Fuel pump fouls things up for Gordon on Sunday
By JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer


KANSAS CITY, Kan. – And then there were none.

Jeff Gordon became the final of three Hendrick Motorsports teammates in the Chase for the Nextel Cup to suffer a bad setback in the first three races, losing a likely top-five finish in Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway to a broken fuel pump.

He ended up with a 39th-place finish, dropping from second to sixth in points and trailing leader Jeff Burton by 120 points with seven races remaining.

"I had a great car. We drove all the way up to fifth, I think, and I thought we were setting sail," said Gordon after the race.

"We just lost the fuel pressure someway, somehow.

"It's a disappointing day obviously. We've got to go for broke now. We don't have any other choice."

With 240 of 267 laps completed, Gordon radioed to his crew that he had "zero fuel pressure," yet he still had plenty of gas remaining in the tank.

As he coasted around Turns 3 and 4, Hendrick teammate Terry Labonte slowed, then pushed Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet onto pit road.

After getting fuel, it briefly restarted. But it stopped running again before Gordon left pit road and the team finally pushed the car toward the garage.

An obviously dejected crew member of Gordon's team at one point kicked the car in disgust. Examination after the race by team officials placed the blame on a broken fuel pump.

"I had good finishes in the first two (Chase races) and now were in the same boat as the rest of the guys back there," Gordon said.

Gordon, who started the Chase with consecutive third-place finishes at New Hampshire and Dover, survived an early scare in Sunday's race.

Just 15 laps into the race, Ryan Newman spun exiting Turn 4, forcing Gordon and Kevin Harvick to take evasive action. Neither wrecked, but both spun through the infield grass. Each spent the next 100 laps working their way up through the field.

"I wanted to go low. When I came out of the smoke I saw Harvick had gone low and I had to avoid him," Gordon said. "So I hit the apron and started spinning."

Gordon's crew chief, Steve Letarte, said he would not let his team stay down from Sunday's misfortune.

"We're going to and try to win seven races and I guess if you win seven races it doesn't matter how far behind you are, you'll win the championship," he said.

"I tell the guys before the race and I tell them after the race: We win as a team, lose as a team and break as a team. That's how we got here and that's how we'll move forward. This team is still showing great promise over last year."
Some drivers' hopes take bad turns in 2 and 4
By DAVID SCOTT
The Charlotte Observer

Checking out Kansas Speedway in the rear-view mirror:

Turn 2 and Turn 4 took turns as the race's Bermuda Triangle.
Cars stayed high going into Turn 4 early and at least three wrecks involving Robby Gordon, Ryan Newman and David Gilliland came in that part of the track.

Then such drivers as Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, J.J. Yeley and David Stremme started having problems in Turn 2 later on.

Kansas might have gotten a feel-good story from Emporia, Kan.-native Bowyer, but when the rookie hit the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 172 -- while running second to Jimmie Johnson – his chances vanished.

Not a bad weekend for Sunday's winner Tony Stewart, and a busy one at that.
Stewart finished 14th in Saturday's Busch Series race, flew to Knoxville, Tenn., and ran a Late Model Sportsman race that night. He returned to his motor home at the Kansas City track at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. "I was a walking zombie," he said.

Stewart's gamble pays off with Kansas victory
No. 20 Chevrolet crosses the finish line on fumes for win
By Chris Jenkins, The Associated Press


KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Tony Stewart prefers winning races on raw speed, not fuel strategy. At least he had enough time to savor the experience as he puttered across the finish line to win Sunday's Banquet 400.

"I got to see the checkered flag for a really long time for once," said Stewart, who ran out of gas on the last lap, but had built up such a big lead that he was able to coast to victory.
 
After being eliminated from championship contention last month, Stewart and his crew were free to gamble on gas in the closing laps of the NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway.

It paid off -- but just barely. Stewart's tank ran dry on the last lap and he crawled across the finish line to win. As he crept past the flag stand, Stewart didn't immediately know whether anybody had passed him for the lead.

"That is the thing about not being in the Chase -- we can roll the dice," Stewart said.

Jimmie Johnson could have made a similar gamble to go for the victory, but he's still chasing a Nextel Cup championship and played it safe.

It didn't work.

