Richmond: Chase Field Set

The regular NASCAR season is over with the last race at Richmond Intl Raceway, as Jimmie Johnson battled with Tony Stewart, in the closing laps in take the win. Stewart, who is winless this year, is in his last year with Joe Gibbs Racing and was hungry for a win at RIR, the same track he got his first NASCAR Cup win back in 1999.

Johnson comes off 2 wins in a row, with a dominating win last week at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ca. and a very strong run at RIR this week, he was asked if this now means that he is the favorite going into the chase.

Johnson: “Momentum is certainly something we are looking at and trying to carry, but more than anything, I think we are just confident in our stops and what I'm doing on the track, and the way we can adjust on the car.”

Not everyone left Richmond with good feeling as points leader Kyle Busch had contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr on lap 211 while battling for the lead. Back in the spring race both drivers had similar contact as they were fighting for position with Jr coming up short in that wreck.

This time Busch was the unlucky one, as he spun to the bottom of the track and had significant damage to the rear of his car. Busch pitted to fix his car and dropped near the back of the field.

During post race interviews Busch was asked about the contact between he and Jr:



Busch: “All I know is I wasn't able to spin off the wall as best I could and wasn't able to achieve that. Hard racing and leading the race and unfortunately things happened that way. We had a great M&M's Toyota today so the most disappointing part is that we were not able to show what we had there at the end of the race and race for a win with Tony and Jimmie up there towards the front and being able to try to get in another ten bonus points.”

Q. Do you think that was revenge?

KYLE BUSCH: “Was that revenge? Who knows?”

When Dale Earnhardt Jr was asked this is what he had to say:



DALE EARNHARDT JR: “He's racing hard. He was up front leading and I was a little I felt like I was a little quicker and was gaining on him a little bit on each corner and I was on the bottom real tight and that wasn't going to get by him. So I moved up to get next to him and race him hard and I got down into 1 too hard and got into the quarter panel and spun him out. It was an accident that it happened but you know and it was midway through the race.”

Q. The replays looked a little bit like he might have come down on you; did he? And also, can you address whether, in fact, this was had anything to do with the spring race here?

DALE EARNHARDT JR: “Well, I think if I wanted to if I wreck somebody, I ain't going to leave him in good enough shape to come back and get me in the same race, so that wasn't really my intentions. If I wanted to, I really ain't never wrecked anybody on purpose. I can go back and remember a couple of times but if I wanted to do it, I would do it really, really good.

So I don't know, he might have, he was pretty far up the racetrack. I had plenty of room. This is the deal. He might have come down, you know, whatever, but it's really the guys on the inside's job to take care of the guy on the outside. It's not his job to move out of my way even if I'm on his left rear quarter panel.

I tried to stop left front. We slid to left front for 15 to 20 yards and that thing vibrated the whole rest of that run and we sort of faded from there on out.”

The video replays of the wreck seemed to look as if both drivers were racing hard and I would count it as a racing deal, but I can surely tell you that when Kyle Busch spun, I was not able to hear the cars on the track anymore over the roar of the crowd.

Other drivers with problems were the #17 of Matt Kenseth and his teammate the #6 of David Ragan, who was racing for the last chase spot, as he was 13th in points going into this race.

On Lap 122, David Ragan started to slide in turn 1 and Matt Kenseth did the same as they made contact with each other damaging both cars. It appeared that Ragan may have gotten into some oil on the track. When asked his comments were:

DAVID RAGAN: “I just got really loose into turn one and chased up the hill and looked like Matt was just right tucked up underneath me and as I was spinning around, he actually I think he turned my left rung and kind of straightened me back up which hurt him but allowed me to keep on going and not hit so hard. I haven't seen a replay of it, but I told the guys that maybe we had a tire going down or seemed like something just happened pretty abruptly; that our car had not had that characteristic all weekend and it had that the rest of the race.

So that's something we'll have to diagnose when we get back to the shop.”

Later in the race Ragan also had contact with the #01 as Clint Bowyer went under the #01 sending Ragan Smith into the #6. David Ragan also commented on this incident:

DAVID RAGAN: “Bottom line is Clint was on the bottom and just punted the 01 and shot the 01 up the track. I was on his right rear quarter panel and ran right into him. Thought I might have had Clint boxed in where I could have got around the 01 and maybe put a car between us, but he did what he had to do. He just gave the 01 a shot and I happened to be on the outside of him.”

After a round of stops David Reutimann stayed out on the track to take over the lead, and when the field went back green, the #44 of Reutimann, built up a lead of 4.22 seconds on 2nd place Tony Stewart.

As the laps counted down Reutimann looked to get his first win, but as the field pitted for another yellow flag on lap 359 Reutimann’s day would go south, as the impact wrench jammed on the tire changer, the #44 fell back to 7th place, and he would finish 9th.

In the last 10 laps Johnson and Stewart fought side by side, as Stewart continued to try and stay low, but he just could not hold off Johnson, who would get his 2nd win in a row and his 4th win this year.


Now the Chase field is set and this is how they will be lined up in the points going into New Hampshire.

I would like to also take this time to personally thank Aimee Turner, PR at RIR, for the time she took to make sure that we had everything that we needed to cover the race, and to all the great staff in the Media Center at the track.

Thank You!

Chase Field :