TEAM GOULDS RACE REPORT: CHICAGO
Saturday, July 09, 2005

IF THERE’S ONLY CUP DRIVERS IS IT STILL A BUSCH RACE?
The starting field for the Busch race has 43 cars in it. The stars must have been in a particular alignment this week in Chicago as 19 of the drivers in the Busch race were also in the Cup race. That’s a few more than the average, but this time it was a two way street for us. David Stremme would also be making his first Cup start this weekend. On the Busch side of life, David led the way for our team in qualifying, taking the 12th starting spot. Sterling would start in 38th and Tim in 39th.

NEWMAN OWNS
Ryan Newman led the way not only for the Cup guys but for the entire field. He had the pole and led from the green. David moved up a spot or two at the start. He and Carl Edwards traded positions a few times with David running between 9th and 10th. Newman had checked out from the field 15 laps into the race and was running all by himself. David was the last car in the lead pack, passing Kyle Busch for 9th. Newman was already lapping cars by the time the race put 20 laps into the books with cars spaced out across the course. Sterling and Tim were both having problems with really tight handling race cars. A caution on lap 32 closed things up when Steve Grissom hit the wall and everyone went to the pits. Our crews each did a lot of work on their cars as each one had its problems. Fedewa had to make a second trip down the road as he had a loose hood pin. Elliott Sadler emerged with the lead by taking only 2 tires which would quickly prove to be a mistake. The restart was on lap 37 with David in 11th while Sterling and Tim were already a lap down in 36th and 39th respectively. By lap 41, Sadler was dropping through the field yielding 10th to Stremme. David passed Casey Kahne a few laps later to reclaim 9th. Meanwhile, Newman had checked out again.

PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS
Sterling’s day got a little worse with a tire problem and he pitted under green for right sides on lap 57. That put him 3 laps down. Timing was a little off as a caution came out on lap 59 for debris. Again it was time for pit stops. Sterling came in again too, as one of his tires was still an issue. This time in the pits, it was Jimmy Johnson’s turn to gamble. He took the lead by pitting for gas only. Once again, it was a bad bet. Newman took the lead back again on lap 71. The next caution was on lap 77 when Aaron Fike spun into the wall all by himself. Only a few cars pitted on that one and the race got going again on lap 81. That turned out to be a short run. Jerry Robertson and Justin Labonte got together at the rear of the field and wrecked for the next caution. That yellow was a good one for Tim Fedewa. He was the recipient of the “Lucky Dog” award and got back on the lead lap.

MIDWAY
The race resumed on lap 87 with Newman in the lead, David in 10th, Tim in 34th and Sterling in 39th. Stremme got past Paul Menard for 9th place again on lap 91. He then went door to door for several laps with Matt Kenseth trying for 8th. That didn’t turn out too well. Stremme began to feel a problem with his right front tire and fell off the pace a bit. He pitted under green on lap 117 to change the tires. That would have been bad enough but David had to come around again as a penalty for exceeding the pit row speed limit on the stop. That put him 3 laps down. A little bit later, green flag pit stops began for the rest of the field. The stops cycled through without incident for the longest green flag run of the day. That came to an end on lap 154 when Jeremy Mayfield went into the wall.

MISERY HAS COMPANY
Ryan Newman had the field covered all day and was definitely the car to beat…if anyone could. But his day went south on that caution. He pitted along with the field but NASCAR officials made him come back in again for a lug nut. He went to the back of the field when they lined up for the restart with Stremme now in 28th, Fedewa in 33rd and Marlin in 37th. Stremme was behind the 8 ball but he wasn’t giving up. He began picking off a car at a time, moving up in position as far as he could among the lapped cars. On lap 172, Jeff Green blew an engine for a caution and David was lined up as the 2nd car down on the inside for the restart, running in 21st. He passed Casey Atwood for position on lap 182. He was racing among the lead cars even though he was still a lapped car. Jimmy Johnson hit the wall for the last caution on lap 191. J.J. Yeley spun and hit the wall on the last lap and that’s pretty much how it ended, not effecting anything for our guys, but putting us all out of our misery. David was in 20th, Tim in 32nd and Sterling in 35th. By the way, David did a little better on Sunday, finishing 16th in the Cup race.

Start:
Fedewa 39th
Stremme 12th
Marlin 38th

Finish:
Fedewa 32nd
Stremme 20th
Marlin 35th

Winnings:
Fedewa $22,705
Stremme $25,730
Marlin $18,360

Standings:
Fedewa 21st
Stremme 8th
Marlin 25th

Series Winnings:
Fedewa $434,010
Stremme $559,320
Marlin $293,460

NEXT RACE: The Series goes to New Hampshire, Saturday July 16th on TNT at 3:00 pm EST.

ANSWER TO LAST WEEK’S QUESTION: Even though it seems as if every driver lately is running strong in both Busch and Cup, only 1 driver has ever finished in the Top 10 in both Series in the same year. That guy was Kevin Harvick who won the Busch Series Championship in 2001 and also finished 9th in the Nextel Cup Series.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: New Hampshire Int. Speedway, owned by the Bahre family, is one of the few “independently owned” tracks on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. What are the other “independently owned” tracks?

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