RaceBeat by Rich Romer

SOUTH BOSTON, VA--ARCA RE/MAX Series: Winston Cup veteran Ken Schrader, in his own Federated Auto Parts Pontiac, turned in a near-perfect performance at South Boston Speedway culminating with another ARCA RE/MAX Series victory in the Big Daddy's Liberty 200. Schrader, on his way to Daytona for qualifying the following day for the Pepsi 400, was fastest in practice, won the Old Milwaukee Pole award and led 177 of 200 laps en route to his ninth career RE/MAX Series victory in 25 attempts. Although Schrader dominated the event, Frank Kimmel, who finished second in the Advance Auto Parts-Pork Ford, was never far from the eventual winner. In the closing laps, Kimmel planted his bumper inches away from Schrader's Pontiac and took a few runs at the leader in traffic falling short at the final stripe by about a length.

And while Schrader pitted just once for fuel and tires only, Kimmel, survived an early-race spin, pitted four times for a variety of adjustments and continually battled back for his hard-fought runner-up finish. Billy Venturini, in the Hawk Saw Blades-Permatex Chevrolet, was stout all night turning in an impressive third place finish, the only other driver to finish on the lead lap. The series, making its first-ever appearance on the .4-mile oval, put up its share of excitement with plenty of passing, side-by-side racing and the typical short-track fender-benders that produced six cautions for 30 laps. In all, there were six lead changes among four drivers to also include Kimmel, Jason Jarrett and Damon Lusk. Lusk, who led 19 laps early on, was very much a factor before a skirmish with Jarrett sent him to the garage area for repairs after his WP Motorsports Chevrolet bounced off the wall. Lusk lost 72 laps after the exchange and eventually returned to finish a disappointing 19th. In addition, Lusk, with half the season now complete, lost the point lead to Kimmel..

NASCAR Winston Cup: Michael Waltrip won. Dale Earnhardt Jr. went for broke. And the Intimidator would have loved the whole show. At the track the late Dale Earnhardt treasured the most, it was his good friend, Waltrip, holding off a late challenge from his son, Earnhardt Jr., to win the Pepsi 400. Waltrip earned his second career victory and the first he could really savor. His only other win came in February 2001, in the Daytona 500. Back then, he crossed the finish line a split second after Earnhardt hit the wall in Turn 4 and died. Trailing his friend and Dale Earnhardt Inc., teammate through most of the end of the race, Junior had to decide whether to hang back and protect Waltrip's lead or go for the victory. He went for it, got hung out to dry, and wound up Moments after Earnhardt's failed attempt, Geoffrey Bodine and Ryan Newman wrecked and brought out the yellow flag. The final 2 1/2 laps were run under yellow. Thousands of fans protested, throwing reams of paper onto the backstretch, possibly believing NASCAR should have stopped the race to allow it to finish under green. Rusty Wallace enjoyed his best finish ever at Daytona--second. Winston Cup points leader Sterling Marlin raced near the front all day and finished third. Jimmy Spencer finished fourth and Mark Martin was fifth. Polesitter Kevin Harvick suffered damage to the right front of his car and finished 11th. The worst wreck of the night came with 16 laps left. It sent flames shooting out of Brett Bodine's car and sent many competitive cars, including Dale Jarrett, out of the race.

NASCAR Busch Grand National Series: Joe Nemechek won the first-ever Busch Series night race at Daytona, blocking Greg Biffle over a two-lap shootout after a 16-car accident halted the race. Nemechek, who became the first Busch driver to win from the pole at Daytona International Speedway since 1975, went almost unchallenged after the 17-minute stoppage of the Stacker2/GNC Live Well 250. Biffle only attempted a pass coming out of the final turn, but Nemechek blocked Biffle's look down low on the track and repeated it when Biffle went high. Biffle, who took over the points lead with his finish, said he didn't think he had a strong enough car to pass Nemechek even though he was certain third-place finisher Kevin Lepage would have gone with him to try to push him. Lepage had his best finish -- and his best career result at Daytona -- since taking over the car when Jeff Purvis was injured in May. Jason Keller finished fourth, Jamie McMurray was fifth and was followed by rookie Johnny Sauter, Mike McLaughlin, Jimmy Spencer, Kevin Grubb and Stacy Compton. Jack Sprague, who started the race as the points leader, was knocked out of the event in the big wreck that came with five laps to go. Sprague and Todd Bodine were bumping each other around the track as they battled for the seventh spot. They made hard contact along the backstretch and Sprague's car turned sideways and hit the wall straight on. Bodine also hit the wall, and as Sprague shot back down across the track, he collected the cars behind him -- including rookie Kasey Kahne, whose car was lifted up onto two wheels as he drove over Sprague.