BRISTOL, Tenn. — Championship contenders Jeff Burton and Kasey Kahne had rough races Saturday night, neither making it to the midway point of the Sharpie 500.
Burton, who started the night fifth in points, was running fifth on lap 196 when his car was hit from behind and he couldn’t avoid slamming into the spinning car of Sterling Marlin in front of him. Burton climbed from his car and he never made it back onto the track.
It seemed the drivers behind Burton hadn’t seen the accident unfolding before them.
“Typical Bristol wreck,” Burton said. “But if you look in front of you, you tend not to hit stuff. I was trying to be smart and cautious, but it didn’t do me any good.”
Burton, though, was in no danger of falling out of the playoffs with one bad night.
Kahne, who started the night 11th in points, was caught up in an accident that started when Casey Mears tried to move into the front of a line of cars, clipped the one of Michael Waltrip right behind him and triggered impact that sent cars spinning and banging all over.
“We were just blocked in behind a bunch of cars and then a bunch of cars in front of me started wrecking,” said Kahne, who dropped to 14th in the points race with three races left. Only the top 12 drivers can contend for the championship.
Mears was less than amused to have caused the melee and blamed his spotter, saying he only tried to move into the front of the line after hearing his spotter assure him it was clear.
“I like my spotter. He’s a good guy, but man, that’s ridiculous,” he said. “We just took out a bunch of cars for no reason, and ourselves. I’m pretty upset about it.”
The mess caused a red flag delay of 12 minutes, 19 seconds.
The race was also a bust for Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in an early mishap that caused him to pit twice under green, dropping him 13 laps off the pass when he came out.
He rallied to finish 34th and fell one spot to fourth in the point standings.
CHILDRESS’ FOURTH: Casey Mears has a new home for the 2009 season.
As expected, Mears was introduced Saturday as the fourth driver for Richard Childress Racing, joining Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer in RCR’s Chevrolet stable.
“I’ve watched Casey’s career from the time he first came in and he’s always impressed me,” Childress said at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Recalling watching a race at Michigan with Mears in contention, Childress said, “I think I was pulling for you about as hard as I was for our cars.”
Mears, who is leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of this season, will drive the No. 07 car with Jack Daniels as its primary sponsor, Childress said. Clint Bowyer, who is driving the 07 and has it close to making it into the top 12, and thus the 10-race Chase for the championship, will move to the new No. 33 with sponsorship from Cheerios and Hamburger Helper.
The points earned by Bowyer will stay with the 07, Childress said, but he added that he is not ready to make any announcement about whether Bowyer will have a cushion in the No. 33.
Teams that carry over points from the previous year can use them for the first five races of the following season, at least to avoid having to race their way into each event.
Teams without points have to qualify in the top 35 or risk not making the race.
“We’ve got some things working on that,” Childress said without elaborating.
Bowyer joked about the possibility of starting next year with no points.
“It beats beating dents in a body shop,” he said.
For the next three weeks, however, Childress said the team will focus on the last three races that set the field for the Chase. Burton (fifth) and Harvick (eighth) started the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night inside the top 12 and Bowyer was tied for 13th, 26 points off the pace.
Mears, who started Saturday night’s race with one career victory in 203 starts, said he looks forward to joining the atmosphere of cooperation that exists among the RCR teams.
“I’m a team player, and that’s how I like to race,” he said.
IMAGE PROBLEM: Jeff Gordon is one of the drivers most loudly cheered — and lustily jeered — by fans during driver introductions every week, and said he has no issue with that.
“To me, what makes this sport what it is is the fans’ avidness, whether it’s for or against,” the four-time champion said. “It’s that they’re so interested in what’s going on that they know all they know about the teams, the drivers, the races and they form an opinion. That’s the key, getting people involved with their opinions whether we like them or not.”
Gordon’s popularity, and lack thereof, grew exponentially as his success increased earlier in his career, and has waned only slightly during his ongoing 28-race winless streak.
That streak, he said, has taken on a life of its own because of his history.
“You know, it’s just part of the expectations that are on this team,” he said. “We’ve been at a very high end of competition and in the limelight a lot of the years. That’s a good thing. To win four championships and 81 wins, all those things those are fantastic.”
The success of Hendrick Motorsports overall, which includes back-to-back championships by Gordon’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, “only creates more expectations,” Gordon said. “When the expectations are high and you don’t live up to them, it’s going to create a story.”
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