Rating the Race: Chicago - Lifelock.com 400

Image details: LifeLock.com 400 served by picapp.com

Kyle Busch continued his dominating run over the Sprint Cup Series Saturday night as he picked up his series-leading 7th win of the season by taking the checkers in the Lifelock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. After rain cancelled Friday’s qualifying session, Busch was awarded the pole position due to leading the championship points standings, and that proved to be invaluable as he led the first 44 laps of the race en route to setting a new track record by leading a total of 165 laps, erasing the previous record set by Tony Stewart.

After a competition caution on lap 35 brought the field together, Carl Edwards passed Busch for the lead on lap 45, but then surrendered the lead just a few laps later when Denny Hamlin brought out the caution as he fell off the pace due to issues with his ignition box. While Edwards and most of the other race leaders came into pit, five cars remained out on the track, including Jeff Gordon who was then scored as the race leader, and also Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, and Ryan Newman who were able to use the track position to their advantage for the rest of the evening. Biffle took the lead from Gordon on lap 57 and held onto until the five cars that stayed out had to pit around lap 92, at which time Tony Stewart became the new race leader.

The rest of the field started cycling through their green flag stops around lap 100, and many cars had costly stops, including Kurt Busch who was penalized for too fast entering pit road, and Travis Kvapil who was penalized for hitting the commitment cone as he entered pit road. Both drivers were forced to make pass-through penalties, and both found themselves a lap down following the incidents.

Greg Biffle re-assumed command of the race after the pit stops finally cycled their way through, but a caution on lap 112 involving Patrick Carpentier, Michael Waltrip, and Jeff Burton erased the lead. Seeing the strategy that some of the other drivers used earlier in the race, four more drivers stayed out on the track, and Matt Kenseth led the race for the first time. Kyle Busch, David Ragan, and AJ Allmendinger also stayed out.

Kurt Busch was able to drive his way ahead of the leaders on the restart to get back onto the lead lap, and then some of the best racing of the evening came when Kenseth and Kyle Busch raced each other side-by-side for several laps until Kenseth finally gave way on lap 120, and then was forced to pit four laps later when he had a tire going down. The pit stop put Matt a lap down to the race leaders, but he later gained that back when a caution came out on lap 177 for debris and he was awarded the lucky dog.

Carl Edwards made his way back to the front when he passed Kyle Busch for the lead on lap 203, but the troubles continued for the Roush-Fenway Racing bunch when he pitted on lap 208. He had originally thought that he also had a tire going down, but it was later determined that he had broken a splitter, causing the handling on his car to go away. He was able to get back out on the track, though he was stuck a lap down and was never able to recover. About the same time, Kurt Busch watched all the progress he’d made in recovering from the earlier penalty on pit road go away as his car dropped a cylinder, sending him all the way back to the tail end of the lead lap.

Kyle Busch re-assumed the lead after the Edwards pit stop, and remained up front until Jimmie Johnson challenged him for the lead with just 17 laps to go. Johnson won the battle and appeared to be poised for his second win of the season as he pulled away from the field until David Gilliland’s engine blew up 11 laps later, bringing out the ninth and final caution of the day, and also setting the field up for a 2-lap shootout.

Johnson had already proven that he had the most dominant car of all those in position for the win, so Kyle Busch knew that the only way to get to him was to get him on the restart, and that’s exactly what he did. He timed the restart perfectly as he clung to Johnson’s rear bumper and was able to pull up next to him going through turns 1 and 2. He made the pass on the no. 48 car on the high side and then pulled down in front of him.

Johnson hung with him, though, as Kyle took the white flag with Kevin Harvick also hanging tough in third right behind Johnson. He made one last attempt to pass Kyle going through the final turns, but Johnson overdrove the corner and got loose, securing the win for the no. 18 team. Johnson went onto finish 2nd, and Harvick wound up 3rd.

