Jamie McMurray edged Kyle Busch tonight at Daytona International Speedway and took the Pepsi 400 by all of .005 seconds….and it really was closer than that! With the lead changing hands at least three times from turn 4 to the line, McMurray captured his second career victory (his other win came in his second start subbing for Sterling Marlin at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in October of 2002), the 98th for Roush Racing (and third this season), and became the 12th different winner this season (we had 13 of ’em last year). Jamie is now tied for 95th on the all-time win list, and this vistory was worth $302,500 from the over $6.2M in posted awards. Kyle Busch (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Richmond in May. Kurt Busch (3rd) had his best finish since he was 3rd at Talladega in April. Kasey Kahne (9th) had his best finish since he was 7th when we were here in February. David Gilliland (11th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Talladega in April. David Ragan (12th) had his best finish since he was 5th when we were here in February. David Stremme (22nd) had his best finish since he was 17th at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 13 Top-10’s in the last 14 races. Kyle Busch has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races. This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is David Gilliand (+21), followed by Paul Menard (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Denny Hamlin (-41), followed by Tony Stewart (-32), Kevin Harvick (-26), and Dale Earnhardt Jr (-23). When you line up by points, you get a pretty heady group at the bottom of the “Shaft”. Jeff Gordon lengthens his lead tonight….it’s now a sizeable 277 markers. No driver moves into the “Chase” zone, and no change in the Top-35 in Owner Points. We did lop another six drivers out of “Chase” contention this week, tho. David Gilliland (32nd to 27th) made the best advance tonight, while Reed Sorenson (27th to 29th) was the only driver to fall multiple positions.(Stock Car Fans)(7-7-2007)
