We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races - highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington - have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

Image details: Best Buy 400 served by picapp.com

For many viewers, about the only real excitement during Sunday’s Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway came on lap 18 of the 400 lap event when Elliott Sadler - in an effort to clear the lapped car of Jeremy Mayfield - slid down the track and clipped the nose of David Gilliland, setting off a chain reaction that collected a total of twelve cars. Included in the accident were six drivers that entered the day in the top-12 in points, including Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Tony Stewart. As fate would have it, none of these drivers fell out of the top-12, but there was quite a bit of shakeup in the points themselves, nonetheless.

For Stewart, it marked the second time in just three races that his car had been in an accident that also involved Sadler, the first of which came on the second lap of the Dodge Challenger 500 a few weeks ago at Darlington. In that event, Sadler’s car bobbled getting into Turn 2 and got into Stewart, knocking the toe of Tony’s car in the process. While Sadler was forced to retire to the garage, Stewart found himself two laps down. Despite being able to repair the car enough to give Smoke the fastest car on the track by the end of the race, he was never able to get back onto the lead lap, and thus was forced to settle with a 21st place finish.

Following the race this past Sunday, Stewart sarcastically assumed responsibility for the accident, stating, “If I’m within a half a lap of him, I expect that to happen. It’s my fault. I hit him. When I hit him, it caused all the guys behind us to wreck. So, it’s my fault.”

Stewart has been on the receiving end of a lot of bad luck this season, which also includes a cut tire on the final lap of the Coca Cola 600 that robbed him of his first win of the season, and he’s now dropped to 11th in points, just 35 points ahead of 13th place, David Ragan. But, as Smoke fans already know, not only is it now officially “his time of the year,” but Stewart also has a habit of performing better when he adds a bit of attitude to his walk. A short little feud with Sadler could be the ticket.

Image details: Dodge Challenger 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com

A few weeks ago following the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond, things were beginning to look a little grim for car owner, Jack Roush. Ten races into the season, and only two of his five drivers were sitting inside the top-12 in points, though at the time both Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were less than 120 points away from a potential slip to 13th in the standings. David Ragan was in 14th, Matt Kenseth in 22nd, and Jamie McMurray a very distant 26th. What’s happened since then? Well, things have gotten better to say the least. Biffle and Edwards have solidified their stance inside the Chase field; Ragan and Kenseth still have a good fighting chance to crack the top-12; and Jamie McMurray has evaded the danger zone of falling outside of the top-35 in owners points, and now sits in 22nd.

Matt Kenseth has seen perhaps the most drastic improvement. After scoring only four top-ten finishes through the first ten races of the season, Kenseth has answered back by firing off three consecutive finishes of 7th or better at Darlington, Charlotte, and most recently, Dover, where he earned his first top-five since Fontana two weeks into the season. While Matt still lags back in 16th in the points standings, he’s closed the points gap significantly and now trails 12th place Kasey Kahne by a mere 95 points.

Trailing the points leaders at this point in the season is by no means new territory for the man affectionately referred to as “Weasel”. In 2005 - two years after winning the Cup Championship - Kenseth sat 22nd in points after the first thirteen races. At that time, the Chase field consisted of only the top-ten drivers, and Matt trailed 10th place by a distant 278 points. He would not be denied, however, as he rattled off 9 top-ten finishes throughout the next 13 races and entered the Chase for the Cup 8th in points. He finished the year in 7th, but many Kenseth fans still tout that season as a victory nonetheless.

Since entering the Cup Series full-time in 2000, Kenseth has finished outside of the top-12 in points only during his first two seasons. Since then, he has finished no worse than 8th in the standings, and won the championship for Roush in 2003 - as well as finishing runner-up for the title to Jimmie Johnson in ‘06.

Up until this year, Kenseth had known only one crew chief - Robby Reiser - who had been with Matt during his entire NASCAR career. Robbie has since been promoted within the Roush organization, and Matt found himself struggling with his new Crew Chief, Chip Bolin. Things appear to be coming together at this point, though, and Kenseth could very well be on his way to keeping his Chase streak alive.

