Menard
Hangs On takes First
Busch Series Win in Front of
Home Crowd
by Dan Peters
WEST ALLIS,
Wisconsin Paul Menard found himself being "intimidated" by Nextel
cup star Kevin Harvick with less than three laps to go at the Milwaukee
on Saturday night.
However, Harvick ended up paying the price, and
Menard got his first career Busch Series win. Menard took the green
flag with Harvick on his tail on a restart with three laps to go, then
pulled his car to the bottom of the track to force Harvick to try to
pass on the outside.
"He didn't want to go
up there, I guess," Menard said. "He thought the best way was through
me."
Harvick instead shoved
the nose of his car under Menard's rear bumper as they ran through Turn
2, causing Menard's car to jump sideways. But Menard managed to
straighten out his Chevrolet on the backstretch -- and Harvick was
booted from behind by J.J. Yeley, touching off a seven-car pileup.
"He checked up, and I
was right there," Yeley said. "Couldn't avoid it."
The late accident
forced the race into NASCAR's version of overtime, as officials added a
two-lap green-flag sprint to the finish. Menard got a clean restart and
held on to win the AT&T 250 in front of 41,510 electrified race fans
It was the last in a series of late-race restarts
that forced Menard to work hard for the win.
"It was like in the NFL, when they 'ice' the
kicker," said Menard, a Wisconsin native.
Menard wasn't perfect on the final two restarts,
spinning his wheels under acceleration, but the mistakes didn't cost
him the race. The same couldn't be said for Jaso Leffler.
Leffler was leading the race with 45 laps to go
and appeared to be one mistake-free pit stop away from his second
career Busch Series victory. But he spun out while trying to slow down
to get on pit road.... race over.
"It's unfortunate it had to work out that way, but
we'll take it any way we can," Menard said.
Denny Hamlin passed Yeley in overtime to finish second in a
Chevrolet. Yeley finished third, followed by Leffler and Mike Wallace in a Dodge.
Harvick finished 19th but retained the series
points lead. "I got a good restart, just got underneath him and he did
what he had to do to protect the bottom," Harvick said of the incident
with Menard. "I got in the back of him, someone got in the back of me
and we all just wrecked."
Hamlin, who came from
the back of the pack to lead 64 laps and dominate much of Saturday's
race, was on pit road when Leffler spun out -- a bad break that allowed
the rest of the leaders to make their pit stops under caution.
Hamlin was livid when
NASCAR officials told him he was nearly a lap behind the leaders after
their pit stops, and questioned the call after the race.
Was the long plane trip
from California worth it? "It would have been fine, if I'd smelled like
beer and champagne right now," Hamlin said.
Hamlin
and three other Nextel Cup regulars making the long commute from the
Cup Series race weekend in Sonoma, Calif. -- Yeley, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards -- had to
start from the back of the pack because they didn't get to Milwaukee in
time for qualifying on Saturday. NASCAR penalizes teams for changing
drivers between qualifying and the race.
Two
other Cup regulars, Harvick and Clint
Bowyer, made it to the track in time for
qualifying and avoided the penalty -- but Hamlin and Yeley insisted
after the race that Harvick and Bowyer also should have been sent to
the back for missing a pre-race
drivers' meeting.
Caution flags slowed
the race 11 times for 58 laps.
Mark
McFarland received unspecified injuries in
Harvick's pileup, and a track spokesman said he would fly home to North
Carolina for a follow-up visit with his doctor. No other drivers were
seriously hurt.
Notes: A total of 41
cars started Saturday's race, two short of a full field. The Busch
Series' last short fields came in 2003, when it drew 41 cars to Gateway
International Raceway and 42 cars to Darlington Raceway. ... In
addition to the four Cup regulars penalized for missing qualifying,
drivers Steve Wallace and Kim Crosby had to start
from the back for unapproved adjustments to their cars before the race.
..
Paul Menard won the
first race of his Nascar Busch Series career at his home track on his
85th start
This was Menards Second
start at the Mile. He started 3rd and finished 3rd here last year
Paul is the fourth
first-time winner this season in the Busch Series Denny Hamlin (Mexico
City) Kurt Busch (Texas) David Gilliland (Kentucky) also won their
first Busch races this year.
Menard gained 2 spots
in the Busch Series points standings following this win. Menard is
sixth. Nextel Cup driver and full time Busch series driver leads the
standings by 344
points over fellow Busch-whacker Denny Hamlin.
Paul's win was also
the second consecutive win by a Busch Series regular driver. Reed
Sorenson at Gateway and Martin Truex Jr at IRP last year were the last
regulars to win back-to-back races.
