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NASCAR - Sprint Cup - Ford 400 Preview
From The Sports Network
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| DATE: Sunday, November 16th |
| SITE: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida |
| TRACK: 1.5-mile high-banked oval |
| CAPACITY: 72,000 |
| ANNUAL: 10th |
| TELEVISION: ABC |
| ANNOUNCERS: Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett, Andy Petree |
| RADIO: MRN/SIRIUS Satellite |
| START TIME: 3:45 p.m. (et) |
| DEFENDING CHAMPION: Matt Kenseth |
| RUNNER-UP: Kurt Busch |
| POLE SITTER: Jimmie Johnson (Finished 7th) |
| LAPS: 267 |
| MILES: 400.5 |
| QUALIFYING RECORD: 181.111 m.p.h. (Jamie McMurray, 2003) |
| RACE RECORD: 131.888 m.p.h. (Matt Kenseth, 2007) |
| TOTAL PURSE: $5,310,336 (2007 figure) |
| PAYOUTS: 1st Place - $359,941; 2nd - $263,808; 3rd - $208,000 (2007 figures) |
| 2007 Finish |
| Finish | Driver | Start | Finish | Driver | Start |
| 1 | Matt Kenseth | 4 | 6 | Martin Truex Jr | 15 |
| 2 | Kurt Busch | 5 | 7 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 32 | 8 | Jeff Burton | 9 |
| 4 | Jeff Gordon | 11 | 9 | Mark Martin | 6 |
| 5 | Carl Edwards | 10 | 10 | David Ragan | 7 |
| 2007 Ford 400 Facts and Figures |
| AVERAGE SPEED: 131.888 m.p.h. |
| TIME OF RACE: 3 hours, 2 minutes, 12 seconds |
| MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.852 second |
| CAUTION FLAGS: 7 for 32 laps |
| LEAD CHANGES: 25 among 11 drivers |
| POLE WINNER: Jimmie Johnson (176.788 m.p.h.) |
| Past Ford 400 Winners (car) and Speed |
| 2007 -- Matt Kenseth (Ford) -- 131.888 m.p.h. (race record) |
| 2006 -- Greg Biffle (Ford) -- 125.375 m.p.h. |
| 2005 -- Greg Biffle (Ford) -- 131.431 m.p.h. |
| 2004 -- Greg Biffle (Ford) -- 105.623 m.p.h. |
| 2003 -- Bobby Labonte (Chevrolet) -- 116.868 m.p.h. |
| 2002 -- Kurt Busch (Ford) -- 115.462 m.p.h. |
| 2001 -- Bill Elliott (Dodge) -- 117.449 m.p.h. |
| 2000 -- Tony Stewart (Pontiac) -- 127.480 m.p.h. |
| 1999 -- Tony Stewart (Pontiac) -- 140.355 m.p.h. |
| NOTE: Formerly called Pennzoil 400 (1999-2000), Pennzoil Freedom 400 (2001). |
| Past Ford 400 Pole Winners (Finish) |
| 2007 -- Jimmie Johnson -- 7th |
| 2006 -- Kasey Kahne -- 4th |
| 2005 -- Carl Edwards -- 4th |
| 2004 -- Kurt Busch -- 5th |
| 2003 -- Jamie McMurray -- 9th |
| 2002 -- Kurt Busch -- 1st |
| 2001 -- Bill Elliottt -- 1st |
| 2000 -- Steve Park -- 8th |
| 1999 -- David Green -- 22nd |
| Last Race Results |
| RACE: Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 (November 9) |
| SITE: Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona |
| MILES: 312 |
| LAPS: 313 |
| WINNER: Jimmie Johnson |
| RUNNER-UP: Kurt Busch |
| THIRD: Jamie McMurray |
| FOURTH: Carl Edwards |
| FIFTH: Denny Hamlin |
| POLE WINNER: Jimmie Johnson (Finished 1st) |
| TIME OF RACE: 3 hours, 12 minutes, 1 second |
| AVERAGE SPEED: 97.804 m.p.h. |
| MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.295 second |
| CAUTION FLAGS: 10 for 55 laps |
| LEAD CHANGES: 9 among 5 drivers |
| LAP LEADERS: Johnson (Pole), McMurray 1-21, Speed 22, Ku. Busch 23-80, Johnson |
| 81-100, Ku. Busch 101-102, Biffle 103-109, Johnson 110-211, |
| McMurray 212-218, Johnson 219-313. |
| Ford 400 Entry List |
| Car | Driver, Hometown | Car/Name |
| 1 | Martin Truex Jr (Mayetta, NJ) | Chevrolet/Bass Pro Shops |
| 01 | Regan Smith (Cato, NY) | Chevrolet/Principal Financial |
| 2 | Kurt Busch (Las Vegas, NV) | Dodge/Miller Lite |
| 5 | Casey Mears (Bakersfield, CA) | Chevrolet/Kellogg's/CARQUEST |
| 6 | David Ragan (Kannapolis, NC) | Ford/AAA |
| 07 | Clint Bowyer (Emporia, KS) | Chevrolet/Jack Daniels |
