2007 Subway Fresh Fit 500 @ Phoenix NEXTEL Cup Event Thread *SPOILERS*

[rustyfan]

After a race at Texas that had it all - close racing, hot tempers, wild crashes and, in particular, an awesome finish - the NEXTEL Cup Series moves on to the Valley of the Sun and the eight race of the season, staged at Phoenix International Raceway.

The 2006 event was largely dominated by Roush Racing, with Greg Biffle and Mark Martin making things look easy by leading 262 of the 312 laps that made up the race. Unfortunately things aren't always as easy as they look, something Martin and Biffle had to learn the hard way after Martin got involved in a 7-car crash and Biffle lost the lead to Kevin Harvick with 10 laps to go (and then ran out of gas with just two to go). Harvick, who claimed his first victory of the season, made it a weekend sweep as he had also won the Busch Series race the day before. Tony Stewart made an impressive run up through the field for the second straight race to finish second, after a problem with a tire just before the start of the race forced him to start dead last. Matt Kenseth come home in third after a rather unspectacular day which saw him lead just one single lap.

Seven cautions, including a red flag for the second straight race due to a six-car crash, slowed the race, while there were 20 lead changes among 11 different drivers. Matt Kenseth left Phoenix as the points leader, taking over the top spot from Jimmie Johnson. Kasey Kahne moved up a spot to third at the expense of Mark Martin while Tony Stewart remained in fifth.



Track Specs: 1 mile oval, 11 degrees of banking in turns 1-2, 9 degrees of banking in turns 3-4 and 0 degrees of banking on the straightaways. Roughly 76,000 grandstand seats.

NEXTEL Cup Qualifying Record: 135.854 mph, by Ryan Newman on November 5th, 2004.

NEXTEL Cup Race Record: 118.132 mph (2 hours, 38 minutes, 28 seconds) set by Tony Stewart on November 7th, 1999.

Phoenix is one of only three tracks Jeff Gordon has yet to win a race at. He also has yet to win a race at Texas and Homestead.

This will be the 22nd race at Phoenix since 1988. Davey Allison, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick are the winningest drivers, with two victories a piece. Interestingly all four drivers collected their two victories back to back.

The furthest down anyone has won from is the 29th starting spot. Ricky Rudd did that in 1995. No one has managed to win a race at Phoenix from the pole.



There are 50 cars going for 43 spots. NASCAR.com has the entry list. Note: NASCAR.com has Kevin Lepage listed in the #37, while Jayski has John Andretti in the same car. Should be cleared up within the next few days.

Brandon Ash will be looking at qualifying for his first race of the season, as will Kevin Lepage if he indeed is the one set to drive the #37.

It will be the first race driving the Car of Tomorrow for Mark Martin.

This is the third race of the 2007 season where this years' owners points determines who is locked into the top 35 in qualifying. There were no changes in the points standings around the 35th spot after the race at Texas.

David Reutimann, Brandon Ash, Ward Burton, Scott Riggs, Paul Menard, Ken Schrader, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, Kevin Lepage/John Andretti, Mike Bliss, Michael Waltrip, Kenny Wallace, Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger will all have to qualify on speed to get into the race. Dale Jarrett has a Champions' Provisional available and get into the race regardless of how he does in qualifying.



This is the third race using the Car of Tomorrow.

For more information and images of the CoT I recommend you visit Jayski's site about the CoT.



TV: Pre-race show on FOX starts at 8:00pm ET, April 21st (please note that this is a Saturday race). Green flag is scheduled for 8:30pm ET.

In Scandinavia the TV broadcast gets underway at 2:00 CET on Viasat Sport 3 during the night between Saturday and Sunday.



My pick for the win: Jimmie Johnson

[Knowlesy]

Night race?

I think NASN subscribers have the Busch race live also, although I'm unsure.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Night race?

I think NASN subscribers have the Busch race live also, although I'm unsure.

No, the Busch race is "As live" on NASN on Saturday afternoon.

[Knowlesy]

Hmmm...we have it at 2 in the morning on Saturday. So if it is delayed, it isn't by much.

[Speed]

No Busch for Montoya this weekend?

[Speed]

Ooops, didn´t know about Friday Busch race..., my fault.

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by Speed

Ooops, didn´t know about Friday Busch race..., my fault.

I haven't gotten around to start a thread for the Busch race yet. Unless someone else beats me to it I'll get it done tomorrow.

[Knowlesy]

Confirmed, Busch race is live on NASN2 (Setanta Ireland for UK viewers).

