RUSTY STRUGGLES TO 16TH-PLACE FINISH AT RICHMOND; MAINTAINS 14TH SPOT IN NEXTEL CUP POINT STANDINGS

Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace and his Larry Carter-led Penske Racing South Team finished 16th and maintained their 14th spot in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings when the dust had settled at Richmond, Va., on Saturday night.

Rusty experienced handling difficulties from the beginning of the Chevy American Revolution 400 on the three-quarter mile Richmond International Raceway. Attempting to utilize two-tire strategy on an early pit stop backfired and he fell as far back as 24th before rallying to finish a lap down and in the 16th finishing position.

“We were too loose getting into the corner,” Rusty said back in the garage area after the race. “We could not charge into the corner because it was too loose. We just never got the total package. We’ll go back and talk about it. It looks like we needed some more rebound in the front shocks to flatten it out, softer springs, bigger swaybar. We just missed it. We might have to blow a test at the end of the year and come back and get it right. The new track was so much different from anything I’d ever run here. It threw me for a loop. This is a good car. I just underestimated how tight the new surface was. We’ll go back and work on the car and get it better.”

The 400-lap, 300-mile battle began under partly cloudy skies with temperatures still in the 80s. The new track surface provided two full racing grooves from the drop of the green flag.

Rookie Brian Vickers had won the pole in yesterday afternoon’s qualifying session and his team had the pit spot at the head of pit road. Rusty started tonight’s race from the seventh starting spot and pitted from the 12th spot up pit road. The Ricky Rudd team was pitting in front and the Bobby Hamilton Jr. team behind.

Most of the first half of the race featured Vickers, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson and eventual winner Dale Earnhardt battling for the lead, but Tony Stewart moved steadily up through the field to become a factor.

Stewart was up to fifth after 150 laps and into third behind leader Newman on Lap 164. He powered around the outside of Earnhardt for the second on Lap 213. After a spirited battle with Michael Waltrip for the top spot, he grabbed the lead when Waltrip grazed the outside wall on Lap 251.

He had checked out on the field and held a 3.4-second lead over Earnhardt when green flag stops started on Lap 285.

“That was when we had our best shot at pulling out a good finish,” offered crew chief Carter after the race. “We had done just about everything you could think of to our car - even pulling a spring rubber out of the left rear - and our laps times were pretty good. We just couldn’t get the track position we needed.

“When those green flag stops started, Stewart was leading and he was running right behind us, about to put us a lap down. When he hit pit road, we still had a good dozen laps or so before we had to hit pit road for gas. We got back up as high as fourth and If we’d gotten a yellow then, we’d for sure pulled out a solid top 10. We just didn’t have the luck on our side like we needed.”

The stops finally cycled around on Lap 325 with Stewart maintaining his lead and putting the No. 2 car down a lap in the process.

However, the complexity of the race changed greatly when rookie Scott Riggs’ blown engine brought out the ninth yellow of the night on Lap 343.

While leader Stewart and most of the lead lap cars pitted for fresh tires, Earnhardt, Johnson and Jeff Gordon opted to stay out. After the race returned to green with 45 laps remaining, Earnhardt pulled away, turning in the fastest lap times of the night.

At the finish, it was Earnhardt picking up his third win of the year and his second victory here at Richmond. Johnson finished second, with Bobby Labonte third, Stewart fourth, Matt Kenseth fifth, Gordon sixth, Mark Martin seventh, Vickers eighth, Newman ninth and Waltrip 10th. Ricky Rudd, Elliott Sadler, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton, Sterling Marlin, Rusty (16th), Bobby Hamilton Jr., Terry Labonte, Johnny Sauter and Ward Burton completed the top 20 finishers.

Earnhardt’s win allowed him to increase his advantage over Johnson in the points, 1,643 to 1,603. Gordon is third with 1,581, Kenseth fourth with 1,517, Stewart up three spots to fifth with 1,449, Newman up to sixth with 1,442, Bobby Labonte seventh with 1,430, Kevin Harvick eighth with 1,404, Kurt Busch ninth with 1,391 and Sadler 10th with 1,377. Rusty maintained his 14th spot in the standings and has 1,247 points, meaning he is 396 points out of the lead.

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series now heads to Lowe’s Motor Speedway for two weeks of action there on that 1.5-mile track. Next Saturday night’s NEXTEL “All-Star” Challenge highlights next weekend’s activity. It features live coverage by FX-TV and PRN Radio beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT.