2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300

 

2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series

Daytona 500 Auto Club 500 UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 Kobalt Tools 500 Food City 500 Goody's Cool Orange 500 Samsung 500 Subway Fresh Fit 500 Aaron's 499 Crown Royal Presents The Jim Stewart 400 Dodge Avenger 500 NEXTEL All-Star Challenge Coca-Cola 600 Autism Speaks 400 Pocono 500 Citizens Bank 400 Toyota/Save Mart 350 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 Pepsi 400 USG Sheetrock 400 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Pennsylvania 500 Centurion Boats at the Glen 3M Performance 400 Sharpie 500 Sharp AQUOS 500 Chevy Rock & Roll 400

Chase for the Cup

Sylvania 300 Dodge Dealers 400 LifeLock 400 UAW-Ford 500 Bank of America 500 Subway 500 Pep Boys Auto 500 Dickies 500 Checker Auto Parts 500 presented by Pennzoil Ford 400

The 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 was the 17th race of the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season, and held on July 1st, 2007, at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The event served as the eighth race for the new Car of Tomorrow and its' first race at NHIS.

Qualifying

Dave Blaney won the pole with a speed of 129.437mph giving him his second career pole (last pole at North Carolina Speedway in February of 2003) ^[1] and giving Toyota their first ever NEXTEL Cup pole position. ^[2]

Shortly after the conclusion of qualifying the #83 Red Bull Toyota of Brian Vickers was found to be too low in post-qualifying inspection. Due to this his time was disallowed and he was dropped from the field. Chad Chaffin, driver of the #49 car, took his place in the starting lineup. ^[3]

Others who failed to qualify: Michael Waltrip (#55), A.J. Allmendinger (#84), Kenny Wallace (#78), Scott Riggs (#10), Dale Jarrett (#44)

Happy Hour

Jimmie Johnson led Happy Hour with a speed of 127.062 mph, while Martin Truex Jr ran the most laps, 58. Top 5 times were as follows:

Rank	Driver	Starting Pos	Speed
1	Jimmie Johnson	10th	127.062 mph
2	Juan Pablo Montoya	5th	127.062 mph
3	Jeff Gordon	8th	126.783 mph
4	Kevin Harvick	7th	126.761 mph
5	Clint Bowyer	20th	126.694 mph

^{[4] [5]}

Race

Pole sitter Dave Blaney led the first 30 laps, the most laps he's lead in a race since Atlanta in March of 2001. However, he lost the lead to former New Hampshire winner Jeff Gordon. After a cycle of green-flag pit stops, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would assume the top spot and lead the most laps at 64. Many pit problems arose for some teams, such as speeding penalties, or running over a hose in Ryan Newman's case, or having the jack drop off the racecar, as was witnessed by the 99 crew of Carl Edwards. However, the most significant pitstop of the day was the last one. Denny Hamlin's crew chief Mike Ford took a gamble, putting on two tires, thus giving his driver the lead. Hamlin managed to hold off a furious charge from Jeff Gordon to end his 32-race winless streak and put his team back in victory lane.

Results

1 11 Denny Hamlin Chevrolet FedEx Ground 190/5 300 Running

2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 175/5 300 Running

3 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 170/5 300 Running

4 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Budweiser 170/10 300 Running

5 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 160/5 300 Running

6 66 Jeff Green Chevrolet Haas Automation 150/0 300 Running

7 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet LENOX Industrial Tools 146/0 300 Running

8 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 142/0 300 Running

9 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Carhartt 143/5 300 Running

10 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL 139/5 300 Running

11 5 Kyle Busch Chevrolet CARQUEST / Kellogg's 135/5 300 Running

12 20 Tony Stewart Chevrolet The Home Depot 127/0 300 Running

13 99 Carl Edwards Ford Lumber Liquidators / Red Sox 129/5 300 Running

14 70 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Atlas Copco / Haas Automation 121/0 300 Running

15 6 David Ragan * Ford AAA 118/0 300 Running

16 26 Jamie McMurray Ford IRWIN Industrial Tools 115/0 300 Running

17 7 Robby Gordon Ford MAPEI / Menards 112/0 300 Running

18 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker 109/0 300 Running

19 42 Juan Montoya * Dodge Texaco / Havoline 106/0 300 Running

20 96 Tony Raines Chevrolet DLP HDTV 103/0 300 Running

21 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 105/5 300 Running

22 18 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Interstate Batteries 97/0 300 Running

23 25 Casey Mears Chevrolet National Guard / GMAC 94/0 300 Running

24 14 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet Ginn Resorts 91/0 300 Running

25 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW 88/0 300 Running

26 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target 85/0 300 Running

27 40 David Stremme Dodge Coors Light Wide Mouth Can 82/0 300 Running

28 38 David Gilliland Ford M&M's 79/0 299 Running

29 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 81/5 299 Running

30 88 Ricky Rudd Ford Snickers 73/0 299 Running

31 16 Greg Biffle Ford Aflac 70/0 298 Running

32 01 Regan Smith Chevrolet U.S. Army 67/0 298 Running

33 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Dodge Dealers / UAW 64/0 297 Running

34 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie 61/0 297 Running

35 37 Kevin Lepage Dodge MyAutoLoan.com 58/0 294 Running

36 49 Chad Chaffin Dodge Paralyzed Veterans of America 55/0 293 Running

37 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Camping World/ RVs.com 52/0 293 Running

38 00 David Reutimann * Toyota Burger King 49/0 293 Running

39 15 Paul Menard * Chevrolet Sylvania / Menards 46/0 286 Running

40 36 Jeremy Mayfield Toyota 360 OTC 43/0 259 Running

41 13 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Ginn Resorts 40/0 197 Out of Race

42 45 John Andretti Dodge Wells Fargo 37/0 109 Out of Race

43 4 Ward Burton Chevrolet Lucas Oil / State Water Heaters 34/0 4 Out of Race

"*" Denotes Rookie

Race notes

• Carl Edwards drove a car sponsored in part by the Boston Red Sox and Lumber Liquidators. Red Sox owner John Henry co-owns the team through Roush Fenway Racing.^[6] They replaced usual sponsor Office Depot.
• Hendrick Motorsports crew chiefs Steve Letarte (#24) and Chad Knaus (#48) served the first of a six-race suspensions for the Car of Tomorrow violations found at Infineon Raceway the previous week.
• Chaffin, who backed into the race when Vickers' qualifying time was wiped out, replaced Mike Bliss, who was released earlier in the week.^[7]

Post-race penalties

The #70 car of Johnny Sauter and the #5 car of Kyle Busch were found too low during post-race inspection. As a result, both drivers lost 25 points in the standings, their respective owners (Haas CNC Racing and Hendrick Motorsports) lost 25 points as well, and their respective crew chiefs (Robert "Bootie" Barker and Alan Gustafson) were placed on probation until September 19.

External Links

• Practice Speeds
• Qualifying Results

References

1. ^ http://www.racing-reference.info/race?id=2003-02&series=W
2. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/06/29/dblaney.pole.loudon.ap/index.html
3. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/06/29/bvickers.cchaffin.loudon/index.html
4. ^ http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/17/data/practice3_speeds.html
5. ^ http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/17/data/lineup.html#cnnsort
6. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/06/28/cedwards.red.sox.car/index.html
7. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/06/27/mbliss.leaves.bam/index.html

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