The race this week is at California Speedway in Fontana, Cailf. I don't know about y'all, but I find this track to be boring! I would much rather that this weekends race was still at Darlington S.C. like it was for so many years. Ah Darlington, now there's a racetrack! OK, enough of my ramblings! This thread if to post the qualifying and final results for the race. As usual, if you have a thought of opinion about this race please share it with us! OK, Let' Go Racin' Boys!!!
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35 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Schwan's Home Service 178.740 40.282 -1.266
36 88 Dale Jarrett Ford UPS 178.545 40.326 -1.310
37 55 Michael Waltrip Dodge NAPA Auto Parts 178.505 40.335 -1.319
38 6 Mark Martin Ford AAA 178.086 40.430 -1.414
39 49 Kevin Lepage Dodge LoansDepot.com 177.765 40.503 -1.487
40 178 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing 177.738 40.509 -1.493
41 22 Dave Blaney Dodge Caterpillar 176.978 40.683 -1.667
42 96 Tony Raines+ Chevrolet DLP HDTV 175.310 41.070 -2.054
43 32 Travis Kvapil Chevrolet Tide-Downy 177.274 40.615 -1.599
Did not Qualify
44 06 Todd Kluever Ford 3M Post-it 175.949 40.921 -1.905
45 34 Kertus Davis Chevrolet Oak Glove Co. 175.387 41.052 -2.036
46 61 Chad Chaffin Dodge Oak Gloves/Embassy Suites 173.035 41.610 -2.594
47 23 Bill Lester Dodge Waste Management 38.107 188.939 -149.923
+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie
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Congratulation to Kurt Busch on winning he second straight Bud pole, and his fifth for the season. If Ryan Newman doesn't get it, then Kurt can! GO PENSKE RACING!!!
39 40 #178 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing 46/0 246 Running $83,940
40 26 #44 Terry Labonte Chevrolet GMAC 43/0 246 Running $83,890
41 2 #25 Brian Vickers Chevrolet Garnier Fructis 40/0 237 Running $97,340
42 23 #100 Bill Elliott Chevrolet Burger King 37/0 224 Running $83,875
43 25 #7 Robby Gordon Chevrolet World Series of Poker 34/0 193 Transmission $83,201
* Denotes Rookie
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Clear!Blue Communications For Dodge Motorsports, Press Release
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) – Winner, moves to 30 points out of 10th place
“It’s a pretty crazy feeling. I woke up this morning and was pretty excited I won last night, but we had a really big job to do today. Today’s race meant so much to next weekend and to our whole season to have a shot next week. I was pretty pumped up this morning when I woke up and definitely happy when we won last night with the Busch team. To do it tonight, it’s a great weekend. I came here telling myself ‘you gotta win, you gotta win, you gotta lead laps. That’s all you can do if you want to make this Chase.’ You can’t expect to win. You can’t expect to lead the most laps just because you want to. It’s way too tough competition. We just hit everything right this weekend. It was a huge weekend. I’ve never won at California Speedway, so to win pretty close to home, Seattle isn’t too far from here or Enumclaw, Wash., it was pretty nice to get a west coast sweep. My dad said he was going to get the broom out last night. He was pretty pumped up when he called me last night. He went home yesterday. He was with me during my two foundation deals this week, the second one was at Irwindale Speedway, the drifting event. He went home yesterday morning. He had some things to do. He said he was going to watch every minute of the race on TV. I’ll bet he’s pretty upset now, but he did tell me last night he was going to put the broom in the front room just in case. He was telling me I’d better sweep it.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TRYING TO QUALIFY FOR THE CHASE?
“You just think a lot. You think about not making mistakes, not doing anything wrong, just trying to be as aggressive as possible, but at the same time you have to finish and you have to finish up front. Just a lot of things you think about all week long. It’ll be another week like that. I was looking at my calendar and I have a pretty open week until I won both of these races. Now I’m going to have a bunch of interviews and things this week, but it’s still an open week for appearances and things. It’s going to give me plenty of time to think about what we need this next weekend and just relax and be prepared for Saturday night.”
WAS THIS ALL YOU COULD HAVE HOPED FOR TONIGHT?
“This is all we could do. We did everything possible. We gained the most points we could possibly gain on a weekend. We cut it down. Those other guys we’re going against, they’re in the top 10, top 12 for a reason. You’re not just going to score 80 more points than them on a weekend. It’s not going to happen. They’re up there for a reason. We just need to do our best next weekend and see where the points end up. Hopefully we’ll be on the right side of it. Hopefully if we lead laps and run up front again, it’s going to be close, but it should be exciting, that’s for sure.”
HOW DO YOU WIN WHEN YOU HAVE TO WIN?
“I don’t know how that works out, either. We haven’t won a race since June. To come in here and know we needed to win and know we needed to lead laps and do it, I think it’s just a good weekend. Things change around, especially in NASCAR. It’s a humbling sport. You have your highs and lows. We had our highs early in the season. We had our lows in the middle of the season. Hopefully we’re getting back on the highs. We need to just get enough points to get in that Chase. Then from there, we’ll be on a high all the way out hopefully.”
KENNY FRANCIS (Team Director No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge)
“It was pretty interesting how much stuff we changed in this race, spring rubbers, we probably moved the track bar an inch and a half or something. We did wedge, tire pressure, we did a lot to adjust the car to keep up with the track. Fortunately we came out on top at the end.”
EXPLAIN SOME OF THE CHANGES YOU MADE?
“As far as the adjustments I was talking about, these cars are really sensitive, especially in the races. You’ve got to be pretty careful on what you adjust. You can dial yourself right out. I think you saw the 21 car in the Busch race last night make a small adjustment and go straight to the back. You’ve got to be careful, but then if you’re too careful you don’t keep up with the track. The track is changing all the time as it builds rubber up on it as the temperature changes. You’ve got to make sure you’re keeping up with it and we wanted to make sure we stayed ahead of it, not behind it. We were doing two rounds where you normally do one round and things like that. We went ahead and put a spring rubber in and lost track position to get the adjustment done. We took chances you wouldn’t take if we’d been sitting in fourth coming in here. It would have been a lot different. You’d probably race a lot different.”
RAY EVERNHAM (President, CEO Evernham Motorsports)
“The No. 9 car did exactly what they had to do. They came in and led the most laps and won the race. Kenny and Kasey and the 9 crew did a great job. Overall, I’m really happy. It was nice to see all three cars up in the top five running 1-2-3 there for awhile. I think that’s our first time in our history as a three-car team that we’ve kind of earned that. It might have happened some place under caution, but it was great. Unfortunately the 10 and 19 slipped back a little bit there at the end. I think it shows the strength of a three-car team, and we are working as a team. It was just nice to see the Dodges up front again.”
“It was a long, long race and Donnie (crew chief Wingo) made a great call. We came in and topped off at the end. Our only chance was fuel mileage. We just weren’t strong enough to do anything. That whole run we never did run hard. We saved fuel, and that was our only shot to have a good finish. The guys did a great job in the pits. We just didn’t have a horse we could do anything with.”
“I wish we could have got a better finish, but we had a lot of fun tonight. Seeing those Evernham Dodge Chargers running 1-2-3 late in the race is something I think you might see a lot more of, at least I hope so. It’s fun to run up front, and we had some fun tonight. Hats off to Kasey. That’s five wins for him this season, and that’s really encouraging.”
SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Charger)
“I hate it. We got up there and the car was loose the whole time. We got it tightened up at the end and that’s when we were up front running in clean air. I think the clean air was just fooling us how good our car was. We got it too tight that time. I told Rodney on the radio to just get gas on the last stop and we probably should have taken an extra second or two to get two tires. It would have meant more than just a second. They probably would have meant a second a lap. It was a good effort on everybody’s part, but I probably shot ‘em the wrong way on that last stop. You look and see us 17th, that doesn’t do us justice where we should have been. It’s great for Kasey. I’m glad to see those guys win and running good. We should have been right there with them.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)
“We started off really loose, then it went really tight. We put spring rubbers in and then took one of them out. Just an awful handling car most all race long. We’ll just keep after it, trying to get things figured out.”
REED SORENSON (No. 41 Diet Pepsi/Target Dodge Charger) – Ran out of gas with two laps left while leading
“I know I wasn’t driving very hard. I wasn’t holding it open down the straightaway and I was lifting as early as I could. They told me we were two laps short and we ran out with two to go. Usually we run out before they say. Our engineer is usually pretty good (with gas mileage) so he was right on target when he said we were short two laps.”
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MARK MARTIN - No. 6 AAA Ford Fusion (Finished 12th) -
YOU DID WHAT YOU HAD TO DO.
"It was a great race. I thought we had a car to win with when the sun was out, but in the night time it didn't work well."
IT'S ALL ON THE LINE NEXT WEEK.
"Yeah, we're racing, man."
WAS THAT TWO-TIRE STOP KEY TO GETTING YOU TRACK POSITION LATE IN THE RACE?
"It wasn't key. We wound up about the same. We tried real hard and we did everything we could do and wound up about the same either way. That was about where we were gonna run either way. We were coming on strong with four, but we just wanted to make it easier. It's so hard to pass."
IT'S COMING DOWN TO THE FINAL RACE. WHAT'S THAT LIKE FOR YOU?
"First of all, I want to thank all the fans. They've been so incredible. They've really made this year special and my team fought as hard as they can fight. I still think we're in, but the battle is on and one thing that everybody can count on is that I'll go down fighting all the way. At Richmond, even if we don't make the chase, I'm gonna go down swinging all the way to the end. It's been 19 years in that 6 car and I appreciate all the support of the fans and Jack Roush and these guys who work their heart out. I'm proud of finishing 12th tonight with the way our car went. It was a winner in the sun and lost its mind when it got dark. Those guys fought hard and pulled out a 12th-place finish. Kasey and those guys did what they needed to do and the race is on for all of us. We're in ninth, not tenth. I hoped to come out of here ahead of tenth and we did that, but we lost some ground to be comfortable. All you can do is fight hard and that's what we've been doing."
MATT KENSETH - No. 17 DeWalt Ford Fusion (Finished 7th) -
"It was good, but just at the end there where everybody got all mixed up. I thought we had a good enough car to run third or fourth and we finished seventh with it, so it wasn't terrible. We just had to fight all day. Our car was just real loose all night. It was hard to get tightened up. We had to wait for it to get dark and then when it did it get dark, we just didn't have enough runs to get it tuned in just right. So we kind of missed it today and still ran real competitive, so I'm happy with that."
YOUR THOUGHTS ON TAKING THE POINTS LEAD. YOU'RE UP BY NINE.
"We've been gaining some points every week and that's a good thing. I'd love to leave Richmond as the point leader. I think it would help to go into the chase as the leader, so that would be great. That part is good. I wish we would have finished just a little better at the end of the day, but we still had a good day and a solid day on pit road. We made a lot of adjustments."
DO YOU LIKE BEING THE HUNTED INSTEAD OF THE HUNTER RIGHT NOW?
"I'd like to be as far ahead as you can get."
WHAT ABOUT THE RACE?
"The fastest car won the race, so that's cool. I think we did the right thing. We came and got two tires and our car just didn't run very good on two tires and I couldn't catch those guys. We had a third to fifth place car and finished seventh with it. You always like to finish as good as you run, but that's still a pretty good night. We were a long ways off when the race started."
THE PRESSURE IS OFF YOU AT RICHMOND. YOUR THOUGHTS.
"Well, yes and no. Me and Jimmie are only nine points apart or something like that right now, so it's important for us to try to keep that point lead and get as many points as you can going into the chase. We still definitely want to race him all night at Richmond and go there and try to race for a win and keep some momentum going. We want to try to figure out some short track stuff for Loudon and Phoenix down the road."
CARL EDWARDS - No. 99 Office Depot Ford Fusion (Finished 4th) -
YOU NEEDED A MIRACLE, BUT THAT WASN'T QUITE IT WAS IT.
"No, we needed a miracle, but I had a good time and that's what it's about. I guess we're mathematically out of it. Congratulations to Kasey for sweeping the weekend. That was cool. I guess we'll just go out for 11 races and have a good time and try to win something and prepare for '97."
DID YOU COUNT YOURSELF OUT AFTER LAST WEEK OR DOES IT HURT MORE NOW?
"The big letdown was early in the year when we kept having our bad luck, but the team has still not let down. I get to live my dream and get to have a good time racing these cars. Office Depot has got me on board for another couple of years, so maybe we can get them in the chase next year."
"We outran more than I thought. I was afraid before the day started that we couldn't outrun anybody, but they made a lot of changes with the car and made it better. We just got to a point where we were gonna finish 20th to 25th and were gonna just go from there, but before we went back green on that last caution I asked if we wanted to come and top it off and they said that's what they were thinking. I had no idea we could make it from there, but when you get back there there's no sense, you're not gonna pass all those cars at one time so I thought I would save as much as I could and maybe the would help. As we got down, we thought we were pretty close so with the way the season has been, why not try?"
