In his 156th NASCAR Nextel Cup start Hendricks Motorsports driver Casey Mears managed to turn what had many had planned as a splash-n-go strategy into a fuel presevation run giving him his first trip to victory lane. Mears, along with JJ Yeley, Kyle Petty and Reed Sorenson decided to gamble and stay out when race leader Tony Stewart and several other front runners headed for pit lane with just 6 laps to go.

Fifth place Brian Vickers ran strongly all day and at one point it looked possible that he would give Toyota their first victory in Nextel Cup. Pre-race favorite, Jimme Johnson, who always runs strong at the Lowes Motor Speedway, was involved in an early wreck that took out 13 cars, but left his comparitively undamaged allowing him to eventually finish 10th.

Another large multi-car wreck took out Jeff Gordon, his first DNF of the year, but he still held on to the championship lead.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Casey Mears
2.  J.J. Yeley
3.  Kyle Petty
4.  Reed Sorenson
5.  Brian Vickers
6. Tony Stewart
7. Ricky Rudd
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Jimmie Johnson

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 10:26 pm and is filed under NASCAR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.