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NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series News & Notes – Watkins Glen

Race To The Chase, Round 6: Busch?s Win Elevates Him To 12th
Kurt Busch?s (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge) dominant win at Pocono last Sunday has elevated him to 12th place in the standings, seven points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet). Busch delivered a perfect (150.0) Driver Rating at Pocono and also set a track record by leading 174 laps. Over the last eight races, Busch has picked up five spots and 95 points to move into 12th place. Following the race at Dover and a subsequent penalty that cost him 100 points, Busch had fallen to 17th place, 88 points behind Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt Jr. had been in the top 12 for six straight weeks and seven overall this season before slipping out last week at Pocono, despite a season-best second-place finish.

Ryan Newman (No. 12 Kodak Dodge) finished seventh at Pocono and is currently 14th-place, 90 points behind teammate Kurt Busch. Mark Martin (No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet), who is driving a limited schedule this year, is 15th and 216 points out of 12th, while Greg Biffle (No. 16 Dish Network Ford) is 16th and likewise 216 points behind Busch.

Race To The Chase Reaches Halfway Point
This week?s event at Watkins Glen marks the halfway point in the Race to the Chase. And with just five races remaining before the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, the drama and competition is only thickening as the battle for seeding order and the 12th and final position takes shape.

A new wrinkle in this year?s Chase format is that the top 12 drivers in the standings qualify for the Chase and have their point totals ?reset? to 5,000. They then will have bonus points ? 10 per victory ? applied. Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) continues as the leader and would be seeded first in the Chase following Pocono. Gordon and teammate Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe?s Chevrolet) share the series lead with four victories each this year, but Gordon would get the top seed. Seeding ties are broken by the comparison of drivers? best finishes beyond victories. Johnson would jump from seventh to second because of the seeding process.

Kurt Busch?s win last week at Pocono was his first of the year and would enable him to climb from the 12th seed to the 10th seed with the new format that places a premium on winning.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart Have Successful Track Records At The Glen
Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart (No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet) have combined for six NASCAR NEXTEL Cup championships and between the two, have claimed seven wins, 10 top-fives and 13 top-10s at Watkins Glen.

Gordon leads all current drivers with four trips to Victory Lane at The Glen. Stewart has practically owned this road course over the past five years, with three wins and one runner-up finish during that time. In 2005, he put on one of the more impressive performances in NASCAR history, leading 83 of the 92 laps en route to victory.

Of the two drivers battling for the 12th position in the Chase, Dale Earnhardt Jr. holds an edge over Kurt Busch in performing at The Glen. In seven career starts there, Earnhardt.has posted two top-fives, three top-10s and one DNF here. His average finish is 17.6. Busch has six starts, one top-10, one pole and two DNFs at The Glen. His average finish is 25.0.

Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet) is the defending champion of this race. Harvick came on strong towards the end of last year?s event, overtaking Tony Stewart on Lap 87 to post the win by .892 seconds.

More on Montoya ? No NASCAR driver has ever won three national road course events in the same season. Both of Montoya?s victories this year were career firsts? his first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup win at Infineon and his first NASCAR Busch Series victory at Mexico City. Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner and Formula One star, finished second two weeks ago at Indianapolis and 16th last week at Pocono ? both flat, 2.5-mile tracks with road course characteristics. Montoya didn?t participate in last Saturday?s inaugural NASCAR Busch Series event at Montreal, another road course race, but he is entered in Saturday?s NASCAR Busch Series? ZIPPO 200 at Watkins Glen.

