Notebook: Raines leads a race for first time in 2007

RICHMOND, Va. -- For a very brief while, Tony Raines was every bit as big as Shrek the Third, the movie his No. 96 Chevrolet was promoting during Sunday's Nextel Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway.

Raines, whose top finish this season is 13th at Texas Motor Speedway, actually led one lap after dueling for several with Jeff Gordon early in Sunday's event. Raines was in the top 10 for most of the race's first 130 laps -- but just past the halfway point of the 400-lap event, he started falling back.

Lap-by-Lap

Jimmie Johnson passed Kyle Busch on a restart on Lap 382 to win the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond Int'l Raceway.

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He ended up with a disappointing 22nd-place finish after starting 19th. He was the first car one lap down.

"The car was pretty decent there, early on," Raines said. "We just got loose on that long middle run and it hurt us. We couldn't ever really get it fixed and we lost track position."

Raines said that he thought something went wrong with his brakes somewhere around the mid-point of the race.

"At one point, we got outside of a lapped car and [eventual race winner] Jimmie [Johnson] checked up real hard. I checked up real hard, too, and it felt like I messed something up in the brakes, because after that it never was really the same," Raines said. "I thought it was pretty good. I think it was a top-10 car, but what are you going to do?

"There are positive signs. We ran strong and led a lap and there are things to build on. We just kind of fell off there at some point. But we can fix that."

Raines actually dropped one spot to 23rd in driver points with 951. But the lap he led was the first and only lap he's led all year, and at least that was worth an extra five points.

Looking like what?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. never managed to lead Sunday and survived an incident with Jeff Green that created a spin in Turn 3 (watch video), to finish 13th. Afterward, he jawed plenty about the look of his No. 8 Chevrolet, and what could be done about it.

"We were running eight degrees of camber in the right front," Junior said of the awkward-looking wheel angle. "That's ridiculous. It looks ridiculous and it's even more so to be doing it -- but that's the only way you really get the things to work.

"That's my opinion and my position and hopefully they work on it."

A crew chief said a typical camber setting on a "standard" car ranges from a half-degree of negative camber to up to six degrees depending on handling issues. Junior thought his team might have more issues before the next month was up, as a test at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday originally would have come after an off-day following Richmond. (Continued)