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David Reutimann Wins LifeLock.com 400

No asterisk here.Reutimann dominates late and wins at Chicagoland

The Start of the LifeLock.com 400 Pole sitter Jamie McMurray leads the field to the Green Flag

Photo by Dan Peters

David Reutimann held off a charging Carl Edwards in the final green-flag run Saturday night and picked up his second career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory in the LifeLock.com 400 at the Chicagoland Speedway. No asterisk here.

Reutimann, who is expected to re-sign with Michael Waltrip Racing, won for the first time since May 2009, when he went to Victory Lane in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

Reutimann was strong all night… here he charges ahead of Greg Biffle.. Gordon, Edwards are in his rear view mirror

Photo By Mark Rotor

“First of all, I have to thank the fans and everyone else at Michael Waltrip Racing.  Everybody did such a great job today.   Toyota Racing Development and having Tums on the car this weekend, it’s just been a great weekend.  I don’t even know what to say.  It was probably the lamest burnout I’ve ever seen at this race track, I was tearing up pretty bad.  I have to thank all my guys, they did a great job.  There was no rain tonight.  We earned this one, nobody gave it to us and that feels really good.” Reutimann said.

No Rain here… Reutimann celebrates

Photos By Dan Peters

“Cousin” Carl Edwards ran second in an outstanding race for the floundering Roush Fenway Ford team.

“Second is bittersweet. You want to win, but we are obviously very happy with the result. If we run that well every week we will win plenty of races. The key is that we ran so well. If we can continue that every week we will be in good shape. Three more laps and we would have been right there, but you never really know I guess because it depends on how hard he is running too, but I feel like with three more laps things would have gotten really interesting.” Edwards said.

Jeff Gordon finished third, after a strong run up front, followed by Clint Bowyer and polesitter Jamie McMurray. Kasey Kahne, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Paul Menard completed the top 10 in the 19th series race of the season.

McMurray leads Gordon… Reutimann was moving forward (Tums Car)

Photo By Dan Peters

The Good, the Bad.. The Ugly..

The Good…

It was a good night for Reutimann, Edwards and Gordon. A bad night for new daddy Jimmie Johnson, and an ugly uncharacteristic night  for Cup leader Kevin Harvick.

Jeff Gordon Passing Martin Truex ,Jr

Photo By Dan Peters

On David Reutimann..“Yeah, he is just such a nice person. He is the first guy to congratulate me on something and the first guy to apologize if he feels he did something wrong. We all have to hang out with each other every week, but he is the guy you would hang out with if you had an off weekend. He is a good guy.” Edwards said.

Edwards  had kind words for everyone… On Jeff Gordon’s 600^th career start.. “I remember I was at the grocery store, probably in 1993, with my Mom and I picked up a racing magazine on the rack and remember thinking how this guy had it made.  There you were on the cover of the magazine standing next to your race car. You had a cool race car, driver suit, mustache and mullet. I was thinking that I couldn’t even grow a mustache. It is so cool to be sitting up here with you and on the night of your 600th career start. Congrats man, it is a great milestone.”

Jimmie Johnson Battles Travis Kvapil #38 and Ryan Newman #39

Photo By Dan Peters

The Bad…

The fastest car … not always the best car.. Ask new father Jimmie Jonhson.

Johnson may have had the fastest car – leading the first 92 laps – but he shot himself in the foot twice before the race was 150 laps old.

Number 1 ..On the way to a green-flag stop on Lap 93, Johnson missed the entrance to pit road, and lost the lead to McMurray. He spent the next 40 laps running down the driver of the No. 1 Chevy.

Number Two.. Less than two laps after a restart on Lap 136, Johnson spun on the backstretch while running in close quarters with the No. 56 Toyota of Martin Truex Jr. It was impossible to tell, even after multiple replays, whether Truex's car made slight contact with Johnson's Chevy or whether Truex simply took the air off Johnson's spoiler and caused him to lose control.

Whatever the case, Johnson restarted 24th on Lap 14, and matters got worse. On Lap 169, Johnson radioed, "Right front flat –I scrubbed the wall a little bit," and brought his car to pit road for four new tires. He came out of the pits two laps down and ultimately finished 25th, one lap down.