(I'll move these posts into your Busch thread rusty, promise!)

[rustyfan]

Practice has just ended at Phoenix. Since NASCAR.com is shot for me at the moment I'll post the top 5 speeds posted by Jayski:

#9 - Kasey Kahne, Dodge Avenger, 130.733 mph
#8 - Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet Impala SS, 130.558 mph
#20 - Tony Stewart, Chevrolet Impala SS, 130.406 mph
#17 - Matt Kenseth, Ford Fusion, 130.388 mph
#48 - Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet Impala SS, 130.383 mph

The slowest were #02 Brandon Ash (125.681 mph) and #15 Paul Menard (127.325 mph).

[Hazza]

Labonte wasn't slowest? Freaky...

ps: Go Dale.

[rustyfan]

Jeff Gordon grabbed the pole for Saturday's race. It's his third pole of the season. Jamie McMurray starts alongside him on the front row, while Denny Hamlin, Scott Riggs and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 5 qualifiers.

Dave Blaney was the top Toyota, qualifying in the 11th spot. Other than Blaney, David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett (using his fifth past Champion's Provisional out of the six he has available) were the only Toyotas making it into the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya will start 36th.

Jeremy Mayfield, Michael Waltrip, John Andretti, Brian Vickers, A.J. Allmendinger, Mike Bliss and Brandon Ash missed the race.

NASCAR.com has the full line-up posted here.

[Knowlesy]

I still have more points than Michael Waltrip in this years Nextel Cup!

[marcel82]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Confirmed, Busch race is live on NASN2 (Setanta Ireland for UK viewers).

(I'll move these posts into your Busch thread rusty, promise!)

I only have NASN1

and it seems TVU has removed FOX, so no mare NASCAR watching for me

[Knowlesy]

There may be a live broadcast of the race on NASCAR.com again.

There has been the last few races.

[marcel82]

of the cup race?

[rustyfan]

The Busch race from Phoenix will be shown on NASCAR.com. Check here for the full schedule of race-streams via NASCAR.com during the year.

[Knowlesy]

I am getting totally confused here, I keep thinking I'm in the Busch thread!

Sorry marcel.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by marcel82

I only have NASN1

and it seems TVU has removed FOX, so no mare NASCAR watching for me

FOX is back on TVU

[rustyfan]

The pre-race show has started. We should get the green flag in 25-30 minutes or so.

[Knowlesy]

Congrats to Jeff Gordon!

First ever win at Phoenix (and of 2007) and he now ties with Dale Sr on the all time victories list.

I didn't log on during the race, figuring nobody would be online at such an hour! But it was an OK race, a nice brief battle between Stewart and Gordon towards the end.

Hendrick really have the CoT nailed don't they...

[Hazza]

I got home intime to see Stewart dominating, and assumed he would've taken it from there.

Any choice COT bashing?

[Knowlesy]

I didn't catch any post race stuff, but I imagine there were some complaints.

I know Montoya had some major setup/adjustment dramas all race, so I guess he probably complaiend a bit.

Nice to see Tony has rescinded his retirement remarks BTW....lol.

[rustyfan]

I fell asleep after around 20-30 minutes

Watched a condensed version this morning before the Euro F3 broadcast started on MotorsTV. Not one of the better races at Phoenix, even though there were some good duels at times. Stewart's three-wide move to take the lead at the end there was awesome though - too bad he wasn't able to keep it.

Only Cale Yarborough (83), Darrell Waltrip (84), Bobby Allison (84), David Pearson (105) and, of course, Richard Petty (200) ahead of Jeff Gordon in the all-time win list now.

[muggle not]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

I fell asleep after around 20-30 minutes

Watched a condensed version this morning before the Euro F3 broadcast started on MotorsTV. Not one of the better races at Phoenix, even though there were some good duels at times. Stewart's three-wide move to take the lead at the end there was awesome though - too bad he wasn't able to keep it.

Only Cale Yarborough (83), Darrell Waltrip (84), Bobby Allison (84), David Pearson (105) and, of course, Richard Petty (200) ahead of Jeff Gordon in the all-time win list now.

And 84 wins is surely in sight for Gordon. I also fell asleep during what I thought was only an OK race. The last few laps were pretty good. Hamlin was probably the car to beat but his penalty done him in. Gordon and Stewart both had good cars. Glad to see Jeff get the win.

[Antrodemus]

Yeah, Hamlin was carving them up. Watching him looming up behind Kenseth at the end was better than the lead battle.

We need more night races too - I much prefer watching them at midday Sunday than 6am Monday morning!