Driving the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart dominated much of today’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), leading a race high 163 laps. However, a pit road mishap at lap 155 of 267 cost him the lead and eventually the race. Stewart restarted at the tail end of the lead lap as the result of a penalty for the incident during his pit stop, but rallied to take the lead once again late in the race after pitting for two tires to earn valuable track position.
As the laps wound down under a long green flag run, Stewart would have to pit for four tires and fuel and ultimately gave back the key track position he earned under the earlier stop and would fall just short of running down the eventual winner – Carl Edwards (Ford). The finish was Stewart’s eighth top-10 finish in 13 races at LVMS and puts him in a two-way tie for the overall point lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Juan Pablo Montoya ran strong and up front all day in today’s race in his No. 42 Clorox Chevrolet. He came home in third position today and moved up an impressive five positions to fourth in the overall standings after three events. Today’s finish was Juan’s first top-ten finish in five Cup events he has entered at LVMS.
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet started eighth and struggled for much of the race before rallying for a top-five finish of fifth. Newman also sits fifth in the point standings after three events.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet race team were searching for answers after the first practice but found their rhythm at the midpoint and raced their way to respectable eighth-place finish after starting in 33rd. “Junior” is 10th in the standings with 3 of 36 races in the record books.
RCR driver Paul Menard continued his impressive 2011 season by bringing his No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevrolet home in 12th and now is sixth in the overall standings.
Five-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet race team struggled for most of the day, but continued to work on the car and brought home a hard-fought 16th-place finish. Johnson now sits 12th in the point standings through the first three races of the season.
Mark Martin also battled handling issues in his No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet and was only able to capture the 18th finishing spot. He currently sits 11th in the standings.
Last week’s race winner, Jeff Gordon experienced a tire issue and hit the outside wall late in the race while running in the top-ten, thus ending his day. Gordon finished in 36th position and fell to 19th in the standings.
After a weekend off, the Series heads for to the fast half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway on March 20, 2011.
Team Chevy Racing PR
