2010 Crown Royal Presents the Heath Calhoun 400

The 2010 Crown Royal Presents the Heath Calhoun 400 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on May 1, 2010 at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. Contested over 400 laps, it was the tenth race of the 2010 Sprint Cup Series season. The race was won by Kyle Busch for the Joe Gibbs Racing team. Jeff Gordon finished second, and Kevin Harvick, who started seventh, clinched third.

2010 Crown Royal Presents the Heath Calhoun 400
Race details[1][2][3][4]
Race 10 of 36 in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date May 1, 2010 (2010-May-01)
Official name Crown Royal 400
Location Richmond International Raceway Richmond, Virginia
Course Permanent racing facility
0.75 mi (1.20 km)
Distance 400 laps, 300 mi (483 km)
Weather Partly cloudy and mild
Average speed 111 miles per hour (179 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Joe Gibbs Racing
Time 21.247
Most laps led
Driver Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps 226
Winner
No. 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing
Television in the United States
Network Fox Broadcasting Company
Announcers Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds

Pole position driver Kyle Busch maintained the lead after the start of the race. Kyle Busch would eventually lead to the race high of 226 laps. Afterward, Gordon became the leader during the final laps. He remained the leader until Kyle Busch passed him with four laps remaining. Kyle Busch crossed the finish line first to clinch his first win of the season, and his third at Richmond International Raceway.

There were six caution flags and twelve lead changes among eight different drivers throughout the course of the race. The result moved Kyle Busch up two spots to third in the Drivers' Championship, 109 points behind of leader Kevin Harvick and ten ahead of Matt Kenseth. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, eighteen points ahead of Toyota and thirty ahead of Ford, with twenty-six races remaining in the season.

Race report

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Background

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Richmond International Raceway, the race track where the race was held.

Richmond International Raceway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races, the others being Bristol Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway.[5] The NASCAR race makes use of the track's standard configuration, a four-turn short track oval that is 0.75 miles (1.21 km) long.[6] The track's turns are banked at fourteen degrees. The front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at eight degrees while the back stretch has two degrees of banking.[6] The racetrack has seats for 97,912 spectators.[6]

Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 1,323 points, while Kevin Harvick stood in second with 1,297 points. Greg Biffle was third in the Drivers' Championship with 1,237 points, Matt Kenseth was fourth with 1,224 points, and Kyle Busch was in fifth with 1,163 points.[7] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with seventy points, twenty-one points ahead of their rival Toyota. Ford, with forty-two points, was four points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third.[8]

Practices and qualifying

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Two practice sessions were held on Friday before the Saturday race.[9] In the first session, the fastest drivers were Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kyle Busch.[10] During the second practice session, Kyle Busch, David Reutimann, Logano, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jeff Gordon had the quickest times.[11]

During qualifying, forty-six cars were entered, but Michael McDowell, Max Papis, and Dave Blaney did not qualify; NASCAR's qualifying procedure only allow forty-three cars to make the race.[12] Kyle Busch clinched the pole position with a fastest lap time of 21.247 seconds.[2] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Reutimann.[2] Johnson qualified third, Gordon took fourth, and Newman started fifth.[2]

Race summary

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Polesitter and race winner Kyle Busch in 2008

The race, the tenth out of a total of thirty-six in the season, began at 7:30 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on Fox.[1] Conditions were clear with a high of 88 °F (31 °C).[13] Joe Ellison, from Essex Village Community Church, began pre-race ceremonies, by giving the invocation. Next, the Commandants own United States Marine Drum and Bugle performed the national anthem, and Heath Calhoun gave the command for drivers to start their engines.[13]

Kyle Busch held the lead going through the first corner with David Reutimann behind him. One lap later, Jeff Gordon moved into the third position. On lap 6, Gordon emerged in second, after passing Reutimann. Jimmie Johnson, who had started third, fell to fourth by lap 7. By lap 8, Kyle Busch had a lead of 1.5 seconds. One lap later, Kevin Harvick moved into fourth, after passing Johnson. On lap 18, Harvick moved into third, as Jamie McMurray moved to the sixth position. Six laps later, Reutimann had fallen to the fourth position, after starting second. By lap 35, Gordon had caught Kyle Busch for the first position, but after six laps he was two seconds behind Kyle Busch. On lap 42, the first caution came out because Joe Nemechek collided with the wall after suffering a blown tire. During this caution, drivers made there pit stops. On lap 49, Kyle Busch led on the restart.[13]

Afterward, Gordon moved into the third position, after passing Jamie McMurray. By lap 55, Juan Pablo Montoya had moved from nineteenth to eighth. On lap 59, Harvick moved into second, but four laps later, Gordon passed him for the second position. By lap 66, Kyle Busch had a 2.3 second lead over Gordon. After starting tenth, Clint Bowyer had moved to the fifth position by lap 68. Kyle Busch remained the leader until green flag pit stops began. On lap 143, Jeff Gordon received the lead, as Kyle Busch made a pit stop. Two laps later, Kyle Busch reclaimed the lead. On lap 153, the second caution came out because of debris. Kyle Busch, again, led the field to the restart. Ten laps later, on lap 170, the third caution came out because of debris. Ryan Newman, because of a two tire change, was in the lead on the restart. On lap 177, one lap after the restart, Kyle Busch took the lead away from Newman.

