July 16, 2007
By Ron Felix

USG Sheetrock 400 Winner * CIA Stock Photo

It had been 20 races since Tony Stewart last visited Victory Lane, in the fall race at Texas Motor Speedway 2006, but on Sunday he led 108 of the 267 laps in the USG Sheetrock 400 Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway and picked up his first win of the year. It was the 30th win of Stewart's 303 race career and his second at Chicagoland Speedway.

"All these Home Depot guys won the race," said Stewart, referring to his pit crew guys. "They got us the track position we needed, especially with late cautions like that. Being out front, being in clean air was everything. So every one of those guys with the Monte Carlo SS were the ones who got us in victory lane today, for sure."

Matt Kenseth, after a spirited battle with Stewart, finished second and a fast closing Carl Edwards was third.

"We thought that the four tires would be enough to win the race," said Edwards. "There at the end we needed about 20 more laps for the tires to really work.

Kevin Harvick led a total of 54 laps early but chose to use a different strategy and temporarily was out of sync with the rest of the field. Harvick brought his Chevrolet home in the fourth spot followed by Casey Mears, Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer to round out the top ten.

With his ninth-place finish, Gordon continued to hold his points lead with a 303-point advantage over second-place Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Monte Carlo SS, who finished 17th. Gordon and nine other Team Chevy drivers sit among the top-12 in the driver points standings.

Chevrolet maintains the lead in the Nextel Cup manufacturer points standings with 15 wins in 19 of 36 races completed.

Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, was sidelined in an accident, a hard hit to the outside wall, due to a cut right rear tire and fell to seventh in the standings.

"It knocked the wind out of me for a second," said Johnson. "I hit my elbow on the seat. But to be honest with you, when it first turned around, I knew how fast I was going and I expected the impact to be a lot worse. It says a lot for the car and a lot for the soft walls and to get a bump on my elbow is all, that's pretty good."

Juan Pablo Montoya finished 15th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the seventh time this season. “We struggled tight all day. We tried pretty hard to free up the car," said Montoya. "When we stopped under green it was really good, I could run really strong, then every time we pit under yellow it was just too tight. We tried to free it up all day long, just didn’t catch it up enough but we still had a good result. The car is in one piece so I’m pretty happy.”

There were twenty lead changes among different nine drivers and the race was slowed by seven caution periods for a total of thirty-two laps. The Nextel Cup Series is off this next weekend and will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 29, 2007, for the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. The race will be carried by ESPN and is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.

For full final race results...     (Insider Racing News)
For top-40 Nextel Cup drivers points...     (Insider Racing News)