After an ignominious beginning (we had a 14 car job at the end of lap 1) we settled down tonight to an entertaining event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. When the checkers fell, we had a familiar face in Victory Lane as Kasey Kahne completed the Charlotte sweep tonight by taking the Bank of America 500 in convincing fashion over Jimmie Johnson. This was the 6th win of the season for Kahne, the 7th of his NEXTEL Cup career (he’s tied for 58th on the all-time win list), and the 13th for Ray Evernham. It was worth $305,889 from the almost $5.1M in posted awards. After that botched re-start on lap 10 or so with at least three safety vehicles still on the backstretch, it begs the question: Who was running this race? Huey, Dewey, or Louie? Talk about a recipe for a major disaster! Hey, ya notice how they ain’t talkin’ about the race for that vaunted 11th spot this year?
Jimmie Johnson (2nd) had his best finish since he won the Brickyard 400 in August.
Bobby Labonte (5th) had his best finish since he was 5th at Bristol in March.
Tony Raines (7th) had his best finish since he was 6th at Rockingham in Novemberof 2003!
Joe Nemechek (9th) had his best finish since he was 4th in this race last year.
Raines & Nemechek’s Top-10’s give us 38 drivers at that level this season…last year’s number was 43.
Sterling Marlin (11th) had his best finish since he was 9th at Richmond in May.
David Stremme (15th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Loudon in July.
Todd Bodine (19th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Homestead in November of 2003!
Terry Labonte (21st) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Infineon in June (only six races).
Kyle Petty (22nd) had his best finish since he was 22nd at Infineon in June.
STREAKIN….Carl Edwards has 4 Top-10’s in a row.
Jeff Burton has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races.
Brian Vickers has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Tony Raines (+32), followed by Terry Labonte (+22), Joe Nemechek (+21), and Carl Edwards (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Elliott Sadler (-31), followed by Reed Sorenson (-27), Mark Maring (-23), and Ken Schrader (-23). This is Raines’ first OP of the season.
Tony Raines led a lap today for the first time since he led once for two laps at Michigan in August of 2005. He’s the 47th driver to lead a lap this season….last year we had 51 leaders.(Stockcarfans.com)(10-14-2006)