Johnson gave up the race lead to pit for an extra splash of fuel with four laps to go. But he was penalized for speeding on pit road and finished 14th.

"I definitely don't feel I was speeding on pit road but the computer doesn't lie, so we'll just have to see what happens," Johnson said.

Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Jeff Gordon, saw his championship momentum evaporate a few laps earlier. Gordon was running eighth when his car developed an apparent fuel-pressure problem with 29 laps to go, causing him to slow to a crawl on the backstretch.

After getting a push back to the pits from former Hendrick teammate Terry Labonte, Gordon's crew tried to fix his car but couldn't get him back on the track. He finished 39th.

"We can still win the championship, but I am just upset right now," Gordon said. "I want to know what happened, I want to get out of here and move on."

Casey Mears also gambled on gas and finished second, zig-zagging his way to the checkered flag to try to force the last drops of fuel from his tank into his engine.

"We thought we'd be about a lap-and-a-half short and we ended up being a half-a-lap short," Mears said.

Chase contender Mark Martin finished third. Martin, a self-described pessimist who has come agonizingly close to winning championships in the past, said he fully expects to wreck at Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.

But if that doesn't happen, he says, who knows?

"So far, I haven't had a disaster -- so let's go see what happens," Martin said.

Jeff Burton, who broke a five-year winless streak and grabbed the points lead last weekend at Dover, also used a conservative fuel strategy and finished fifth. Burton was running second when he pitted for a splash of fuel with nine laps to go.

Sunday's race caused a major shake-up in the points standings. Burton came into the race with a six-point lead on Gordon in the standings, and leaves with an unofficial 69-point lead on Denny Hamlin, who managed to climb two spots with an 18th-place finish.

"I hate those fuel-mileage things," Burton said. "But my guys did a great job today."
   
Martin moved up to third in the standings, 70 points behind Burton. Gordon dropped four spots to sixth, 120 points behind Burton.

Burton barely avoided trouble early in the race when Ryan Newman spun out directly in front of him. Burton quickly swerved to the right, driving through a blinding cloud of smoke to narrowly miss hitting Newman.

Gordon and Kevin Harvick were right behind Burton, and ended up sliding through the infield grass.

Harvick struggled to stay on the pace and was lapped by then-race leader Kyle Busch on Lap 118, but climbed to 12th with 83 laps to go and finished 15th. He remains fifth in the standings.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 10th and is seventh in the standings.

Sunday was rougher on Matt Kenseth, who came into the race third in the points but struggled with his car's handling all afternoon and spun out on Lap 145. Kenseth was able to rejoin the race but finished 23rd and dropped from third to fourth in the standings.

"That's a really bad finish, but it's not a total disaster, either," Kenseth said.

Hamlin also spun out with 115 laps to go, and had to make another unscheduled stop with 55 laps left.

"It's unfortunate we couldn't make a better day of it but still, it's not bad for us," Hamlin said.

Busch ran in the top five for most of the race, but was penalized for speeding on pit road before a restart with 68 laps to go and dropped to the back of the pack. He rallied in the closing laps to finish seventh.
Fumes enough for win
Stewart coasts across at Kansas, while Burton keeps points lead
By DAVID SCOTT
The Charlotte Observer


KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Tony Stewart's Chevy roared out of Turn 2 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, its lead apparently secure in the Banquet 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race.

Then everything went quiet. That's how an empty gas tank sounds.

So, calmly taking his car out of gear but with the sound of the wind whipping through the window and the frantic voice of crew chief Greg Zipadelli in his headphones, Stewart literally coasted to his second victory of the season.

"Zippy was screaming so loud, it was like we had won the Daytona 500," said Stewart. "But I thought we'd lost the race. I didn't know we'd won until I (approached) Turn 1."

Stewart's victory had no impact for him on the Chase for the Nextel Cup, since he's not participating this season. So, while the attention on the bizarre finish Sunday focused on fuel issues – runner-up Casey Mears also ran out of gas and a dominant Jimmie Johnson didn't pit for fuel when he incorrectly thought a late caution was coming – Chase leader Jeff Burton maintained his lead with a fifth-place finish.

Burton (5,511 points) stretched his lead to 69 points over the new No. 2 driver, Denny Hamlin, who finished 18th. Hamlin leads third-place Mark Martin, who was third Sunday, by one point.