Denny Hamlin and former
Green Bay Packer Star & Super Bowl Champion Gilbert Brown exchanges
helmets just prior to tonights race. Gilbert Brown is a Milwaukee
Mile Investor and the director of new business development at the
Mile. In 2004 The late
Great Reggie White and Joe Gibbs (Hamlin's Car owner) formed a racing
partnership to support NASCAR's diversity effort.
AT&T
250
The
Milwaukee Mile
June
24, 2006
Race
17 of 35
Average Speed: 82.042
mph Margin of Victory: .523 Time of Race: 03:08:41 Lead Changes: 14 Cautions: 63-67,
70-73, 92-95, 117-128, 206-210, 213-215, 219-225, 230-233, 241-243,
245-247, 249-256
Bank of America Card Services Mid-Race Leader:
Jason Leffler,#138, Great Clips, Chevrolet
Checkers/Rally's Double Drive-Thru Challenge:
Johnny Sauter,#00, Yellow Transportation, Chevrolet
Featherlite Most Improved Driver:
Jason Leffler,#138, Great Clips, Chevrolet
Goody's Headache Powder Extra Strength:
Paul Menard,#11, Menards/Splash, Chevrolet
Mobil 1 Command Performance Driver of the Race:
Jason Leffler,#138, Great Clips, Chevrolet
Raybestos Rookie of the Race:
Danny O'Quinn Jr.,#50, World Financial Group, Ford
Sunoco Diamond Performance:
Paul Menard,#11, Menards/Splash, Chevrolet
WIX Filters Lap Leader:
Paul Menard,#11, Menards/Splash, Chevrolet
<> Benson makes it Two
In A Row at the Mile....
Milwaukee. --
After winning his first career Craftsman Trucks Series race last week,
Johnny Benson told his crew the same thing any other greedy racer
would. "Let's go get another one"
"Lo and behold, I
didn't think it would come this quick," Benson said Friday night after
making it two in a row with a victory in the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee
200.
Benson, who won at
Michigan International Speedway last Saturday, drove his Toyota past
Ron Hornaday the race pole sitter with 41 laps to go at the Milwaukee
Mile, then held off Hornaday on a restart with 25 laps to go for the
victory.
"I'm just overwhelmed,"
Benson said, when asked what emotions he was feeling after
the race. "I guess that's an emotion."Now he's thinking about the
series championship."
"I felt pretty good
going into this year that we've got a shot," Benson said. Benson climbed to third in the series points
standings, behind ToddBodine -- who fell out of a potential
top-five finish when he tangled with a lapped truck driven by Erin Crocker with
34 laps to go, relegating him to a 20th-place finish -- and David Reutimann, who
finished fifth.
After starting from the
pole, Hornaday led 69 of the race's first 78 laps. He was shuffled back
during a round of pit stops and retook the lead with 74 laps to go, but
wasn't fast enough to hold off the pass from Benson's Toyota.
Hornaday said he and
the team "messed ourselves up" with mid-race suspension adjustments.
"It's probably my fault for taking a winning truck and finishing third
with it," Hornaday said.
Mike Bliss passed
Hornaday and Jack Sprague after the final restart to finish second in a
Chevrolet. "Whenever you pass Jack or Ron, you've pretty much
accomplished the biggest feat of the day," Bliss said, joking about how
little ground the two veterans give
on the track.
Hornaday's Chevrolet
slipped to third and Sprague finished fourth in a Toyota. Reutimann
finished fifth in a Toyota.
The race was slowed by
nine caution flags for 37 laps.
Bobby
Hamilton spun all by himself on Lap 77, bringing out a caution
flag and a round of pit stops. Hornaday went into the pits in first,
but lost the lead to Reutimann on a slow pit stop and came out sixth.
A NASCAR official was
clipped by Sprague's truck leaving his pit stall on the same round of
stops, but did not appear to sustain any serious injuries.
Kerry Earnhardt,
son of the Late Dale Earnhardt, spun in the middle of a
large pack of cars on the backstretch on Lap 83, but the field was able
to avoid him.
It was a tough night
for Kelly Sutton, who spun out early in the race and recovered, only
to spin out again and hit the wall on the backstretch on Lap 37. Sutton
re-entered the race and finished 32nd.
This weekend was not
Ladies "night" at the Mile... Kim Crosby spun and made contact with the
wall on her qualifying laps and had to rush to get her Monte Carlo SS
in shape to start the race .. at the tail end of the field. Maybe a
lttle of her sponsors product helped... Butt Paste, a product Kims says
she uses .. "Its really great for chapped & dried lips"
Toyota
Tundra Milwaukee 200
The
Milwaukee Mile
June
23, 2006
Race
11 of 25
Average Speed: 85.673
mph Margin of Victory: No
Value Time of Race: 02:20:04 Lead Changes: 12 Cautions: 4-6,
38-41, 78-81, 84-87, 92-94, 96-99, 115-118, 121-123, 168-175
