WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER NOTES FOR THE USG SHEETROCK 400 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY, JULY 15, 2007.
Tony Stewart led six times for 108 laps earn WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race honors in the USG SHEETROCK 400. Stewart captured the award for the first fourth time this season and for the time since Phoenix (race No. 8). He is seventh different driver in the last seven races to win the award. Stewart has led 766 laps in 13 races this season.
Stewart won today’s race at Chicagoland, his first win of the 2007 season, crossing the finish line 1.727 seconds ahead of second-place Matt Kenseth. The victory was his 30th in 303 races and second at Chicagoland Speedway. He collected his fifth top-five and 12th top-10 in 19 starts this season.
STEWART QUOTES: “I’m real happy. Actually, more overjoyed than anything. I’m finally glad that we’ve got the monkey off our back at least for one week. This should have been the fourth or fifth time we’ve been sitting in this room with you guys after the race is over. Whether it’s been fuel mileage or just bad luck we just haven’t been able to close one off. Today was a very textbook day in all reality for us. We started way back [19th]. We worked our way into the top-10 and then we got a caution and Zippy and I had talked about what had happened in the Busch race yesterday and really just got on the same page today as far as with some ideas, not that we don’t normally do that, but we both had seen the same things from yesterday’s race and knew that track position was real important and knew if we could get the car driving good that new tires weren’t as important as having the track position. We just needed that at the beginning of the race. We were a little too tight. Zippy made a change and the car really was good the rest of the day from there on, just little things that he did to fine tune it from there. Once we got in the top-three I felt in my head that we had a shot at winning the race. I knew with Kevin in front of us and we started running him down and Jimmie and some of the guys that had been leading the race and were in the top two or three really weren’t making time on us and we were on older tires than they were. It makes you feel good as a driver when you see that the guys aren’t running you down from behind and you’re running the guy down in front of you. What the difference was today was pit stops. The guys today had awesome pit stops, got us track position when we needed it, especially that last stop. I mean, being able to stay ahead of everybody and have that clean air on restarts. Matt was really good on restarts on cooler tires. We were really a little bit too free for a short stint in a short run and that’s what we kept getting with the cautions coming out but we just needed a long run. Our car was a lot better after about eight or 10 laps. The short runs there really hurt us and gave Matt the opportunity to close in and cool his tires off and make a run at us. It seemed like once we would get about six or seven laps on the tires the car would start coming into it, balance-wise, and we could start driving away.”
UNOFFICIALLY Stewart is sixth in NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings, 44 behind fifth-place Carl Edwards.
Stewart and Jeff Gordon (4-4) are tied for the lead in the overall WIX Filters Lap Leader standings.
WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD STANDINGS
Jeff Gordon 4
Tony Stewart 4
Jimmie Johnson 3
Denny Hamlin 2
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2
Matt Kenseth 1
Martin Truex Jr. 1
Robby Gordon 1
Clint Bowyer 1
WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD WINNERS BY RACE
EVENT DRIVER
Daytona 500 Tony Stewart (35 laps)
Auto Club 500 Matt Kenseth (133 laps)
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Jeff Gordon (111 laps)
Kobalt Tools 500 Jimmie Johnson (135 laps)
Food City 500 Tony Stewart (257 laps)
Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (137 laps)
Samsung 500 Jeff Gordon (173 laps)
Subway Fresh Fit 500 Tony Stewart (132 laps)
Aaron’s 499 Jeff Gordon (71 laps)
Crown Royal 400 Jeff Gordon (114 laps)
Dodge Avenger 500 Denny Hamlin (179 laps)
Coca-Cola 600 Jimmie Johnson (83 laps)
Autism Speaks 400 presented by Visa Martin Truex Jr. (216 laps)
Pocono 500 Denny Hamlin (49 laps)
Citizens Bank 400 Jimmie Johnson (56 laps)
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Robby Gordon (48 laps)
LENOX Industrial Tools 300 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (64 laps)
Pepsi 400 Clint Bowyer (55 laps)
USG SHEETROCK 400 Tony Stewart (108 laps)
