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5C SPORTSAEJe CJarlottc ^oit Thursday, August 25, 2005 E E I STANDINGS' How the top 10 stack up this week NEXTEL CUP Following the GFS Marketplace 400 A fourth-place finish at Michigan lifted Carl Edwards one spot in the standings to ninth place. 1. Tony Stewart 3,268; previous? 1 2. Jimmie Johnson 3,142; previous: 2 3. Greg Biffle 3,016; previous: 3 4. Rusty Wallace 2,979; previous; 4 5. Mark Martin 2,899; previous: 5 6. Jeremy Mayfield 2,869; previous: 7 7. Kurt Busch 2,848; previous: 6 8. Ryan Newman 2,773; previous; 8 9. Carl Edwards 2,758; previous: 10 10. Jamie McMurray 2,702; previous: 9 BUSCH SERIES Following the Domino’s Pizza 250 1. Martin Truex Jr. 3,606; previous; 1 2. Clint Bowyer 3,402; previous: 2 3. Reed Sorenson 3,282; previous: 3 4. Carl Edwards 3,255; previous: 4 5. Kenny Wallace 3,078; previous: 5 6. Denny Hamlin 3,053; previous; 6 7. Paul Menard 2,847; previous: 9 8. David Green 2,826; previous: 7 9. David Stremme 2,802; previous: 8 10. Ashton Lewis 2,728; previous: 10 THE RACING 411 NEXTEL CTIP Race: Sharpie 500 Where; Bristol Motor Speedway; Bristol, Tenn. Track length: .533 mile (500 laps. 266.5 miles) When: Saturday, 7:40 p.m., ET Defending champion; Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed the week end sweep at Bristol last year by dominating the 2004 Sharpie 500. Track qualifying record: Ryan Newman, 128.709 mph; March 21, 2003. Race record: Charlie Gloizbach, 101.075 mph; July 11, 1971. Fast facts: Kurt Busch has recorded four wins in the past seven races at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race is sold out for the 15th consecutive year. 01 S MAHKI ll'l A(.f 400 HI VII W BUSCH Race: Food City 250 Where: Bristol Motor Speedway When: Friday, 7:45 p.m., ET Defending champion: Dale Earnhardt Jr. outlasted Matt Kenseth in a green-white-checkered finish for his first career NASCAR win at Bristol. Track qualifying record; David Green, 126.495 mph; March 22.2003. Race record: Harry Gant, 92.929 mph; April 4, 1992. Fast facts: Martin Truex Jr. claimed his first career series win in the spring race at Bristol last year, gamering a season sweep for Busch Series owner Earnhardt Jr. and his Chance 2 Motorsports team. A sixth-place fin ish in the Domino’s Pizza 250 lifted Paul Menard two spots ip the standings to seventh: Ryan Newman scored his second consecutive Busch Series victory Saturday, passing Greg Biffle with six laps left to win the Domino’s Pizza 250. ^ CRAFTSMAN TRUCK Following the Toyota Tundra 200 1. Dennis Setzer 2,400; previous: 1 2. Ted Musgrave 2,222; previous: 2 3. Bobby Hamilton 2,188; previous: 3 4. Ron Hornaday 2,133; previous; 4 5. David Reutimann — 2,114; previous: 6 6. Jimmy Spencer 2,089; previous: 5 7. Matt Grafton 2,017; previous: 8 8. Mike Skinner 1,996; previous: 11 9. Ricky Craven 1,982; previous: 9 10. David Starr ^1,976; previous; 10 NASCAR Jeremy Mayfield and crew celebrate Sunday’s victory in the GFS Marketpiace 400. GAMBLE^ pays oft David Reutimann’s win at Nashville Superspeedway moved the 2004 Rookie of the Year to fifth place in the standings Jeremy Mayfield bets on fuel and comes out a winner at Michigan By JEFF HOOD Cox News Service Brooklyn, Mich. J eremy Mayfield, a Nextel Cup driver known for win ning in dramatic fashion, struck again Sunday Mayfield turned a fuel-economy run into an unexpected victory in Sunday’s GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Mayfield edged Scott Riggs by completing the final 51 laps on a single tank of gas. The dnver of the No. 19 Dodge chose to pit for fuel before the race’s final restart. The Owensboro, Ky, native beat Riggs by 1.974 seconds and finished