Pop Secret 500
Elliott Sadler raced to his second victory of the season and all but wrapped up a spot in the NASCAR's new championship playoff Sunday night at California Speedway.
Sadler won for the third time in his Nextel Cup career, easily holding off rookie Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin at the end of the 250-lap Pop Secret 500 with the help of a couple of late caution flags that slowed the two challengers. But Kahne, who finished second for the fifth time this season, and Martin both climbed into the top 10 in the points with only next Saturday night's race at Richmond Va., remaining before NASCAR pares the championship battle to the top 10 drivers for the last 10 races of the season. Chevy Rock and Roll 400
The task was clear for Jeremy Mayfield: Win the race and don't worry about making NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Mission accomplished.
Mayfield raced to his first victory in the more than four years Saturday night, taking the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway after leader Kurt Busch ran out of gas eight laps from the finish.
The victory locked Mayfield into NASCAR's race for the Nextel Cup title in the final qualifying event.
"We had no choice but to try to win the race and lead the most laps," Mayfield said. "We really put it all together because we had to win. We focused all week on that." Sylvania 300
Kurt Busch had plenty of gas this time.
After running out of fuel while leading eight laps from the end a week earlier in Richmond, Busch dominated Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race, completing a sweep of the 2004 events at New Hampshire International Speedway and coming away tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead after the first race of the new 10-man, 10-race championship showdown.
"Well, No. 1 is in the books, but there's still an awful lot of work to do," Busch said after leading 155 of the 300 laps on the 1.058-mile oval in the Sylvania 300. MBNA America 400
Ryan Newman left misfortune behind and ran away from the field, while four-time series champion Jeff Gordon took the NASCAR Nextel Cup points lead Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
But the victory in the MBNA America 400 did little to enhance the long-shot title hopes of Newman, 33rd a week earlier because of engine failure late in the race in New Hampshire. He's eighth in the standings with eight races remaining, trailing Gordon by 107 points.
"When you win races you're going to be good," Newman said. "Now we just have to keep going." EA Sports 500
Dale Earnhardt Jr. charged from 11th place to a victory and the series points lead in the last five laps of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Although he was at or near the front virtually the entire EA Sports 500, leading a race-high 78 of the 188 laps, Earnhardt fell behind when crew chief Tony Eury Sr. decided to gamble on two fresh right-side tires on his final pit stop.
Other drivers got ahead of Earnhardt by staying on the track or taking only fuel on their final stops during the last of five caution periods in the race. But it made little difference once the green flag waved for Lap 184.
"Those brand new rights just drove around the corners so much better than those other guys with old tires out there," Earnhardt said. "I wasn't worried. They make the calls in the pits and I just drive the car." Banquet 400
Joe Nemechek completed a weekend sweep Sunday, holding off a charging Ricky Rudd to win the Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.
This one was almost as close as his half car-length victory over Greg Biffle in the Busch Series event Saturday, with Nemechek and Rudd racing side-by-side and bumping once with a lap to go before Nemechek took control again and beat Rudd to the finish by 0.081 seconds -- about 1.5 car-lengths. "There at the end I was trying to save gas and here comes Ricky Rudd out of nowhere," Nemechek said. "I was like, 'Holy Moley.' I had to get back on it. He got beside me one time, but I wasn't going to let it happen."
Jimmie Johnson thought he needed a victory to jump back into contention for the Nextel Cup championship.
He got it, and it still wasn't enough.
Johnson won the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Saturday night -- leading teammate Jeff Gordon across the finish line for a 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports -- but gained almost no ground in the Chase for the Championship.
On a night in which almost all 10 of the championship contenders had some sort of trouble, Kurt Busch and Gordon rebounded the best. Subway 500
Jimmie Johnson pulled away from Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman on a restart with seven laps to go to climb four spots in the season-ending title chase, but another solid performance by Kurt Busch moved him one step closer to winning NASCAR's first playoff championship.
"You've got to step up to the plate and race hard in each of these final 10" races, Busch said after finishing fifth, his sixth top-six run in as many races since the playoff started. "We had a regular season and now we have a playoff and right now we haven't had a bad finish."
While Busch led a race-high 120 laps, leading contenders Jeff Gordon struggled and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was never a factor, allowing Busch to build his lead to 96 points over Gordon and 125 over Earnhardt.
On a grim day for most of NASCAR's championship contenders, Jimmie Johnson took his third straight checkered flag.
Never has a victory seemed more appropriate. Johnson held off Mark Martin's dominating car to win Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, easing some of the pain after the tragedy that struck Hendrick Motorsports last weekend. Martin had the best car in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, his Ford leading 227 of the 325 laps. But a late yellow flag cost him the top spot, and the 45-year-old Martin couldn't chase down Johnson at the end.