Kyle Busch kept the lead until Jeff Burton passed him on lap 230. Burton led only twenty laps before Jeff Gordon claimed the lead. Jeff Gordon made a pit stop on lap 266, allowing Kevin Harvick to pass him. Green flag pit stops continued, as Carl Edwards received the lead on lap 268. Three laps later Tony Stewart passed Edwards for the lead. On lap 272, Jeff Gordon reclaimed the lead. By this time, the race was under green flag conditions for 102 laps, but the green flag run only continued until lap 367, 265 laps after the last restart, when the fourth caution came out. The cause for the caution was that Elliott Sadler had a tire that blew. On lap 377, Jeff Gordon led the field toward the green flag. Two laps later, though, the fifth caution, caused by a spin from Sam Hornish Jr., came out.[13]

On lap 385, Jeff Gordon led the field to the green flag. Four laps later Hornish Jr. spun and collided with the inside wall, to bring out the sixth caution. Jeff Gordon, on lap 395, led toward the restart. With four laps remaining, Kyle Busch passed Gordon for the lead. Busch kept the lead to win his first race in 2010.[4][13]

Post-race

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"It stinks to not win every single weekend or not every 21 weekends or 21 races. But it certainly feels nice to come out here with another good win and get another good finish."

Kyle Busch, speaking after the race.[14]

Kyle Busch appeared in victory lane after his victory lap to start celebrating his first win of the season, and his third at Richmond International Raceway. Following his win, he added, "I don’t even remember what just happened. I drove it down into Turn 1 and hoped it stuck. I knew I had to baby it into Turn 3 and finally got to clear Jeff. We set sail there from there."[14]

After finishing second, Jeff Gordon stated, "A little disappointed again that we are coming up short, but we are getting plenty of practice. It’s a little disappointing we haven’t won some races yet. If we keep doing this, those will come. We’ve got to keep putting ourselves in position."[14] Gordon followed the race by saying, "I’ve been doing this long enough to know that they don’t give out trophies for leading any lap other than the last one."[14] In the subsequent press conference, Kyle Busch said, "I can’t thank Dave enough, it’s unbelievable to be back in victory lane. A lot of people doubted what we were doing, but I never did."[15] Gordon stated:

"I figured I was going to get the outside [for the last restart]. All I wanted to do was just get into Turn 1 smooth and get a good launch up off Turn 2 down the backstretch—and then make sure I got into [Turn] 3 without over-driving it. ...I knew if I could just get through Turn 3 OK and hammer down off Turn 4 and get him cleared that it would be pretty good—and it worked. That’s what I did. Did I have a plan? Was that exactly my plan? No. I was just going to drive it as hard as I could, and make whatever happened happen. It worked, just off the cuff."[15]

Dave Rogers, Kyle Busch's crew chief, stated, "It would have been great to keep that many cars a lap down, but it would have been selfish. Everybody behind us was going to pit. If we stay out, we keep all those guys down. Then the seven guys behind us are going to drive by us, we’re going to lose our track position just to keep cars a lap down. It’s not worth it."[14] The race result moved Kevin Harvick in the lead for the Driver's Championship with 1,467 points.[16] Jimmie Johnson, who finished tenth, was second on 1,457, ninety-nine points ahead of Kyle Busch and 149 ahead of Matt Kenseth.[16] Greg Biffle was fifth with 1,334 points.[16] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet maintained their lead with 76 points.[8] Toyota maintained second with 58 points.[8] Ford followed with 46 points, six points ahead of Dodge in fourth.[8]

Results

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Qualifying

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No Driver Constructor Manufacturer Time (in seconds) Grid
18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21.247 1
00 David Reutimann Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 21.324 2
48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 21.350 3
24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 21.365 4
39 Ryan Newman Stewart Haas Racing Chevrolet 21.387 5
12 Brad Keselowski Penske Racing Dodge 21.388 6
29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 21.406 7
1 Jamie McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 21.408 8
83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 21.410 9
33 Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 21.426 10
87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 21.450 11
82 Scott Speed Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 21.451 12
36 Casey Mears Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 21.451 13
5 Mark Martin Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 21.456 14
43 A. J. Allmendinger Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 21.464 15
2 Kurt Busch Penske Racing Dodge 21.468 16
31 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 21.475 17
14 Tony Stewart Stewart Haas Racing Chevrolet 21.480 18
42 Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 21.487 19
47 Marcos Ambrose JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota 21.490 20
17 Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 21.504 21
9 Kasey Kahne Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 21.523 22
20 Joey Logano Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21.533 23
19 Elliott Sadler Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 21.539 24
88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 21.542 25
56 Martin Truex Jr. Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 21.548 26
77 Sam Hornish Jr. Penske Racing Dodge 21.552 27
99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 21.559 28
78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 21.565 29
11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21.580 30
71 Bobby Labonte TRG Motorsports Chevrolet 21.584 31
98 Paul Menard Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 21.591 32
16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 21.607 33
32 Reed Sorenson Braun Racing Toyota 21.635 34
6 David Ragan Roush Fenway Racing Ford 21.655 35
09 Mike Bliss Phoenix Racing Chevrolet 21.663 36
7 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota 21.669 37
34 Travis Kvapil Front Row Motorsports Ford 21.734 38
26 David Stremme Latitude 43 Motorsports Ford 21.735 39
37 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 21.748 40
46 Terry Cook Whitney Motorsports Dodge 21.757 41
38 Kevin Conway Front Row Motorsports Ford 22.221 42
64 Tony Raines Gunselman Motorsports Toyota 21.787 43
55 Michael McDowell Prism Motorsports Toyota 21.803
13 Max Papis Germain Racing Toyota 21.830
66 Dave Blaney Prism Motorsports Toyota 21.847
Source:[2]