THAT'S TWO STRAIGHT TOP 15 FINISHES, WHICH IS A NICE IMPROVEMENT. IT MUST BE GOOD FOR MORALE, RIGHT?
"No doubt about it. You've got to have some good luck and make some good luck occasionally to keep these guys going. They work their tails off and when you don't get any results from anything you try, then that's pretty discouraging, but these guys keep battling and they keep looking every way they possibly can to get UPS and Ford a good finish here and we've manufactured a couple."
DAVID GILLILAND - No. 38 Pedigree/M&M's Ford Fusion (Finished 32nd) -
"We were just way too loose. We're still searching for that good baseline to build on. If anything tonight, we really tuned on this setup trying to make it work and we haven't been able to make it work. If nothing else, we'll try something else next time. Todd's got a lot of ideas and we'll get it."
ARE YOU MAKING STRIDES FROM A COMMUNICATION STANDPOINT?
"Absolutely. We made a lot of adjustments tonight, so I'm learning what those adjustments do on these type of cars and we're really coming along. As we do that, I'll be able to call for more specific adjustments other than just telling them it's tight getting in or whatever. We're making progress."
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KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 GM GOODWRENCH MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 15th
"We knew this was a little bit of a struggle for us overall, but we did good. We were just a little bit too loose there. We probably should have put two tires on, but that was my call. So, shoulda, woulda, coulda. It was a decent night for us."
JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 CINGULAR WIRELESS MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 16th and dropped 3 spots in the point standings, from 7th to 10th:
"We got real good at the end; it was just too late. We just struggled during the middle part of the race and lost a lot of track position. At the end, we finally got good. But these guys were just so far in front of us we couldn't do more; we ran a bunch of them down but we just ran out of time. So I'm not real happy with the way we ran. Nobody is. We sure expected more than that, but we'll go to Richmond and give them all we've got."
WHAT'S IT LIKE KNOWING IT'S GOING TO COME DOWN TO THE FINAL RACE OF THE FIRST 26 TO TRY TO MAKE THE CHASE?
"That doesn't surprise me at all. The No. 9 Kasey Kahne was just way better than we were tonight. When we go to Richmond, it'll be a dogfight for sure, but we'll go there and give it all we got and that's all we can do. I look forward to it. I'm excited about it. I feel like I'm going there with a good team and good race cars.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN UNDER THIS MUCH PRESSURE BEFORE?
"Pressure is when you don't have a chance in hell to do anything. This isn't pressure. This feels good. We have a chance to have something good happen. It's still ours to win or lose; we've just got to get it done.
"I'm disappointed on how we ran in the middle of the race. I'm not disappointed about how we ran in the end. We got beat by four or five cars that seemed to go the whole way on gas and we couldn't. We weren't good in the middle part of the race and then we couldn't go as far as some of those other guys could and all that stacked up on us. There at the end, we were hauling. We were really fast at the end."
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS, Finished 5th:
ON TOP-FIVE FINISH TONIGHT:
"It has been a tough time for us here and on 1.5-mile tracks in the past, but not this year. Steve Letarte and all the guys at Hendrick Motorsports and this DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo team have got this stuff dialed in. Man it is a lot of fun to be out there driving a car like this. You know I hate we had our problems (possible loose lugnuts) because we had those guys in our sights. The No. 9 was tough, he was going to be tough to beat so was the No. 8 but I think would we not have had our problems, we would have been close to them and had a shot at them. Hey, it was a solid night for us, we did what we needed to do in the points. We are not solidly in for Richmond so we are going to have to perform there, but this finish is going to make it a lot easier."
ON BEING FOURTH IN POINTS HEADING TO RICHMOND:
"We have had our troubles at Richmond in the past but I am confident right now with the way our cars are driving and with the way the team is performing, I feel like we are going to turn Richmond around like we have these other tracks."
ON THOUGHTS WHEN TOLD OF POSSIBLE LOOSE LUGNUTS AND NEEDING TO COME BACK DOWN PIT ROAD :
"I didn't doubt that could get back up in the top-10, I just didn't know if we could get back in the top-five. There was a string of green-flag runs where we able to put some good laps together and get some of those positions back. I thought Steve made a great call on the gas and go to do that gas and go. We played it conservative really, we weren't sure the lugnuts were loose that time, but we came in anyway to be sure. When we came in on the gas and go, we played it a little conservative on how much gas we took. So hey, it still got us a fifth place finish and that is what we need to do, is to be really solid."