Johnson, who led for 105 laps and appeared to be headed for a sorely needed victory, was one of several drivers who were gambling on fuel in the race's late stages.

His Chevy didn't appear to have any problems with the rest of the field when he took the lead from rookie Clint Bowyer on Lap 203. His lead grew to more than five seconds at one point.

But as his fuel level dropped, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus had to make a decision.

On Lap 262, they elected to get the splash of gas that Johnson hoped would push him to his first victory since Indianapolis in August – and his second top 5 since May. Instead, as Johnson entered pit road, Kasey Kahne spun in front of him. Thinking a caution flag would fall, Johnson swerved back on the track.

"I shot back out and lost a bunch of time," said Johnson.

Things got worse for Johnson. When Kahne's spin didn't bring a caution, Johnson came back for gas on the next lap. This time, he was caught speeding while exiting pit road and was penalized and had to make a second trip through the pits, this time at the legal limit of 45 mph. Johnson ended up 14th and remained in eighth place in the Chase.

In the meantime, Stewart had taken over first place with a car that wasn't the fastest of the day but had stayed out of trouble and – hopefully for Stewart – still had enough gas.

"It wasn't until the last 10 laps that I fully understood the scenario," said Stewart, winning for the 27th time in his career. "Especially about the cycle of pit stops that was going on. I really slowed my pace down then.

"But when guys are behind you, it's hard not go get on that throttle."

On that final lap, Stewart had no choice to but to stay off that throttle.

"It wasn't our fastest lap, that's for sure," he said. "And I saw the checkered flag for a really long time. That was pretty cool."

Said Zipadelli: "We probably cut it a little close, but it worked out for us."

Mears' second-place was as high as he's ever finished (he was also runner-up at Daytona in February). Sunday, he also grappled with gas mileage. Like Stewart, he gambled and (nearly) won.

"There at the end, I was very conservative with about 30 laps to go," he said. "Tony is definitely good at fuel mileage. When a guy like that runs out you know you're probably pretty close."
Kenseth dominates, but Harvick wins, extending Busch Series points lead, RCR's streak
By JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The streak continues.

Just when it looked like Matt Kenseth would put an emphatic end to Richard Childress Racing's string of Nextel Cup and Busch series victories, Kevin Harvick pulled off a surprise win in Saturday's Yellow Transportation 300 at Kansas Speedway.

RCR drivers had won the past three Cup races and the past two Busch races coming into the weekend. Kenseth, however, dominated the race from the start and looked headed to a likely win.

He led 145 of the first 165 laps, but came off pit road third behind Kyle Busch, who took two tires while Harvick who took four.

Harvick, the series points leader, passed Busch on Lap 185 and held off Kenseth by 0.423 seconds for the victory, helped by four cautions in the final 30 laps which slowed Kenseth's comeback attempt.

"Everything has just been incredible for us this year," said Harvick. "We were as good as Matt, but the bottom line is the pit stop won the race - and being able to get around Kyle fairly quick."

Added car owner Richard Childress: "It's great to see all of the hard work pay off for everybody at RCR."

The win is Harvick's seventh of the season – the most in one season by a driver since Dale Earnhardt Jr. won seven on his way to the 1998 championship. Former champion Sam Ard holds the record with 10 wins in the 1983 season.

Harvick, now with 24 career wins, holds an unofficial 729-point lead over Carl Edwards with five races remaining. Should he leave the Oct. 13 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., with at least a 760-point lead, he would clinch his second series title without having to start the final four races.

"It's an incredible accomplishment, especially since at the beginning of the year we ran a few different cars and we had to kind of move things around a little bit," Harvick said.

"This No. 21 car, though, has been good week-in and week-out no matter where we've been. The days we've been off, we've still been able to make a really good day out of it.

"It's just one of those years where everything has gone our way."

This season, Harvick has competed in every series race, driving RCR's No. 21 in 26 races, the No. 29 in one race and his own Kevin Harvick Inc. No. 33 in three. He has only three finishes worse than eighth all year.

Busch finished third, Tony Stewart - driving the No. 33 for KHI - was fourth and Clint Bowyer, Harvick's RCR teammate was fifth.