"We've had good runs the last few weeks, so to finally get a win was just awesome," Stenhouse said. "It was pretty tough."

Ryan Fischer was third, followed by Ken Butler III, John Wes Townley, Brett Hudson, Patrick Sheltra, Bryan Silas, Michael Annett and Dominick Casola. - ap

NASCAR officials claim an electrical fire caused a fatal plane crash near Orlando last year that killed two aboard the aircraft and three on the ground, but federal investigators do not necessarily agree with that claim.

The NASCAR accident summary is included in Friday's release of reports by the National Transportation Safety Board into the July 10 [2007] crash of the NASCAR airplane. It claims the pilots were overcome by fumes and were incapacitated. The NTSB says it is still investigating the crash, with a final report of the cause likely in the summer.

NTSB reports say a radar unit malfunctioned and caused a burning smell the day before the crash, but NASCAR claims the radar unit did not cause the fire that led to the crash. NASCAR's insurance company earlier this year reached a settlement with a man whose wife and 6-month-old son were killed when their home was hit by the plane. The crash also killed NASCAR pilot Michael Klemm and the husband of a NASCAR executive, as well as a 4-year-old child in the second house that was hit. - ap

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon would like NASCAR to look into the way Sprint Cup teams are adjusting the rear housing to create a competitive advantage.

Only two months ago, #20-Tony Stewart angrily blasted Goodyear after the Atlanta race, saying the company had given him "the most pathetic racing tire I've ever been on in my professional career." But it was a joyful, smiling Stewart who praised Goodyear for its research and hard work in delivering tires that helped the Joe Gibbs Racing star to his first win Friday night on NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, Darlington Raceway.

"I really want to give Goodyear a pat on the back," he said. The company made two trips since March to test tires on Darlington's slick, new surface, repaved at a cost of $7 million for the first time since 1995. The results were absolutely perfect for Stewart. "I'm the first one to tell them when they screw up and I want to be the first one to tell them when they do a good job, too," Stewart said. - ap

John Andretti will attempt to qualify for his ninth Indianapolis 500 in the #24 Roth Racing car. Andretti, who started 24th and finished 30th last year in a Panther Racing-prepared car in his first Indy 500 since 1994, will replace Jay Howard in the seat for the race.

Howard, the 2006 Firestone Indy Lights champion, passed the Rookie Orientation Program earlier in the week and practiced May 6. He has finishes of 22nd, 14th, 13th and 13th in IndyCar Series races this season. "As a result of the days lost due to weather, and losing our chief engineer (David Cripps) days before the start of this month, we found ourselves behind the 8-ball," team president Margaret Roth said. "John brings with him a wealth of experience, which can help us build two competitive cars for the 500. Jay will be back at Milwaukee. He has our full support. He's a great driver."

"I want to feel it out a little bit, and see what we can do," Andretti said on the way to pit lane for the tail end of practice preceding qualifications for the first 11 spots in the 33-car field. He topped 220 mph on three laps. Team owner-driver Marty Roth will attempt to qualify for his fourth 500-Mile Race in the #25 car. He has a high finish of 24th in 2004. - roth racing

Terry Labonte will be a teammate to his brother Bobby at Petty Enterprises starting next month, pending sponsor approval. Terry and Chad McCumbee will drive the #45 when Kyle Petty gets out for the summer. Petty is scheduled to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 and then miss the next seven races (one for his daughter's wedding and the other six to work as an analyst for TNT).

McCumbee likely will drive at Dover and Chicago. Terry Labonte likely will drive in the other five races. Labonte's addition is key for Petty Enterprises because the #45 car is not in the top 35 in car owner points. Labonte's second of his two titles came in 1996 -- that makes him the most recent champion not in the top 35 since Bill Elliott's title came in 1988.

Thus, Labonte would be guaranteed a starting spot each time he starts, while the Wood Brothers would lose that even with Elliott in the seat. This would be the second time the Labonte brothers have run as teammates. Terry Labonte drove in five races for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2005 when Bobby Labonte was there. Terry Labonte ranks fourth in series history with 851 career starts. He won 22 races. - roanoke times

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. found his solid car from Friday a bit more difficult to handle when it came to Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Earnhardt Jr. finished fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, but he said that his car simply wasn’t as good as it had been in practices Thursday and Friday at the track.

That, it turns out, was because of changes the team made to the car prior to the event.

“We had a real good car all weekend and when the race started, I knew we weren't exactly like we had been,” he said. “[Crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. told me right after the race we had changed a lower A-frame and that might have changed how the car rolled over and traveled and stuff and handled.

“We were off a little bit all night, weren't really that good.”

That, coupled with the difficulty in passing created by running NASCAR’s new car on the repaved Darlington surface, made for a long 500 miles.

Still, Earnhardt Jr. and his Hendrick Motorsports’ team muscled their way to a top-five finish. That kept him third in the series standings with eight top-10 finishes – which ties him with Kyle Busch for the most this season in the series.

“Track position was everything; you could not pass, period,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “That was the worst I have ever seen it as far as trying to be able to pass. But, I have to hand it to my team. They worked hard. We worked hard and we finished [in the] top five. I am pretty happy with that."

He didn’t seem too displeased, though. Earnhardt Jr., in fact, was talking about doing it once more – just with his original Darlington setup.

"Let's line 'em up and go again,” he said. “But I want to set mine up again. We were a little bit off from where we ran all weekend. It wasn't near the same race car.

“But, when you are off and you run fourth, I guess you got to be happy.” - scenedaily.com

DARLINGTON, S.C.– Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon moved back into the top 10 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings with his third-place finish at Darlington Raceway on Saturday night.

Gordon’s performance matched his best finish of the season and moved him into the top 10 overall for just the second time this year.

He did so on a repaved track that he said raced the way one would expect a facility to under that condition. He survived the incidents
that brought eight cautions into the race.

“Yeah, I mean, I saw some characteristics of the old Darlington tonight, like getting into Turn 3, even though you could carry good speed into Turn 3, get to the middle, the front end would take off to the wall,” he said. “You didn't know if you were going to hit it. I saw plenty of people that hit it. “

He said that while the Saturday night race was tough, it wasn’t the most difficult race he’d been involved in at the 1.366-mile track.

“Tonight was tough, but it wasn't the toughest Darlington that I've ever driven, just because you really couldn't even get up to a guy to pass him,” he said. “You know, [a] lapped car had to let me go in order for me to pass him. … I was able to keep my car on the wall all night. That's just what I focused on doing all night, just trying not to get in the wall.”

Gordon led 24 laps in the race but couldn’t keep pace with former teammate Kyle Busch, who led 169 en route to the Dodge Challenger 500 win.
 
As he watches Busch, who has his Joe Gibbs Racing team on top of the series, Gordon said that he sees a team that is hitting its stride – just as Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards has been in winning three races this season and finishing second at Darlington.

“I felt that way about Carl earlier in the season,” he said. “Now that the No. 18 has come on strong, I don't know, they've definitely - between the two of them, they've just got the field covered.

“You know, you just got to work hard. We were unstoppable last year. We worked hard to get into that position. Other teams worked hard to catch us and pass us really. That just shows you, you know, just how tough and how competitive this sport really truly is.”

Gordon said that his team has been doing everything it can to catch up to the series frontrunner this season.

“You know, we're definitely still missing a little something that we're going to keep working on,” he said. - scenedaily.com