Nemechek captures rain-shortened race
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Joe Nemechek overcame a pit-road blunder that cost him 24 spots by gambling on tires and getting help from late-race cautions and rain. Nemechek was declared the winner of the Pontiac Excitement 400 on Saturday night during a red-flagged stoppage with 61/2 laps to go when rain showers that caused the pause persisted.
The red flag followed three cautions in the last 30 laps that also helped the Hendrick Motorsports veteran prevail despite his challengers’ fresher tires.
“It was an unbelievable night,” he said. “Everything was perfect. It was a great team effort and I had a lot of fun out there tonight. When you see a car that good, run high, low, wherever it wanted to go, it was fun.
“It didn’t matter what we did to the car. It was strong all night.”
Bobby Labonte was second, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Robby Gordon, who rallied from three laps down early on and gave Chevrolet a sweep of the top four spots.
Mark Martin was fifth in a Ford.
The rain deprived Labonte and Earnhardt from making a late push in the race that featured a track-record 15 cautions for 91 laps.
“We really didn’t need any of those cautions,” Earnhardt said.
Gordon and Nemechek gambled by staying on the track with four others during a caution with 100 laps to go. When the race went back to green, Gordon was leading, Nemechek was fifth and a handful of contenders were right behind them, counting on fresher tires to carry them forward.
On lap 331, Nemechek passed Gordon for the lead, then pulled away trying to extend his advantage. Chief among his pursuers was Earnhardt, who moved into second on lap 355 as the crowd of 100,000 roared wildly.
Nemechek had built his lead as high as almost 2 seconds and was easily disposing of lapped traffic when Dale Jarrett spun out on the 363rd lap, the caution erasing the lead and setting up a possible closing shootout.
Nemechek held onto his lead through three more restarts, taking advantage of a duel for second in which Labonte finally passed Earnhardt, and then was handed the last 61/2 laps when the race was called.
The victory was a stunner for Nemechek, who seemed to have the best car in the first half of the race, then forced himself to prove it when he missed the turn for pit road and was shuffled from first to 25th place.
Nemechek led six times for 155 laps, winning for the first time since November 2001 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. His only other victory came at Loudon, N.H., in September 1999.
The second five included Kevin Harvick, points leader Matt Kenseth, Roush Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton, and Rusty Wallace.
Kenseth remained the points leader, but his edge was cut from 44 to 20 over Earnhardt. Busch moved into third place, 167 behind.
Among those not enjoying the night were two-time defending champion Tony Stewart, who apparently ran over some debris, crashed and was 41st.
AP-ES-05-03-03 2347EDT