Tony Stewart dominated the second half of today’s USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway and pulled away from Matt Kenseth on the final restart (with 12 to go) for his first win of the season and the 30th of his Cup career (he’s in 20th on the all-time win list). Tony becomes the 13th different winner this season (equaling last years number), and captured the 56th win for Joe Gibbs Racing. His second victory at Chicagoland was worth $342,161 from the over $6.1M in posted awards. Matt Kenseth (2nd) had his best finish since he was runner-up at Texas in April. Reed Sorenson (12th) had his best finish since he was 4th at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. John Andretti (18th) had his best finish since he was 16th when we were here in July of 2004! Chad Chaffin (31st) had his best finish since he was 30th at Talladega in April of 2006. STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 7 Top-10’s in a row. Kevin Harvick has 4 Top-10’s in the last 5 races. The Rookie Report: Juan Pablo Montoya (15th) takes the award this week to move back into a tie at eight with David Ragan. He was followed by Ragan(25th), Paul Menard (42nd) and David Reutimann (43rd). AJ Allmendinger was a dnq this week. This Week’s Elevator….UP; Operator of the Week is Kurt Busch (+29), followed by David Gilliland (+26), Carl Edwards (+22), Greg Biffle (+22), and Ricky Rudd (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Martin Truex Jr (-37), followed by Jimmie Johnson (-29), Paul Menard (-26), Dave Blaney (-25), and David Reutimann (-22). Jeff Gordon tacks 26 points onto his lead….it’s now 303. Ryan Newman is the new 13th place driver….just 30 markers out of the “Chase”. Kasey Kahne (26th to 24th) made the only multiple position positive move this week, while Jimmie Johnson (4th to 7th) fell the most spots.(Stock Car Fans)(7-15-2007)
