Ryan Newman used caution periods and smart pit strategy to win Sunday’s DHL 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Newman had a tire go down early in the race, and had to head to the pits under green flag conditions, but kept his Alltel Dodge in the hunt, finally taking the lead with only 23 laps remaining in the race and captured his first win of the season.
The front two rows were all Hendrick as Jeff Gordon captured the pole with teammate Jimmie Johnson sitting on the outside. Gordon set a blistering pace early in the race as he crept out to a six-second lead over Johnson, but the day turned sour for the four-time champion as he had an engine expire and he had to head the Dupont Chevrolet into the garage area.
Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler had great days as the two Yates drivers came through the pack and put their cars into contention for a win. Sadler moved out front and started to drive away until caution flags put him back into the field, giving the lead to teammate Dale Jarrett. Jarrett was able to stay out front until Sterling Marlin blasted around him and brought Sadler back with him. Marlin kept his car up front, but couldn’t hold off the charging Newman late in the race and eventually fell back in the field.
Kasey Kahne also had a comeback day of sorts, with his car handling terrible for the first half of the race, but eight caution periods helped get the Mountain Dew Dodge handling right and Kahne streaked through the field and caught second place Dale Jarrett, passing him with just a few laps to go and taking his fourth second-place finish of the year.
Newman’s win helped him in the points chase, as he was close to falling out of the important top ten. Jimmie Johnson took the fourth spot, moving him into the points lead for the season by only seven points over Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A late race crash involving Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle took Stewart’s day from a top ten to a top twenty-five after he had to start in the back of the field after leaving the drivers’ meeting too early. NASCAR penalized Stewart for leaving the meeting after Stewart showed some disgust with new policies that NASCAR has put in place for scoring.
Next week the Nextel Cup Series heads to Infinion Raceway in the Napa valley of California for the first of the two road course races.

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