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Two in a row Nemechek follows Winston Cup win with Busch victory
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Suspense? You want suspense? Then Saturday's GNC Live Well 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway was definitely not for you. Sure, that Joe Nemechek won his second consecutive NASCAR race and his third Busch race at Homestead would seem to be plenty exciting, but take those factoids away and you're not left with much else. Saturday's race was, as so many at Homestead seem to be, anything but suspenseful. Because Kevin Harvick clinched his first Busch series title last week at Rockingham, N.C., the only issue left to be determined in this last race of the season was the race winner. For 128 of the first 160 laps, that, too, appeared to be Harvick. After taking the race lead from pole-sitter Jeff Green on lap 19, Harvick just drove away from the field, enjoying as much as a 10-second lead on whoever was unfortunate enough to be running second.
"In all honesty, we had a second-place car," said Elton Sawyer, who was the unfortunate in second behind Harvick for about 30 laps, or until Harvick fell out of the race on lap 160. "I mean, the No. 2 [car], wow, he was in a different zip code." Sawyer, who himself seemed headed to the win when Harvick's motor gave out, managed to hold on for second behind Nemechek. Rookie Greg Biffle finished third. Though there were a seemingly respectable 10 lead changes among eight drivers, there was little head-to-head racing for the lead. Once someone established himself at the front, he was able to open an easy lead. And after Harvick's exit (he finished 37th), it became clear that the eventual race winner would be determined by pit strategy. Between laps 160 and 190, there were four different race leaders as cars cycled through pit stops. When Sawyer and Nemechek pitted around lap 172, Sawyer elected to take four tires, while Nemechek took just two. "Brian [Pattie, the crew chief] made a good call putting two tires on," said Nemechek. "I was out of tires. I had gotten in the marbles in [turn] 4, then in [turns] 1 and 2, turned sideways, and I said I have just got to get some tires. He said, 'Come on in.'" Sawyer, who hasn't won in more than two years, wasn't second-guessing his team's decision to take four tires. "I don't consider anything," he said. "I was just driving my ass off. We thought that we had enough time there that two tires wasn't going to help it." When those two exited the pits, they were trailing, among others, Scott Wimmer and Matt Kenseth, though it was clear either Nemechek or Sawyer would win. The drivers they trailed hadn't pitted and it was just a matter of time before they got to the front. When Kenseth peeled off the track after a brief time at the front, it gave the lead to Wimmer, again, seemingly for a lap or two. Because Wimmer had last pitted on lap 111, the assumption was that there was no chance he could make it to the end. However, Wimmer elected to gamble and he did, in fact, try to go the rest of the way. It was a noble effort, and he held the lead for 10 laps, but when Nemechek passed him for good with six to go, Wimmer's hopes were dashed. He finished fourth, still his second-best finish of the year. "I was battling with the No. 98 [after the stop]," said Nemechek of Sawyer. "He was the man. When I got past him and [the team] said I was running second, I said 'What?!?' But I was getting him fast, so I knew he was a sitting duck. I knew he hadn't pitted and there's no replacement for tires." And no replacement for a win.
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