Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Kansas was plagued by rain delays, including two stoppages, and some controversial events that resulted in a near six hour running time. The most ironic incident was crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. taking out the car he will be driving next year, currently driven by Kyle Busch. Later Tony Stewart’s sudden decrease in speed due to a deflating tyre caught out the other Busch brother and Carl Edwards caught entangeld in the ensuing incident.
But the strangest was left till last. The race distance kept getting shortened due to failing light, first down from 267 to 225 laps and then to 210 laps. At lap 206 Jaun Pablo Montoya blew a tire bringing out a last caution. Rather than extend the race with a green-white-chequered finish NASCAR decided to end the race behind the pace car. Leader Greg Biffle was clearly having problem maintaining pace, perhaps due to lack of fuel, and dropped to the track apron. After a while a few cars passed him, but he was still declared the winner, much to the chargrin of the sodden crowd who believed that local boy Clint Bowyer was the winner as he had crossed the line first. And depending on how you interpret the various rules it could also be argued that in fact 4th placed Casey Mears was the winner.
The Top 10 finishers (according to NASCAR) were:
- Greg Biffle
- Clint Bowyer
- Jimmy Johnson
- Casey Mears
- Jeff Gordon
- Kevin Harvick
- Reed Sorenson
- Elliot Sadler
- Kasey Khane
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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This was definitely one of th weirder races in a long time finish-wise. Personally, I think Biffle was running out of gas. He got a little help from NASCAR…bottom line.