Greg Biffle’s race strategy paid off as he finished in 4th, and after a long week in the spotlight, Tony Stewart came home in 5th. The no. 83 Red Bull Racing team of Brian Vickers also used some strategy in the pits, and they were able to walk away with a 6th place finish. Matt Kenseth ran out of time in his charge back up to the front of the field, but still managed to salvage a 7th place effort. David Ragan finished in 8th. Martin Truex Jr. found the good run that he desperately needed and crossed the line in 9th, and Ryan Newman’s strategy paid off as well, as he rounded out the top-ten finishers.

Other Notables:
Jeff Gordon’s bid for a second Chicagoland victory came up short as he finished just outside of the top-ten in 11th ….. Elliott Sadler and AJ Allmendinger both had good runs going, but dropped outside of the top-ten in the closing laps as they wound up in 12th and 13th ….. Kasey Kahne recorded the best Chicagoland finish in his career as he finished 15th ….. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a disappointing run. After starting the race in 2nd, he wound up 16th ….. Kurt Busch wound up 28th, and Carl Edwards was 30th.

For Kyle Busch, this was his third win in the last four races, being trumped only by older brother Kurt’s win at New Hampshire. It was also his seventh Sprint Cup victory of the season, which will equate to 35 bonus points when the series enters the Chase for the Cup in October. He has now also opened up an astounding 262 point lead in the standings over second place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The top six spots in the standings remained unchanged, but there was quite a bit of shakeup in the bottom half of the top-12. Greg Biffle moved up four spots to 7th, and his Roush teammate, Matt Kenseth, also continues to gain ground as he moved up a spot to 8th. Kevin Harvick made his way back inside the Chase field, as he moved from 13th to 9th, and Tony Stewart is a little more comfortable now in 10th. Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin are now on the bubble in 11th and 12th, and Clint Bowyer has dropped outside of the top-12 as he now sits 27 points out in 13th.

Grades:
the Race: 85%
the Drama: 93%
Coverage: 86%
Pre-Race: 95%

Overall Grade: 87.8%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M’s	195/10	267	Running
2	5	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	175/5	267	Running
3	13	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	165/0	267	Running
4	11	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	165/5	267	Running
5	12	20	Tony Stewart	Toyota	The Home Depot	160/5	267	Running
6	15	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	155/5	267	Running
7	9	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	USG Sheetrock	151/5	267	Running
8	14	6	David Ragan	Ford	AAA Insurance	142/0	267	Running
9	19	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Cub Cadet	143/5	267	Running
10	17	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Kodak / The Mummy	134/0	267	Running
11	6	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Nicorette / DuPont	135/5	267	Running
12	26	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Best Buy / Garmin	127/0	267	Running
13	39	84	A.J. Allmendinger	Toyota	Red Bull	124/0	267	Running
14	29	44	David Reutimann	Toyota	UPS	121/0	267	Running
15	8	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	118/0	267	Running
16	2	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	AMP Energy / National Guard	115/0	267	Running
17	16	8	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	112/0	267	Running
18	22	42	Juan Montoya	Dodge	Juicy Fruit Slim Pack	109/0	267	Running
19	3	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	AT&T Mobility	106/0	267	Running
20	38	66	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	103/0	267	Running
21	24	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	Crown Royal	100/0	267	Running
22	10	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Jack Daniel’s	97/0	267	Running
23	30	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Caterpillar	94/0	267	Running
24	40	96	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	DLP HDTV	91/0	267	Running
25	31	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Jim Beam / Sa veOurName.com	88/0	267	Running
26	27	15	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Quaker State / Menards	85/0	267	Running
27	43	70	Jason Leffler	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	82/0	267	Running
28	18	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	84/5	267	Running
29	20	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Cheerios Betty Crocker / Richard Petty’s 50th	76/0	267	Running
30	42	10	Patrick Carpentier *	Dodge	LifeLock	73/0	265	Running
31	32	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Target / Maxwell House	70/0	265	Running
32	4	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Office Depot “Taking Care of Business”	72/5	265	Running
33	25	5	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	CARQUEST / Kellogg’s	64/0	265	Running
34	33	01	Regan Smith *	Chevrolet	DEI / Principal Financial Group	61/0	265	Running
35	37	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	U.S. Air Force	58/0	265	Running
36	28	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA AUTO PARTS	55/0	264	Running
37	35	77	Sam Hornish Jr. *	Dodge	Mobil 1	52/0	263	Running
38	36	45	Terry Labonte	Dodge	Marathon American Spirit / Richard Petty’s 50th	49/0	263	Running
39	41	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Racing	46/0	263	Running
40	7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Express	43/0	262	Running
41	21	28	Travis Kvapil	Ford	FreeCreditRep ort.com	40/0	260	Running
42	23	38	David Gilliland	Ford	FreeCreditRep ort.com	37/0	259	In Pit
43	34	00	Michael McDowell *	Toyota	Champion Mortgage	34/0	258	Running

