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Suburban
Journals of Chicago Inc.
Sports
 
 
Dan Peters
Sports Editor
Suburban
Journals of Chicago Inc.
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No asterisk here, Reutimann dominates late
and wins at Chicagoland Speedway.
The Start
of the LifeLock.com 400 Pole sitter Jamie McMurray leads the field to
the Green Flag
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Dan Peters
David
Reutimann held off a charging Carl Edwards in the final green-flag run
Saturday night and picked up his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup
victory in the LifeLock.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway. No
asterisk here.
Reutimann,
who is expected to re-sign with Michael Waltrip Racing, won for the
first time since May 2009, when he went to Victory Lane in the
rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Reutimann was strong all night… here he
charges ahead of Greg Biffle.. Gordon, Edwards are in his rear view
mirror.
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Mark Rotor
“First of all, I have to thank
the fans and everyone else at Michael Waltrip Racing. Everybody
did such a great job today. Toyota Racing Development and having
Tums on the car this weekend, it’s just been a great weekend. I
don’t even know what to say. It was probably the lamest burnout
I’ve ever seen at this race track, I was tearing up pretty bad. I
have to thank all my guys, they did a great job. There was no
rain tonight. We earned this one, nobody gave it to us and that
feels really good.” Reutimann said.
No
Rain here… Reutimann celebrates
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Dan Peters
“Cousin”
Carl Edwards ran second in an outstanding race for the floundering
Roush Fenway Ford team.
“Second is bittersweet. You
want to win, but we are obviously very happy with the result. If we run
that well every week we will win plenty of races. The key is that we
ran so well. If we can continue that every week we will be in good
shape. Three more laps and we would have been right there, but you
never really know I guess because it depends on how hard he is running
too, but I feel like with three more laps things would have gotten
really interesting.” Edwards said.
Jeff
Gordon finished third, after a strong run up front, followed by Clint
Bowyer and polesitter Jamie McMurray. Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny
Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Paul Menard completed the top 10 in the 19th
series race of the season.
McMurray leads Gordon… Reutimann was moving forward (Tums Car)
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Dan Peters
The Good,
the Bad.. The Ugly..
The Good…
It was a
good night for Reutimann, Edwards and Gordon. A bad night for new daddy
Jimmie Johnson, and an ugly uncharacteristic night for Cup leader
Kevin Harvick .
Jeff
Gordon Passing Martin Truex Jr.
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Dan Peters
On David
Reutimann..“Yeah, he is just such a nice person. He is the first guy to
congratulate me on something and the first guy to apologize if he feels
he did something wrong. We all have to hang out with each other every
week, but he is the guy you would hang out with if you had an off
weekend. He is a good guy.” Edwards said.
Edwards
had kind words for everyone… On Jeff Gordon’s 600th career start.. “I
remember I was at the grocery store, probably in 1993, with my Mom and
I picked up a racing magazine on the rack and remember thinking how
this guy had it made. There you were on the cover of the magazine
standing next to your race car. You had a cool race car, driver suit,
mustache and mullet. I was thinking that I couldn’t even grow a
mustache. It is so cool to be sitting up here with you and on the night
of your 600th career start. Congrats man, it is a great milestone.”
Jimmie
Johnson Battles Travis Kvapil #38 & Ryan Newman #39
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Dan Peters
The Bad…
The
fastest car … not always the best car.. Ask new father Jimmie Jonhson.
Johnson
may have had the fastest car – leading the first 92 laps – but he shot
himself in the foot twice before the race was 150 laps old.
Number 1
..On the way to a green-flag stop on Lap 93, Johnson missed the
entrance to pit road, and lost the lead to McMurray. He spent the next
40 laps running down the driver of the No. 1 Chevy.
Number
Two.. Less than two laps after a restart on Lap 136, Johnson spun on
the backstretch while running in close quarters with the No. 56 Toyota
of Martin Truex Jr. It was impossible to tell, even after multiple
replays, whether Truex's car made slight contact with Johnson's Chevy
or whether Truex simply took the air off Johnson's spoiler and caused
him to lose control.
Whatever
the case, Johnson restarted 24th on Lap 14, and matters got worse. On
Lap 169, Johnson radioed, "Right front flat –I scrubbed the wall a
little bit," and brought his car to pit road for four new tires. He
came out of the pits two laps down and ultimately finished 25th, one
lap down.
The Ugly…
Harvick
fought trouble all race long, at one point bringing his No. 29
Chevrolet to the garage to change the fuel pump and fuel pump cable. He
lost 16 laps in the process and finished 34th, 16 laps down.
Victory
lane was a happy place for all. Jeff Gordon along with Carl
Edwards…stopped by to congratulate the winner
©
Suburban Journals
of Chicago Inc. photo by Mark Rotor
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