Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 10:34 a.m.
Nextel Cup standings with two races remaining
1. Kurt Busch...6,191
2. Jeff Gordon...-41
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr....-47
4. Jimmie Johnson...-48
5. Mark Martin...-102
6. Tony Stewart...-142
7. Ryan Newman...-150
8. Elliott Sadler...-172
9. Matt Kenseth...-336
10. Jeremy Mayfield...-355
AVONDALE, ARIZ. -- What turned out to be a dream race for Dale Earnhardt Jr. nearly became a nightmare for Kurt Busch.
Earnhardt proved to be the class of the field in winning Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway while Busch overcame a small mountain of obstacles to finish 10th and hold onto the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points lead going into the final two races of the season.
Busch, a Las Vegas native, went into the race with a 59-point lead in his quest for his first Nextel Cup championship. During the course of Sunday's race he ran out of fuel, spun and nearly wrecked his No. 97 Ford, lost first gear and had to claw his way through traffic for much of the final 50 laps of the race.
He emerged with an impressive 10th-place finish and holds a 41-point lead over Jeff Gordon heading into Sunday's race at Darlington Raceway. Earnhardt is third, 47 points off the pace, and Jimmie Johnson is fourth, 48 points behind Busch.
"All in all, it was a good day to finish 10th," Busch said. "It just seemed like we couldn't catch any breaks as far as lapped cars and maneuvering our way through the field to reach our potential. It's just one of those (races) you keep fighting and fighting and working your way through it.
"It's a big-picture day: (Earnhardt) did win and (Gordon) was third -- a lot of good guys up front and we were able to put together a 10th-place effort to maintain (the points lead)."
Earnhardt, who led 118 of the 315 laps, passed Gordon for the lead on lap 304 and pulled away from the field on the final green-white-checkered restart for his second consecutive victory at PIR and his sixth of the season.
"The car was just really good and I just drove right up through there," Earnhardt said. "You just get the chills having a car that fast, that capable of winning.
"I couldn't believe them (other) guys couldn't get their cars driving as good as mine because mine wasn't perfect -- it pushed real bad through the center (of the corners) but the other cars must have been pushing worse."
Earnhardt said he had little doubt he would be able to get past Gordon on the final restart.
"Jeff Gordon's car was terrible at the end," Earnhardt said. "I was really surprised and impressed that he got a third-place finish ... but he's a professional. To finish third (with a car like that), I don't think I could have done that."
It was just a bonus for Earnhardt that Gordon was the driver from whom he was able to snatch the lead -- and the victory.
"It's amazing to be racing Jeff -- I have a lot of respect for him," Earnhardt said. "We've known each other for a very long time ... it's awesome to be able to race with him; he's one of the best. To be able to pass him today and win this race like this really means a lot to me.
"Beating him on the racetrack, I don't think there's anybody else I'd rather beat. I would love to come to every racetrack and come down to a five-lap shootout between me and Jeff Gordon."
Ryan Newman passed Gordon on the final lap and took second. Gordon, Kevin Harvick and rookie Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five in a race that was slowed by 11 caution periods and two red flags.
"I really knew we were a sitting duck," on the last restart, Gordon said. "(Earnhardt's car) was so strong and he was coming before, on that long run when we were leading, I saw him in my mirror coming and I knew I had used up all the tires and I was pretty loose at that point.
"There at the end, I was wanting it to rain. He got underneath me and there was nothing I could do to keep him behind me."
Johnson, who was second in points going into the race, finished sixth and slipped to fourth in the standings, but said he considered the top-10 finish a success after losing a lap midway through the race because of a loose wheel.
"It's great to come back," said Johnson, who slipped to 34th place after running in the top 10 much of the first half of the race. "We went down a lap and got our lap back and we were able to work our way back up there to sixth.
"We had a good car, we just had to fight back from going down a lap from having to deal with a wheel left loose. Once we got going, we were fine; we just ran out of laps."
Busch's race was equally eventful and his top-10 finish was a nice recovery from a 42nd-place outing a week before when he lost an engine 51 laps into the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"These were two tough races for us, with the motor failure last week and then today, just not being able to reach our potential with track position and struggling with a couple of circumstances on the track," Busch said.
"To have those (races) and to put them behind us, looking forward to Darlington, that's a track we led on and led most laps earlier this year (and) had a great finish there a couple of years ago. That's a good racetrack for us to not worry about any of our competition because we can go and race the racetrack. So, it's a great way to breath in some fresh air and, of course, move forward and focus on what the big picture is."
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