The Ugly…

Harvick fought trouble all race long, at one point bringing his No. 29 Chevrolet to the garage to change the fuel pump and fuel pump cable. He lost 16 laps in the process and finished 34th, 16 laps down.

Duncan “Teeth” Keith, From The Stanley Cup Chicago Blackhawks Grand Marshal for LifeLock.com 400

Photo By Dan Peters

Duncan Keith, star defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks, served as Grand Marshal for the LifeLock.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on July 10, 2010.

Duncan Keith gives a special Blackhawks Jersey to Craig Rust,  President  of the Chicagoland Speedway

Photo By Dan Peters

Duncan Keith, the 6-foot-1, made headlines during the historic run for the title through sheer stamina, strength and skill – especially after he returned to the ice less than seven minutes after losing seven teeth in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals in the 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. He brought home plenty of hefty hardware in 2010, including the Norris Trophy for best all-around performance in the NHL and a Gold Medal from his home country’s Olympic Games in Vancouver.

There’s no doubt he is the ideal choice to give the order “Gentlemen, start your engines!”

“The Blackhawks captivated the entire city and country with their Stanley Cup-winning run and our fans will love to bring Blackhawk fever to the race,” said Craig Rust, president, Chicagoland Speedway/Route 66 Raceway. “We are honored to have him join us and help us get things going for the Lifelock.com 400.

Keith will also do a Question and Answer session at 3:30 p.m. on the LifeLock stage in Champions Park, before the LifeLock.com 400

MORE ABOUT DUNCAN KEITH

• Became the first player in history to win an Olympic Gold Medal, a Stanley Cup Championship, and the Norris Trophy in the same season in 2010.
• Honored with the 2010 James Norris Memorial Trophy, given to the NHL’s top defenseman.  Became the fourth Blackhawks blueliner to win the award, and the first since 1996.
• Established career-bests in goals (14), assists (55), and points (69) in 82 regular-season games during the 2009-10 campaign.  Led all NHL defensemen in goals, assists, and points at even-strength.
• Led the National Hockey League with 2,180:34 total minutes of ice time during the regular-season.  Paced Chicago in ice time for the fifth consecutive season since joining the Blackhawks.
• Ranked second among defensemen with 17 points (2G,15A) in 22 postseason games in leading the Blackhawks to the 2010 Stanley Cup Championship, the organization’s first since 1961.
• The Winnipeg, Manitoba native led all Olympic defensemen with six assists, and posted a +6 plus/minus rating, while helping Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
• Signed a 13-year contract extension with Chicago during the 2009-10 season.

FRANCHITTI WINS YET ANOTHER NAIL BITING THRILLER AT CHICAGOLAND.

Dario Franchitti proved yet again that the fastest car does not always win. Franchitti and his team used some bold pit strategy to win the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Not only did he win, but he closed the gap on IZOD IndyCar Series championship points leader Will Power.

Franchitti picked up the lead out of the final pit stop on Lap 173 -- relying on a double stint of the Firestone Firehawks (62 laps) - and held off Dan Wheldon by 0.0423 of a second for his third win of the season.

The start of the PEAK Antifreeze 300

Power's No. 12 Verizon Team Penske crew had a fueling equipment issue on the same pit stop and he had to duck onto pit lane with five laps left for a splash. He was running fourth at the time but finished a season-low 16th.

200 Laps of white knuckle, wheel to wheel racing

Franchitti closed to 23 points of Power with three oval races left.

Marco Andretti led an Andretti Autosport trio in the top five with a season-best-tying third place. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan followed. Helio Castroneves finished sixth and Justin Wilson advanced 16 positions to finish seventh.

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Hinchcliffe wins another exciting Lights Race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Yet another fantastic finish at the Chicagoland Speedway  saw James Hinchcliffe beat out Pippa Mann on the last lap, denying her a first win.

This was James Hinchcliffe's first at Chicagoland and third of the season.  He previosly won earlier this year at Long Beach and Edmonton, both road courses. It is his first win on an oval in Firestone Indy Lights. But as Indy Car driver Will Power said.. “An oval is just like a road course, only you turn left.”

The margin of victory of today's race was .0159 of a second. It's the third-closest finish in Firestone Indy Light history. Three of the four closest races in Firestone Indy Lights history have come at Chicagoland Speedway.