ON TONIGHT'S FINISH:
"I am happy with the way we performed. I am happy with the way we finished and I am happy with where we are at in the points. I have to look at the numbers, I don't know exactly where the spread is to 11th. I know that Kasey had a great night but we will just see what other guys did."
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS, Finished 8th:
ON TONIGHT'S RACE:
"We just kept missing the handle of the cars on the end of the runs. We were very, very fast at the beginning we could kind of take off and lead for a couple of laps but then it started falling off. It was a good run for our Kellogg's Chevrolet tonight, that is all we needed. We just need to keep fighting like we have been and fighting for these top-10 finishes and top-five finishes. That is as good as we had for them tonight. It is kind of weird coming down to the end of these races like that and fend off fuel mileage and tires. All in all it was a good show for the fans and we had a lot of fun passing cars. The weather ended up being a good cool night, so now we will go on to Richmond."
ON GOING TO RICHMOND FIFTH IN POINTS:
"I feel good about Richmond. Last three runs there we have finished better than fifth so if we can go there and do what we have done the last times and have a good solid run, I think we will be fine. I think you will see the Kellogg's Monte Carlo strong in the Chase and going to Loudon trying to win that one."
ON THINKING ABOUT POINTS THE LAST SEVEN DAYS:
"You can't. All you are going to do is upset your stomach and put everything else in an uproar. So you might as well just go after it when you get to Richmond."
TONY STEWART, NO. 20 HOME DEPOT MONTE CARLO, FINISHED 9TH:
ON CHANGES FOR MAKING THE CHASE COMING DOWN TO THE FINAL RACE AT RICHMOND:
"We have been pretty good at Richmond but so do the guys who are with us in the Chase. We have one more week, we will see. I am not very comfortable at all with 41 points. But if we go do what we normally do at Richmond, we should be all right, but it is no gimme by any means.
"I am just glad to finish where we did. We didn't gain or lose on the pit strategy there at the end, we just need to be better than we were.
"Tonight is over, so we just need to forget about it and go on to next week."
ON PRESSURE NEXT WEEK AT RICHMOND:
"I think we just have to go out and do what we always do. That is how we have won two championships and how we have been in the top-10 in points every year I have been in the series. It is what I have been doing for eight years and it isn't going to change next week. It is just a matter of going out and doing our job and not worrying about it. At the end of the day, we will see where we are."
ON TONIGHT'S RACE:
"We just fought tight in the center all race long. It was just one of those bad days that from the drop of the green flag, we fought tight and could never really get it roll though the center of the corner, so we have a little work to do."
ON HOW HE WAS FEELING FROM SPRINT CAR CRASH WEDNESDAY NIGHT:
"It was fine, it wasn't different than any other time. Trust me, sprint car drivers flip all the time. We just had a problem with a steering gear breaking. I wanted to run the whole night, I was having a lot of fun, it is a neat race track (Skagit Speedway) and it was the smallest track I have ran with the winged sprint cars and it was a lot of fun."
J.J. YELEY, No. 18 IMITREX MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 19th
DID THE RACE TRACK CHANGE FROM THE START OF THE RACE TO THE END OF THE RACE?
"The race track changed a lot. You'd use a line for awhile that was maybe using the car up, then all of the sudden you'd go 10 laps real good and the front tires would get mad and just give up two or three tenths (of a second) just like that."
TELL ME ABOUT THE CAR. WHAT TYPES OF PROBLEMS WERE YOU DEALING WITH THROUGHOUT THE RACE?
"If it would have just been one thing, it would have been easy to fix. Steve did an excellent job. It was just that the car would get loose in, then tight in the center, then loose off. Then 15 laps later it would still be loose in, tight center, but tight off. I was just trying to find a balance. The race track kept changing. I felt like the last two runs, the car was at its best. It took me awhile to find a line that the car really liked. I went high in (turns) one and two early in the race and it just didn't work out very good. I never tried it again. I kind of gave up on it. When (Martin) Truex (Jr.) passed me, I thought "you know, maybe I need to get up there and try that line." All of the sudden the car had a lot of grip entering the corner. I could get it turned and get back on the throttle pretty good. I was able to focus on some other things. The times started picking up. I thought we had a good shot there, but I didn't know what Steve was planning. I knew we were getting close to the end on laps. I know our lap times had picked up a little bit, so I kind of backed down a little bit to see what the plan was. He said we were a lap too short on making it. Those guys are pretty precise, so we would have been a lap short."