Kenseth has long been known as the type of driver that can turn a bad situation into a good one without anyone ever seeing it coming, and that’s exactly what we could be looking at from the no. 17 team this season. Since 2005, in races number 14 through 26 on the schedule (39 races in all over the past 3 years), Kenseth has tallied 3 wins, 13 top-five’s, and 23 top-ten’s, and has a 12.15 average finish over the course of those races. If he can hold true to form, there should be plenty of time left for Kenseth to “weasel” his way back into Chase contention.

Greg Biffle turned the fastest lap during Friday’s Sprint Cup Series qualifying session at Dover International Speedway by clocking a lap in just 23.193 seconds, and in doing so, will start Sunday’s Best Buy 400 from the pole position. This is the second time Biffle has won the Coors Lite Pole Award this season - the first of which was at Darlington, where Biffle was arguably the best car on the track before running into mechanical issues.

Starting next to Greg on the outside of the front row will be former Roush-Fenway Racing teammate, Kurt Busch, who came in 0.188 seconds slower than Biffle. Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-six qualifiers for the race. In rows four and five will be the cars of Jeff Gordon, AJ Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler, and Jeremy Mayfield, who is filling in for the injured Dario Franchitti in the no. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Jeff Burton couldn’t find the speed they were looking for, as they all qualified 14th, 22nd, 25th, and 38th respectively. Failing to make the race were Jason Leffler, who got behind the wheel of the no. 70 Haas CNC Racing car this week, and Chad McCumbee, who was subbing in for Kyle Petty.

Image details: NASCAR Testing Day 1 served by picapp.com

Dario Franchitti, driver of the no. 40 Target car for Chip Ganassi Racing, returned to the track on Tuesday for the first time since incurring his ankle injury a month ago at Talladega. Dario was on-hand for NASCAR’s test session at Pocono Raceway in preparation for the upcoming Pocono 500 two weeks from now which the husband of movie star, Ashley Judd, plans to participate in.

Since the injury to Franchitti back on April 26th in the Nationwide’s Aaron’s 312, car owner, Chip Ganassi, has used an extended list of contacts to keep the seat of the no. 40 car filled for the interim. Ganassi turned to Penske Racing’s test driver, David Stremme, for the Cup race at Talladega, and then Ken Schrader for Richmond, and then most recently, former Ganassi driver, Sterling Marlin, at Darlington and last weekend at Lowe’s. The team failed to qualify for the Dan Lowry 400 in Richmond, and posted an average finish of just 31.0 in the other three events.

Though Franchitti is considering possibly competing in this weekend’s Nationwide race at Dover, the Heluva Good! 200, Ganassi plans to run Jeremy Mayfield in the car for Sunday’s Cup race. Mayfield has been out of a ride since his release from Haas CNC Racing earlier in the season, and many people feel that he has just about run out of anymore good potential opportunities for the future. After touring with the soldiers in Iraq for 12 days earlier in the month, Mayfield now must concentrate on putting together a solid run this weekend if he hopes to have a shot at landing a solid ride for 2009.

Image details: Coca-Cola 600 served by picapp.com

Utter heartbreak and sheer disappointment. That’s the best way to describe Kurt Busch’s career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ever since younger brother, Kyle, joined the circuit full-time for Hendrick Motorsports back in 2005 … well, I guess you could throw subtle envy into that equation as well. Since then, it just seems as though the seasons have been getting longer and tougher for the 2004 Cup Series champ.

Okay, so maybe it has less to do with Kyle and more to do with Kurt’s jump from Roush-Fenway Racing over to Penske Racing, but the numbers don’t lie, and the numbers indicate to us that there’s something amiss with the no. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team these days. In his first four full seasons of racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Kurt tallied a total of 11 wins, 34 top-five’s, and 61 top-ten’s and won Jack Roush’s second consecutive Cup for him. Since the beginning of 2005, however, those numbers have taken a severe hit, as he’s put together only 6 more wins, 23 top-five’s, and 45 top-ten’s, with his best points finish in that span coming during his 8th place run last year after having to put together a late-season rally just to make the cut for the Chase field.

To add a little salt to the wound, since Kyle’s emergence onto the Cup scene, he’s beaten big bro in every major statistical category with the exception of pole awards - only due to the 6 poles that Kurt won in his 2006 campaign - and, Kyle appears to be in major contention to win the title this year while Kurt lags back in 21st place in the points standings.

