Matt Kenseth had something to prove, both to himself and to the race fans as the NEXTEL Cup series took to the track at North Carolina Motor Speedway Sunday.
Ryan Newman again proved he was king of qualifiers, putting his Alltel sponsored Dodge on the pole for the first time this season. Newman’s time was almost a quarter of a second faster than second place qualifier Jamie McMurray. When the race started, McMurray proved that it was no mistake as he jumped to the inside of Newman and took the lead on lap 3 of the race. He would retain the top spot until lap 39 when Kenny Schrader scuffed the wall and brought out the first caution of the day.
All of the leaders pitted and Jeff Gordon came out of the pits into the top spot, showing some muscle early. Gordon’s day looked like he would be the car to beat, but caution periods would be his demise. He got caught in the pits twice at the wrong time, putting the four time champ two laps down. Gordon would hang in the race and eventually would finish in the tenth spot.
Kyle Petty was the next victim of “the Rock” as he brushed the wall, damaging the Petty Dodge. Jeff Burton also had troubles after running very good early when his spotter didn’t tell him that teammate Kurt Busch was coming around on the outside. Burton ran into the back bumper of Busch and had to make a trip to the pits to repair his radiator.
After that caution period, Robby Gordon took the lead, but quickly fell back after taking only two tires on his stop. He would later have an incident with the wall and have to park the Cingular Wireless car for the day.
Jimmie Johnson had been in the top ten in points for the last seventy races, but fell victim to having too good of tires. After his stop he closed so quickly on the pitting car of Kenny Schrader that he clipped the back of the 49 car, which sent him into the wall and ended his day. He would finish far back in the field and dropped to 25th in the points chase.
The biggest wreck of the day involved part time Cup driver Carl Long. He had contact with the Army car of Joe Nemechek and hit the wall, sending him up on his side, and then barrel rolling down the back straight four and one half times, coming to rest on his wheels when it was all over. Long’s car was destroyed and he later said that he couldn’t pay any amount of money for a thrill ride like that.
Matt Kenseth had worked his way back to the front after that caution and led the most laps for the day. On lap 349, he and second place Kasey Kahne pitted for the final time. While on pit road, a caution came out and it looked like both cars would be caught one lap down. After NASCAR reviewed the new rules, it was determined that the field was frozen while the two were in the pits and they would retain their spots on the track. Jamie McMurray had assumed the lead, but had to pit, and that put the Havoline Dodge in third on the restart.
Kenseth, got a great jump on the final restart and moved away from the other two cars when they got caught behind Mark Martin who was two laps down. After Kahne and McMurray cleared the lapped car, both drivers worked together and caught Kenseth with three laps to go. Kenseth stayed in front, but Kahne worked the low groove, trying to set up the 2003 Champ for the pass. On the final lap, Kenseth went high in turn four, and Kahne went low. McMurray bobbled a little bit and the two cars were on their own. As they exited turn four, Kahne pulled up alongside of Kenseth and almost had him beat, but Kenseth held on by .013 of a second, winning by the slimmest margin ever in Cup history.
McMurray held on for third just in front of his teammate, Sterling Marlin. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in fifth, his best at Rockingham, and retained the points lead by a mere seven points over Kenseth. Ryan Newman came back for sixth and Rusty Wallace had a good day taking the seventh spot. Kurt Busch managed an eighth place finish with Ward Burton taking ninth in front of Jeff Gordon who was two laps down in tenth.
The NEXTEL Cup series will have next weekend off, but will be doing battle at Las Vegas Speedway March 7th.

… read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.

... read the rest of the story by Subscribing now.