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Notebook: Pressley almost king

Robert Pressley scored the highest finish of his NASCAR Winston Cup career when he finished second to Kevin Harvick in Sunday's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

"It was a great day," said the Winston Cup journeyman. "I mean, you couldn't ask for anything better except to win. Our car was just terribly loose on new tyres, but we just kept hanging in there. When we got within the pit window I said, 'We don't want anymore tyres. Let's keep what we've got,' because they were faster than new tyres.

"The guys in the pits just did a great job. We got within 67-70 laps and Ryan Pemberton (crew chief) opted to have us go the rest of the way on fuel. That's what got us track position to get up there and then we had some clean air. The guys in the pits did it. Our car was just a lot better on old tires than new tyres. We just couldn't get going for about eight or 10 laps on new tires."

Pressley did his best to spook Harvick in the closing stages of the race, but it wasn't enough for him to catch the faster Chevrolet.

"Me and Kevin have never really raced together until today," said Pressley. "I was really just wanting to shake him up a little bit and maybe make him drive off into one a little bit harder or maybe spin the tyres a little bit on take off. I knew that if I could get on the inside of him getting into one, and with everybody really close together, that we might shuffle him back a little bit and maybe have a shot.

"I never thought about Ricky Rudd coming on. I thought I was going to have to race Mark Martin for second, but, evidently, he missed a gear or something. I wasn't going to do anything to him [Harvick], I was just going to try to get under there and beat him into turn one and hope that we got him hung on the outside."



Ricky Rudd started third and finished third, but remains in the heart of the NASCAR Winston Cup battle just 18 points behind Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett.

Those two drivers are tied with 2515 points, but Gordon gets the edge with more second-place finishes than Jarrett. Both drivers have three wins.

"We came back from a long way," said Rudd. "We started off and had the lead early on. I thought we had a great race car, but I found out we were way too tight. We pushed all day and they kept freeing the car up. I thought we might have been doomed there at the end. We got four tyres when most everybody else got two and it ended up turning out to be the way to go at the end of the race.

"I think the first 20 laps I couldn't have been happier about the way things were going. I thought we were the best car in the field and then I found out what it was - we had a good car, but I think track position was more important than having a good car today."

Rudd admitted he was happy when he saw Jeff Gordon slow with an engine problems with 20 laps to go for a 17th-place finish.

"I saw Jeff slow, but it was getting real intense there toward the end of that race," said Rudd. "I didn't have time to pay too much attention. I just knew that we had to come out of there with the best finish we possibly could. I don't know. I just got in the wrong line at Daytona last week. We had a top-five car and we came out of there with a 14th and I think I started watching points too much.

"Today I didn't think points, I just thought positions. We need as many positions as we possibly can get. Something happened to these guys on the restart. I couldn't tell exactly what happened. Somebody missed a gear. Anyway, that opened the race track up for us and we dove low and were able to pick up a few spots."



Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte continues to struggle, as his engine blew up after 168 laps.

"Something let go in the top end of the motor," said Labonte. "It was running pretty good, then that caution flag came out and I let off. It had a little bit of a miss in it at that point in time. I didn't think much about it, but I got going again and on the restart it just went all of a sudden. It appears to be something similar to what happened maybe earlier in the year. It's hard to tell right now. It had the same feeling to it. But that's part of it.

"Our little Interstate Batteries Pontiac was running pretty decent there for a little while before we pitted and put tyres on it. Then, it kind of slowed down a little bit. But maybe this was part of it or maybe it was the tyres. It seemed like it took a little while to get going on them. But, it looked like it was a pretty good race for us for a while, but that's the way it goes."



One week after being fined US$10,000 for his outburst against NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson, and having to issue a public apology to a reporter from the Winston-Salem Journal, Tony Stewart crashed while battling for eighth place with eight laps remaining.

Stewart let off the gas and Sterling Marlin ran into the back of Stewart's Pontiac, sending it slamming into the second-turn wall.

"I think he [Tony Stewart] got loose," Marlin said. "We came up off the corner and I was dead on him. The 97 car [Kurt Busch] was right on me. I couldn't check up. I knew I'd get run over. It was too late to even check up. Tony kind of wiggled and by the time I got up on him I just barely touched him and he turned around. It skinned the front end of my car up a little bit.

"We just need more downforce in the front to do what we need to do. We've got to run so much right rear spring in the cars to make them turn. We just need of what the Chevrolets have got, turn our noses out and give us a little more downforce," he added.



After starting on the outside of the front row, Jimmy Spencer finished fifth in Sunday's race.

"I'm really disappointed," Spencer said. "I mean, the lapped cars really screwed me up today. We just weren't real good on the restarts, but I haven't seen that much straightaway speed on a race car in a long time than what the 29 [car] had today. I was as good as any car in the corners, but I just can't believe the straightaway speed the 29 [car] had.

"Oh well. That's a top five and that's pretty neat for the Kmart crew. We've had a rough couple of weeks and this is pretty good. We weren't the best Ford, but we gained a bunch [of points]."

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