When Jimmie Johnson’s crew suffered a poor stop with only 36 laps remaining in last Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 at Dover International Speedway, the driver who had dominated the race found himself deep in traffic and far from contention.

He restarted eighth with 27 laps left, and one-by-one began to slice his way through the positions and several bunches of lap traffic to close in on the front two cars. And when Tony Stewart drove his No. 14 Chevrolet past Greg Biffle for the lead with nine laps to go, Johnson followed suit and took the second spot away, setting up a wild dash to the finish between two of NASCAR’s most popular champions.

Johnson cut into Stewarts lead and was quickly on his rear bumper, but Stewart continually blocked Johnson’s attempted passed. But Johnson final got past Stewart with two laps remaining after a slight nudge sent Stewart sliding just enough for Johnson to pull the No. 48 Lowes’ Chevrolet into the first position for good.

“We had an awesome, awesome race car,” Johnson said. “We’ve been fast, but this was a very special car today. At the end I just had to go. I had one heck of a race with Tony. That’s how racing is supposed to be done.”

Johnson finished the race leading a race-high 298 laps – two laps shy ofthree-fourths of the race.

Stewart finished second and took the points lead away from Jeff Gordon, who started the race 42nd after crashing his primary car in qualifying and finished 26th. Stewart becomes the first driver/owner to lead the points standings since Alan Kulwicki did so in 1992.

Greg Biffle finished third, followed by teammate Matt Kenseth in fourth. Carl Edwards finished seventh, giving Roush Fenway Racing three cars in the top-10. Kurt Busch rebounded from a rough stretch to finish fifth.

In the most publicized story of the week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. parted ways with longtime crew chief Tony Eury Jr., who was replaced by Lance McGrew for the remainer of the season. Earnhardt finished 12th.

Mayetta, New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. had a rough race at his hometown track, running strong early, but falling off the pace late to finish 21st, the first car off the lead lap. Truex is reportedly set to announce his plans for the 2010 season within the coming weeks.

Nationwide Series: Joe Gibbs Racing’s Joey Logano and Kyle Busch dominated the Helluva Good! 200 Nationwide Series race last Saturday at Dover, leading a combined 195 of 200 laps. But the most important lap is the final one, and both drivers failed to lead the pack for the final time.

On the restart with just three laps remaining, Busch led the field to the green flag, but had a tire go down as the field entered turn one, then received contact from second place Logano, sending Busch sliding into the outside wall and Logano losing valuable momentum. This left the door open for JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski to take the lead and capture his first Nationwide wins of 2009.

“I saw the 18 [of Busch] slow down and the 20 [of Logano] making an evasive maneuver and I saw a hole,” Keselowski said. “That’s just the way it goes. I didn’t know that was going to happen, but I was there and ready for it and that’s all you can do.”
Logano finished second, but was notably frustrated following the race’s conclusion.

“I was trying to stay right up on [Busch],” he said. “I was going to stay with him through the first corner. I got right up on his bumper. I got in the back of him. Completely my fault.”

Clint Bowyer finished third, followed by Brian Vickers in fourth and Carl Edwards in fifth.

Busch, who led a race high 108 laps, finished seventeenth, the final car on the lead lap.

Camping World Truck Series: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series AAA Insurance 200 was set to get underway just before 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, and the command to fire engines had just been issued when the clouds above the Monster Mile opened up, dumping buckets of rain and lighting upon the track. In what could have become a very scary situation, track officials quickly evacuated the grandstands and postponed the race until the following evening.

Fresh off his disappointing finish in the Nationwide Series race, and frustrated Kyle Busch blew by seven trucks on the first lap after starting tenth, and by lap thirteen, he had driven the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota to the lead.

As Busch set a blistering pace at the front of the field, tires were the story of the day. The tire troubles began on lap 33 when points leader Ron Hornaday blew a tire, sending him hard into the outside wall and ending his day. He finished 26th.
Championship contenders Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson also saw their days ruined by faulty tires, blowing right side tires on laps 90 and 11, respectively.

Busch appeared to be setting sail into the Delaware sunset when slowed with 17 laps to go, and then abruptly slammed into the outside wall in turn two. Colin Braun took the lead, on to blow a tire and slam hard into the wall, bring out the caution.
Brian Scott elected to stay out after inheriting the lead and held off the charging Dennis Setzer for his first career victory. Setzer was second, followed by David Starr in third, Terry Cook in fourth, and Johnny Sauter in fifth.

Coming Up: A busy weekend of racing ahead, as the Camping World Truck Series heads to the Texas Motor Speedway, the Nationwide Series to Nashville Superspeedway, and the Sprint Cup Series to Pocono Raceway. Please note, Dover was the last race of 2009 for FOX. TNT will take over for the next six races, beginning with Pocono.

Bruce Knoll, 17, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknoll jr4cmcherald@yahoo.com
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