Posted 3/3/2008 @ 5:48:00 am by dalejrandnascar.com

(Compliments of Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart walked away from hard crashes at the Las Vegas UAW Dodge 400, but Stewart was limping and Gordon wasn’t too steady on his feet. Between the high winds and hard tires, it was a gamble to just finish the Cup and Nationwide races! The race was delayed by 11 cautions, most of them caused by blown tires. Dale Jr. stayed out of trouble and finished second to Carl Edwards. This puts Jr. 10th in the points.

During the post-race inspection, it was discovered that the lid was off Edwards’ oil tank box. His 21 point advantage over Kyle Busch will probably change, pending NASCAR’s decision this week. Five Nationwide crew chiefs were fined $15,000 each, suspended for six races and their drivers docked 25 points for this same costly mistake last month.

Fans of JR Motorsports were probably wondering what Mark Martin was thinking when, with 9 laps left, he decided to go with Carl Edwards, instead of team mate Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski and Edwards were running side-by-side for the lead, Brad on the faster high side, and Carl on the inside, his hands full trying to pass. With 4 fresh tires, Mark Martin quickly closed, dropped to the bottom to help push Edwards, but ran into his bumper, sliding him into Brad, taking both cars out of the race. Mark went on to get the first win for Dale Jr. and his JR and Hendrick Motorsports team. Carl finished 14th, but instead of a top 3 finish, Brad finished 23rd.

“I’ve got to apologize before we do anything else,” Martin said as soon as he climbed out of his car. “I ran into the back of Carl. I hate it. I just hate it, really, because we could have had a 1-2 finish with JR Motorports.”

If he was planning a 1-2 finish, don’t you think he would have tried to push Keselowki to the lead, instead of Edwards?

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