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):

RANK	+/-	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	POLES	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10
1	–	Kyle Busch	2881	Leader	19	2	7	12	13
2	–	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	2619	-262	19	1	1	7	12
3	–	Jeff Burton	2590	-291	19	0	1	4	10
4	–	Carl Edwards	2509	-372	19	0	3	7	13
5	–	Jimmie Johnson	2494	-387	19	1	1	5	9
6	–	Jeff Gordon	2384	-497	19	2	0	7	8
7	+4	Greg Biffle	2318	-563	19	2	0	6	8
8	+1	Matt Kenseth	2317	-564	19	0	0	4	12
9	+4	Kevin Harvick	2308	-573	19	0	0	3	6
10	+2	Tony Stewart	2305	-576	19	0	0	6	9
11	-3	Kasey Kahne	2295	-586	19	2	2	3	9
12	-5	Denny Hamlin	2283	-598	19	1	1	5	9
13	-3	Clint Bowyer	2256	-625	19	0	1	4	9
14	+1	Brian Vickers	2188	-693	19	0	0	3	5
15	-1	David Ragan	2185	-696	19	0	0	3	6
16	–	Ryan Newman	2094	-787	19	1	1	2	7
17	+1	Martin Truex Jr.	2050	-831	19	0	0	2	6
18	-1	Kurt Busch	2038	-843	19	0	1	3	4
19	–	Bobby Labonte	1905	-976	19	0	0	0	1
20	+1	Juan Montoya	1863	-1018	19	0	0	1	2
21	-1	Travis Kvapil	1841	-1040	19	0	0	0	3
22	+1	Jamie McMurray	1823	-1058	19	0	0	0	3
23	+2	Elliott Sadler	1794	-1087	19	0	0	1	4
24	–	Casey Mears	1782	-1099	19	0	0	1	4
25	-3	David Gilliland	1772	-1109	19	0	0	1	2
26	–	Paul Menard	1727	-1154	19	1	0	0	0
27	–	David Reutimann	1717	-1164	19	0	0	0	1
28	–	Mark Martin	1683	-1198	14	0	0	2	6
29	+1	Robby Gordon	1572	-1309	19	0	0	0	2
30	-1	Michael Waltrip	1563	-1318	19	0	0	1	1
31	–	Dave Blaney	1563	-1318	18	0	0	0	2
32	–	Reed Sorenson	1496	-1385	18	0	0	1	2
33	–	Sam Hornish Jr.*	1422	-1459	19	0	0	0	0
34	–	Regan Smith*	1421	-1460	18	0	0	0	0
35	–	Scott Riggs	1314	-1567	17	0	0	0	0
36	+2	J.J. Yeley	1138	-1743	15	0	0	1	1
37	–	Patrick Carpentier*	1121	-1760	16	1	0	0	0
38	-2	Joe Nemechek	1107	-1774	16	1	0	0	0
39	–	Michael McDowell*	955	-1926	14	0	0	0	0
40	–	A.J. Allmendinger	851	-2030	11	0	0	0	0

Recommended Reads:
- Live on Type Delay: Chicago (RevJim’s Rants ‘n’ Raves)
- Race Wrapup: Lifelock.com 400 at Chicago (Restrictor Plate This)