Lap-by-Lap: Darlington

NASCAR.COM
May 13, 2006
07:43 PM EDT (23:43 GMT)
Lap 55 -- Robby Gordon, after climbing as high as seventh, collected a Darlington Stripe and is worried about problems it may cause with the brakes.
Lap 52 -- Elliott Sadler continues to fall back and is now in 34th place after concerns of tire issues and a loose racecar. Jeff Gordon is also complaining of problems and is running 16th.
Lap 40 -- Robby Gordon cracks the top 10 after starting 24th.
Lap 36 -- LEAD CHANGE: Greg Biffle passes Kasey Kahne for the lead.
Lap 35 -- Greg Biffle gets around Ryan Newman for second.
Lap 33 -- GREEN FLAG: Kasey Kahne leads.
1. Kasey Kahne
2. Ryan Newman
3. Greg Biffle
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Clint Bowyer
Lap 32 -- Kevin Harvick goes back to pit road just as the race goes green. His crew sees water in the pits and will check the duct work.
Lap 31 -- Dave Blaney stays out to lead a lap but hits pit road for his stop.
Lap 30 -- All drivers hit pit road for four tires:
•Denny Hamlin makes a track-bar adjustment
•Clint Bowyer makes his stop in 15 seconds
•Kasey Kahne wins the race off pit road
Lap 28 -- CAUTION FLAG: Brian Vickers crashes on the back straightaway after getting loose in front of Bobby Labonte.
Lap 20 -- Carl Edwards, who started seventh, has dropped all the way back to 36th.
Lap 15 -- Rookies Clint Bowyer (second), Denny Hamlin (fourth) and David Stremme (fifth) remain in the top five since the start of the race.
Lap 8 -- Elliott Sadler has dropped from fifth to 10th in the last four laps. He is complaining that the car is too free.
7:10 p.m. -- GREEN FLAG: Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman lead into the high groove of Turn 1.
7:09 p.m. -- Sterling Marlin and Terry Labonte to the rear for engine changes (both have Hendrick engines).
7:03 p.m. -- Cars roll onto the track, as night racing at Darlington is minutes away.
6:59 p.m. -- Mothers of theNextel Cup drivers, "Sons, start your engines!"
6:51 p.m. -- Billy Dean sings the national anthem as F-15s from Eagle Air Force Base fly over.
6:50 p.m. -- Harold King of Darlington Raceway delivers the invocation.
6:42 p.m. -- Footage of Michael Waltrip "throwing" out the first pitch at this week's Braves/Marlins game makes Kurt Busch look like Roger Clemens.
6:35 p.m. -- First interview is with Dale Earnhardt Jr., last week's winner. "One of the more important things for me is to respect my peers," Earnhardt said.
6:34 p.m. -- After a quick commercial break, Jeff Hammond shows a real chunk of asphalt from Darlington. The exhibit shows exactly how rough the surface is.
6:30 p.m. -- FOX is on the air, and it's made clear that Darlington is too tough to tame. Can't beat the footage of old races.
4:52 p.m. -- It's 79 degrees in Darlington, as drivers await their Saturday night dance with the Lady in Black.

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Dodge Motorsports/Clear!Blue Communications Press Release


RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel My Circle Dodge Charger) – 6th

“I think everybody else got a little better and we stayed about the same The 16 was stout. You could tell on a couple of restarts that he had a real fast racecar. It was just a matter that he got off, but he got it back right at the end. We were the highest finishing Dodge, and that’s the first time all year. I’ve got to thank everybody at Penske Racing. I’m looking forward to Charlotte. Darlington is the same as it’s always been. Goodyear brought a good tire, and it lasted. That’s our second straight top 10, and that’s great, but it doesn’t turn anything around. We’ve got it going in the right direction. We’ve got to keep our chins up and marching forward.”
JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) – 38th

“With 100 laps to go we were getting better. The car was still loose and we just couldn’t get a handle on it. Then we had a right front suspension failure. That’s the way things have gone this year, but we’re racing at home for a few weeks and maybe that’s what we need.”
KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger) – 19th

“We were about a seventh-place car the first third of the race. The car rolled off the jack and that put us way back in the field. It was just way too loose or way too tight the rest of the night. Anything we did to it would make it go from one extreme to the other. Just the least adjustment made it go from super loose to super tight. It was just a really weird night.”
KYLE PETTY (No. 45 Tire Kingdom Dodge Charger) – 18th

“It was really slick out there tonight. We were a little off yesterday, but all the guys went to work and changed everything. I think we changed two or three springs and a swaybar, a little bit of everything. I didn’t know what we were going to have tonight. I can’t complain. The guys did a good job, and I ran over the wall there four or five times there in the last 20 laps trying to get the Lucky Dodge, but then I realized I wasn’t going to get it.”
REED SORENSON (No. 41 Target Dodge Charger) – 11th

“It scraped the wall and knocked the right front fender in a little bit, but the team did a great job of fixing it and getting us back out. It was decent after that. I think it was a pretty good run for us to begin with at Darlington. We’ll come back and try to get in the top 10. We almost got it tonight, but I think we’ve got it headed in the right direction.”
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger) – 21st

“This wasn’t the finish we had expected tonight. We’ve had success here in the past and thought we could duplicate that kind of performance. The car was pretty good the first 100 laps, and then I couldn't get it to turn in and off the corner. We stayed in the top 15 and thought we would get things sorted out the last 100 laps. I brushed the wall (lap 272) and that didn’t help the handling.
“The pit stops were awesome tonight. We had plenty of horsepower. I didn't get to take advantage of it over the last half of the race. There’s a fine line on adjustments, and we didn’t get the car where it needed to be late in the race. It’s a disappointing finish, certainly not what we expected.”

SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Stanley Tools/Valvoline Dodge Charger) – 31st

“We really fought the handling all day. We were really tight in the center but at the same time very free under throttle. When I got two laps down that just killed us because we were making some headway with our adjustments at that point and could run with the top 10. We just missed on our setup, and that’s not like us. So far this season I can’t think of a race that Rodney (crew chief Childers) and the guys did not bring a top 10 car to. This was the first. We will just have to get them in Charlotte next week. Our team participated in both Goodyear tire tests at Lowe’s, so we expect to go into the weekend with a strong setup.”


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Ryan Newman, Daytona 500 Champion!!
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