Sylvania 300
The Key Moment - Kurt Busch built up enough of a lead prior to his final pit stop he was able to take four tires and remain in the lead though some other drivers took only two tires.
In a Nutshell - Busch sweeps New Hampshire having led 265 of a possible 600 laps there this season.
Dramatic Moment - There was a spirited battle between Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead that had the crowd on its feet. Unfortunately it lasted about eight laps.
Waiting to see who Robby Gordon was going to wreck next.
What They'll Be Talking About Around the Water Cooler This Week
Was a two lap penalty for Robby Gordon after he wrecked Greg Biffle in an incident that also severely damaged two title contenders too lenient? Didn't NASCAR say they'd handle such foolishness with draconian punishment? Will Gordon finish the season in the 31 car?
Can Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield bounce back from today's disaster and still contend for the title? (I'd say yes, but they've both used up the one mulligan the ten drivers in title contention will have in these final ten races.)
Wasn't this Chase for the Whatever dealie supposed to make racing more exciting?
What secret have Kurt Busch and the 97 team found at NHIS?
How do you think the New Hampshire TV ratings are going to stack up against the NFL?
How come the 38 team is running so well and the 88 team is running so poorly?
How ironic is Nextel's slogan for the Chase "Miss a lap, miss a lot"? Obviously they've never watched a race on TNT.
Did NASCAR make the right call ending the truck race because of darkness without the required green/white/checkered finish or was that a gift for Toyota? They could have avoided any controversy by telling the teams during the final caution if there were any more yellows the race would be over.
Is it wise to have any of the final Chase For the Championship races run at tracks that don't have lights? Not having lights limits the window on getting a race in and rescheduling a race for the end of the season would be a nightmare.
The Hindenburg Award For Foul Fortune
Talk about a grinding end to a Cinderella story. After his dominant win at Richmond Jeremy Mayfield had a good car at NHIS but got caught up in the Robby Gordon/Greg Biffle feud. His car didn't turn into a pumpkin. It got turned into junk by a punk in a pumpkin orange Chevy.
Tony Stewart led the race early but he too got caught up in the regrettable (to put it mildly) lap 64 wreck.
Ricky Rudd was having a great run and was up to eighth place when he lost an engine.
Championship contender Ryan Newman was running up front when he also blew an engine.
A drivers luck can't be much worse than not getting to race at all. Martin Truex Jr. was among the fastest cars in Friday's practice session but rains spawned by what was left of Hurricane Ivan canceled qualifying and Truex missed the race. Before qualifying was rained out Johnny Sauter turned a lap that was probably fast enough to make the field but he missed the race because of the rain as well.
The "Seven Come Fore Eleven" Award For Fine Fortune
Kurt Busch collided with Ken Schrader while leading the race and was fortunate not to cut down a right side tire.
Ken Schrader and his new crew chief, Donnie Richeson, had a decent debut with a lead lap finish and a sixteenth place result.
Robby Gordon is lucky if he left New Hampshire without a good beating.
Elliott Sadler gambled on taking four tires under the final caution and the move allowed him to move up four positions into the top 10 and grab fifteen more points.
Worth Noting
The top 10 finishers drove three Fords, five Chevys and two Dodges.
Five of the drivers in contention for the title had top 10 finishes at NHIS; race winner Kurt Busch, second place Matt Kenseth, third place Dale Earnhardt Jr., seventh place Jeff Gordon and eighth place Elliott Sadler. Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin had so-so days finishing eleventh and thirteenth respectively. Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield took a real hit in the points.
Jeff Gordon scored his nineteenth top 10 finish of 2004 and leads all drivers in that category. Four drivers are tied for second in that regard with sixteen; Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray.
Johnson continues to lead all drivers with fifteen top 5 finishes. Earnhardt Jr. is next on that list with thirteen.
Today's race was the eleventh of 27 races run this season where the winner led more than half the laps of the race. The other drivers to do so were; Matt Kenseth-Rockingham, Jimmie Johnson- World 600 and Pocono in June and July, Jeff Gordon- Sonoma and Indy, Tony Stewart- Chicago and Watkins Glen, Earnhardt Jr. at Bristol and Jeremy Mayfield at Richmond last week.
Kurt Busch has top 10 finishes in four of the last six races and hasn't finished worse than fifteenth in any of those races.
In the last four races Earnhardt has a win, a second place finish and a third place result.
Since winning at Sonoma Jeff Gordon has missed the top 10 just three times.
Jimmie Johnson has missed the top 10 in the last three races.
Elliott Sadler has top 10 finishes in three of the last four races. He has seven top 5 finishes so far this season compared to just two all of last year.
Jamie McMurray has scored five straight top 10 finishes.
Joe Nemechek's sixth place finish matches his best of the 2004 season. Nemechek also finished sixth in the Daytona 500.
Michael Waltrip scored his first top 10 finish since the last New Hampshire race.
Tony Stewart's 39th place finish was his worst result of 2004.
Kasey Kahne was the top finishing rookie in fourth. He was the only rookie to finish on the lead lap.
What's the Points?
A whole lot of Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans have just become converts to the new Chase for the Championship deal as Junior takes over the points lead. He's actually tied with Kurt Busch with 5210 points but if the season were to end now (yikes, did I say that?) Earnhardt would have the advantage with four wins to Busch's two.
Note to Jeff Gordon fans: Under the old points system Jeff Gordon would still be atop the points.
Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth are now nine and ten points out of the lead respectively. Jimmie Johnson (30 points) and Elliott Sadler (38 points) are still in contact with the leaders and Mark Martin is a manageable 71 points back.) Stewart (124 points back) Newman (136 points back) and Mayfield (146 points back) have dug themselves in a hole and can't afford any more problems in the next nine races.
Under the old points system Jamie McMurray would now be ninth in points and Kasey Kahne would be tenth displacing Mayfield and Newman.
Overall Rating (On a scale of one to six beer cans with one being a stinker and a six pack an instant classic) I'll give this one a two. Artificially created excitement in the points did not translate to much excitement in the actual race.