By Rebecca Gladden

November 12, 2004

Last Sunday’s Checker Auto Parts 500 in Phoenix had a little bit of something for everyone.

RAIN: The green flag waved almost 30 minutes early in an effort to get a jump on impending bad weather. It sprinkled sporadically in Avondale throughout the day, while showers forced a 21-minute red flag delay for rain at lap 111. More rain and looming darkness threatened to end the race prematurely with about 10 laps to go, but both held off until an exciting green-white-checkered finish was completed.

GAIN: What made this race exciting was the roller-coaster day that many of the Chase contenders experienced. A few drivers made gains, but several experienced setbacks.

The early going was dominated by Ryan Newman, who came out strong and led the first 60 laps; he was soon overtaken by Dale Earnhardt Junior, who proved to have the car to beat.

Six of the Chase drivers finished the race in the top ten. Kurt Busch maintained his points lead despite a problematic day, while positions two through five were shuffled. Jeff Gordon moved up one spot to 2nd, Dale Junior moved up two spots to 3rd, Jimmie Johnson dropped two spots to 4th, and Mark Martin dropped one spot to 5th. Positions 6 through 10 did not change.

Kurt Busch continued to show the enviable combination of skill and luck that has kept him in first place for the majority of the Chase. Despite spinning, running out of gas, and briefly stalling on pit road, Busch managed a top-ten finished and maintained his lead in the points. After the race Busch tipped his hand a bit as he explained his team’s winning outlook.

"It's the philosophy of working within (y)our own realm of what's in your control," Busch said, "and that's to drive your car to your ability, not beyond it, and to create a safe zone around your racecar." So far, it’s worked like a charm for the 97 team."

Dale Junior was another big gainer, moving from 5th to 3rd in points. The race marked his second consecutive win at Phoenix, the fourth track at which he has two Cup wins. Additionally, Junior is the only top-ten driver to have two wins in the Chase races.

Jeff Gordon had a good day despite losing to Junior in the closing laps. The 24 driver moved from 3rd to 2nd in points and is now only 41 points behind Kurt Busch. Racing the Dupont Chevy in the closing laps, Dale Junior was impressed with Gordon’s finish.

"Jeff's car was terrible at the end. I'm sure he was really disappointed," Earnhardt commented in the post-race press conference. "But he's a professional. To finish third, I don't think I could have done that."

PAIN: Despite dropping two places in the standings, Jimmie Johnson was optimistic about his sixth-place finish:

"We had a good car. We just had to fight back from going down a lap from having to deal with a wheel left loose," Johnson reported. "Once we got going, we were fine. We just ran out of laps."

On the bright side, Johnson is only one point behind third-place Earnhardt Junior heading into Darlington.

Mark Martin, on the other hand, was dejected after his 15th place finish, dropping one spot to 5th in the points. Martin was involved in a multi-car crash on lap 128.

"Everything goes against us," said Martin, taking the load on his shoulders. "We just didn't recover from that spin. It looked like we might, and then we had a bad pit stop. Every time I turned around I was at the end, almost at the back. We'd work our way up into position and something else would happen. That's the way it goes, I guess."

Other Chase drivers with problems included Elliott Sadler and Matt Kenseth, although they maintained there relative positions in the Chase standings. Sadler blamed himself for hitting the wall on Lap 154 and was unable to return until Lap 216.

"It's just a shame," Sadler apologized after the race. "I'm man enough to say I messed up."

Kenseth had few words after losing an engine for the second week in a row.

"We just broke something in the motor," Kenseth explained."I don't know why or what, we just broke something."

While none of the Chase drivers are completely out of the championship picture, it is unlikely that Sadler, Kenseth, or Jeremy Mayfield will be able to make up enough points in the final two races of the season.

RAISING KAHNE: Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick made things interesting in the closing laps of the race. Racing hard for fourth place, they traded paint a few times, but Harvick continued the disagreement on pit road after the race ended. Harvick was at once contrite and confrontational after the incident.

"I just wanted to stop and ask him if I should've done something different," he explained, adding, "Kasey's not big enough to get out of his car and fight this battle."

Kahne was philosophical about the incident ("It was just hard racing"), but Jeff Gordon indicated that it was indeed Harvick who was raising Cain Sunday.

"He was a little high-strung today," Gordon confided in the post-race press conference. Gordon, Harvick and Kahne finished third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

Harvick and Kahne were each fined $10,000 for the fracas and will be on probation for the rest of the season.

Two veteran drivers enjoyed top ten finishes in Phoenix; Rusty Wallace finished 7th and Bobby Labonte finished 9th.

“We had a pretty good car all day,” Labonte reported. “We didn't have to change too many things on the car, and we were able to pass people, which has been difficult this year."

As they say, no pain, no gain.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.