’s first road course victory was the 7th of his career (he’s tied for 57th on the all-time win list) and the 79th for Richard Childress Racing. His share of the over $4.7M in posted awards was $223,161. We started early today with a wild first corner….heck, we hadn’t gone 50 yards before the give & take went away! The 10 cautions were a race record, and we saw a seven-car job (we don’t see those often here) on lap 63.
Jamie McMurray (3rd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Dover in June.
Robby Gordon (4th) had his best finish since he was runner-up here last August. His Top-5 gives us 25 drivers at that level this season…..last year’s number was 30.
Scott Pruett (6th) gives us 34 drivers with a Top-10 finish this season…. last year we had 43 drivers to score a Top-10.
Jeff Green (15th) had his best finish since he was 12th at Lowes in May.
STREAKIN….Kevin Harvick has 6 Top-10’s in a row.
Denny Hamlin has 4 Top-10’s in a row.
Kyle Busch has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races.
Kyle Busch sure has to love that “Lucky Dog”, huh?
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Reed Sorenson (+28 ), followed by Jamie McMurray (+21).
Jimmie Johnson stretched his meaningless lead over Matt Kenseth today to 124 points. Kasey Kahne is 54 points out of the “Chase” in 11th after this race, and our “Mathematically Eliminated” Line has jumped all the way up to 27th. Johnson’s Magic Number is now an almost clinching 38th. All he needs to do is finish 38th or better the next four races and he’s guaranteed into the “Chase”
We had three drivers advance two spots in the standings today. Tony Stewart (9th to 7th), Jamie McMurray (19th to 17th), and Elliott Sadler (22nd to 20th) all made multiple position moves. Casey Mears (15th to 18th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(8-13-2006)