Car Of Tomorrow Back On The Track This Weekend; So Are Road-Course Specialists
NASCAR?s Car of Tomorrow returns to the race track this weekend at Watkins Glen. It marks the ninth of 16 events that the new car will be featured this season. Beginning in 2008, the new car will run the entire NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule.
? The Car of Tomorrow is the culmination of a seven-year project undertaken at NASCAR?s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. Important safety innovations, better competition and cost containment opportunities for the teams are the primary goals of the new car. Through its first eight races in 2007, the new car has lived up to its projected goals and more. Excluding the races at Dover and Infineon, the average margin of victory in the other six Car of Tomorrow races has been just .4325 seconds. Martin Truex Jr. (No. 1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet) was dominant at Dover, winning by 7.355 seconds, while Montoya?s margin of victory at Infineon was 4.097 seconds.
? The new car has quickly demonstrated its flexibility and versatility in allowing teams to compete with the same car at a variety of venues without having to build track specific cars. Seven teams have run the same car in four of the eight COT races; three teams have run the same car in five of the eight races; two teams have run the same car in six of the eight races, and one team ? the No. 29 Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick ? has run the same car in seven of the eight COT races.
? The new car has proven to be extremely durable, as well. There have been just 35 cars that haven?t finished the eight COT races. In those same eight races in 2006, there were 49 DNFs.
? Watkins Glen always brings out road course specialists and this weekend is no exception. Entered to compete this weekend are P.J. Jones, who will drive for David Reutimann in the No. 00 Burger King Toyota; Patrick Carpentier, who finished second at last week?s NASCAR Busch Series race in his hometown of Montreal, and will sub for Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge; and Ron Fellows, another Canadian, will be stepping in for Tony Raines and driving the No. 96 DLP/HDTV Chevrolet. Other road course specialists expected to participate include Boris Said (No. 60 No Fear Energy Ford); Brian Simo (No. 37 Dodge); and Klaus Graf (No. 49 Paralyzed Veterans of America Dodge).

2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Owner Points ? After 21 Races
Pos. Points Team Owner Driver
30th 1,805 No. 38 Ford Robert Yates David Gilliland
31st 1,788 No. 15 Chevrolet Bobby Ginn Paul Menard
32nd 1,729 No. 66 Chevrolet Joe Custer Jeff Green
33rd 1,695 No. 45 Dodge Kyle Petty Kyle Petty
34th 1,635 No. 70 Chevrolet Joe Custer Johnny Sauter
35th 1,547 No. 13 Chevrolet Jay Frye Joe Nemechek
36th 1,537 No. 22 Toyota Bill Davis Dave Blaney
37th 1,511 No. 21 Ford Glen Wood Bill Elliott
38th 1,403 No. 10 Dodge James Rocco Scott Riggs
39th 1,261 No. 83 Toyota Dietrich Mateschitz Brian Vickers

Keys To Victory
The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen International this week for a 90 lap/220.5-mile road course event. Here are some keys to look for:
? The Glen can be considered the superspeedway of all road courses. It features long straightaways, corners with a lot of banking and its configuration allows the drivers to attain high speeds. A driver also has plenty of opportunities to pass.
? Pit stops are configured differently at The Glen and are in a sense, flip-flopped from normal pit stops. The gas filler is on the opposite (passenger) side of the car. The tire changer and gas man have to run in the opposite direction to service the car during a pit stop at this road course.
? Sunday will be the ninth Car of Tomorrow race of the year. The previous eight races have been competitive, with many close finishes. The road course event at Infineon earlier this summer was likewise a Car of Tomorrow race and provided good drama and good racing down the stretch. Expect much of the same Sunday at The Glen.

In The Loop: Watkins Glen A Good Match For Stewart
Watkins Glen International has treated Tony Stewart extremely well over the Indiana native?s eight-year career.

Stewart has made eight starts at the upstate New York road course and has finished on the lead lap in all eight of them. He has three wins there, four top fives and six top 10s. He?s finished out of the top 15 there only once ? a 26th-place finish in 2001. Stewart dominated there in 2005, leading 83 of 92 laps and earning a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0. He finished second to Kevin Harvick last year.

Over the past two years, Stewart has a Driver Rating of 140.1 (best of any driver), an Average Running Position of 2.5 (best of any driver), 53 Fastest Laps Run (best of any driver) and is the only driver to run all 182 laps in the top 15.

