It may be Jimmie Johnson’s house, but somebody must have loaned the keys to his teammate! Jeff Gordon took tonight’s Bank of America 505.5 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in a cloud of speedy dry. With the DuPont Chevy sputtering all the way, Gordon took down his 6th win of 2007 and the 81st of his Cup career (he’s now just two behind Cale Yarborough). This was win #163 for Hendrick Motorsports and their 14th of the season (tying 1998 as their best year for wins). The victory was worth $268,236 from the over $5.1M in posted awards. David Stremme (9th) had his best finish since he was 8th at Talladega in April. Michael Waltrip (10th) had his best finish since he was 10th at Michigan in June. Ricky Rudd (11th) had his best finish since he was 11th at Infineon Raceway in June. A. J. Allmendinger (15th) had his career-best finish tonight. His previous best was 18th at California in September. Kyle Petty (18th) had his best finish since he was 3rd here in May. STREAKIN….Jeff Gordon has 5 Top-5’s in the last 6 races. Tony Stewart has 5 Top-10’s in the last 6 races. The Rookie Report: A. J. Allmendinger (15th) takes this award for the first time this season. He was followed by Paul Menard (22nd), David Reutimannn (29th), Juan Pablo Montoya (37th), and David Ragan (40th). This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Dave Blaney (+28), followed by J. J. Yeley (+26), Kyle Petty (+24), Clint Bowyer (+23), Jeff Burton (+23), Tony Stewart (+22) and Ricky Rudd (+22). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Ward Burton (-28), followed by Ryan Newman (-27), Matt Kenseth (-27), Elliott Sadler (-25), and Scott Riggs (-22). Kyle Petty’s #45 team fell to 35th in Owner Points, but they’ve got a 109 point margin over the 36th place Woods Brothers #21 Ford. Looks like Awesome Bill can count on driving the next few events at the very least and maybe the rest of the season. Jeff Gordon stretched his points lead in the Chase to 68 markers after tonight….and if the Magic Numbers tell us anything, this is turning into a three horse race. In “Classic” Points, we had no multiple position advancers in the Top-40, while Jamie McMurray (17th to 19th) and Elliott Sadler (24th to 26th) were the only drivers to fall two spots.(Stock Car Fans)(10-14-2007)
