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Weekly Racing Update 030308
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News and Views from Drew Patey
Director, Motorsports
Edwards Wins Two in a Row
Carl Edwards played his card right in Las Vegas and pulled away from the competition to win the Sprint Cup race on Sunday. The race saw it's share of action. Tony Stewart driving for Joe Gibbs with support from Safety-Kleen cut a front right tire and took a hard lick into the retaining wall at the mid point in the 500 event and a late crash by Kurt Busch set up the race to victory lane. Busch’s wreck with 11 laps to go brought out the caution, and Edwards was in front of Earnhardt on the restart with five to go. Earnhardt appeared to spin his tires at the start, and Matt Kensethand Jeff Gordon had to split his car to avoid running into him. Once past Earnhardt, Gordon and Kenseth raced side-by-side and Edwards pulled away. Gordon pushed up into the side of Kenseth's car, starting a spin that led to Gordon slamming into the inside wall. His Chevrolet broke into tons of part and pieces, and NASCAR had to red-flag the race to clean the debris, but in winning his second race in six days,Edwards moved to the top of the points standings for the first time in his career—21 points ahead of Kyle Busch. Now off to Atlanta for the Cup teams. Special thanks to Dave Huntsman and his great crew from the Las Vegas branch for a job well done over the weekend. Mike Crawford organized a great hospitality event on Sunday for a number of top customers from throughout the Southwest.
Mark Martin Bumps HisWay to the Win in Vegas
Mark Martin took JR Motorsports and Safety-Kleento victory lane by winning the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday andthen he immediately apologized for an accident he started in the closing laps. Martin, the winningest driver in NASCAR’s No. 2 series, raced to the 48th victory of his career Saturday in a car owned by Dale Earnhardt’s Jr; however, the win came at the expense of Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, who races full-time for Earnhardt. Martin was sixth following a final round of pit stops when the race restarted with 10 laps to go. With four fresh tires on his Chevrolet, he drove his way toward the front while chasing cars that had only taken two tires. Edwards and Keselowskiwere racing side-by-side when Martin quickly closed in on Edwards’bumper. Slight contact sent Edwards’car wiggling across the track, and he slid high directly into Keselowski to wreck both cars. Martin slipped past into the lead, then held in a two-lap shootout to the finish. Greg Biffle finished second and was followed by Safety-Kleen drivers -Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvickand, and David Stremme. Dario Franchitti finished sixth in his career best NASCAR finish. Tony Stewart’s run of two straight wins ended when he wrecked 138 laps into the 200 lap event. Stewart led two times for 61 laps, but was in fourth when he lost control of his Toyota and spun into David Reutimann. Kyle Busch, the other dominant car of the day, cut a tire late in the race and crashed out. The Nationwide teams head east to Atlanta for next weekend's contest.
Safety-Kleen is on two trucks in the Monster Jam series and last weekend those two trucks (both fielded from VatorsMotorsports serviced by our guys up in Baltimore) were in the finals.
To get to the finals, Mike had to beat the “GRAVE DIGGER”. Look at local retailers like Wal-Mart to get your own Black Stallion Monster Truck. The only one that has the Safety-Kleen Brand because Vators’ Motorsports cares about the environment.
As most of you who take time to read the weekly racing update know, Safety-Kleen Motorsports has two full-time employees Drew Patey and Buddy Judy. Buddy went to school at Marshall University and over the past year has beenable to brag about his school being featured in a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey. That was cool, but many schools have had feature films about them. Notre Dame has had so many it should have its own section in the video rental store, but now another reason to boast “WE ARE MARSHALL and WE HAVE A RACE CAR!”Herd Racing in West Virginia plans to participate in the Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) this year. For more information go to www.herdracing.com. Lets see if the Fighting Irish can get a car on the track. GO HERD!
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March 3, 2008
Las Vegas
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