Robby Gordon (No. 7 Jim Beam Ford) is another driver to watch at The Glen. Gordon?s last win came there in 2003 and overall he has six top-five finishes in eight races. He finished second there in 2005 and fourth last season, earning some of the best stats on the circuit over the past two years at The Glen. Gordon has the second best Driver Rating (116.0), the second-best Average Running Position (8.4), the second-fastest Green Flag Speed and the second-most Laps in the Top 15 (150).

Harvick will attempt to join Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Stewart as the only driver to win consecutive races at Watkins Glen. Harvick has four top-10 finishes in six starts and over the past two years has racked up some strong statistics. He has a Driver Rating of 106.5 (third best), an Average Running Position of 11.6 (fifth best), the third fastest Green Flag Speed and 136 Laps in the Top 15 (fourth most).

With four NASCAR Cup career wins at The Glen, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS is recently tested at Road Atlanta in preparation for this week’s race. “It was the first time I had been to Road Atlanta,” said Gordon, who is known as “King of the Road Courses” for his success at both The Glen and Infineon Raceway, the two road course races on the NASCAR circuit. “I really enjoyed running laps there. Hopefully it will help us out for the Glen. That road course is so much different than Sonoma that what you learn at VIR, what you learn at Sonoma doesn’t necessarily work for you at Watkins Glen. We have lost a little bit of our advantage at Watkins Glen that we had a few years back. I am hoping that we get that back with this new car, with our test. I feel good, I feel like we are going to be strong.”

“There are certain guys that do very well at the road courses,” he explained. “What happened to us is that we were so good, we were afraid to make changes. If we tried to get better, we might have gone backwards. You struggle with that. We started getting beat a little bit because of that. Some other teams started trying some things to make their cars. We got a little bit behind, this year I feel like we are committed to get back where we were. With this new car, if they don’t make many changes to it, once you hit on something, you hope that it will get you back to where you can be strong every time you go there.”

Joining the Gordon and the No. 24 team for the two-day test was NASCAR Nextel Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS. Johnson has been working hard to hone his road course skills and says the test netted good results for him.

“I feel we really tuned the stone over that I needed to and found out what I needed in the car to help me and get things right,” said Johnson. “We had a great test and I’m very, very excited about the Glen. It’s just a feel thing. We finally figured out how we can give me that feel in the car. We’ve really been going about it the wrong way. I think we finally figured it out. The way we were going about it before is we would just get the car too loose and I’d burn the rear tires off it. I could be fast for a couple of laps. And then that would go away. Now we understand what I was looking for and what that is and it made huge improvements.”

Defending race winner at The Glen, Kevin Harvick, will pilot the same No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Impala SS that scored a second place finish earlier this season at Infineon Raceway.

“I think the biggest challenge is going to be the setup on the new generation race cars,” said Harvick, who sits ninth in the standings. “It’s 180 degrees different from the old cars. We have tested at VIR several times to prepare for this event. I think we have learned a lot during the test and I think my team is up to the challenge.”

“Winning last year at Watkins Glen was a major accomplishment in my career. We’d been able to win on all the different types of race tracks over the years, but with the road course thing, we always had this little cloud over us. We have been in contention to win and always had things happen here and there. To finally do that was pretty satisfying. It’s almost a sense of relief because you get so frustrated at places you know you’re capable of winning and haven’t been able to. However, this year it’s going to be a new challenge since we are going to race the Impala SS car. We ran well at Sonoma and had a pretty good test at VIR so I think we have a pretty good chance to repeat at Watkins Glen.”

Having collected two wins in the past three NASCAR Nextel Cup races, and three wins in the past five NASCAR Cup races at The Glen, Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Impala SS, is a strong favorite this weekend. “The big thing is to just get as many wins as you can get before the Chase starts to get those bonus points. Whether you’re first or 12th doesn’t matter. It’s how many races you can win in the meantime and get those 10 extra bonus points right now.”

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