Tony Stewart put himself back in the hunt
for the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship by winning Sunday's Price
Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.
Stewart and crew chief Darian Grubb gambled with a two-tire stop late in the
race. He exited the pits first and grabbed the lead with 30 laps remaining.
The two-time Cup Series champion then held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon in
the closing laps for his fourth win of the season and the 37th of his Cup
career. Stewart, who also won at Kansas in 2006, joined Gordon as the only
repeat winners here.
With the victory, Stewart moved to within 67 points of leader Mark Martin, who
finished seventh.
"It's the perfect scenario for us right now on the stand in points," Stewart
said. "This team is going to have some momentum going in to California next
week."
Stewart is in his first year as driver and owner, with Grubb coming on board
as his crew chief at the start of the season.
"He is a little gutsy, so that's a good thing," Stewart said. "You just
don't question Darian. When he makes a call, you know it's the right thing to
do and you go from there."
Gordon finished second, with Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin
completing the top-five.
"As I got closer to [Stewart], my car just really started getting tighter and
tighter, and at that point I tried searching around a little bit, but there
just really wasn't anything I could do," Gordon said.
Biffle led a race-high 113 laps, but took four tires on his final stop and
could not catch Stewart at the end.
Kasey Kahne finished sixth, while David Reutimann took the eighth spot, Jimmie
Johnson ninth and Carl Edwards 10th.
Edwards overcame a one-lap deficit when he was penalized for speeding on pit
road in the early stages. Johnson was a factor for most of the race, but gave
up track position after his last stop for four tires.
"We had such a great car, and we felt four [tires] was the way to go," said
Johnson, who won last year's race at Kansas. "We certainly lost some track
position, and we were in dirty air."
Martin now holds an 18-point lead over Johnson, while Montoya, the only
driver to post top-five finishes in all three Chase races, trails Martin by 51
markers.
"I don't think we should be getting all hyped up about the tally right now,"
Martin said. "We've got a lot of racing to go."
Nine Chase drivers finished in the top-10.
Kurt Busch came in 11th, while Newman was 22nd. Brian Vickers had the worst
finish among the 12-Chase drivers. Vickers dealt with an ill-handling car
before he suffered engine failure in the late-going. He wound up 37th.
"I just want to get out of Kansas, it's been a long weekend for me," Vickers
said.
Vickers dropped to last in the Chase rankings, 250 points behind Martin.
The 400-mile race at Kansas featured a track-record 26 lead changes among 14
drivers.
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