Racin' With Russ
By Russell Schmidt

Stewart Endures to Win at The Glen
Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Gordon was leading…Tony led…Tony spun…Gordon led…Gordon spun…Tony wins!

That’s the long and short of the Cup race on Sunday at Watkins Glen. Jeff Gordon started on the pole due to qualifying being rained out.

The four-time champ led a pile of laps on what seemed to be a good day for the Hendrick driver. It was until the two-to-go sign dropped and he overcooked it into the first turn, the same exact location Stewart over did it earlier in the race.

With less than two circuits remaining, Stewart had only to hold off a hard charging Carl Edwards to earn his third win of the season.

Rounding off the top five finishers included Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Ron Fellows and Robby Gordon.

Edwards over drove his Ford into one of the final turns, driving off the track and into the kitty litter, leaving him with an eighth, just ahead of Jeff Gordon in ninth.

The ‘water cooler’ story for this week has to be the contact between Kevin Harvick and Juan Montoya in a first turn restart. It occurred with less than 20 to go. The field flew into turn 1, when unbeknown to Harvick, Martin Truex Jr was pushing on Montoya as the field bunched in the middle of the turn.

That sent Montoya into Harvick, then Jeff Burton had nowhere to go and smacked into Montoya as well.

The ensuing discussion between Harvick and Montoya will be fodder for conversation for quite a while. Both drivers got out of their cars, walked towards each other, when the heated discussion began. There was a little shoving, some helmet grabbing, yet no punches thrown.

The crowd loved it. I’m NASCAR officials did not and we’ll hear more about this during the week. I’d expect fines and penalties to be announced by Tuesday.

Gordon still heads up the points battle, now 344 over Hamlin and 432 over Matt Kenseth.

Not quite as wild as the mess in Montreal, this week’s Busch race at the Glen was won by Kevin Harvick. None of the

‘hired guns’, such as Boris Said, Scott Pruett or Ron Fellows affected the outcome of the race.

The Childress cars of Harvick and Jeff Burton remain strong whether its ovals or roadcourses. Harvick topped Burton, Kurt Busch, Paul Menard and rookie Brad Coleman.

Points leader Carl Edwards had a tough day, breaking suspension parts on the back of the car, finishing six laps down in 32nd after lengthy repairs. He still maintains a comfortable lead in the big picture, although a little less at 766 over David Reutimann.

The Craftsman trucks got cranked up at Kentucky where Travis Kvapil notched his third win of the season, this one over Ron Hornaday, points leader Mike Skinner, Todd Bodine and Brad Coleman. Skinner still leads the pack by 82 markers over Hornaday.

Open Wheel News - The Indy Racing League competed on Saturday at Kentucky with Tony Kanaan coming away with the win over Scott Dixon and A.J. Foyt IV (his personal career best).

Danica Patrick spun after coming out of the pits too fast, then wrecked on the lap back to the pits, ending her day towards the back of the pack. Her visible reaction was childish.

From Rumorville - It appears that J. J. Yeley has been apprised of looking for a job elsewhere for next year. Replacing the personable driver will be none other than Kyle Busch. The papers have not been officially signed, but you can expect an announcement any day from Gibbs Racing.

Where will Yeley go? Some think DEI, others to the Wood Brothers, but most feel he will land a full-time job somewhere for next year and beyond.

Look for John Andretti to drive the No. 49 BAM Dodge this weekend at Michigan. Sure has been a bunch of different drivers behind that wheel this year.

Did you know? Who owns the title of the most consecutive Cup starts? None other than four-time champ Jeff Gordon with 495, curiously only one more start than fellow Cup driver Bobby Labonte. Third on the all-time list is Jeff Burton with 398.

That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will include results from Michigan for Busch and Cup along with more racing news from around the globe.