After finding some success with the addition of Pat Tryson as his crew chief late in the ‘07 season - a move that many people feel salvaged the year for the team - many people expected a big year from Kurt this season, but that hasn’t been the case by any means. He was able to finish runner-up to teammate, Ryan Newman, at the Daytona 500 and received many kudos from around the racing nation for the big push that he gave Ryan at the end of the race to push him across the finish line and secure the first restrictor plate win for car owner, Roger Penske.

Since then it’s been downhill, though. He went onto score top-15 finishes at Atlanta, Fontana, and Bristol, but finished outside of the top-20 in the five events that followed, as Kurt plummeted down the points standings. They put together a decent run at Darlington, where they finished 12th, and then they got the car out front last weekend in Charlotte and appeared to be the class of the field through the early portions of the race before that heartbreak and disappointment kicked back in.

After leading 64 laps in the race, Kurt was running second behind race leader, Brian Vickers, on lap 161 when a blown right tire sent him flying into the wall and ended his bid for the win. He was able to get his car back out on the track without losing any laps, but the damage was severe enough to halter any progress he attempted to make towards the front, and ultimately settled for a 16th place finish.

Now, with only 14 races remaining before NASCAR sets their Chase field with the top-12 drivers, Kurt finds himself all the way down in 21st - 668 points back from his brother and current points leader, Kyle Busch, and 262 points separating he and 12th place, Kasey Kahne. This is the furthest back in points that Kurt has ever been at this point in the season. The good news for Kurt Busch fans, though, is that his average finish in races 13 through 26 last year was 13.07 and consisted of 2 wins and 7 top-ten finishes.

He failed to qualify for the first three races of the season, then Team Red Bull replaced him for with Mike Skinner for the next five events, he wrecked out of the two races after that, and he finished a race for the first time this season by finishing 27th last weekend at Darlington. Yet, following the NASCAR All-Star Showdown, AJ Allmendinger stood in Victory Lane for the first time in his Sprint Cup career, with his eyes now set on competing in the All-Star Race itself.

Allmendinger led all twenty laps in the second and final segment of the Showdown to earn himself a spot in the All-Star Challenge. He finished ahead of Sam Hornish Jr, who also earned a bid in the All-Star competition via his second place finish. Hornish took the transfer spot away from David Ragan on lap 33 of the 40 lap race, and was able to fend him off for the final 7 laps.

Brian Vickers led the race at the end of the first segment after taking the lead away from polesitter, Elliott Sadler, back on lap 1. He then pitted during the competition caution at the end of the segment, while 8 other cars opted to remain on the track, including eventual race winner, AJ Allmendinger.

Kasey Kahne finished the race in fifth, but earned himself a spot in the All-Star Race as well via the fan vote. He finished ahead of Robby Gordon in the voting to earn the honors.

Image details: Dodge Challenger 500 served by picapp.com

In the midst of all the contract controversies that have taken place already this year, all along we’ve heard Greg Biffle state that his deal to resign with Roush-Fenway Racing is 99% complete, and that he hasn’t yet begun talking to any other teams. But, we heard these same statements from both parties last year, and a deal was never actually finalized. Now, after a dismal night in Darlington, we’ve started to see a different side of the Biff that we haven’t quite been accustomed to in the past.

Biffle smashed the track record at Darlington during qualifying en route to winning his first Pole Award of the season, and then he went out and strutted his stuff through the first half of the race, looking as though he were the class of the field to that point. His bid for a third Darlington win in four years was crushed in heartbreaking fashion, though, when his transmission failed him on lap 237. This was Biffle’s first DNF attributed to actual engine failure since the Bank of America 500 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway back in October of 2006 and the seventh of his career, but still, Greg seems to feel as though they’re experiencing some sort of troubles with their equipment week after week.

Following the race, a frustrated Biffle told the media, “This has been typical of our equipment, I guess. Loose wheels all night, bad vibration, then I think the motor blew up. All I want is equipment to drive that stays together.”

