NOTEBOOK | Subway 500

Teammates bicker: Teammate means nothing with a race on the line, and Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman proved it. The Penske Racing teammates were running second and third to Jimmie Johnson when the race went back to green for the final time with seven laps to go. Wallace, the only one of the three not contending for the season championship, tried a move to the outside of Johnson on the restart, going into a second groove where no one had succeeded all day. Johnson rebuffed his attempt, and Newman, seeing an opportunity to take second, pulled alongside his teammate on the inside, sparking a physical duel between the two that could have cost them both dearly. Newman prevailed, as the inside car had in that situation all day, with Wallace eventually getting pushed high into the outside lane in turns three and four as Newman raced on. Neither was amused when it was over. "I don't guess Rusty and I are on speaking terms right now," said Newman, who eventually relinquished second place to Jamie McMurray. "I was underneath him and I know he came down on me," Newman said. "I wasn't going to give him anything so he got loose and lost a bunch of spots. Then he came up and hit me after the race. Our car was faster than his at the end. I'm not sure if he was aware of that, but he will be." Wallace, seeking a season sweep at Martinsville, faded to 10th. "I told him to stay out of my way and I could win the race, but he didn't do it," he said of Newman. "There's nothing I can do about it. I'll talk a little bit. I want to see what he was thinking." Told that Newman said his car was faster, Wallace snapped: "I guess that's why he ran through the quarterpanel." The exchange was one of many in a crash-filled race. It featured 17 caution flags for 125 laps -- one fourth of the race total.
No chickens to count: Kurt Busch has finished in the top six in all six races since the 10-race championship playoff began, but said it's still too early to get excited after a tough day for his closest pursuers. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who started the race just 24 points behind Busch, had a miserable day and dropped to third place, 125 points off the lead. Jeff Gordon, who was 74 points back and in third place, overcame a lousy first 350 laps with some effective pit strategy and finished ninth. He fell to 96 points off the lead, but moved into second place overall. Earnhardt didn't even finish the race, driving a beat-up car to the front of his hauler with about 30 laps left. He wound up 33rd.
The other chase: Four straight top-10 finishes lifted Dale Jarrett to within 74 points of Jamie McMurray in the race for 11th in the series point standings -- and the $1 million bonus that goes with it. But the 1999 champion's impressive run ended when he was nudged by Matt Kenseth on the 106th lap, suffered significant damage to the back end of his car and spent nearly 100 laps in the garage for repairs. Jarrett returned to the track with most of the sheet metal cut away from the back of his car, finished 37th and now trails McMurray by 197. "It was a frustrating day, but if you race at this long enough you're going to have some of those," Jarrett said. "This is a place where you can have that and in light of everything else, it kind of doesn't matter." McMurray's day started slowly. He was penalized for a pit road infraction and sent to the back of the field, but he stayed out twice for position on yellow flags, even leading 43 laps, and finished second.
Source: Associated Press