Close Tight Racing from the start…

"It was tough, I wasn't sure I would have enough. Pippa (Mann) was super strong.  At the drop of the green, we had to make up from 13^th to first.  I sort of went for it with two laps to go and I thought I may have gone a lap too early but I had a really good run off of Turn 2.  I was able to get alongside Pippa and side-draft her a bit.  She pushed me kind of high and that may have hurt her momentum a bit.  Then the same thing off of Turn 4, and we were able to use the angle to run down to the start/finish line.  That's Chicagoland racing.

Pippa Mann finished second, a career best finish in Firestone Indy Lights.  Her previous best finish was fifth at Infineon two weeks ago.

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Chicagoland Speedway will Start the Chase for the Cup in 2011

Let The shuffling begin… Silly Season.. for next year is already in full swing..

The 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup will kick off at Chicagoland Speedway. There is a special news conference set for sometime Monday in Joliet. Kevin Harvick will be there.

"As of now, we're still working through the 2011 scheduling process with NASCAR," a track spokesman said. "Once we receive confirmation from NASCAR about our 2011 schedule, we'll go ahead and make an announcement."

If Chicago's date does move from July to September, New Hampshire would most likely become the second Chase race. New Hampshire's summer race date may also be safe because Jensen also reports that Homestead will keep the 2011 finale, presumably shutting Las Vegas Motor Speedway out of a second date.

The Sprint Cup schedule will reportedly be released on Aug. 18, but the dots are already beginning to be connected. Atlanta Motor Speedway announced Wednesday that it would only be hosting one Sprint Cup race in 2011. Kentucky Motor Speedway will benefit from Atlanta losing the date. Kentucky will announce on August 10 that it will host a Sprint Cup race in 2011, and that race will likely be sometime in the summer.

With Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosting the Brickyard 400 at the end of July and Kentucky presumably getting a summer date, it makes sense for Chicagoland to move to a different part of the schedule. Given sagging attendance and worries of market oversaturation, that wouldn't be a good solution for the mid west to have a glut of races within a few weeks of each other.

Yes Dorothy, you are in Kansas..maybe two times now..

Kansas Speedway  will likely get a second date as well, given that the state recently approved plans for a casino to be built outside the track.

ISC promised to request a second date if the plans for the casino were approved.

Since Kansas' original date is during the Chase, the second date will be in the first half of the schedule and most likely come from Auto Club Speedway, which has struggled with attendance ever since adding a second race date.

Auto Club might even lose its Chase date. To accommodate those possible switches, Phoenix could see its April race moved up on the schedule to as far as the second race of the season.

Everything is always bigger in Texas, especially at night

Brian France is scheduled to attend an announcement "to reveal dramatic changes at Texas Motor Speedway" on August 17 at the House of Blues in Dallas. The track has lights, and the fall race has previously been run in the twilight, so a night race there is a possibility. But given that France, Tony Stewart, Helio Castroneves, SMI President Bruton Smith and a "well-known, Grammy nominated, triple platinum rock group" will all be in attendance, it could be something even bigger.

Kyle Busch wins Dollar General 300

Victory Lane Photos By Mark Rotor 

Kyle Busch beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano  in  what Is  becoming  a  standard in NASCAR, a green-white-checkered-flag, to win Friday  night’s  Dollar  General  300  NASCAR Nationwide  Series  race  at   Chicagoland Speedway.

The Start of the Race ...Photo By Dan Peters

Busch got a break when series points leader Brad Keselowski ran out of fuel on the final caution lap before the last green-flag run, which began with a restart  on  Lap  202.  Keselowski’s  misfortune allowed  Busch  to  move  to the  front  of  the outside line, beside his teammate.

Keselowski Up front early… often… but not enough gas to go the distance…

Photo By Dan Peters

“It wasn’t easy.  We know we shouldn’t win.  We had the track position when it mattered and the car got really, really tight on us.  But, these guys never gave up.  They knew I had it in me.  I didn’t think I had it in me.  It’s fun to race in the Nationwide Series.  I love it.  To win as many as we won and to be successful as JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) has been, it’s fun every week.  It’s always cool to come out here and put on a good show

Busch was able to keep Logano to the bottom of the track and clear his Gibbs teammate for the win. The race ended under caution because of a wreck on the frontstretch after Busch took the while flag to begin the final lap.