Biffle was not the only driver in the Roush camp that complained about issues with their car throughout the night, as Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Jamie McMurray all also relayed concerns with their tires and some unidentified vibrations throughout the race, though they all held onto finish 11th or better.

Biffle continued his meeting with the press by adding, “It is really frustrating, but, you know what, I’ve just come accustomed to expecting it, because it’s just week after week it’s something. Something breaks, something falls off, we’ve got wheels loose …”

There has been a lot of speculation in recent weeks that a swap could be in the works between Biffle and Ryan Newman, whose contract with Penske Racing also expires at the end of 2008. Newman has publically expressed woes earlier this season concerning equipment failure as well - particularly after the race at Phoenix in which he also experienced an engine failure and finished dead last. Some have also suggested the Greg might be a strong candidate to field the fourth car that will come into service for Richard Childress Racing next season.

Biffle won championships in both the Nationwide (then Busch Series) and Craftsman Truck Series prior to making 7 starts in the Cup Series back in 2002, and going full-time in ‘03. In 197 career Sprint Cup Series starts, Biffle has accumulated 12 wins, 38 top-fives, and 66 top-ten’s. However, despite winning at least one race in each of his full-time seasons, Biffle’s only finish inside the top-twelve in points came in 2005 when he tied teammate, Carl Edwards, for second. Still, Greg Biffle remains one of the hottest names on the free agent market heading into 2009, and if Roush-Fenway Racing isn’t careful, they could find themselves in search of another driver at the end of this season.

Well, overall I wasn’t too far off. Greg Biffle dropping his transmission late in the race most certainly didn’t help my causes, nor did a last minute change Friday morning, in which I swapped out Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch as my race winners. I was hoping that Newman could get his laps back there at the end and salvage a decent finish, but alas, it just wasn’t meant to be.

TZ’s Picks (Darlington):
1. Ryan Newman - 37th - (no points)
2. Jeff Gordon - 3rd - (41.5 points)
3. Carl Edwards - 2nd - (41.5 points)
4. Kyle Busch - 1st - (41.5 points)
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 4th - (39.5 points)
6. Greg Biffle - 43rd - (no points)

Lock of the Week: Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Top Five - (10 points)
Sleeper Pick: Mark Martin - Outside Top Fifteen - (No Points)
Steer Clear of: Kevin Harvick - Outside Top Fifteen - (Didn’t Lose Points)

Roc’s Picks (Darlington):
1. Denny Hamlin - 7th - (40 points)
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 4th - (41 points)
3. Jeff Gordon - 3rd - (41 points)
4. Jimmie Johnson - 13th - (35.5 points)
5. Tony Stewart - 21st - (no points)
6. Kyle Busch - 1st - (40.5 points)

Lock of the Week: Jimmie Johnson - Top Fifteen - (3 points)
Sleeper Pick:  Mark Martin - Outside Top Fifteen - (no points)
Steer Clear of:  Kevin Harvick - Outside Top Fifteen - (Didn’t lose points)

Head-to-Head (Darlington):
TZ - 174 points (1,769 cumulative)
Roc - 201 points (1,822.5 cumulative)

Do You NASCAR Fantasy League
Standings After Darlington:
1. Team Legacy (me) - 4,279
2. r@aracing - 3,556
3. Jimmie’s Rockets - 3,434
4. Bruce’s Team of Bits - 3,420
5. Vanilla Thrillaz - 3,273
6. AlexRyan - 3,180

Image details: Dodge Challenger 500 served by picapp.com

Kyle Busch paced the field by a couple seconds to earn himself the checkered flag on Saturday night for the Sprint Cup Series’ running of the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway to pick up his third win of the season, tying him for the series lead with Carl Edwards, but despite what the final race stats might indicate, Kyle wasn’t exactly in a league of his own as he had been in so many previous races this year. Busch definitely had a strong car all night long, but was forced to overcome a pit road drive-thru penalty and several meetings with the outside retaining wall en route to victory, and at one point even transmitted over his team radio that this was the most pathetic thing he’d ever driven, but he caught a few breaks from some of the other top cars in the field along the way to get there.

