If they told ya’ a Hendrick Motorsports driver was gonna win tonight, it may have taken you four guesses…. Casey Mears won the Coca-Cola 600 tonight at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and he did it on fumes. Running out of gas on the cool-down lap, he captured his first-ever Nextel Cup victory (becoming the 173rd different driver to do so….he’s tied for 115th on the all-time win list), giving Hendrick Motorsports it’s 9th win of the season and their 158th in NASCAR’s top level. The win puts the #25 car on the Winners Circle Plan for ’07 (they take the last wild card slot) and means all four of the HMS Chevies are on that top-level contingency plan. The win was worth $367,425 from the over $6.5M in posted awards as Mears becomes the 7th different winner this season. J. J. Yeley (2nd) had his career-best finish tonight. His previous best was 8th twice…..at California in February of 2006 and at Loudon in September of last year. Kyle Petty (3rd) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Dover in September of 1997 Reed Sorenson (4th) had his career-best finish tonight. His previous best was 5th at Michigan last June. Brian Vickers (5th) had his best finish since he won at Talladega last October. The trio of Yeley, Petty, and Vickers give us 24 drivers to score a Top-5 this season….last year we had 29. Ricky Rudd (7th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Bristol in August of 2005. The trio of Yeley, Petty, and Rudd gives us 35 drivers to score a Top-10 this season….last year that number was 38. Robby Gordon (22nd) had his best finish since he was 20th at Atlanta in March. A. J. Allmendinger (31st) had his career-best finish tonight. His previous best was 32nd at Richmond last month. STREAKIN….Denny Hamlin has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. Jimmie Johnson has 6 Top-10’s in the last 7 races. Tony Stewart has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Kyle Petty (+33), followed by Reed Sorenson (+31), Carl Edwards (+24), Tony Raines (+23), and Brian Vickers (+21). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Ryan Newman (-38 ), followed by Elliott Sadler (-33), Kurt Busch (-30), and David Ragan (-24). Ricky Rudd led a lap today for the first time since he led once for two laps at Martinsville in October of 2005. Bill Elliott led a lap today for the first time since he led one lap in the Daytona 500 in February of 2006. We’ve now had 41 drivers lead a lap this season…..last year we had 48 of ’em. No team moved into the Top-35 in Owner Points after this event, but we’ve had a shuffle in the bubble positions. The 45/25/88 all move up and the 38/70 now occupy spots #34 & #35. The #22 of Dave Blaney is now 92 markers out in 36th. No change in the Top-6 in Driver Points this week (Jeff Gordon’s lead shrunk to to 132 tho), but that 100 point penalty to Jr a couple weeks ago leaves him 13 points out of the “Chase”. Casey Mears (35th to 29th) made the best move forward tonight, while David Gilliland (27th to 34th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(5-27-2007)