just ahead of Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Nextel (jup points leader Tbny Stewart, whose crew chiefs chose not to top off their fuel tanks on what turned out to be the race’s last caution. “History says this place from Lap 150 on goes green,” said Ma3dield’s crew chief Richard “SluggeF* Labbe, who made the winning call. We took a chance on history, and we took a chance on a test we did here when we ran 52 laps, then ran out of gas com ing to 53. ■ “Man, we had a 20th-place car and we robbed the bank.” Mayfield’s fifth career victory was as unpredictable as two oth- ftii'ONTV- Sf NEXTEL CUP I9I Sharpie 500 7 p.rr., Saturday ^Btnt BUSCH SERIES Food City 250 7:30 p.m., Friday IB TNT CRAFTSMAN TRUCK O'Reilly 200 ■■■i CHANNEL 9 p.m., Wednesday f.OMMI IIIAII/ RACE STATISTICS Time of race: 2 hours, 49 minutes, 33 seconds Margin of victory: 1.974 seconds Caution flags: seven for 30 laps Lead changes: 19 among 13 drivers Lap leaders: Joe Nemechek, pole; Kasey Kahne, 4-18; Kyle Busch, 19-46; Nemechek, 47-73; Kurt Busch, 74-76; Mark Martin, 77-86; Kurt Busch, 87-91; Matt Kenseth, 92; Kurt Busch, 93-96; Scott Riggs, 97-109; Greg Biffle, 110-112; Kurt Busch. 113-164; Kenseth, 165; Kurt Busch, 166; Kenseth, 167-173; Carl Edwards, 174-190; Dale Earnhardt Jr, 191; Sterling Marlin, 192; Tony Raines, 193-194; Jeremy Mayfield. 195-200. ers, a final-lap bump-and-run on the late Dale Earnhardt at Pocono in 2000 and his run at Richmond last September when he clinched the final spot in the inaugural Chase for the Cup. He mov^ to sixth place in this sea son’s championship standings after Sundays race. “Every race I’ve ever won has been like that,” said Mayfield, who lined up 26th on the final restart before making his charge to the front. Kenseth, who led nine laps but remains a long shot to qualify for the Chase at 15th in points, was bitter after the race. “I’ve always hated fuel-mileage races,” Kenseth said. “We’ve been on the good side of it before, but I hate it. “I always like the fastest car to win, even if it’s not me.” Stewart narrowly avoided dis aster on the third lap when his No. 20 Chevrolet made contact with Jamie McMurray’s Dodge in T\im 2 of the superapeedway. The winner of five of the past seven Cup events entering Sunday’s race was content with a fifth-place effort. “We got up to second there, which I was really proud of,” Stewart said. “But we just could n’t stay there at the end with the pit strategy. “Itfs kind of fhistrating to a cer tain degree, but at the same time we could have all come in and got fuel like eveiybody else.” CRAFTSMAN Race: O'Reilly 2(X) Where: Bristol Motor Speedway When: Wednesday, 9:15 p.m., ET Race length: 200 laps. 106.6 miles Defending champion: Carl Edwards pulled away fmm Shane Hmiel on a grecn-whitc-chcckered restart to win last year’.s O’Reilly 200. Qualifying record: Ken Schrader, 126.922 mph; Aug, 25, 2004. Race record: Travis Kvapil, 88.813 mph; Aug. 20,2003. Fast fact: Bristol Motor Speedway was among 18 tracks com prising the inaugural schedule of the series in 1995. NHIIHOfJK Stewart and Johnson clinch spots in Chase for Cup By JEFF HOOD Cox News Service Brooklyn, Mich. A pair of top-10 finishes on Simday at Michigan enabled Tbny Stewart and Jimmie Johnson to become tlie first two drivers to clinch spots in this year’s CTiase for the Nextel Cup. The 10-driver quest for the championship begins at New Hampshire International Speedway Sept. 18. Johnson, who started last following an engine change during the weekend in his No. 48 Chevrolet, climbed to third wiffi 30 laps remaining in the GFS Marketplace 400. But the Hendrick Motorsports driver was relegat ed to a lOth-place finish Sunday