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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII POST RACE EDITION
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Quote of the day:
"A million bucks, boys!"
7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: They’re such kidders Lobsters for Craven Tires or No Tires? Sterling Marlin Wins Nextel Open Earnhardt to race Corvette Buddy Baker book signing today NC governor woos NASCAR brass Celebrity sightings Kyle Busch Wins Pole at Nazareth, Pa. NASCAR won't be rolling into Nazareth They all can't be edge-of-the-seat thrillers Shifting from White to Colors Shame on You, ESPN and About That Tony Stewart/Darrel Waltrip Thing Cup Scene readers speak out about Talladega
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Happy Birthday: Harvey Walters, Wally Dallenbach Jr Jack Roush probably woke up this morning wondering if he should be happy or angry. On the one hand, two of his drivers, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle caused a wreck that damaged half of the cars in the race. On the other hand that improved the odds for a third Roush driver - defending NASCAR champion Matt Kenseth - who won Saturday night's Nextel All- Star Challenge.
He has to wondering if the $1 million Kenseth brought home last night will be enough to offset the fued between Biffle and Kurt Busch? Kenseth, driving on perhaps his best track, lurked patiently until three laps to go to make his move, then took the air off Ryan Newman's rear spoiler in a pass for the lead and went on to win NASCAR's annual all-star race by a solid eight lengths. It was a good debut for Ford's new cylinder head. And that all made Roush smile. But the crash involving Busch and Biffle, which took them out along with five others, will surely leave Roush with a headache that may take a few days to go away. When it was all over, Kenseth stepped out of character a bit and celebrated by doing doughnuts by the finish line with his Ford. "A million bucks, boys!" he screamed to his crew over the two-way radio. "You guys are the best!" Kenseth beat Newman by about five car-lengths, with the Chevrolets of Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounding out the top five. Newman surprisingly skipped a pit stop before the final 20-lap segment, and the rest of the leaders changed four tires. Even with that advantage, Kenseth had a hard time making the decisive pass. He tried a couple of times to get below Newman, but couldn't complete the move. Finally, coming off Turn 4 with four to go, Newman's Dodge began to slide sideways, which was the only opening Kenseth needed. "I just saw him slipping off 4, so I just got right on him," Kenseth said. "I was able to get by then." A Lowe's Motor Speedway crowd of about 150,000 saw a colorful event that included an intense qualifying race and antics such as Newman's crew members diving into a crowd rock-star style during introductions.
Wallace and Newman were pulling away in the opening laps when Ricky Craven hit the wall to bring out a caution. Craven scraped the wall coming out of Turn 4 on the third lap, then hit the Turn 2 wall hard a lap later. Eight drivers pitted for adjustments and/or tires during the early yellow, even though the stop did not count as the mandatory four-tire stop required under green in the first segment. The defending Nextel Cup champ had only one victory during his conservative run to that title, but he came into 2004 seemingly determined to alter his image. He won two of the first three races in dominating fashion, then struggled a bit over the next several races. He broke out of that slump in a big way. "It feels good to come here to have such a rocket car," Kenseth said. "I'm excited for this million bucks, and excited for all these guys on the crew." This race is split into three segments, starting with 40 laps. Nearly half the field was damaged early, when Busch tried to push teammate Biffle past Kenseth on the 10th lap. Instead, the contact sent Biffle into the outside wall at the end of the frontstretch, with a large portion of the field bearing down on him. In all, 11 cars were involved - including defending race champ Jimmie Johnson - and six were forced to the garage for the rest of the night. That list included Biffle, Busch, Kevin Harvick and Sterling Marlin, who got into the All-Star Challenge by winning the preliminary race. "I don't understand what happened," Biffle said. "You've got to finish the race first, and he wrecked us on the straightaway. "He took out the whole field. If I was (team owner) Jack Roush, I don't know what I'd do." Busch took the blame saying he was trying to push Biffle past Kenseth and did not mean to wreck him. ``The way our noses are pinned and the tails are up with stiff rear springs, our car lifted his instead of helping him,'' Busch said. ``It's just an all-star type of bump where you just want to try to help him.''
"I've got to get myself in check, I guess. I mean we're only 12 laps in and I've got a wrecked race car. Last week (at Richmond) we had the fastest car on the track and we had to put it in the trailer without a good finish. We need to finish." Busch's rivals were also angry. Gil Martin, Harvick's team manager, was irate: "That's the second time Busch has taken us out." Robby Gordon: "They call this an all-star race and you'd think we'd all act like all stars and at least get to the last 20. But when they put $1 million up for the winner, I think everyone got a little overanxious too early. I won't say I wasn't either, because I passed 12 cars in the first few laps. But we weren't running into people to do it." Nemechek was mad: "Somebody wasn't using his head. You just don't wreck on the straightaway. It is frustrating. This is a great race, an exciting race. But you just don't wreck on the straightaway. "All of a sudden they started wrecking, and Sterling Marlin ended up on top of my hood. People have got to use their heads better than that." Marlin was furious at the entire affair: "It's a wonder somebody didn't get hurt. It was just a big wreck with a lot of smoke. "They were all two deep or three deep, and it's really hard to race like that for that short of time. Everybody was being idiots. It's the mentality of a 25-lap dirt tracker - just knock 'em out of the way." Jack Roush said later: "I think Kurt misjudged... unless he meant to knock Greg out of the way, which I don't think he did. "I hope I can put some salve on this thing." Nascar officials red-flagged the race for nearly 15 minutes after the wreck, stopping the cars on pit road to clean up the mess. Tony Stewart won the first segment. A drawing was held to decide how many cars to invert and the top eight were inverted for the second, 30-lap portion, which was won by Newman. In winning the 40-lap stage, Stewart collected $75,000. After the inversion, Michael Waltrip, who was in eighth place, moved to the front of the pack for the second segment and Stewart dropped to eighth. But for Stewart, even a victory in the opening leg had to be of some comfort. Stewart, the 2002 Cup points champion, has not won a race this season and is fifth in the points standing heading into the Coca-Cola 600 on May 30 at Lowe's. The final 20-lap sprint of the 90-lap event was a duel between Newman and Kenseth in front of about 20,000 people, with Tony Stewart right behind. Newman appeared to be at a slight disadvantage by not stopping for tires just before the start of the last leg, preferring to keep his track position. However, Kenseth and Stewart, despite having four fresh tires, were unable to do much with Newman. Kenseth kept dogging Newman, though, and finally saw an opening: "Ryan made me work. He finally slipped off four, and I was able to clear him. I tried to follow him for 15 laps to build up tire pressure. "I wasn't going to knock him out of the way to win, because that stuff comes full circle. And I didn't think he'd do that to me. "I was real loose that last segment, so it was good to be behind Ryan, because I could turn under him. But that's as hard as I've had to race. I got under him a few times but he'd pull the air off me and I couldn't complete the pass. So when I saw him slipping off four I got right up on him, and he slipped just enough that I could clear him. And then we were in the clear. "But I can't believe how hard he ran on those old tires. "I know we won two races earlier this year, Rockingham and Vegas. But we've had problems since then. So it feels good to have a rocket car like this and have it in one piece for the 600. That's my favorite event of the year by far." ``We had an awesome car all night,'' Newman said. ``We just ran out of tires there at the end.'' "We had a little gamble there and it almost paid off, just three laps too short," Newman said after sprinting across the infield grass to the start-finish line to congratulate Kenseth. "Just wanted to tell him 'Good job.' His hand was shaking more than mine was. He's got a right to."
Jeff Gordon, who was involved in that early wreck, brought his battered car home sixth, followed by rookie Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, pole-sitter Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin.
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