YOUR LUCK SEEMS TO HAVE TURNED AROUND A LITTLE BIT .
"Yeah, you know, I was thinking mid-race there that if we could finish top-15, top-20, I'd be real satisfied. After finishing 19th, it's pretty disappointing now after it's done. I know that we had a car that was capable of running real close to 10th, but I guess it's better than the alternative. Over the past couple of weeks, we've had the (car) coming back on the hook. It's still in one piece, not a scratch on it."
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS - Finished 2nd
"This is my best finish here. We are happy to get a second any where but especially here at California. These kind of race tracks, we have really turned these around. I am really proud of my team. Congratulations to Kasey (Kahne, winner), maybe we won't be battling each other when we get to Richmond."
ON BEING 6TH IN THE POINTS:
"Hey, it is just good runs for us. I am always one week at a time and having good finishes is having fun and that is what it is all about. I don't really feel any of the pressure of the Chase, about trying to make the Chase, most of the pressure is trying to run good, no matter what. I am just so happy for my team. Tony (Eury), Jr. made great calls, the team did great and I can't say enough about everybody at DEI and my team. They have really done all they could for me this year and I am just so proud of them."
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Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Clint Bowyer Give Chevy Monte Carlo SS Second and Third Place Finishes at Fontana
Team Chevy Continues to Lead NASCAR Nextel Manufacturers' Cup Points
GM Racing Communications, Press Release
FONTANA, CA - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS, brought home a strong second place run in the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway. The run moved Junior from ninth to sixth in the point standing with one race left to the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship.
Earnhardt was closing on race winner Kasey Kahne (Dodge) but ran out of laps and settled for the runner-up spot in the finishing order.
Raybestos Rookie contender Clint Bowyer, No. 07 Jack Daniels Monte Carlo SS scored his NNCS career-best finish with a solid third at the checkered flag of the 250-lap/500-mile.
The Race to the Chase points battle continues to rage with just 147 points seperating positions three through 11. Just one race remains to set the 10-driver battle for the Chase.
Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS moved to fourth in points with his fifth place finish in tonight's race. Raybestos Rookie leader Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express finished in sixth place, which dropped him from sixth to seventh in the points.
Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS, drove to an eighth place finish in the race, moving him down one position to fifth in the standings.
Defending NNCS champion Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Monte Carlo SS, captured ninth at the finish, keeping him eighth in the point standings.
Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS, took the biggest hit in the points dropping from seventh to 10th after finishing in 16th place. He is 30 points ahead of Kahne who sits 11th and the only other driver mathematically able to make the Chase.
The Manufacturer's points are as follows following the Sony HD 500:
Chevrolet 186 points, 14 wins; Ford, 147 points, 4 wins and Dodge 142 points, 9 wins.
The final Race to the Chase is the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 Saturday, September 9th at Richmond International Raceway.
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO - Finished 2nd; Post Race Press Conference Transcript
ON THE RACE:
"It was pretty uneventful to be honest with you. We just pitted when we needed to and ran up high, sort of out of the way, and stayed clean all night. The top was really good for me and we were a little bit faster than everybody for the most part of the race, we just didn't have track position."
DID YOU NOTICE THE TRACK TEMPERATURE? WAS IT A GRADUAL CHANGE?
"I don't know. I don't think we can really tell you when the track is changing as far as temperature-wise. I would be able to tell you when it's tightening up a little bit and how the track tightens up as the sun goes down. When Turns 3 and 4 goes into the shade, it obviously has a lot more grip than it did before and a huge difference in grip from (Turns) 1 and 2. Turns 1 and 2 is a parking lot to begin with (laughter) and when you go there 190 mph, everybody is sideways and spinning out. That's just a characteristic of the race track. Even at night it was pretty slick on the bottom. Neither the rear nor the front was giving away. But as the track cools off, the track gets faster. The track maintains most of it's characteristics, but it does gain a little grip."
