Notebook: Raines leads a race for first time in 2007 (cont'd)

"We have this [Lowe's] test, then Darlington and the Dover test," Earnhardt said. "A test in two days anywhere is tough on a team. Hopefully we can get through it and have some success and learn some stuff.

"Then you go to Darlington. A weekend at Darlington is tough on any team. I'm talking about the mental capacity of the team -- camaraderie and what-not. Then we're going to test two days at Dover, which everybody avoids -- you know what I mean?

"Nobody tests at Dover even when they can. It's frustrating, but hopefully after that it will be home free and a couple days off."

Gordon's breakthrough

Jeff Gordon's last four races at Richmond had resulted in a best finish of 30th, so rather than bemoan leading the most laps, 117, before falling to fourth at the finish, the Nextel Cup championship leader was accentuating the positive (watch video).

"We've got to be proud of that [because] this has been one of our worst tracks," Gordon said. "To come out of here in the top five just tells you what kind of improvements we've made with the team."

What should trouble his competition is that the finish was Gordon's worst in the four Car of Tomorrow races held so far -- with next weekend's Darlington event also a COT race.

"At one time I thought we had the car to beat and then we made some adjustments trying to keep up with the changing conditions of the track and just lost it. We'll just take our top-five and move on from here."

Like the good old days

In the closing laps of the race, Ryan Newman played tag with Tony Stewart's rear bumper before passing the Joe Gibbs Racing pilot for sixth. Stewart tried to retaliate but Newman was too quick and pulled away.

Newman said, to a degree, it reminded him of the days when the Indiana drivers dueled in Sprints and Midgets.

"We did race a lot together back then, but we didn't usually get to beat and bang as much back in open wheel," Newman said. "I know he had some right front damage and his car was wounded a little bit. He was protecting his line on the racetrack.

"I gave him a little tap-tap and he tried to hit the brakes on me in the middle of the corner and all kinds of stuff. It was hard racing and it almost caused a little craziness, but it was a good run for the Alltel Dodge, nevertheless."

Making chicken salad or chicken poop?

Tony Stewart took nearly three-quarters of the race to get into position to have a top finish, but was going in the wrong direction at the end after being involved in a Turn 4 melee with little more than 20 laps remaining. He ended up eighth after being passed by Ryan Newman and Kevin Harvick at the end.

"Again, we had a top-five car and finished eighth with it," Stewart's crew chief Greg Zipadelli said. "It seems like that's our M.O. this year. But at the beginning of the race, we had top-20 car if we were lucky.

"We made some major changes and gave up a lot of track position and we got some long, green flag runs when we needed it to get our track position back but when it came down to it, we didn't do that well in the pits, and that kind of got us behind when we needed it.

"Then we got in a wreck [so it was] just one of them days. We're a little frustrated. It seems like our whole season has been that way."

One for the Hokies

During the original pre-race ceremonies for the Crown Royal 400 Saturday evening, a group of Virginia drivers made a $120,000 donation to the fund for the families of the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech last month. Sunday, Jimmie Johnson put the exclamation point to the weekend honoring the college, as he'd worn a Tech hat most of the weekend. (Continued)