Racebeat (03/31/03)
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: Ryan Newman passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 11 laps remaining and held on to win the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Newman gambled by changing just two tires on his last pit stop, and the payoff was his second career victory and first since Sept. 15, 2002, in New Hampshire. "Tires and track position were key, for sure," Newman said. "We didn't think four tires were going to make that much of a difference and we needed to get to the front some way." He didn't win it easily, though, having to fight off a strong challenge from Earnhardt, the crowd favorite. Newman, who led four times for 77 laps, appeared to gain control when he took the lead on lap 224 of the 334-lap event.

That came during a caution period -- one of 10 in the race -- in the middle of a series of green-flag stops. Newman hadn't pitted, and found himself in front. Newman lost the lead for one lap when he made his final stop on lap 286, but regained the top spot the next time around the 1.5-mile oval when Dale Jarrett, who had stayed on the track to get the five-point bonus for leading a lap, made his stop.

Earnhardt's Chevrolet was second when the green flag came out for the restart on lap 289, and the son of the late seven-time Winston Cup champion brought most of the crowd of more than 200,000 to their feet when he took the inside line and charged past Newman's Dodge. All the other leaders took four tires on their last stop, and it appeared for a while that Newman's tire gamble was going to fail. Earnhardt built a lead of up to 20 car-lengths before the Newman began to reel in the leader. The cars were side-by-side as they crossed the finish line on lap 323, and Newman then pulled steadily ahead, moving away to win by 3.405 seconds -- about half the final straightaway. The 25-year-old Newman, one of NASCAR's heralded "Young Guns," gave Penske Racing South its first win since switching from Ford to Dodge this winter. After Newman took control, Earnhardt had to fend off four-time series champion Jeff Gordon for second place. Gordon actually got past Earnhardt on lap 333, but Earnhardt bumped past Gordon's Chevrolet on the final straightaway to take the runner-up spot by 0.002-seconds -- a matter of inches. "We had a good car, but not good enough," Earnhardt said. "My car was junk there at the end. I tried to hold (Newman) on the bottom and make his car push, but he still got by me. Then I had a real good fight with Gordon." "He made it hard on us," Gordon said. "If we'd have been going for the win, we probably would have wrecked." Jerry Nadeau finished fourth, followed by Mark Martin and series points leader and last year's Texas winner Matt Kenseth. Kurt Busch finished ninth and now trails his Roush Racing teammate by 155 points in the standings. Earnhardt jumped from fifth to third, 166 behind Kenseth. Newman, whose best previous finish in six races this season was seventh in Las Vegas, moved from 15th to eighth in the standings, trailing the leader by 242 points. There were several crashes in the race, including one involving pole-winner Bobby Labonte, but no injuries were reported. Labonte wound up 37th in the 43-car field. Labonte's teammate, Tony Stewart, the defending series champion, had a terrible weekend. First, he had his primary car impounded by NASCAR on Friday after it failed inspection. Then, on Sunday, he fell out of the race after 293 laps with an engine problem in his backup car and finished 34th.

NASCAR Busch Series: Joe Nemechek won his second Busch Series race of the season, fittingly crossing the finish line under caution in an event marred by two red flags and eight other caution periods at Texas Motor Speedway. Nemechek was in front on the restart on the 196th of 200 laps in the O'Reilly 300 after the second red flag, brought out by a chain-reaction accident that involved 15 cars and caused a 22-minute stoppage. On the second lap after the restart, Hermie Sadler spun and hit the wall after being bumped from behind by Regan Smith. That brought out the final caution and Nemechek's Chevrolet beat Scott Riggs' Ford to the line. "It was definitely a wild finish," said Nemechek, who had to start from the back in just his third Busch race of the season and led only the last eight laps. "You have to have luck on your side. We dodged the big one." Only 11 cars finished on the lead lap as Nemechek won with an average speed of 117.891 mph. There were 48 laps run under 10 cautions, two more than the track record. In the post-race inspection, NASCAR officials said they had an "issue in reference to the spacing of the coils" of the left-front spring in Nemechek's car. They said it would not affect the results and they would continue their investigation Sunday morning. Nemechek is the first repeat winner this season on the Busch Series, in which all six races this year have been won by Winston Cup regulars. He has 14 career Busch wins. Shane Hmiel finished third, ahead of Busch points leader Todd Bodine, also in a Chevrolet. Brian Vickers, a 19-year-old driver, led a race-high 87 laps. Vickers regained the lead for the fourth time during the caution that brought out the first red flag. Bruce Betchel's hard crash cracked a temporary retaining wall on the backstretch on the 171st lap and stopped the race for eight minutes. On that restart on lap 178, Vickers was black-flagged for passing Chad Blount before crossing the line, even though it appeared that Blount had lost momentum and Vickers dipped down to avoid an accident. "I have a lot of respect for NASCAR officials, they usually make good calls," Vickers said. "But I have to disagree this time. This time, they made a really bad one." While Vickers got to serve his stop-and-go penalty during a caution for debris on the back stretch, he was ninth when the race restarted on the 191th lap. But then, stuck in a pack of cars instead of being up front, Vickers got caught in the big crash going into the first turn. Mike Bliss was tapped from behind, then spun in front of the field. With cars spinning all over, there was nowhere to escape for Vickers and a dozen more cars. Bodine, the leader at the time, got through the carnage, but not unscathed. He got tagged on the right rear and had a flat tire as he sat parked in front of the pack on the backstretch before the red flag was lifted. Polesitter Jason Keller never led a lap, and finished 18th. Betchel's hard crash that brought out the first red flag came after he scraped the inside wall coming out of Turn 2. He then slid across the track, slamming into the outside wall before ricocheting back to the inside with such force that it cracked the temporary restraint protecting the infield.