Backstretch Motorsports

KANSAS CITY, KS. (Oct. 4, 2009) — Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart took two tires on his final pit stop and held off hard-charging Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion himself, at the finish to win the Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway Sunday afternoon.

Stewart, a first-year car owner/driver, raced hard all afternoon with the frontrunners and gambled with crew chief Darian Grubb on the two-tire strategy at the end.

“Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made it.” said the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot Chevrolet “We got two tires earlier in the day and were able to go really quick on them so it was pretty much in our opinion a no-brainer of what to do. The guys that took four could just never gain the track position back. We had a really good car on two tires. Darian and these guys on the pit crew, they are the ones that got us the win. They got us track position and I was able to pick which line I wanted on the restart and that won us the race.”

When asked if he saw Gordon in his rear view mirror, Stewart quipped, “He was getting bigger every lap.”

“Obviously. Jeff is an awesome competitor. We come from the same camp here so I know what he’s got. We had a good enough lead there we could afford to loose a little bit of time. We didn’t want to burn tires off in case we had a green-white-checker but he kept us honest for sure. We couldn’t leave too much out there.”

Trailing Stewart and Gordon across the finish line were Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, David Reutimann, Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards.

All of the top-10 drivers except Reutimann are battling in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup during the season’s final 10 races. Martin, the 50-year-old favorite of older fans, still leads the championship chase with three-time champion Johnson second in the standings. Montoya, with his third consecutive top-five finish in as many races, moved into third place.

The race had 14 different leaders and 25 lead changes, both new track records. It also featured several wheel-to-wheel battles for the lead before a crowd of close to 100,000 at the scenic one-and-a-half mile tri-oval track.

Points leader Martin, in fact, passed several cars in the final laps to get his eighth-place finish.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., led briefly early in the race but a series of mishaps put him back in the pack and his engine finally quit about 30 laps from the finish.

Martin pulled away at the start on a sun-splashed, perfect-for-racing afternoon. On the second lap, Joey Logano got loose in Turn 2 and spun off the track in a cloud of smoke.

Logano made national news at Dover International Speedway last weekend when his Joe Gibbs Toyota made the spectacular-crashes highlight reel, flipping and rolling in a heart-stopping accident. The young driver was not injured and came back Saturday to win the NASCAR Nationwide race at Kansas Speedway, passing teammate Kyle Busch with just two laps to go.

The action at Kansas Speedway resumed on Lap 5 with Martin out front but a multi-car wreck one lap later involved at least five cars and brought out another caution flag. Paul Menard triggered the accident getting sideways out of Turn 2, collecting the machines of Michael Waltrip, David Ragan, Max Papis and Bobby Labonte.

Martin once again led the restart at Lap 11 but Earnhardt moved ahead on Lap 12 and Keselowski passed Martin for second.

At 50 laps, the field had spread out with Earnhardt leading. Keselowski was second followed by Johnson, Stewart, Martin, Reutimann, Kahne, McMurray, Kenseth and Montoya.

Earnhardt fans were ecstatic seeing the green and white No. 88 out front.

Green-flag pit stops started at Lap 53 and once all the leaders had new Goodyears and a full tank of Sunoco gasoline, it was Johnson out front trailed by Keselowski, Johnson, Stewart, Reutimann, Kahne, Martin, Kenseth and Montoya.

Earnhardt dropped all the way back to 32nd after a miscue forced him to return to the pits a second time for a missing lug nut. He lost a lap due to the mishap.

Another caution slowed the field at Lap 69 when Reid Sorensen glanced off the Turn 2 wall.

Biffle took the lead on the Lap 75 restart with Truex second. Kurt Busch was third and Johnson fourth

Biffle and Johnson battled each other fender to fender until Papis got in the way and forced Biffle to give up the lead to Johnson on Lap 102. At that point, it was Johnson, Biffle, Stewart, Keselowski, Montoya, Gordon, Kenseth, Truex, Martin and Hamlin.

