2008 Chevy Rock & Roll 400

2008 Chevy Rock & Roll 400
Race details
Race 26 of 36 in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season

Richmond International Speedway
Date September 7, 2008 (2008-September-07)
Official name Chevy Rock & Roll 400
Location Richmond Fairgrounds , Richmond, Virginia
Course Permanent racing facility
0.75 mi (1.207 km)
Distance 400 laps, 300.0 mi (482.803 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching up to 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)[1]
Average speed 92.68 miles per hour (149.15 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Joe Gibbs Racing
Most laps led
Driver David Reutimann Michael Waltrip Racing
Laps 104
Winner
No. 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network ESPN
Announcers Jerry Punch
Dale Jarrett
Andy Petree

The 2008 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 was the twenty-sixth race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, but more important, served as the final "regular season" race before the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup, where the top twelve drivers were "locked into" the ten-race playoff.

Summary

The 400 lap (300 miles (480 km)) event was scheduled to have been held on Saturday night, September 6 at the 0.75 miles (1.21 km) Richmond International Raceway in Henrico County, Virginia, outside Richmond, the Commonwealth's capital city. However, Hurricane Hanna altered the plans and forced the race to be moved to the next day, September 7 at 1 PM US EDT. This was to have been the first race to be carried on ABC, however due to a prior commitment to carry both a WNBA game and an Indycar Series race in Chicago, ESPN carried the race. In place of the race that night, ABC aired the movie Catch Me If You Can. Radio coverage via MRN along with Sirius Satellite Radio commenced at 12 noon US EDT Sunday.

Chasing The Chase

As this is the final race before the Chase is set, five drivers have clinched their positions in the 2008 playoff, while two more will clinch a spot when the green flag drops.

Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Burton have all wrapped up positions in the Chase, where Kyle Busch will be ranked number one with at least 5,080 points. Edwards will be seeded second with a minimum of 5,050 points, even though he has six wins; one win was taken away as part of punishment after a post-race inspection following the UAW-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas in March.

Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick were exempt as per the Top 35 Owner Points standings rule, both started the race and clinched spots. This left seven drivers and five spaces in the chase. With the assumption that both past two-time champion Tony Stewart and 2003 series champion Matt Kenseth made the chase, the three that were "sitting on the bubble" are all qualifiers from last year's Chase: four-time series champion Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin.

Just below them were David Ragan, who was 17 points out of the chase in 13th and Kasey Kahne, 48 points out of the chase in 14th. In addition, both Hamlin and Bowyer had won races in the Commonwealth of Virginia this season, and they carried a ten-point bonus into the Chase if they make it; Hamlin winning the spring event at Martinsville and Bowyer the most recent Richmond race. Kahne held two wins (the Memorial Day Charlotte race and the June race at Pocono); Ragan has not won a race despite being the most improved driver this season, while Jeff Gordon's last win was last October in Charlotte.

Pre-race news

Rock & Roll 400 Logo

Qualifying

As earlier stated, Hanna caused the cancellation of the qualifying of the race, and the field was set by the rulebook.

Failed to make race as a result of qualifying being cancelled by rain: Joey Logano (#02), Sterling Marlin (#09), Tony Raines (#34).

Race Recap

David Reutimann dominated the race and led 268 laps, but a braking problem cut his hopes short. It was Jimmie Johnson who took over and won the race by holding off a determined Tony Stewart. David Ragan's chances of making the chase were all but finished when he was involved in an incident with teammate Matt Kenseth. Jimmie Johnson held off Tony Stewart and win the first daytime fall race at Richmond since 1990.

It was the first Sprint Cup race since the 2007 Sylvania 300 where all 43 cars started finished the race, with no retirements.

Top Ten Finishers
Pos Car # Driver Make Team
1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
2 20 Tony Stewart Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing
4 88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
5 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
6 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
7 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Richard Childress Racing
8 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports
9 44 David Reutimann Toyota Michael Waltrip Racing
10 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports

Drivers in green made Chase for Sprint Cup.

References

  1. Weather information for the 2008 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at The Old Farmers' Almanac. Accessed 2013-06-21. Archived 2013-07-05.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.