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.

"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.

"I feel honored to win this race here in Virginia," Johnson said. "Obviously what took place, no one could ever describe. It's just so sad -- I don't even know where to start. I didn't go to school there [but] I have a lot of close friends that did -- great people that work at Hendrick Motorsports that have and certainly want to dedicate this win to them (watch video)."

Watch out for Ward

Ward Burton's race outings this season have been few and far between in the No. 4 Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet, but after getting driven into a Turn 4 wreck, he said by Sterling Marlin's No. 14 Chevrolet, Burton said he couldn't wait for another start.

"[Dave Blaney] came out with a lot of smoke from the left-front and went high -- I didn't know what his problem was," Burton said of the wreck's beginning. "I went in between; I was going to back off but I knew it was three-wide [and] I think the No. 14 hit me. He'd been getting a little bit impatient there the last few laps.

"I'm not positive but I'm pretty darn sure that's what happened. We weren't the best out there. We were having a decent day but that's going to come around, I can promise you that. That will be repaid."

Benson ready to return

After competing in his first Nextel Cup race in 16 months, Johnny Benson was feeling pretty rambunctious after finishing 31st in the No. 46 Wyler Racing Toyota, which picked up 360 OTC sponsorship for the race on his unsponsored car after Bill Davis Racing teammate Jeremy Mayfield failed to qualify.

Benson's biggest issue was references to the Car of Tomorrow.

"I'll call it the 'new car' now," Benson said. "We can't call it the Car of Tomorrow because we are racing it right now. It's different to drive; but I think it's not as bad as everyone says.

"It will get better [for us] when we get the set-up, but it wasn't terrible."

Joe Menzer contributed to this story