“I was just too tight behind him.  When I’m out front I have all the air and can do whatever I want.  I started running him down when I moved up.  And then he moved up to get in front of me and blocked my air, so I had to try to go back to the bottom and see if I couldn’t get closer.  I just kind of sold out five lengths behind him, I couldn’t get any closer than that, but our car was fast.  It’s fun to come out here and race in the Nationwide Series.  I love doing it, but it’s also fun when you have cars this good with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and you can win.”

Logano’s Crew Kept his Toyota in the hunt all night.. Carrying a special Harry Potter Paint Scheme

Photo By Dan Peters

Logano was trying win his second consecutive Nationwide Race at Chicago. But a second place finish is the first loser as most drivers will tell you.

 “Our run was okay.  We were a second-place car most of the night.  I felt like we got closer and closer, clean air was the biggest deal.  Whoever had clean air was definitely going to be faster.  We were able to get that clean air towards the end.  It’s almost like a guarantee that a caution is going to come out.  You know it’s going to happen with 10 (laps) to go if you have more than a five car length lead, you can almost promise that’s going to happen.  Of course that happened and we took two tires, which worked for the first restart, and then a caution came out.  I restarted on the bottom every time I was able to take the lead.  To me, I thought it was a no-brainer to start on the bottom again, except Keselowski ran out of gas or something on the outside.  I’m not sure how that happened, how that lineup worked because third-place started third still and the whole line moved up.  It was kind of a screwy situation that should have been the other way around.  I was so committed to the bottom and Kyle (Busch) did a good job.  He did what he was supposed to do.  He drove into the turn and got me loose.  He beat me.  I’m embarrassed more than anything else."

Photo By Dan Peters

With Busch’s seventh of this season and 37th all time, He broke a tie for second with Kevin Harvick on the all-time list.

Toyota Domination..

Braun Racing’s Brian Scott, David Reutimann and Jason Leffler finished third through fifth, respectively, as Toyotas swept the top five positions.

Photo By Dan Peters

Busch, who led a race-high 110 laps, took the lead for the first time on Lap 10 and dominated the race—despite a pit-road speeding call that required a pass-through penalty under green—until NASCAR threw a caution for debris in Turn 2 on Lap 141.

Logano took the lead on the subsequent restart on Lap 148 and remained out front in clean air.

“It’s over,” Busch moaned on Lap 172, trailing Logano by nearly a second. “There ain’t going to be another caution. The freakin’ race is over

As it turned out, Busch was wrong. NASCAR called a caution for debris on Lap 185, and Busch pitted for four tires and a track bar adjustment designed to loosen the handling of his Toyota. He got his chance to win the race when Trevor Bayne slammed the Turn 1 wall on Lap 196.

Danica was Racing with the boys tonight.. Here she battles Mike Wallace

Photo By Mark Rotor

A career night for Danica Patrick

Patrick finished a career-best 24th in her fifth series start. “I definitely learned a lot,” Patrick said. “It was really nice to run a clean race with no accidents, really, especially in the first part. It's so tough when you spin at the beginning of the race. But we didn't do that, so we just trucked along.”

Chicago Welcomes Local Stars Allgaier, Patrick

Photo By Dan Peters

Danica Patrick will get plenty of attention this week as she returns once again to NASCAR after a one-race layoff. But racing won’t be the only reason she’ll be in the spotlight. Patrick, a native of Roscoe, Ill., also is racing in her home state. And she’s not the only driver that has a home game this weekend.

Chicagoland also is a home race for Justin Allgaier, who’s from Riverton. Roscoe is just over 100 miles from Joliet, while Riverton is 160 miles from the track. Patrick comes home with the goal of improving her finish each race. Allgaier, meanwhile, has his sights set on challenging Carl Edwards for second place in the driver standings. He’s third, 193 points behind the second-place Edwards.

Photo By Dan Peters

Earlier this year at Bristol, Allgaier won his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series race. Last year, he completed his first full season in the series in sixth place in the standings, and earned the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award.

Patrick continues her learning curve in NASCAR. After her first four races, she’s shown improvement. Two weeks ago at New Hampshire, the shortest track she’s driven on in a stock car, she finished 30th – her best result thus far – after getting caught in an accident. The Chicagoland, Race is No. 5 of her 13-race schedule this year