Keselowski was the first to pit again on Lap 124 but the caution came out when Brian Vickers spun coming out of Turn 4.

When the race resumed on Lap 130, just a few laps short of halfway, Biffle was back in the lead ahead of Johnson, Montoya, Gordon, Stewart, Hamlin, Martin, Kyle Busch, Kahne and Reutimann. Keselowski had dropped back to 25th.

NASCAR Race Number 29
Unofficial Race Results for the Price Chopper 400 Presented By Kraft Foods
- Sunday, October 4, 2009
Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS - 1.5 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 267 Laps - 400.5 Miles - Purse: $6,182,706
Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 5 14 Tony Stewart Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet 267 190 5 129.8 $332,498 Running 5 37
2 9 24 Jeff Gordon DuPont Chevrolet 267 170 111.5 $246,776 Running
3 31 16 Greg Biffle 3M/Sherwin Williams Ford 267 175 10 128.5 $209,375 Running 6 113
4 14 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Target Chevrolet 267 165 5 111.3 $181,873 Running 1 1
5 22 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Freight Toyota 267 160 5 105.2 $139,225 Running 1 1
6 6 9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser Dodge 267 150 101.9 $152,973 Running
7 1 5 Mark Martin CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet 267 151 5 102.8 $123,800 Running 1 11
8 13 00 David Reutimann Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota 267 142 96.4 $132,173 Running
9 11 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Chevrolet 267 143 5 120.5 $154,951 Running 5 53
10 17 99 Carl Edwards Aflac Ford 267 139 5 87.7 $150,131 Running 1 1
11 39 2 Kurt Busch Miller Lite Dodge 267 135 5 88.8 $115,325 Running 1 2
12 34 18 Kyle Busch M&M’s Toyota 267 127 83.0 $142,898 Running
13 3 25 Brad Keselowski GoDaddy.com Chevrolet 267 129 5 93.4 $95,075 Running 1 1
14 27 47 Marcos Ambrose Little Debbie/Kingsford/Clorox Toyota 267 121 78.9 $111,698 Running
15 36 07 Casey Mears Jack Daniel’s Chevrolet 267 118 76.3 $111,550 Running
16 21 1 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Chevrolet 267 120 5 80.1 $130,690 Running 1 2
17 15 44 A J Allmendinger Valvoline Dodge 267 112 70.9 $95,000 Running
18 33 77 Sam Hornish Jr. AAA Dodge 267 109 66.1 $113,310 Running
19 16 21 Bill Elliott Motorcraft Ford 266 106 58.6 $90,150 Running
20 42 19 Elliott Sadler Best Buy Dodge 266 108 5 55.6 $102,650 Running 1 2
21 8 33 Clint Bowyer Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet 266 100 72.9 $100,200 Running
22 30 39 Ryan Newman U.S. ARMY Chevrolet 266 97 65.5 $119,129 Running
23 35 31 Jeff Burton Caterpillar Chevrolet 266 94 62.1 $135,156 Running
24 38 29 Kevin Harvick Reese’s Chevrolet 266 91 59.1 $127,528 Running
25 32 12 David Stremme No. 12 Penske Dodge Dodge 266 88 64.2 $121,965 Running
26 28 43 Reed Sorenson McDonald’s Monopoly Dodge 266 85 57.0 $126,626 Running
27 10 82 Scott Speed # Red Bull Toyota 266 82 51.8 $101,648 Running
28 18 20 Joey Logano # Home Depot Toyota 266 79 45.4 $131,726 Running
29 41 96 Erik Darnell Northern Tool + Equipment Ford 265 76 43.5 $114,804 Running
30 20 98 Paul Menard Zecol/Menards Ford 265 73 40.5 $117,831 Running
31 4 26 Jamie McMurray Crown Royal Ford 264 70 71.5 $94,225 Running
32 43 13 Max Papis # GEICO Toyota 263 67 37.2 $84,525 Running
