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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII POST RACE EDITION
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Remember 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Rain Foils Gordon's Attempt at Double Sadler hung in there $1 gets you in at Vegas Martin happy with finish No. 49's 49th Runner-up Waltrip could really be on the move Helton says the wrong thing For Hendrick, weekend was a sweep Tough times for Jeff Gordon Pre-Race show was "classy". No one was better than No. 48 NASCAR Technical Institute Campus blamed for recklessness Time for D.W. to Get Off the Fence Cup Scene readers speak out about Talladega
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Happy Birthday Gayle Barnwell, Charlie Lewis, Krista Voda, Jack Baldwin Last year Jimmie Johnson won the Coca-Cola 600 after rain shortened the race to 276 laps. Some competitors complained NASCAR called the race too soon and suggested Johnson's win was tainted.
Sunday, Johnson silenced those critics. This time there was no rain as Johnson overcame a pit road miscue and a daring pass after dropping to fifth during a caution and roared back to the lead with 16 laps left Sunday night to win the Coca-Cola 600. "That car was so good," Johnson said. "There were times when some of the guys were better, but we just stuck to our game plan." A red flag with six laps left forced Johnson to sweat it out a bit, but when the green fell, he sped away from the field again at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He won under caution after Bobby Labonte's wreck on the final lap, with Michael Waltrip second. Matt Kenseth ended up third, followed by Jamie McMurray and Elliott Sadler. When the final yellow fell, Kenseth and McMurray were side-by-side, and the original rundown listed McMurray in third. That was subsequently changed. "I know for sure I was third," Kenseth said. "I was by (McMurray) by half a car, and we're not supposed to race back to the line." Johnson led an incredible 334 laps - which would be the entire distance in a 500-mile race - and came up one short of the record set in 1967 by winner Jim Paschal.
McMurray decided not to come in under the caution at Lap 369 and held the lead, and Waltrip and Jeremy Mayfield changed only two tires to take second and third. "We did what we had to do to try to win the race," McMurray said. The strategy almost worked, but Johnson proved too strong, passing McMurray on Lap 384. McMurray was eventually scored fourth when a caution came out for a wreck on the final lap, freezing the field. "Jamie did a hell of a job holding them off. He drove his butt off," Wingo said. "We wanted to win a race and that call was the best way to do it." Said McMurray: "I was hoping when Jimmie caught me he would get really tight behind me and my spotter said I might be able to hold him off. "He got me loose and I was just kind of holding on." McMurray, whose last top-five finish came in the season's second race at Rockingham, N.C., was excited with the showing. "Chip (Ganassi, team owner) is always on us to take chances and do things to win races and that was what we had to do to try to win the race," he said. Johnson "was pretty much in a league of its own. He was pretty fast."
On the restart on Lap 398, Johnson did not start as fast as he had previously, but McMurray wasn't able to take advantage. "He waited a long time to go and we all got piled up and then he got away," McMurray said. "You have to do what you can to pass those guys. "That car was so fast, though, I don't think anybody had anything for him." The strategy that nearly paid off for McMurray was reminiscent of Ryan Newman's no-tire call during last weekend's Nextel All-Star Challenge. Newman came close to holding on for the win but Matt Kenseth, on newer tires, ran him down three laps from the finish. "Ryan was held off Matt for a long time in the all-star race and my car was as good as it was all day long when we made the call," McMurray said. The move that likely won the race for Johnson came with 25 laps to go, when he still was mired in fifth. As he drove to the outside of Kahne in Turn 3, they came up on the slower car of Robby Gordon. Johnson got by Kahne, then turned hard left to get under Gordon,seemingly finding a hole where seconds earlier none exisited, making a daring pass in heavy traffic with 20 laps to go. "A hole? All I saw was a keyhole," amazed crew chief Chad Knaus said. "I grabbed my engineer and said 'That's sick.' That was simply awesome." Kahne, the victim, agreed: "An awesome move." "I knew I had to clear Kasey as fast as I could," Johnson said. "I was really nervous about Kasey when we all came in and got tires and I came out in fifth and had to work my way back through. That was the biggest part of the race. I knew Kasey was our biggest competition as the night wore on. "I saw an opening, put them in a bad situation, and was committed to following through with it, and hoped someone would back out. And they both backed out, and I slid through. There weren't any thoughts about (a) championship at that moment. "We were good on short runs, so I knew after that we'd be in good shape." "I had some urgency," Johnson said. "I knew I needed to get going." Once he got by that traffic, Johnson wasted little time chasing down McMurray. He had moved into second four laps later, and he stalked McMurray for a bit before moving to the inside on the backstretch. He zoomed ahead in Turn 3 and survived that late red flag for his second victory of 2004 and the eighth of his 2 1/2-year career. ``That was cool,'' said Johnson, who moved within five points of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Nextel Cup standings with his fifth straight top-four finish. ``I wish we would have had a shot at them in the all-star race [He was taken out in a wreck last week]. I think we would have had a shot in that, too.'' Michael Waltrip finished second, his best finish of the year by nine spots. Defending NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth finished a quiet third, McMurray finished fourth, Elliott Sadler fifth and Earnhardt sixth. Kenseth couldn't say whether that was the most dominant car he has ever seen. ``I don't know, because I never saw him,'' he said. ``I never got to run with him. I know in [Saturday's final practice], he made a comment that he had the car the way he wanted it. And he quit Happy Hour early. I thought that was a bad sign.'' Waltrip was asked where on the track Johnson was beating everybody. ``It looked to me like he could beat you from the start/finish line back to the start/finish line,'' he cracked.
Johnson earned $426,350 - a bigger take than most weeks, but still less than half of what Kenseth got for winning the Nextel All-Star Classic last weekend. Johnson was caught up in a wreck in the all-star race, or he might have won that, too. In contrast to the all-star wreckfest, huge chunks of this race were run caution free. The first 159 laps went caution- less, and there were only three in the last 338 laps Robby Gordon failed in his attempt to complete a racing double when the Indianapolis 500 was stopped by rain after only 27 laps earlier in the day. With the start of the NASCAR race approaching, Gordon had to leave Indy and backup driver Jaques Lazier took the wheel. It's probably just as well. The car dropped out after only 88 laps with a mechanical failure, and Gordon was credited with 29th. At Lowe's, he finished three laps down in 20th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied from a lap down and finished sixth to hold a five-point lead over Johnson in the standings. Casey Mears was seventh, with Mayfield, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace rounding out the top 10.
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