Notes: Busch, Sauter fail post-race height inspection (cont'd)

Newman's folly

Ryan Newman was running near the front Sunday when a mishap on pit road cost him dearly. Newman was leaving his pit stall after a routine stop on Lap 129 when he ran over the hose, cut it and dragged a piece of the hose and the nozzle attached to the end of it down pit road.

He then had to serve a stop-and-go penalty for removing equipment from his pit box, dropping him to 27th on the subsequent restart. Although he rallied to finish 10th, a commendable comeback, he still said afterward that he was disappointed.

"I guess [crew members] didn't get the hose pulled back across the car and it got caught in the front of the car," Newman said. "We snagged it and that was pretty much the end of it for us. That cost us a lot of track position. That cost us a good top-five finish and potentially a shot at winning the race."

Birthday boys

Lots of milestone birthday candles were being lit over the weekend at the New Hampshire track. Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet, turned 40 on Friday. Sterling Marlin, driver of the No. 14 Dodge, celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday.

And on Monday, the King, Richard Petty, was to celebrate his 70th birthday. But he was going to wait to have the candles on his cake lit until after his return from Loudon to Randleman, N.C.

"I can't remember the last time I've been home to celebrate my birthday," Petty said. "I've always been in Daytona [for the July race there]. That was fine, too. We won a lot of races there, but it will be nice to be around the family. It's just the way the date landed this year.

"I don't know what anyone has planned. I leave that up to my wife. She'll let me know and we'll do whatever she says. Then it's back to Daytona because that's what we know."

Disappointing return

For the second time in three races, driver John Andretti was reunited with Petty Enterprises. But much like at Michigan three weeks ago, it proved to be a disappointing reunion when Andretti suffered an engine failure in the No. 45 Dodge and had to call it a day after just 110 laps.

"We had an engine problem. Until they pull it apart, we don't know exactly what happened," Andretti said. "It's unfortunate, because we had a pretty good car after five or six laps. I couldn't get going on starts, but then after a few laps I got it going pretty good. ... I just keep working my way on up through [the field]."

Until the engine gave out completely, that is. Still, Andretti, who was subbing for Kyle Petty as Petty served as an analyst on the TNT television broadcast of the race, said he enjoyed being back behind the wheel for the organization he once drove for full time.

"I wish it could have been a little different and that we had different results, but it was fun," said Andretti, who finished third at NHIS while driving for Petty Enterprises in a 1998 race.

When he also subbed for Petty at Michigan, Andretti fared a little better -- starting 37th and finishing 27th, two laps down. He was credited with a 42nd-place finish Sunday.