Busch Series Sam’s Town 300
At the race’s start Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Larry Foyt dropped to the end of the starting grid. Hamilton was in a back-up car after wrecking during practice and Foyt made unapproved change to the grading before the start of the race. It was Matt Kenseth, in Robby Riser’s Visine Chevy that lead was the field charging off into turn one at the race’s start. However, 2 laps later Greg Biffle got around him. The yellow came out on lap 5 when Jeff Purvis made contact with Blaise Alexander. The contact sent Blaise into the marbles where he spun and backed it into the wall. Brad Baker checked up for it and spun after Shane Hall got into him. The damage ended Alexander’s day.
When the field came to the green on lap 8, Greg Biffle led Matt Kenseth, Todd Bodine, Jamie McMurray, and Ashton Lewis. They were followed by Joe Nemechek, Mike McLaughlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kenny Wallace, and Chad Little. Positions 11-20 consisted of Elton Sawyer, Jeff Green, Kevin Lepage, Kevin Grubb, Kevin Harvick, Mark Green, Jason Keller, P.J. Jones, Randy Lajoie, and Tim Fedewa. Hank Park Jr. was 21st with Jeff Burton, Jay Sauter, David Green, and Marty Houston rounding out the top 25. The rest of the top 30 was Michael Waltrip, Chad Chaffin, Jeff Purvis, Rich Bickle, and Christian Elder. By lap 15, Todd Bodine had worked his way to the lead. Likewise, Joe Nemchek has entered the top with a pass on Ashton Lewis. After 15 laps, Scott Gaylord pulled behind the wall with engine troubles and his day was would be done on lap 37. Meanwhile, Jeff Green made a few moves and was in the top 10 on lap 17. Lap 23 saw Jeff Purvis pit for a tire that they felt was cut done during contact with another car. During that stop, he was caught speeding on pit road . The drive through penalty has him mired back in 39th. Lap 39, the yellow came out for debris. The timing hurt PJ Jones and Mark Green, who had stopped prior to the yellow for fresh rubber. Several of the leaders used this as an opportunity to make a pit stops . During those stops Matt Kenseth was able to get to the front and Todd Bodine lost 5 positions. Two laps after the flag dropped, another yellow came as Randy Lajoie made contact with Kelly Denton and sent the 77 spinning.
The race resumed again on lap 48 with Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Todd Bodine, and Jamie McMurray at the front. On lap 50, Chad Chaffin spun but didn’t touch the wall and gathered it back up without bringing out another caution. On lap 54, Jason Keller passed Mike McLaughlin this placing the Albertson’s Ford in 6th. Equally, Jeff Burton had continued to march up through the pack and had worked his way up to 9 in the race. After lap 59, David Green pulled off with engine failure joining Sammy Sanders who exited the race at lap 22 and Blaise Alexander who’s day ended after his lap 3 crash. On lap 63, Todd Bodine, having already gotten around Johnson, tracked Biffle down for 2nd. The two battled back and forth for the next 5 laps. Within 6 more laps, Bodine wrestled the lead away from Kenseth as well.
On lap 78, as Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle got together entering turn 1. Both spun and Kenseth made hard contact with the wall. The yellow gave the field a chance to stop and take on tires and gas. That round of pits stops shook up the running order with Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Grubb, Mike McLaughlin, Tony Raines, and Joe Nemechek beating the rest of the lead lap cars off pit road. Todd Bodine, Jason Keller, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, and Randy Lajoie rounded at the top 10 as the field came to green on lap 82.
On Lap 87, the yellow came out again. This time Michael Waltrip spun near the tri-oval on the front stretch. On the yellow, most of the field stayed out. Jimmie Johnson, however, pitted from the lead due to a wheel vibration. Kevin Grubb inherited the lead. Waltrip also stopped to change tires and the fix slight damage sustained in the spin. Grubb lead the field back to the green flag on lap 90. After one lap, Todd Bodine made his way back to the lead. Behind Bodine, Grubb found himself attempting to hold off Mike McLaughlin and PJ Jones. While they battled, Jason Keller squirted past them along the front straight moving into second on lap 92. As they kept dicing it up, Joe Nemechek was able to join the fray. On the back straight, Jones was able to pull ahead and into third. At the strip the next time by, it was Nemechek and Grubb side by side for fourth with McLaughlin and Greg Biffle side by side behind them. Over the course of a whole lap, Nemechek was able to gain an advantage and take fourth. After a lap or 2 struggle, Mike McLaughlin prevailed and occupied 5th. Grubb continued to slide as both Jeff Burton and Tony Raines clears him on lap 99.
Lap 100 marked the halfway point and that was the lap Greg Biffle took second from Jason Keller. Three laps later marked the end of the day for Randy Lajoie. Lajoie blew a motor in his Kleenex Chevy. By this point Kevin Grubb had faded outside of the top 10 and was under attack from Scott Wimmer for 13th. Grubb continued to drop and by lap 110 had fallen a lap down. By lap 130, Todd Bodine had opened his lead up to 7 seconds over Biffle. Four lap later, Bodine passed Tim Sauter leaving only 15 cars remaining on the lead lap.
