August 13, 2007
By Ron Felix

Stewart Wins at the Glen * CIA Stock Photo

Sunday's race at Watkins Glen international had just about everything you'd want to see in a road course event -- and more. There were wrecks aplenty, eight cautions slowed the race as did a red flag to clean up an oil mess, fans running onto the track during the race stoppage, a shoving match between Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya, death knell for the No. 8 car and a spin by Tony Stewart two-thirds of the way through the race and a drive back from 19th place to win.

Stewart spins, drives back to the front, Gordon spins with two to go, Stewart wins the race.

"We just kept picking them off one at a time" said Stewart. "When you make a mistake like that, I know it was disappointing to those guys (Stewart's crew), but they were still behind me 100 percent. Every time we passed a car coming back by there, they were rooting me on."

Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon both had fast cars. Gordon led the most laps, 51 of 90, but his Chevrolet wheel-hopped and he spun while leading Stewart with two laps to go. It was only fitting though, Stewart also had some wheel-hop in turn one on lap 68 when he spun out and he needed the entire 20 laps to catch and pass Gordon.

"Basically, it was the same thing I did, that I lost it in Turn One," Stewart said. "It was both of ours to lose today. Jeff and I by far had the best two cars. I just made a mistake and wheel-hopped it. We just had to keep fighting back -- it was a hard job fighting back through there.

Stewart was pressuring Gordon, hoping for a rare mistake. Gordon finally sucumbed to the elements.

"I just overdrove the corner," said Gordon. "Pretty much the same thing that happened to Tony earlier in the race in the braking zone getting in to Turn 1. Just stupid. I knew I had to push -- Tony was really good. I wanted that win really bad. Points don't mean anything. I pushed, and I pushed too far. What happened is the team deserved to win and the driver didn't get it done."

Stewart has three win on the season. The victory was the 32nd of his 306 race career and he has won three of the last four races.

Denny Hamlin drove a very aggressive race and it benefited him at one point and hurt him in other place. Hamlin made it through his tumultuous drive and finished second.

"I was just too busy trying to fend off the No. 99 and couldn't concentrate on my own marks to try and get around the No. 24," Hamlin said. "I felt like I should have probably just nudged him a little bit there at that one point, that let Tony get by me. If I had nudged him (Jeff Gordon) and got out in clean air, wow, this race could have been ours. It was still a great one-two finish for Joe Gibbs racing.

Jimmie Johnson drove a steady race, staying out of serious trouble and brought his No. 48 home in the third spot.

"At times, it was pretty wild out there today," said Johnson. "I was caught up in a few things. I think at times, some guys just take it for granted that they have bumpers. The No. 42 finally has a bumper and he is running people over, ran me over and spun me out which was unfortunate, but at least we recovered from it."

Ron Fellows, driving the No. 96, raced to fourth place and Robby Gordon was fifth. DEI's Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth followed by Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth to round out the top ten.

On lap 72, Juan Pablo Montoya tried to block an advance by Martin Truex Jr. Truex got into the back of Montoya, shoving him into Kevin Harvick. Montoya was hit again by Jeff Burton and Harvick crashed into Jamie McMurray. Both Harvick and Montoya leaped out of their cars and started a shouting and shoving match. NASCAR officials broke it up.

"On the last restart I went to the inside to defend the 1 car. I guess he didn’t like it that I defend him and he just spun me. He spun me," said Montoya. "When he spun me, I went backwards into the 29. He got out of the car, you know. I came out. (and said) 'They hit me from behind.' And he came all disrespectful and saying all kinds of things and grabbed me. And I don’t appreciate that. I race very clean. I give people space. If he’s not going to respect me, I’m not going to respect him either. It’s pretty disappointing to see a guy like that do such a thing.”

The race was red-flagged and during the lull, a fan ran out to Matt Kenseth with pad and Sharpie in hand. He tried to hand it to Kenseth but Kenseth told the fan that he was a little bit busy and refused to have anything to do with it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an engine failure on lap 64 and put his "Chase for the Championship" on life support. Earnhardt finished 42nd on the day and is now 100 points behind 12th place Kurt Busch in the Nextel Cup point standings.

"I don't think I've ever driven as hard or as well on a road course,Earnhardt said. "We easily had one of the four or five best cars out there from my seat. And lemme tell ya, it was a show from where I was sitting.

"It's frustrating to run so well again and then end up here on the trailer with a broken racecar. It seems like the same scene every week. Yeah, it hurts us in the points but we can make it up. This team has been through a lot and I've been through a lot in this business, so we know we can comeback when we're down. We know strange things happen and we could right back in the points in a flash. I'm not giving up and I know those guys there loading up the racecar aren't going to give up. I'm ready to start the race at Michigan right now just to get back out there and show how good of a team this is."

Paul Menard finished 19th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth time this season.

“It was good. It could have been a lot better. I kind of screwed up and spun out going up through the esses, and that cost us a top ten finish. But it was a really good points day anyway,” Menard said.

The Nextel Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday, August 19th. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at 1 p.m. and will be carried by MRN radio.

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