Off Your Meds 300 Results
The “Off Your Meds 300″, more commonly called the Sylvania 300, at New Hampshire International Speedway can best be described by this quote: “I think you’re going to see some pretty stiff penalties coming out of this, probably by Tuesday at the earliest,” said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter.
I won’t go into the gory details here, more will be in this weeks NASCAR Cesspool. Suffice it to say, with the number of drivers and owners that were sent to the NASCAR trailer the hope here is the trailer is a double-wide! Equipped with boxing gloves! And padded walls! And an ATM. Not that it will change much, the NASCAR suits won’t make the penalties large enough unless they are attached to a weeks suspension.
I will say this much. NASCAR must be jumping for joy - behind closed doors - after this first leg of the Chase. Think not? Check the front page of the New York Times sports section. When was the last time the NYT published a photo of a NASCAR event that didn’t have a car in the air and upside down? But an image of Robbie made the grade, helmet in hand, dodging traffic waiting for Waltrip to pass by. That kind of publicity is priceless.
Tony Stewart led 173 laps Sunday, but he lost a crowd-pleasing duel to Newman on the next-to-last lap and finished second. That hard fought finish allowed Smoke to extend his lead in the standings to 20 points from 5 over Greg Biffle, who finished fourth Sunday.
Of the top eight finishers Sunday, seven were drivers in the Chase. Newman gained seven positions in the standings and is third. Positions that look good on paper but are meaningless when you consider he only gained 5 points on Stewart.
Roush Teammates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle were in a stirring battle over the last few laps dispelling any “Chase team orders” non-sense. They finished third and fourth respectively, followed by Dale Earnhardt, who is out of the Chase but running his first race with Tony Eury Jr. back as his crew chief.
Rusty Wallace finished sixth with Mark Martin seventh, they also were side by side most of the last laps. Other Chase contenders were Jeremy Mayfield who ended the day in 16th, Carl Edwards was 19th and defending champion Kurt Busch, 35th after his lap 3 crash.
Sylvania 300 results:
1. (13) Ryan Newman, Dodge, 300 laps, 95.891 mph, $248,866.
2. (1) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 300, $233,636.
3. (4) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 300, $169,311.
4. (26) Greg Biffle, Ford, 300, $123,950.
5. () Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 300, $144,408.
6. (7) Rusty Wallace, Dodge, 300, $123,758.
7. (15) Mark Martin, Ford, 300, $111,425.
8. (10) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300, $127,141.
9. (14) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 300, $108,945.
10. (9) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 300, $125,986.
11. (37) Sterling Marlin, Dodge, 300, $114,808.
12. (20) Jamie McMurray, Dodge, 300, $87,900.
13. (31) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 300, $86,250.
14. (2) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 300, $123,136.
15. (36) Michael Waltrip, Chevrolet, 300, $103,214.
16. (8) Jeremy Mayfield, Dodge, 300, $101,045.
17. (18) Jeff Green, Dodge, 300, $103,886.
18. (33) Dale Jarrett, Ford, 300, $108,108.
19. (24) Carl Edwards, Ford, 300, $87,950.
20. (28) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 300, $102,214.
21. (42) Kyle Petty, Dodge, 300, $91,783.
22. (25) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 300, $72,825.
23. (23) Casey Mears, Dodge, 299, $97,633.
24. (17) Bobby Labonte, Chevrolet, 299, $106,800.
25. (11) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 299, $94,483.
26. (41) Scott Wimmer, Dodge, 299, $91,283.
27. (30) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 299, $80,800.
28. (5) Scott Riggs, Chevrolet, 299, $88,647.
29. (32) Bobby Hamilton Jr., Chevrolet, 299, $70,325.
30. (6) Elliott Sadler, Ford, 298, $108,066.
31. (39) Joey McCarthy, Dodge, 295, $67,375.
32. (34) Stuart Kirby, Chevrolet, 289, $67,150.
33. (16) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 271, $75,900.
34. (29) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 251, $66,750.
35. (12) Kurt Busch, Ford, 233, $118,975.
36. (22) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, 194, accident, $66,325.
37. (19) Robby Gordon, Chevrolet, 190, accident, $66,125.
38. (21) Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 164, accident, $98,000.
39. (43) Jimmy Spencer, Dodge, 144, accident, $65,800.
40. (40) Ken Schrader, Dodge, 111, accident, $65,650.
41. (27) Travis Kvapil, Dodge, 105, accident, $73,510.
42. (38) Ted Christopher, Chevrolet, 29, transmission, $65,385.
43. (35) Wayne Anderson, Dodge, 16, engine failure, $65,586.
Race statistics:
Time of Race: 3 hours, 18 minutes, 36 seconds.
Margin of Victory: 0.292 seconds.
Caution Flags: 10 for 60 laps.
Lead Changes: 18 among 12 drivers.
Lap Leaders: Stewart 1-74, Green 75, Stewart 76-105, Sadler 106-109, Stewart 110-138, R.Gordon 139, Martin 140-170, Stewart 171-180, Newman 181-234, Stewart 235-257, Earnhardt Jr. 258-265, Biffle 266, J.Gordon 267-268, Vickers 269-276, Harvick 277, Marlin 278-281, Newman 282-291, Stewart 292-298, Newman 299-300.
Point Standings: Stewart 5,230, Biffle 5,210, Newman 5,190, Wallace 5,190, Kenseth 5,180, Johnson 5,177, Martin 5,176, Mayfield 5,135, Edwards 5,121, Ku.Busch 5,088.
Wow, I didn’t know it made The Times. That’s good stuff. I’m thinking we might see a suspension for Robbie, but honestly NASCAR owes HIM money for making all of this as entertaining as it was.
I hope you put Waltrip in the cess pool deeper than Gordon. The caution was out when the 15 hit the 7, even if Mikey didn’t know it or if it was not out at the time, Mikey knows as well as everyone else that the gas pedal works both ways. You have to know when you’ve been beat, and Mikey was beat. When Stewart passed Newman for the lead, Newman could have done the same to Stewart that Mikey did to Robby, but he wisely gave Stewart the room to make a clean pass, and that was for the lead, late in the race. True, Robby’s reaction was uncalled for, but it did, as you say, put NASCAR on the front page of the NY Times.
Also, I was hoping that NASCAR would commend Kurt Busch’s reaction as they penalized everyone else. They should have pointed and said, this is the best way to do it. Kurt was obviously very upset, but he kept his composure and had a calm conversation with Riggs’ crew chief. The 10 team knew how Kurt felt and I think everyone learned something in that situation.
I agree, it was entertaining and Robbie’s escapades aren’t the first helmet throwing incident in NASCAR history, nor will it be the last Added to the extraciricular activities was an excellent race.
Many have a poor opinion of the NH facility but Sunday showed a good race is possible that included a lot of side by side racing.
Well Kevin, considering TNT apparently didn’t catch anything on tape but the aftermath of the Waltrip/Gordon incident and thus no definitive replay, I reserve judgement. I learned long ago to reply on a drivers take of an incident isn’t the smartest thing to do.
And note this late word. NASCAR didn’t wait til Tuesday to hand out it’s verdict.
They get off light again. Kahane and Gordon should have been parked for at least on event.
Nice site- I check in here all the time for succinct analysis.
Great NASCAR insight- and like your take on open wheelers too.
Check out my page @ Racing Diary.Blogger.com for some additional commentary!
Keep up the good work.
-Katykarter
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