On lap 36, Joe Nemechek would be the first of the lead lap cars to hit pit road under green. He was running 4th prior to the stop. Biffle, Keller, and Jeff Green all came down on lap 140. Two laps later, Bodine pitted. His stop wound up being troublesome. Initially. It was a 20 second stop, which was 2 seconds slower than that of Nemechek. Matters worsened when the pit crew noticed he missed a lug nut on the left front. Bodine pulled a pit stall away before reversing and having the error corrected. All the stops allowed Tony Raines to take the lead for lap before he too stopped with Mike McLaughlin. Ashton Lewis also had trouble on his pit stop as he was caught speeding on pit road and was issued a stop and go penalty. Prior to the stops Lewis was running 10th. Kenny Wallace’s team also missed a lug nut and he got out on to the track before the team caught it so he had to make a second stop to fix it. In his haste, he also picked up a speeding penalty entering the pits the second time down pit road so NASCAR held him the obligatory 5 seconds. All of this put Jimmie Johnson back to the front. Johnson could stretch out his mileage further due to topping off when he pitted for the aforementioned wheel vibration. Johnson finally stopped on lap 151. On that same lap, Biffle got around Keller, who had managed to get in front him with a faster pit stop. Elton Sawyer and Kevin Lapage became the last two to stop the next lap, allowing Sawyer to lead a lap. While Sawyer and Lepage were getting serviced,
Marty Houston made contact with the outside wall exiting turn 4 bringing out 7th yellow of the day. With pit stops having cycled through, it put Greg Biffle at the point when the yellow came out. With the yellow and so few cars on the lead lap, the leaders put on another set of fresh tires. The race went back to green on lap 160. Tony Raines, Mike McLaughlin, Elton Sawyer, Greg Biffle, and Jason Keller were the top 5 upon the restart. Joe Nemchek, Jamie McMurray, Todd Bodine, Jeff Green and Kevin Harvick occupied positions 6-10. Out of the top 10, the first four did not stop under the caution. During the first lap back to green, Biffle was able to clear both McLaughlin and Sawyer to take second. On lap 163, Biffle passed Raines for the lead but, during the first three laps back to green, Todd Bodine was slicing through traffic, passing McMurray, Nemchek, Keller, and Sawyer. Over the next 4 laps Bodine would also displace McLaughlin and Raines. Thus the stage was set for a 30 lap shoot out between Biffle and Bodine.
With 25 laps to go, the Grainger Ford held 1.35 second lead over the Buckshot Racing entry. Jason Keller had now moved up to third with Tony Raines and Elton Sawyer hanging on to top 5 positions on worn tires. It only took Todd Bodine 5 laps to chop Biffle’s lead down to half a second. Further back, Jeff Green worked his past Mike McLaughlin for 6th. With two cars on worn tires in front of him Green looked at gain more positions. Joe Nemchek, Jeff Burton, Jay Sauter rounded out the top 10. Scott Wimmer, Kevin Harvick, Tim Sauter, Rich Bickle, and Jamie McMurray were the remaining 5 cars on the lead lap. On the next 4 laps, Biffle changed his lane running a little higher in turns one and two. This allowed him to stabilize the gap between him and Bodine at 4 tenths of a second. With 15 to go, Biffle got a touch loose in the center of turns one and two; and it allowed Bodine to get right on his bumper. Down the back straight Bodine tucked right behind Biffle in his draft and attempted to slingshot past him in turn 3. Momentum on the high side helped Biffle and he managed to hold the lead at the stripe by the front clip. Just 14 to go. Heading into turn 1 the touched slightly and it gave Biffle an advantage on turn exit. In three and 4, Bodine made another run on the inside of Biffle. They came to the Tri-oval door to door again. This time it was Bodine credited with the lead by less than 5 one hundredths of a second. They stayed side by side down the back straight but, in Turn 3 Bodine drove it deep and managed to slide up right in front of Biffle on turn exit. With 12 to go, Bodine had finally established himself in front of Biffle by a car length. From there it seemed like it was no turning back and Bodine would drive off with the win. To further entrench his position at the front, Bodine lapped McMurray at the end of that same lap putting an obstacle between himself and Biffle. Biffle managed to negotiate is way past the slower McMurray on corner exit and they hit the stripe with 11 to go. While the leaders battled, deeper in the field, Jeff Burton cleared Nemechek and and Sawyer ho had slid down the running order a few spots.
With 9 laps to go, the lead Todd Bodine established would be in jeopardy as Larry Foyt bounced his Chevy off the wall on the front straight bringing out the yellow. While checking up for Foyt, Ashton Lewis and Tim Fedewa made contact as well. Track officials decided to throw the red flag to ensure a green flag finish. When they re-fired the engine, there was faint smoke coming off Bodine’s 00’s machine. During the yellow, Kevin Harvick, Mike McLaughlin, and Tim Sauter came down for fresh tires. The action resumed starting lap 197. As Bodine headed into turn one Biffle dipped below and tried to pass. They touched on turn exit before Biffle slid back in line behind him. From there Bodine was able to check out and win followed by Biffle, Jason Keller and Tony Raines. Behind them, the last three laps saw Jeff Green, Jeff Burton, Joe Nemchek, Elton Sawyer, Mike McLaughlin, and Jay Sauter doing battle to decide the rest of the top ten. They finished in exactly that order.