| 7 | Robby Gordon (Cerritos, CA) | Dodge/Jim Beam |
| 8 | Aric Almirola (Tampa, FL) | Chevrolet/U.S. Army |
| 09 | Sterling Marlin (Columbia, TN) | Chevrolet/Miccosukee Gaming |
| 9 | Kasey Kahne (Enumclaw, WA) | Dodge/Budweiser |
| 10 | A.J. Allmendinger (Los Gatos, CA) | Dodge/Valvoline |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin (Chesterfield, VA) | Toyota/FedEx Express |
| 12 | Ryan Newman (South Bend, IN) | Dodge/Alltel |
| 13 | Max Papis (Como, Italy) | Toyota/Geico |
| 15 | Paul Menard (Eau Claire, WI) | Chevrolet/Johns Manville |
| 16 | Greg Biffle (Vancouver, WA) | Ford/3M |
| 17 * | Matt Kenseth (Cambridge, WI) | Ford/Dewalt |
| 18 | Kyle Busch (Las Vegas, NV) | Toyota/M&M's |
| 19 | Elliott Sadler (Emporia, VA) | Dodge/Hellmann's |
| 20 | Tony Stewart (Rushville, IN) | Toyota/Home Depot |
| 21 | Bill Elliott (Dawsonville, GA) | Ford/Motorcraft |
| 22 | Dave Blaney (Hartford, OH) | Toyota/Caterpillar |
| 24 | Jeff Gordon (Vallejo, CA) | Chevrolet/DuPont |
| 25 | Brad Keselowski (Rochester Hills, MI) | Chevrolet/GoDaddy.com |
| 26 | Jamie McMurray (Joplin, MO) | Ford/Crown Royal |
| 28 | Travis Kvapil (Janesville, WI) | Ford/All Sport |
| 29 | Kevin Harvick (Bakersfield, CA) | Chevrolet/Shell-Pennzoil |
| 31 | Jeff Burton (South Boston, VA) | Chevrolet/AT&T Mobility |
| 38 | David Gilliland (Torrance, CA) | Ford/Digital TV Transition |
| 41 | Reed Sorenson (Peachtree City, GA) | Dodge/Target |
| 42 | Juan Pablo Montoya (Bogota, Colombia) | Dodge/Texaco/Havoline |
| 43 | Bobby Labonte (Corpus Christi, TX) | Dodge/Cheerios/Betty Crocker |
| 44 | David Reutimann (Zephyrhills, FL) | Toyota/UPS |
| 45 | Chad McCumbee (Supply, NC) | Dodge/Marathon American Oil |
| 47 | Marcos Ambrose (Launceston, Australia) | Toyota/Little Debbie's |
| 48 | Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon, CA) | Chevrolet/Lowe's/Kobalt Tools |
| 55 | Michael Waltrip (Owensboro, KY) | Toyota/NAPA |
| 66 | Scott Riggs (Bahama, NC) | Chevrolet/State Water Heaters |
| 70 | Tony Raines (LaPorte, IN) | Chevrolet/Haas Automation |
| 77 | Sam Hornish Jr (Defiance, OH) | Dodge/Mobil 1 |
| 78 | Joe Nemechek (Lakeland, FL) | Chevrolet/Furniture Row |
| 83 | Brian Vickers (Thomasville, NC) | Toyota/Red Bull |
| 84 | Scott Speed (Manteca, CA) | Toyota/Red Bull |
| 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr (Kannapolis, NC) | Chevrolet/AMP Energy |
| 96 | Ken Schrader (Fenton, MO) | Toyota/DLP HDTV |
| 99 | Carl Edwards (Columbia, MO) | Ford/Office Depot |
| Leading Contenders (Finish the last seven years) |
| Driver | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | | |
| Matt Kenseth | 27th | 40th | 43rd | 19th | 3rd | 6th | Won | | |
| Kurt Busch | 25th | Won | 36th | 5th | --- | 43rd | 2nd | | |
| Denny Hamlin | --- | --- | --- | --- | 33rd | 3rd | 3rd | | |
| Jeff Gordon | 28th | 5th | 5th | 3rd | 9th | 24th | 4th | | |
| Carl Edwards | --- | --- | --- | 14th | 4th | 8th | 5th | | |
| Martin Truex Jr | --- | --- | --- | --- | 32nd | 2nd | 6th | | |
| Jimmie Johnson | 25th | 8th | 3rd | 2nd | 40th | 9th | 7th | | |
| Jeff Burton | 4th | 3rd | 14th | 36th | 25th | 14th | 8th | | |
| David Ragan | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | 10th | | |
| Greg Biffle | --- | 25th | 35th | Won | Won | Won | 13th | | |
| Ryan Newman | --- | 6th | 37th | 30th | 7th | 23rd | 18th | | |
| Kevin Harvick | 7th | 20th | 2nd | 10th | 8th | 5th | 19th | | |
| Kasey Kahne | --- | --- | --- | 38th | 16th | 4th | 24th | | |
| Tony Stewart | 19th | 18th | 7th | 4th | 15th | 15th | 30th | | |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr | 15th | 21st | 24th | 23rd | 19th | 19th | 36th | | |