after a pit stop for fuel with 12 laps remaining. “It’s comforting to at least be in ^e top 10 in points,” said Johnson, who remains second in the season standings, 126 points behind Stewart. “ILs a testament to our guys to clinch it with three races to go.” Tough day for Sadler Elliott Sadler’s hopes to reach the Chase were dealt a setback on Lap 83 when he spim exiting T\uti 2. Sadler’s mishap collected teammate Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd. He lost 11 laps fol- lo^ving the incident while his crew made repairs to his battered No. 38 Ford on pit road. “I don’t know what to say,” said Sadler, who finished 39th and shpped from 11th to 13th in the season standings, 66 points behind 10th place Jamie McMurray. “I just got lot^e behind [Kyle Petty] and [Ryan Newman] and it just came around. I think my worst nightmare has come true. “I’ve put us in a position where we’ve got to wn the next couple of races to tiy and get into the Chase.” Jarrett, whose No. 88 Ford suffered minor damage in the incident, returned to the track but finished 34th after running out of fuel with two laps left. He remained 11th in points, 51 points out of 10th. Rudd finished on the lead lap in 19th. Raines comes close to upset Tbny Raines came within six laps of pulling off one of the greatest upsets in Nextel Cup histoiy after he took the lead with seven laps remaining in the No. 37 Dodge owned by Roger Craven and John Carter of Tbccoa, Ga. “Tbward the end of the race they told me I was leading, and I thought to myself that if I win this race, it would be the Cinderella story of the summer,” said Raines, who finished 31st on Sunday in his debut for R&J Racing. “We led two laps and put ourselves in a position to almost win a race. I don’t know what else I could have done,” he said. NASCAR looks to gain Hispanic fan base By JEFF GLUCK Cox News Service Fontana, Calif. A t first, it’s hard to imagine that, at age 42, Adrian Fernandez might have a lot to do with the future of NASCAR. Sure, his popularity in Mexico is comparable to that of Michael Jordan in the United States. And yes, he is one of the world’s best open-wheel race car drivers. But American fans don’t know Fernandez, and he’s run exactly one NASCAR race in his life, a Busch Series event at that. Fernandez, thou^, could be one of the most important figures in NASCAR histoiy, - depending on what happens over the next few months. Hendrick Motoreports has signed Fernandez to drive in four more Busch races this season, and if he likes the results, Fernandez just might stick around long enough to help NASCAR unlock the Hispanic fan base. But first things first. Fernandez has to learn how to drive a stock car, taking his first steps toward that goal last week during a test session at California Speedway. It was his first experience in a stock car on an oval ^ck, and his initial laps left him doubting his decision. “I thou^t, 'What am I doing here? ” he said. “This is crazy.” Yet it wasn’t cra^y for Hendrick and sponsor Lowe’s to approach Fernandez with an offer to drive the four races after a successful run in March’s Mexico City Busch race. That day Fernandez finished ICtth after taking the lead, a moment so loved by race fans that the driver heard their cheers over the roar of the engines. ^alntlng^ A CoUiaion^ .HALF PRICE I SPECIAL I I Power Pack includes: I - Imperial Paint Service ‘ - XTRA PREP • - FULL Clear Coat, 2yr warranty *250 Reg. $499.95 1 I oo! I I I I Free Kstimates Certified Collision Repair iRSurance Assists No Appointment Needed UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!! 5629 N. Sharon Amity Kd. 704.535.6015
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