The early stages of the race were pretty much a battle between Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and polesitter, Greg Biffle, as the three drivers swapped the lead around on several occasions. The race started to take on a new look, though, when Kyle Busch was penalized by NASCAR for having a loose lugnut in the pits while the field was under caution on lap 139. Busch had come into the pits as the race leader, but was then forced to restart at the tail end of the field.

The penalty handed the lead back over to Earnhardt, but Biffle - whose car looked as though it was really just beginning to flex its muscle for the first time - passed him on lap 160. Greg was running away with the lead, but then came in for an unscheduled pit stop on lap 191 because he thought that something might be wrong with the transmission. The field eventually cycled through a round of green flag stops, and Biffle was once again the leader, but the car couldn’t hold on much longer. Biffle was forced to retire his car on lap 237 due to transmission failure, ending his bid for a third Darlington win.

Denny Hamlin took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on the restart and led the race until the sixth caution of the evening came out on lap 246 for a Brian Vickers spin, at which point the no. 24 DuPont team was able to get Jeff Gordon out of the pits first and into the leader’s seat. Gordon went onto lead the next twenty laps until Kyle Busch found his way back to the front and passed his former teammate on lap 268. The two drivers exchanged the lead again after a lap 279 caution for debris, but Gordon dropped a few spots on the restart and Busch took the lead for the fifth and final time on lap 281.

Lap 301 drew the final caution of the race when Martin Truex Jr. spun out Denny Hamlin as the two battled for 7th place. Kyle Busch narrowly excaped pit road with the lead still in-hand, and from there he drove away from Carl Edwards - who had climbed up to second after starting 36th - and, held onto the lead for the final 66 laps of the race, as he led a race-high 169 of the 367 laps run. Edwards was able to hold on for a 2nd place finish. Following the race, Edwards said that he hates finishing second and that he really wanted to beat the 18 car, but Kyle was pretty much unbeatable.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. pretty much hung around the top-five for the entire evening, and went onto finish 3rd and 4th respectively. David Ragan ran just outside the top-ten most of the night, but a late-race charge catapulted him to a 5th place finish - his second in the last three races, and he now sits 12th in points.

Matt Kenseth turned a solid run into a 6th place finish to give him his first top-ten in the last four races, as he moves up two spots in 20th in points. Denny Hamlin rebounded from his earlier accident to finish 7th, and Travis Kvapil made his Lafayette Ford sponsor proud with his 8th place run. Dave Blaney earned his first top-ten finish of the season by finishing 9th, and Jeff Burton fought his way back from being a lap down earlier in the race to complete the top-ten.

Two-time Cup Series Champion, Tony Stewart, had what was probably the fastest car at the end of the race, but needed one more caution to be able to have a shot at a decent finish. All the way back on the second lap of the race, Elliott Sadler bobbled getting into turn 2 and got into Stewart. The wreck knocked the toe out of Tony’s car, and he soon found himself a lap down - and, then another. He was able to race his way back to just one lap down, and eventually raced his way into the position of what would have been the lucky dog spot, but unfortunately for Smoke, he never got the final caution his team needed to put him back on the lead lap.

Kevin Harvick suffered the hardest hit of the night when he got himself loose and smashed the wall just past the SAFER barrier on lap 148. He was running in the top-ten at the time, but the accident forced him to take his car to the garage. The bonehead move of the race award would have to go to Brian Vickers. During the lap 237 caution, Ryan Newman was down on the apron headed to pit road when Vickers just made a left turn from all the way up on the track to bang his car into the side of Newman, who had been charging his way back from being two laps down and was in contention to be the lucky dog recipient.

Busch’s victory gives Joe Gibbs Racing their fourth win in 2008, which is tops in the series. The win also opens Busch’s lead in the standings to 79 points over Jeff Burton, and 134 over Earnhardt Jr. Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne both dropped out of the top-12 in points, as Jeff Gordon and David Ragan find their way in.

the Grades:
the Race: 85%
the Drama: 74%
Coverage: 86%
Pre-Race: 77%

Overall Grade: 82.2%

For more lap-by-lap coverage, please read Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway over at Restrictor Plate This and Darlington “Live” on Type Delay over at Rev. Jim’s NASCAR Rants’n'Raves.

 Complete Results (from nascar.com):

 Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):