| Clint Bowyer | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | 10th | 39th | | |
| Mover of the Week |
| David Ragan - Started in the 30th position and finished 10th |
| Sports Network Selections |
| Pick to Win - Carl Edwards |
| Darkhorse - Tony Stewart |
| Last Week's Pick to Win (Jeff Burton) - Finished 9th |
| Last Week's Darkhorse (Dale Earnahrdt Jr) - Finished 6th |
| NOTES: |
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The season-ending Ford 400 will decide the "Chase for the Sprint Cup"
championship, as Jimmie Johnson leads Carl Edwards by 141 points. Johnson
dominated last week's race, leading 217 of the 313 laps, as he extended his
lead over Edwards by 35 points. If Johnson finishes 36th or better at
Homestead, regardless of Edwards' performance, he will join Cale Yarborough as
the only drivers to win three consecutive Cup championships. Yarborough
captured his titles from 1976-78.
Johnson has yet to win at Homestead, but has scored five top-10 finishes in
seven races there, including a seventh-place finish in last year's race and a
ninth-place run in the 2006 event. In 2005, Johnson came to Homestead second
in the Chase standings, 52 points behind Tony Stewart, but he crashed midway
through the race and finished 40th. He ended the '05 season 127 points behind
champion Stewart in fifth-place.
Edwards, meanwhile, has finished fourth, fifth, and eighth in his last three
races at Homestead. Not likely probable, but it's possible that Edwards could
pull off a miracle at the mile-and-a-half South Florida track.
Last season, Matt Kenseth snapped Greg Biffle's three-year stranglehold on
this race, as he led a whopping 214 laps en route to his 16th and last career
Sprint Cup title. Kurt Busch finished second, just 0.852 of a second behind,
while pole sitter Johnson placed seventh.
In 2006, Greg Biffle captured his third consecutive Ford 400, as he crossed
the finish line just under one second ahead of Martin Truex Jr. The victory
was the second of the 2006 season and the 11th of 14 career titles.
Groundbreaking for Homestead-Miami Dade Motorsports Complex, as the track was
originally named, began Aug. 24, 1993. The first race was a Nationwide Series
race on Nov. 5, 1995. The original configuration was a four-turn, rectangular
oval based on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's layout. The first Craftsman Truck
Series race at Homestead was in 1996. In the summer of 1997, a reconfiguration
project changed the turns from a quad-oval to a traditional, continuous-turn
oval. The first Sprint Cup race at Homestead was held on Nov. 14, 1999. The
track was reconfigured prior to the 2003 race. The banking in the turns was
changed to a graduated tri-level culminating in a 20-degree banking on the
outer level. Lights were also added for night racing.
There have been eight different pole winners, led by Kurt Busch with two. He
is the only repeat pole winner there. There have been six different race
winners, led by Greg Biffle with three. The race has been won from the pole
twice: Bill Elliott (2001) and Kurt Busch (2002). The race has been won from a
top-10 starting position seven of nine times. Greg Biffle won in 2006 from the
22nd starting position, the furthest back a race winner has started at
Homestead.
The 2009 season begins February 15th in Florida for the Daytona 500, where
Ryan Newman is the defending champion.
11/12 11:56:45 ET
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As of November 12, 2008, at 11:57 AM ET
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