Crown Royal presents the Russell Friedman 400 Race Review

Richmond International Raceway -- 05/2/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Sunday May 3 2009 8:36pm

The first three-quarters of the Richmond race seemed like a battle between, at most, three drivers.

In the end, another driver took over the fourth quarter, getting the lead at lap 300 of 400 and winning the race.

Denny Hamlin looked to be the car to beat for most of the night. He led five times for 148 laps and was the overall lap leader. But a lug nut mishap on pit road on Lap 274 put Hamlin back in the pack, and it was the last time he would lead, finishing 14th on the night.

Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman were the other two cars out front during the first 300 laps – Gordon leading 96 laps and Newman 45. Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers were the only other double-digit lap leaders (besides the winner), leading 22 and 21 respectively.

But in the end it was Kyle Busch, racing on his 24th birthday, who led three times for 53 of the last 100 laps, passing first Newman and then Gordon. Busch took the lead for the final time on lap 352 and held it until the end.

Ultimately , it was tire and pit strategy that worked out better for Busch than for Gordon, as Busch acknowledged in his post-race comments. “We needed to get out and get a long run and those guys had to chase us back down and they couldn’t really catch us. It really worked out. Steve (Addington, crew chief) made a great race call there on when to pit and when to take more tires, and we were able to stay out front from there on out and made the most of the effort there. Fortunately, it was a long run. I was hoping we wouldn’t see another caution out.”

The same long run at the end that worked so well for Busch, made it tough for Gordon, who had stayed out on tires. “We were just trying to get the best finish we could, and then once we were out there, we were pretty much stuck with that strategy. That long run just killed us. I knew we were struggling and we kind of just put ourselves in that position to see what maybe clean air would do. It was a good try, certainly, but we weren't good enough tonight. We missed it. We started good and couldn't adjust it from there.`

Following Busch across the finish line was Tony Stewart, who seemed to be closing the gap on Busch with about 20 to go before he and Jeff Burton starting racing each other for second. It was the second time Stewart’s finished second in the past three weeks. Jeff Burton finished third, Ryan Newman, fourth, and Mark Martin, fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Sam Hornish Jr. (6), Jamie McMurray (7), Jeff Gordon (8), Casey Mears (9), and Juan Pablo Montoya (10).

The race tied the record for cautions at Richmond with 15, though a number of drivers who had incidents rebounded for good finishes, including Burton, McMurray, and Montoya.

One driver who didn’t demonstrate his usual comeback character was Jimmie Johnson, who suffered a succession of pit road penalties as well as bad brakes. Johnson finished 36th.

Polesitter Brian Vickers finished 15th.

Jeff Gordon may have settled for an eighth-place finish, but last week’s points leader, Kurt Busch, finished 12th, giving the points lead back to Gordon by just 10 points. Tony Stewart moved up one spot to third, Denny Hamlin up one to fourth, and Kyle Busch up one to fifth. Jimmie Johnson fell three spots to sixth.

Ryan Newman’s fourth-place finish moved him up three spots to tenth in points, while David Reutimann, who finished 28th, fell out of the top 12 to 13th.

It’s interesting to note that just 60 points currently separate the drivers in 8th through 14th: Clint Bowyer (8), Carl Edwards (9), Ryan Newman (10), Greg Biffle (11), Matt Kenseth (12) David Reutimann (13), Juan Pablo Montoya (14).
If you enjoyed Richmond’s Saturday night race under the lights, you’re in for a treat this week as well, with another Saturday night Cup race, this time at the venerable Darlington Raceway.

Check back with Nascapper.com for my Darlington race preview later this week.

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