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AUTO RACING

Johnson, Hendrick Rise Above Chaos At Richmond

By MIKE MULHERN Media General News Service

Published: May 7, 2007

RICHMOND, VA. - What it was was chaos, 3 1/2 hours of spinning and crashing and blowing tires.

When the smoke finally cleared at Richmond International Raceway, it was once again Chevy team owner Rick Hendrick celebrating 4-for-4 in NASCAR Car Of Tomorrow races, this time with Jimmie Johnson sprinting away from teammate Kyle Busch in a 1-2-3-4 Chevrolet sweep.

Only Denny Hamlin catching Jeff Gordon for third kept Hendrick from a top-three sweep. And it was Chevrolet's ninth win of the year in 10 events. Chevy drivers led all but 33 of the 400 laps in front of a crowd of some 100,000.

But NASCAR's latest Car Of Tomorrow event, following runs at Bristol, Martinsville and Phoenix, was the most ragged yet, with drivers clearly having considerable handling trouble throughout the dry, sunny, but windy afternoon race, rain delayed from Saturday night.

Busch had the lead at the last restart, Lap 380 of the 400, but Johnson quickly dived under him and slipped away to win by five lengths.

"I knew he was coming, and I figured he was going to get by me," Busch said. "Jimmy was a little better than I was. Then I just over drove Turn 1, and Jimmie was able to get under me."

"I knew Kyle was going to be strong on a short run," Johnson said. "But on a long run I felt our car was a little better. I just had to get a good restart.

"Kyle was sideways in the corners, but he was so strong on restarts. So I kept buzzing my tires coming to the line [for the final green], and I finally got it right to where I was able to carry my momentum to Turn 1. I looked to the outside, and he came up, like he should, and when I saw the inside open I just jumped in the gas, it hooked up, and I got position on him."

Kevin Harvick may have had the best car in the field, but he caught some bad luck.

Harvick was pulling away from the field midway when he collided with rookie David Ragan during a routine yellow flag pit stop. Harvick was pulling out of his pit as Ragan was coming in, and the right-front of Harvick's car was badly damaged.

To add insult to injury, NASCAR hit Harvick with a penalty for speeding on pit road during an ensuing stop for repairs, putting him at the end of the field. However, Harvick made an impressive rally to finish seventh.

"We just didn't communicate, and got tore up. Everything happened all at once," a disappointed Harvick said. Said Ragan: "He was coming out of his box and I was going in mine. His crew chief or spotter - whoever calls him out of the pits - possibly didn't see us coming in, and our team didn't know he was ready to leave."

Harvick wasn't alone in getting banged up. There were 14 cautions.

"All that action happened right behind me, because we were able to stay up front," Hamlin said. "But it was so track-position sensitive, I could see why guys were so impatient. Because if you were out front, you could haul the mail, whether your car was good or bad. But if you were back in 15th, your car was terrible.

"You saw how it took Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick all day to get back to the front. I experienced that same thing in Phoenix. When you get back in the pack it's just very frustrating as a driver, because even if you have a good car and the guy in front is slower, you can't get around him."

Jeff Burton would have liked to have had that chance but his engine blew early. And he didn't take it very well. "It just ate itself up," Burton said. "You have a good car and I'm going to finish dead last."

That cost Burton second place in the Nextel Cup standings; he fell to fifth. Johnson moved up to second, but tour leader Gordon goes to Darlington this week 211 points out front.

Among the day's many incidents that left bruised feelings, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman tangled again, the second straight week, and it looks like whatever started last fall at Homestead - with that fiery crash - hasn't ended. Then Montoya got caught up in a hard duel with Robby Gordon that prompted NASCAR to issue Montoya a warning to cool off.

Montoya struggled home 26th.

But for the four or five men up front most of the race, "It was kind of a quiet day," Busch said of the view from his seat.

However, Busch still hasn't changed his opinion of the Car Of Tomorrow as an ill-handling machine.

"The Car Of Tomorrow just doesn't want to turn in the corners. You turn the wheel to the left and it's not gripping, it's just sliding the front tires, and that builds heat. You're just sitting there waiting for the front tires to grip so you can go.

"I'm really surprised we didn't see more tire failures than we have.

"If the thing doesn't turn, you have to use the brakes. So you're getting too much right-front brake heat, and that can pop the bead. And we're maxed out on our [brake] cooling.

"We need to test some more to get a better feel for this thing."

Ricky Rudd took one of the hardest hits, in the day's last caution, triggered when Sterling Marlin tagged Ward Burton as they tried to go up the middle of a three-wide pack on Lap 373. That put Rudd hard into the outside wall. The incident occurred just behind the front foursome.

"We were just trying to salvage a decent finish out of it," Rudd said. "Those guys were coming on the inside and outside, and it was the end of the race. Our car was pretty fast for four or five laps, and then it would fade. I was trying to give everybody room, but I guess everybody got anxious at the end of the race."

NASCAR threw a few odd rules at the teams early in the race. First, Saturday night's 12 laps, run under the green-and-yellow, were wiped from the books, though there is no such rule specifically in the book; second, the sanctioning body told crews they couldn't fill their tanks before the new start and couldn't pit for gas until a competition yellow on Lap 40.

Troxel Wins Her First Top Fuel Race

MADISON, Ill. - Melanie Troxel won her first Top Fuel race of the season Sunday at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals, beating veteran Cory McClenathan in the finals to become the second woman to ever win at Gateway International Raceway.

Troxel had a run of 4.741 seconds in the final to best McClenathan's 5.355.

Ron Capps extended his lead in the Funny Car points to 121 with his third victory of the year, this one against Del Worsham.

Dave Connolly topped teammate Jeg Coughlin by .016 seconds to move into second place overall in Pro Stock, and Matt Smith used a national record elapsed time of 6.901 seconds to earn the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship against three-time Gateway International Raceway winner Angelle Sampey. This was the first victory for Troxel's new team, which came together in the offseason under the guidance of Evan Knoll. It was also the first for the popular pro in more than a year, as she last visited the trophy stand in Las Vegas in April of last year.

"We knew it would take a little time to get a new team together and get to a point where we were running well," Troxel said. "It's certainly took us a few races and even when we started running a little better we didn't get any breaks. Today we weren't the best car and we definitely got little breaks here and there along the way so it was nice to see things fall our way." Connolly caught and passed Coughlin to win the Pro Stock crown with a 6.663 at 206.99 mph in a Chevrolet Cobalt. Coughlin ran a 6.695 at 206.64 mph.

Smith's third Pro Stock Motorcycle final of the year was also the third time he raced a female competitor for the race title. This time he got the win.