FONTANA, California -- Five races and one month to go before America's premier stock car series heads out West. The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and the NASCAR Busch Series drivers will compete in the Inaugural "Finish Under the Lights" Pop Secret 500 and Target House 300, respectively, on Labor Day weekend. The 500-mile, 250-lap race is the 25th event of the season, and will help solidify or position drivers for the "Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup," which will start in mid-September in New Hampshire. In the meantime, there's plenty of racing action taking place in both series.
Kurt Busch took home his 10th career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series victory at New Hampshire by beating Jeff Gordon to the finish line with a 0.607 second margin of victory on Sunday, July 25. Ryan Newman, finished third and led 187 of the 300 laps-the most laps led not only in the race but the most for the first time in 2004. Matt Kenseth finished fourth, followed by Tony Stewart, Michael Waltrip, Jamie McMurray, Kasey Kahne, Dale Jarrett and Jeremy Mayfield, wrapping up the top ten, respectively. Jimmie Johnson, despite his 11th place finish, has a 165-point lead over second place Dale Earnhardt Jr. With Gordon's fourth consecutive top-five finish, he is currently third (-202). Tony Stewart (-302) and Kenseth (-369), currently fourth and fifth, are tied with Earnhardt Jr. and Elliot Sadler for the most weeks in the top ten. Busch (-454), who gained three positions in the standings (from ninth to sixth) is trailed by Bobby Labonte (-460), Sadler (-480), Kevin Harvick (-497) and Newman (-502) to wrap up the top 10 in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series points standings.
