The Streak Ends

Dale Earnhardt Jr. used a huge fuel gamble and survived a late green-white-checkered finish to win the Lifelock 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

As the race began winding down and teams started calculating fuel mileage, Jr. was about two laps short. Jamie McMurray and Kasey Kahne were also close on fuel. They backed down their lap times, while the other teams began pitting with about 22 laps to go.

Jr. inherited the lead in the closing laps, as the others pitted. Then, he began racing with McMurray for what they thought would be the win.

Jr. took the lead and began pulling away from McMurray when Sam Hornish Jr. spun bringing out the caution, forcing a green-white-checker. Under caution, Jr. kept turning the car off and coasting to conserve fuel.

On the restart, Mark Martin appeared to run out of fuel, and cars began passing him on the inside and outside. Jr. took the white flag with Kahne behind him. Martin finished 25th.

On the last lap, Martin Truex Jr. and Michael Waltrip got together sending Waltrip spinning, ending the race. Jr. had enough fuel to cross the start-finish line and win the race. 

Top 10: Earnhardt Jr., Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Elliott Sadler, and McMurray.

Notable: Kevin Harvick (12th), Kyle Busch (13th), Denny Hamlin (14th), Jeff Burton (15th), Jeff Gordon (18th), Greg Biffle (20th), Kurt Busch (21st), Martin (25th), Clint Bowyer (26th), and Ryan Newman (42nd).

Vickers expressed some frustration with his finish. According to him, NASCAR told him to let the No. 8 car pass him under caution, despite the fact that, he said, he was in front of him by many car lengths when the caution came out. With the buffer of the 8 car, he couldn’t catch Jr. or Kahne.

Earnhardt Jr. said:   

They can write what they want but we won one!

France: Don’t Believe Everything Alleged In Lawsuit

ESPN is repoting that NASCAR chairman Brian France urged the public not to believe everything that has been alleged in Mauricia Grant’s $225M lawsuit against NASCAR.

France said:

Knowing what I know, not to compromise the investigation, I can tell you not to jump to conclusions about what a lawsuit attempts to say in an attempt to create some monetary reward.

 Tim Knox and Bud Moore are said to be the two officials that have been put on paid administrative leave indefinitely, but NASCAR would not confirm their identities. The two are said to have been identified in the suit as people who exposed themselves to Grant.

In the suit, Knox is accused of exposing himself to Grant at an officials gathering in April of 2007 hosted by Grant’s supervisor Joe Balash.

Moore is accused of exposing himself in a hotel room in Memphis in October of 2006.

Logano Wins Meijer 300

Rookie Joey Logano drove his Joes Gibbs Racing No. 20 Gamestop Camry to victory lane in the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway, making him the youngest driver to win a Nationwide race. This victory comes in his third start.

Kyle Busch had one of the dominant cars, but the car got away from him, and he hit the wall hard, ending his night. He said that he would not be at Milwaukee next week.

Top 10: Logano, Scott Wimmer, Mike Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Bryan Clauson, Marcos Ambrose, David Ragan, Mike Bliss, Clint Bowyer, and Jason Keller.

Notables: David Stremme (11th), David Reutimann (13th), Jason Leffler (16th), Carl Edwards (20th), and Kyle Busch (30th).

Mess With The Bull And You’ll Get The Hornaday

Kyle Busch isn’t making any friends.

Darnell Edges Benson To Win Cool City Customs 200

Eric Darnell held off a hard charging Johnny Benson in a photo finish to win the Cool City Customs 200 from Michigan International Speedway.

Benson came out of turn 4, and pulled up alongside Darnell. He passed him and held the lead as the two sprinted towards the finish line. But, in those few hundred yards, Darnell battled back and was creeping up on Benson’s outside. Just at they reached the finishline, Darnell got his nose just in front of Benson’s.

Top 10: Darnell, Benson, Scott Speed, Todd Bodine, Brendan Gaughan, Colin Braun, Kyle Busch, Mike Skinner, Chad McCumbee, and Terry Cook.

Notables: Dennis Setzer (16th), Stacy Comptom (21st), Ron Hornaday (23rd), Ted Musgrave (24th), David Starr (26th), and Jack Sprague (30th).

On the white flag lap, Busch and Hornaday got together, sending Hornaday spinning. The spin knocked Hornaday from seventh to 23rd, where he finished.

After the incident, Hornaday and team owner Kevin Harvick confronted Busch in the garage to exchange words. They eventually were seperated.

Hornaday said of the incident:

[Busch] just drove into me because he got mad because I took us four wide and passed him cleanly. Halfway through the race, he showed me he was upset because he lifted the back of the truck up. If he is going to race that way, that is pretty chicken. He doesn’t deserve to be a racer. He has a lot of talent, but that is just flat stupid.

Busch said:

I just got into him. Sorry about that. But remarks from Harvick and Hornaday are what they’re going to be, they’re big mouths anyway and so we’ll take it and get on with it and hopefully beat them out for this championship.