Posts Tagged ‘series’

Kasey Kahne held off points leader Tony Stewart on several late-race restarts, including one for a green-white-checkered finish, to win Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. Kahne grabbed the lead for the final time with 34 laps to go and then beat Stewart to the finish line by 0.748 seconds for his first victory of the season and the 10th of his Sprint Cup Series career. He gave Richard Petty Motorsports its first win since “The King” merged his team with Gillett Evernham Motorsports before the start of the 2009 season. Prior to his win at Sonoma, Kahne had never finished in the top-10 in a NASCAR road-course race. His best finish was 14th, which came twice at Watkins Glen, NY. Kahne also ended a 37-race drought, with his last win coming in June 2008 at Pocono, while driving for Gillett. “It feels great, I can’t believe it,” Kahne said. Petty came to victory lane and congratulated Kahne, who gave the NASCAR legend his first team owner victory since John Andretti’s win in April 1999 at Martinsville. “I feel just as good as (Kahne) does,” Petty said. Boris Said turned Scott Speed around in the closing laps, which set up the two-lap overtime finish, the first since NASCAR amended its new double-file restart rule. Kahne moved in front of Stewart and quickly pulled away from there. “Stewart is just as good as they get out here,” Kahne said. “He was giving me tons of room so I didn’t get any rubber on my tires.” Stewart knew he had his hands full after Kahne took

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson nosed past Tony Stewart with two laps left in a thrilling battle to the finish and won the Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway. Johnson pushed Stewart over the final few laps Sunday on the concrete and finally caught him with an outside pass. Johnson won his second race of the season and got his fourth career Cup victory at Dover. “We just couldn’t hold off Jimmie,” Stewart said. “He was like a freight train coming.” Johnson dominated most of the race and led 298 total laps after leading only 12 laps combined in the last six races. The three-time defending Cup champion had a slow pit stop with 36 laps left that dropped him from the lead. With crew chief Chad Knaus telling Johnson he would catch Stewart, Johnson pulled out his 42nd career win. “I just had to go,” Johnson said. “I had one heck of a race with Tony. That’s how racing’s supposed to be done.” He was followed by Stewart, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 12th in his first race with crew chief Lance mcgrew. Stewart passed Jeff Gordon for the Cup points lead and became the first owner/driver to sit atop the standings since Alan Kulwicki won the Cup title in 1992. Gordon ran two laps down in his backup car most of the race and finished 26th to fall 46 points behind Stewart.

Ryan Newman has some harsh words for NASCAR after his huge wreck during the 2009 AMP Energy 500. And to be honest, I think he’s right.

JOLIET, Ill. — Body-slamming and bump-drafting were the order of the day — at 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway, no less — and 50-year-old Martin was the last man standing in a wild LifeLock.com 400. Pulling away after a double-file restart with two laps left in Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Martin won his series-best fourth race of the season and the 39th of his career. Martin gained two positions to 11th in the standings and will have at least 40 bonus points for the Chase for …

LOUDON, NH (AP) — Teenager Joey Logano became the youngest winner in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Sunday, winning the rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The precocious 19-year-old rookie came back from a crash that put him a lap down earlier in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and won his first Cup race in his 20th start. Logano was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after getting out of sequence on fuel stops. The youngster took the …

By JENNA FRYER (AP) INDIANAPOLIS — Jimmie Johnson grabbed an improbable third victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when a speeding penalty to Juan Pablo Montoya blew Sunday’s race wide open. Montoya led 116 laps and had a 5-second lead when he headed to pit road for a routine stop with 35 laps remaining. NASCAR flagged him for speeding on his way in, and the penalty knocked him out of contention. “I swear on my children and my wife that I was not speeding!” he shouted over his radio …

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — The most surprised person to find Mark Martin in Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway was the driver himself. The 50-year-old NASCAR star has run well but has had to deal with considerable bad luck this season. It looked like more of the same Sunday when the battery in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet began to fail before the halfway mark in the LifeLock 400 Sprint Cup race. Martin turned off everything in the car that he could, nursing it as best he …

Powered by WordPress Lab