ON GOING TO RICHMOND:
"Yeah, I'm pretty excited going to Richmond. We wish we would have had a win or two in addition to what we got at Richmond earlier this year, but we haven't had that kind of luck. It's an opportunity to get a win and an opportunity to run good. At worst, hopefully we'll come out of there with a top 15 or a top 10. And that's sort of the mindset anyway, do you know what I mean? But anything can happen to you if you get involved in crashes or there would be something stupid. So we'll try to be smart. I think it's great for the sport that the points are as they are right now. It's very exciting to be a part of it. I think it is doing exactly what it was intended to do, which was to create a lot of excitement and drama right in a particularly boring part of the season. So it's made it pretty exciting."
THIS IS ONE OF YOUR STRONGEST RUNS AT THIS TRACK. YOU SEEMED TO REALLY PICK IT UP IN THE LAST 30 LAPS. DID YOUR CAR REALLY KICK IN THEN?
"I wasn't that great for the first five or fifteen laps of a run. I was sort of in the way. But I tried to hold my position the best I could because after 15 or 20 laps, we'd really get to going around the top. If I had to run the bottom like most guys did, we wouldn't have run well at all tonight.
The top works for me pretty much at 60 percent of the tracks we run at on the circuit. I like running up there. I don't know why. But I try to set my car up to do that. We are probably off five percent or whatever from some of the really fast cars that we're competing with up front; in the engine department, we've gained a lot this year. But running the high side sort of carries the momentum of the car and helps you on the straight-aways quite a bit. We're gaining a lot in our motor department; it's not a hack on them at all. But it really helps to run up there. It keeps the momentum up."
ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAST YEAR AND THIS YEAR AS HE LEAVES CALIFORNIA TO RACE IN RICHMOND:
"Well, our team is starting to really peak at this point of the season. We are running well at almost every track, every week. This is a great time for us to really be sort of peaking. We'll try to take advantage of it and hopefully it will last for a few more races and we can put ourselves in position to win that championship. There is a lot of great competition and it's going to be very difficult to win, but I think we've got the tangibles that it takes as far as the people and personnel and cars and whatnot. But I'm just really proud of my team, to be honest with you. A lot of credit goes to them. I haven't changed much and I don't think I'm much different than I was last year. I'm just really proud of my team and they give me such a great effort every week and it really means a lot."
GOING TO RICHMOND, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO ONLY HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ONE GUY, KASEY KAHNE, POSSIBLY KNOCKING YOU OUT OF THE TOP 10 INSTEAD OF THREE OR FOUR AS IN THE PAST
"Not so much. You have to really look at the obvious there. Any one of these guys can knock you out. It ain't so much Kasey. Kasey might make it and somebody else gets knocked out. But I don't think Kasey is really to blame for whoever doesn't make the Chase is what I'm saying. It's so close in points. I like Kasey a lot and I don't want to look at him a in an adversary in that way. I want to enjoy racing with him. He's a great competitor and a lot of fun to race with. Whoever does make the Chase deserves it, and I hope we're a part of that program."
CASEY MEARS CAME IN AT ONE POINT AND TOPPED OFF WITH GAS WITH THE INTENT OF TRYING TO MAKE IT TO THE END. WAS THERE EVER ANY CONSIDERATION IN YOUR PIT TO DO THAT?
"No, not really; absolutely not. There was probably zero discussion because of the track position. We weren't in great track position at that time. We had a good car and Tony Jr. sort of knew there was a 90 percent chance you'd run out of gas. And you saw that Clint (Bowyer) was the only guy that made it. So, you didn't see a lot of guys take that chance. If it was a clear bet, you'd see a lot of people do it. And it was so close and there was a rare chance to even make it so only a few guys would give it a shot. You guys (the media) always ask do you race hard, do you race for the win, or just to get points, or take it easy to just try to make the Chase? Those are the instances where you're maybe not taking it easy, but just being conservative. You don't give up track position if costs you. If you lose to Clint Bowyer and three other guys, at least you finished ahead of the people you needed to be ahead of. But you race as hard as you ever do on the track itself. But that's where you make different decisions. Early in the season, you might go for it, but now you've got to be pretty conservative on the pit calls."
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California Speedway Race Results (9-3-2006)
This thread if to post the qualifying and final results for the race. As usual, if you have a thought of opinion about this race please share it with us! OK, Let' Go Racin' Boys!!!
Qualifying Results
The Pole
Dodge NNCS Teams Post-Sony HD 500 Race Recaps
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