Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Johnson lucks into win No. 8
Monday, October 29, 2007

Jimmie Johnson had to have walked away from Atlanta Motor Speedway mumbling the credo, "I'd rather be lucky than good."

The current runner-up in the Chase to teammate Jeff Gordon lucked out to win his eighth Cup race of 2007 in the final few laps of Sunday's Pep Boy 500 when Earnhardt's left rear wheel left the Budmobile, ending the green-white-checker situation early. The ensuing wreck took out several cars including a hapless Jamie McMurray who appeared en route to a top-five instead of a 26th place run.

Carl Edwards had been poised to pounce onto a familiar outside pass for the win deal, only to have the race end early. He may have repeated his narrow win over Johnson similar to his first Atlanta win.

So, the top five were awarded as Johnson, Edwards, Reed Sorensen, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton after checking the previous lap scoring loops.

The race started with Greg Biffle out front, but the Roush-Fenway driver faded to mid field.

Kyle Busch led many of the laps on the day as did a strong running Martin Truex Jr. But, a late race restart found a stumbling Denny Hamlin's car not take off and Truex plow into his Chevy and out of the race.

Busch's day went all wrong on the final pitstop when his jackman didn't raise the car high enough, costing the soon-to-be ex-Hendrick driver to lose more than a dozen spots on the ensuing restart. Needless to say, he was less than thrilled with his crew's performance or lack thereof.

Jeff Gordon and teammate Johnson ran among the top 15 most of the day, but surely were nothing to write home about.

Then, there was that final pitstop where strategies were all over the map from not pitting at all to four tires and various combos in between. Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus made the right call by taking two and being out front, especially when the plug was pulled after Dale Jr's tire went awry.

Junior has to be thinking what can happen next with this DEI piece of junk. If it's not one of seven blown engines, now I have wheels and tires leaving without warning? It has surely been a season to forget for the fan favorite.

With the final stats in, Gordon left Atlanta with a slim nine point advantage over Johnson with just three shows to go.

Third place Chaser Clint Bowyer wound up a very respectable sixth but remains 115 back. It's still down to either of the dynamic duo Hendrick drivers to stand at the top of the heap in New York.

The Busch race at Memphis on Saturday afternoon wound up a wreck-a-rama with no less than 25 caution flags….yes, I said 25. Most of this race was run 5-10 laps, wreck, repeat.

The man at the front all day though was none other than David Reutimann. Not making the Cup field seemed to have the young man put the bit between his teeth from the drop of the flag.

Points leader Carl Edwards had a shot at wrapping up the title, but once again being in the wrong place at the wrong time sent him down the finishing charts to a very undeserving 25th. The Roush-Fenway driver will have to wait until next week where I'd predict the title will be his once and for all.

Capping off the top five finishers in this marathon wreck fest were the cars of Mike Bliss, David Regan, Marcos Ambrose and Jason Leffler.

The Craftsman truck race on Saturday afternoon at Atlanta saw Kyle Busch win, although any of the top five in the closing laps could have wound up in the winner's circle.

They included a very aggressive Ron Hornaday, Johnny Benson, Mark Martin and Mike Skinner.

Hornaday now leads Skinner by a mere four points with just three races remaining. These two truck veterans have been around the block many times before. It would not surprise me to see this battle go down to the last turn of the last lap of the last race.

From Rumorville

It looks as if the only driving position for Cup driver David Stremme at this point is a part-time ride for Rusty Wallace in the Busch ranks for next year. …I mean Nationwide series. Stremme deserves more than this on his plate.
--- The biggest talk of last week was of course the scenes after the race at Martinsville between Edwards and Kenseth. In case you've been in a cave for the past 10 days, while leaving the racetrack on foot, Carl spotted Matty about to be interviewed on TV. The muscular driver gently pushed Matt away from the cameras talking briefly, then jumped over the wall to exit the track. But, before actually leaving the area, faked a pretty scary punch to Matt, whereupon he flinched with fear in his eyes. (Video clip - 400,000 hits on YouTube).

Was Carl wrong for his actions? Should these teammates' discussion been dealt with off camera or not at all? What do you think? Drop me a line.

Did you know?

How many Busch series drivers competed in a Busch race this year alone? Would you believe 159 different drivers competed in a Busch race this year with Michael Waltrip currently sitting in 158th.
That's it for this week. Next week's RWR will review the NASCAR runs from Texas and more racing news from around the globe.