Race Results

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Pos Grid Car Driver Constructor Manufacturer Laps Points
1 1 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 1952
2 4 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 1751
3 7 29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 400 1701
4 17 31 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 400 1651
5 28 99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 400 1601
6 19 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 400 155
7 26 56 Martin Truex Jr. Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 400 1511
8 5 39 Ryan Newman Stewart Haas Racing Chevrolet 400 1471
9 20 47 Marcos Ambrose JTG Daugherty Racing Toyota 400 138
10 3 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 134
11 30 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 130
12 10 33 Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 400 127
13 21 17 Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 400 124
14 6 12 Brad Keselowski Penske Racing Dodge 400 121
15 2 00 David Reutimann Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 400 118
16 23 20 Joey Logano Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 115
17 15 43 A. J. Allmendinger Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 400 112
18 16 2 Kurt Busch Penske Racing Dodge 400 109
19 8 1 Jamie McMurray Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 399 106
20 9 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 399 103
21 22 9 Kasey Kahne Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 399 100
22 33 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 399 97
23 18 14 Tony Stewart Stewart Haas Racing Chevrolet 399 991
24 35 6 David Ragan Roush Fenway Racing Ford 399 91
25 14 5 Mark Martin Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 399 88
26 13 36 Casey Mears Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 399 85
27 32 98 Paul Menard Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 398 82
28 37 7 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Motorsports Toyota 398 79
29 39 26 David Stremme Latitude 43 Motorsports Ford 398 76
30 29 78 Regan Smith Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 398 73
31 40 37 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 398 70
32 25 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 397 67
33 31 71 Bobby Labonte TRG Motorsports Chevrolet 397 64
34 38 34 Travis Kvapil Front Row Motorsports Ford 396 61
35 12 82 Scott Speed Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 393 58
36 27 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Penske Racing Dodge 387 55
37 42 38 Kevin Conway Front Row Motorsports Ford 387 52
38 24 19 Elliott Sadler Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 385 49
39 41 46 Terry Cook Whitney Motorsports Dodge 92 46
40 36 09 Mike Bliss Phoenix Racing Chevrolet 86 43
41 34 32 Reed Sorenson Braun Racing Toyota 80 40
42 43 64 Tony Raines Gunselman Motorsports Toyota 69 37
43 11 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Toyota 42 34
1 Includes five bonus points for leading a lap
2 Includes ten bonus points for leading the most laps

Standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Sprint Cup Series Schedule". ESPN. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Qualifying Results". nascar.com. April 30, 2010. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Race Information". Fox Sports.com. May 1, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Ryan, Nate (May 2, 2010). "Kyle Busch Earns Victory". USA Today: Rusty Jarrett. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  5. ^ "NASCAR Race Tracks". nascar.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c "NASCAR Tracks—The Richmond International Raceway". Richmond International Raceway. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  7. ^ "Driver's Championship Classification". nascar.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  8. ^ a b c d e "Manufacturers' Championship Classification". Jayski.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  9. ^ "Race Review". Jaski.com. Archived from the original on 10 October 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  10. ^ "Practice 1 Results". nascar.com. April 30, 2010. Archived from the original on 2 May 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
  11. ^ "Practice 2 Results". nascar.com. April 30, 2010. Archived from the original on 1 May 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
  12. ^ "Qualifying Order". nascar.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  13. ^ a b c d e "Race Summary". nascar.com. May 1, 2010. Archived from the original on 4 May 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d e "Kyle Busch passes Gordon for Richmond win". NBC Sports. Archived from the original on July 10, 2010. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  15. ^ a b "Pole Sitter Kyle Busch Wins Nascar Sprint Cup Race at Richmond". Auto Racing Daily. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  16. ^ a b c d "Point Standing". nascar.com. Archived from the original on 10 August 2010. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
  17. ^ "Official Race Results". Sporting News. Retrieved August 16, 2010.[permanent dead link]
  18. ^ "Results (2)". nascar.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.


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