33 40 34 John Andretti Taco Bell Chevrolet 263 69 5 39.7 $92,275 Running 1 1
34 37 7 Robby Gordon MAPEI/Menards Toyota 263 61 48.7 $101,885 Running
35 25 6 David Ragan UPS Freight Ford 256 58 33.1 $90,900 Running
36 2 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet 232 60 5 99.4 $100,700 Engine 1 41
37 12 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Toyota 208 52 40.5 $110,798 Engine
38 29 55 Michael Waltrip NAPA Auto Parts Toyota 141 49 27.9 $90,250 Accident
39 23 17 Matt Kenseth DeWalt Ford 134 51 5 75.0 $128,290 Engine 1 1
40 24 66 Dave Blaney PRISM Motorsports Toyota 28 43 34.9 $81,850 Engine
41 19 09 Mike Bliss Miccosukee Indian Gaming & Resort Dodge 26 40 29.9 $81,600 Overheating
42 7 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 25 37 28.0 $81,430 Rear End
43 26 71 Bobby Labonte TRG Motorsports Chevrolet 6 34 27.8 $81,718 Accident
Race Comments: Before an estimated crowd of 100,000, Tony Stewart won the Price Chopper 400 Presented by Kraft, his 37th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. To start the race, no cars dropped to the rear under penalty.
Failed to Qualify: (3) 04 David Gilliland, 36 Michael McDowell, 37 Kevin Hamlin.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 55 Mins, 13 Secs. Average Speed: 137.144 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.894 Seconds
Caution Flags: 6 for 23 laps: Laps: 3-5 (#20 spun turn 2 [None]); 8-11 (#6, 13, 55, 71, 98 accident backstretch [None]); 71-74 (#43 accident turn 2 [19]); 127-130 (#83 spun turn 4 [29]); 148-151 (#19 spun turn 2 [99]); 238-241 (Oil on track [44]).
Lead Changes: 26 among 14 drivers: M. Martin 1-11; D. Earnhardt Jr. 12-52; T. Stewart 53; M. Kenseth 54; C. Edwards 55; M. Truex Jr. 56-57; E. Sadler 58-59; J. Andretti 60; B. Keselowski 61; J. Johnson 62-70; T. Stewart 71; G. Biffle 72-90; J. Johnson 91; G. Biffle 92; J. Johnson 93; G. Biffle 94-101; J. Johnson 102-126; T. Stewart 127; G. Biffle 128-130; J. Johnson 131-147; J. Montoya 148; G. Biffle 149-201; T. Stewart 202-205; D. Hamlin 206; Kurt Busch 207-208; G. Biffle 209-237; T. Stewart 238-267.
Top 12 Driver Points: (1) M. Martin 5,551;(2) J. Johnson 5,533;(3) J. Montoya 5,500;(4) T. Stewart 5,484;(5) Kurt Busch 5,460;(6) D. Hamlin 5,452;(7) J. Gordon 5,448;(8) G. Biffle 5,437;(9) R. Newman 5,387;(10) C. Edwards 5,386;(11) K. Kahne 5,361;(12) B. Vickers 5,301.
Coors Light Pole Award : Mark Martin, #5 175.758 mph DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race : Tony Stewart, #14 crew chief Darian Grubb
DOW Automotive Strategic Call of the Race : Tony Stewart, #14 EA Sports Move of the Race : Tony Stewart, #14
Goodyear Gatorback Fastest Lap : Greg Biffle, #16 170.261 mph, Lap 153 Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Greg Biffle, #16
Mobil 1 Command Performance Driver of the Race : Juan Pablo Montoya, #42 Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race : Jeff Gordon, #24 0.309 seconds
O’Reilly Auto Parts People, Service and Performance : Greg Biffle, #16 247.606 seconds Raybestos Rookie of the Race : Scott Speed, #82
Sunoco Diamond Performance : Tony Stewart, #14 Tissot Pit Road Precision : Greg Biffle, #16 215.890 seconds
WIX Filters Lap Leader : Tony Stewart, #14 37 Laps
Next Race: Oct. 11, 2009 - Auto Club Speedway