Kevin Harvick’s had quite a year…. From about lap 139 to the end today it was pretty obvious the only two drivers with a chance to win would be Harvick or Jimmie Johnson…and it was formful to the end. Kevin Harvick led 252 of the 312 circuits today and captured the Checker Auto Parts “500” presented by Pennzoil at Phoenix International Raceway by a quarter of a second today over Johnson. This was the fifth win of the season for Harvick (which when you couple it with nine in the NASCAR Busch Series…oh, and a Championship there too….makes for more than a little hardware to display) and the 10th of his NEXTEL Cup career. He’s now tied for 50th on the all-time win list with Donnie Allison, Sterling Marlin, and Greg Biffle. Kevin’s sweeper at Phoenix was worth $216,825 from the almost $5M in posted awards….this was win #83 for RCR Enterprises.
Elliott Sadler (17th) had his best finish since he was 16th at Dover in September.
STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 5 Top-2’s in a row. Denny Hamlin has 4 Top-10’s in a row. Jeff Gordon has 4 Top-10’s in a row.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Jimmie Johnson (+27), followed by Tony Raines (+20) and Scott Riggs (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Kyle Busch (-29), followed by Greg Biffle (-28 ), Jamie McMurray (-26), and Michael Waltrip (-23). Hendrick Motorsports had both ends of the “Shaft” bracketed this week. David Gilliland led a lap today for the first time in his Cup career. He’s the 48th different driver to lead a lap this season….last year we had 51 different leaders.
Some interesting point observations: We’d have a much closer race in “Classic” points than we have in the “Chase”. Johnson’s margin over on the original side would be only 11 markers. It’s also interesting that the top three are exactly the same in both scenarios…and they were also the three drivers at the top when we started the Chase in Loudon.(Stock Car Fans)(11-12-2006)
