 | | Matt Kenseth's car was best in the pits at Bristol. Credit: Autostock |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
August 29, 2005
03:06 PM EDT (19:06 GMT)
Matt Kenseth probably would have won the Sharpie 500 even if he hadn't won the Bud Pole, but it's less likely he would have led the most laps. Because he had the best pit stall, Kenseth was able get on pit road easily and allow his team time to make the adjustments needed to stay up front for 415 of the 500 laps.  |  | | Crew chief Robbie Reiser engineered a winning pit strategy. Credit: Autostock |
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Roush Racing would have swept Bristol in 2005, but Greg Biffle elected to stay out late in the spring race, and he eventually faded to a ninth-place finish. The team learned from that error. Even though only 81 laps remained, crew chief Robbie Reiser elected to pit and take four tires during the next-to-last caution. They lost very little track position, mainly because the No. 17 Ford team gave Kenseth a 13.3-second stop. "A few guys that did stay out just got killed," Kenseth said. "They didn't get tires, so everybody knew they needed tires and everybody came down with us and that made all of our jobs down there a little bit easier. "Usually at this place you'll have 15 cars stay out and you'll have 15 cars pit and you get yourself way behind, but everybody knew that they needed tires and that made it a little bit easier." Wallace defends decision to stay out Rusty Wallace stayed out during the Lap 418 caution even though he was running in the top five at the time, and his decision was openly criticized in the TV booth. The decision probably was swayed by an earlier speeding penalty that cost Wallace almost a full lap of track position. He simply didn't want to risk losing a sure top-10 finish. |  | | Rusty Wallace played it safe at Bristol. Credit: Autostock |
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"I got a pit road penalty for entering too quick and that got me way behind," Wallace said. "I guess I should have come down for four tires when Kenseth came in but, man, I just did not want to get back in that pack." Wallace said he didn't want to be back in the pack with less than 100 to go. Like Biffle did in the spring, Wallace faded, but his fifth-place run earned him a Chase spot. Wallace has five top-fives since June. Labbe regrets move to stay out Slugger Labbe and Jeremy Mayfield stole a win the previous week at Michigan, but they were left wondering why they didn't pit when the caution flew on Lap 468. Labbe says he wished he had pitted Mayfield to get the car loosened up with some much-needed adjustments. "That was wrong," Labbe said. "You live and die by the decisions you make. I decided to stay out and everyone behind us came in. We should have pitted." Mayfield was running 10th and watched as everyone behind him came in and got tires. When the restart flew with 27 to go, Mayfield started bleeding positions left and right. In the last 25 laps, Mayfield went from 10th to 18th. Stewart pits, gets another top 10 |  | ALSO | |
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The poster boy for pitting late Saturday night was Tony Stewart, who gained nine spots in the last run to the checkered. "We didn't lose but about four or five spots doing it and [we] got those back in the first couple of laps," Stewart said. Quotable "Heck, it's Bristol ... everybody's [ticked] off ... that's the way it's supposed to be." -- Richard "Slugger" Labbe, who says he threw away a top-10 run by staying out during the final round of stops "We pretty much picked up spots every time we came in." -- Kevin Hamlin, crew chief for Jeff Burton, who finished a season-high second | 
