Late-Race Accident Ends Long Dover Weekend for Raines

Date:                      Sept. 23, 2007
Event:                     Dodge Dealers 400 (Round 28 of 36)
Series:                   NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location:               Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile oval)
Start/Finish:        20th/ 36th (Accident, completed 360 of 400 laps)
Winner:                Carl Edwards of Roush Fenway Racing (Ford)

Tony Raines was involved in a late-race accident and finished 36th in Sunday’s Dodge Dealers 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Raines was in 22nd-place and two laps down to the leader when his No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet made contact with John Andretti’s car on the backstretch on lap 364. Raines’ car made a heavy impact with the retaining wall and the damage to the DLP HDTV machine was too extensive for the car to continue.

Both Raines and Andretti were checked and released, without injury, from the infield care center at Dover.

“It’s been a tough weekend,” Raines said. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if he got loose or what. He just turned right and hit me really hard into the wall. It was pretty unexpected. It was a hard hit.”

Raines’ accident on Sunday came a day after a hard crash into the SAFER Barrier on the outside retaining wall in turn one in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race. Raines was driving for Kevin Harvick Inc., and was involved in the wreck with Robby Gordon.

“I don’t know,” Raines said. “I guess it just wasn’t my weekend.”

Raines was in the top 20 for much of the first 100 laps of Sunday’s race, but the handling on his No. 96 DLP HDTV Chevrolet began to go away and he fell one lap down and out of the top-20 on lap 142.

“We had a pretty good car early on,” Raines said. “We had a little trouble with it in the middle of the race and the long green flag run hurt us because we got a lap down. We’ll head to Kansas and see what we can do there.”

Raines’ 36th-place finish dropped the No. 96 car two spots to 27th in Nextel Cup owner points, but Raines remained 31st in driver points.  

Carl Edwards won the Dodge Dealers 400 to score his seventh career Nextel Cup victory, his third this season and his first at Dover.  Edwards’ Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle finished second, while Dale Earnhardt Inc., teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Mark Martin finished third and fourth, respectively.  Kyle Bush rounded out the top-five.  Casey Mears, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 13 caution periods for 66 laps, with 15 drivers failing to finish the 400-lap race.

The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule – the third race of the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup – is the Sept. 30 LifeLock 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.  The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 1 p.m.