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10/21/2007 - Martinsville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jimmie Johnson survived a record number of cautions (21) to capture Sunday's Subway 500 at the Martinsville Speedway. The No.48 Chevrolet crossed the finish line ahead of Ryan Newman after a green- white-checker finish was ended by a final caution flag.
The victory was Johnson's seventh of the season, third straight at Martinsville and 30th of his Nextel Cup career.
Pole winner and points leader Jeff Gordon took the green flag to start the race and off he went. He wouldn't give up the lead on the first lap and he didn't' want to give it up after that either. The No.24 Chevy settled into a rhythm and led every lap through the first caution flag (Robby Gordon cut tire).
He was still the leader after the stop and kept piling up laps led, trying to clinch the "most laps led" bonus early. But Johnson wasn't going away anytime soon and the winner of the spring race was sitting in third place. On lap 65 Johnson made his way past Kevin Harvick and just like in the first race at Martinsville it was the two Hendrick Motorsports cars at the top. But of course this one still had 435 lap to go and a lot could happen between lap 65 and the checkered flag.
One car on the move was Tony Stewart in the No.20 Home Depot Chevrolet. He qualified just 34th, but was up to 16th after 75 laps.
Gordon finally yielded the lead to Johnson on lap 109 and the No.48 Chevy driver earned five important bonus points.
Another caution flag and some cars decided they needed to change strategy if they wanted to compete with the Hendrick Motorsports team. Jeff Burton, Jeff Green, Juan Montoya, Bobby Labonte and David Reutimann led a dozen cars that stayed out. It left Johnson and Gordon in the middle of the pack and behind cars for the first time all day.
Slowly Johnson was working his way back through the field, but Gordon was having a much tougher time of it. Johnson was up to eighth place by lap 150, but Gordon was still back in 12th. They were sixth and eighth, respectively when Kurt Busch blew a right-front tire to bring out a caution flag.
The top-10 was jumbled again as some of those who hadn't stopped last time did. It left Kyle Busch in the lead with Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray behind him. More importantly, Gordon had to make a second stop because one of his rear tires was still loose after he left pit lane. He was now stuck in 33rd place.
Busch was enjoying the clean air, but Kenseth was staying right with him. Then another caution flag and more jumbling of the lead pack.
On lap 225 Dale Earnhardt Jr. put the "chrome horn" to Juan Montoya and slid underneath him for the lead. Montoya slipped to fourth as Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. took advantage of "Junior's" move.
Earnhardt Jr. was suddenly the "class of the field" opening up a lead of more than two seconds by lap 240. It was almost three seconds when a debris caution flag waived. Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon were among those who pitted and Kyle Busch retook the lead with Johnson in sixth place, Clint Bowyer in eighth and Gordon in 19th place.
At lap 300, 200 to go, Johnson was leading with Greg Biffle, Harvick, Stewart and Gordon. Gordon was the fastest of the group and by lap 323 he was right behind his teammate once again, just as they were earlier in the race and a few months ago in the spring race.
A well-timed caution flag for Johnson on lap 340 (Jeff Green spin) sent him down pit road. He was just 15 laps from having to pit under green. All the leaders came in, possibly for the last time. If there were enough caution flag laps (about 30 needed), they might be able to reach the checkered flag from here.
After the pit stops, Kyle Busch who didn't stop, was back in the lead, but by lap 360 Johnson and Gordon had gotten around their teammate.
A caution flag with 105 laps to go (David Stremme spin) sent all the leaders for fuel and tires. No mistakes from the Gordon or Johnson pit crews and they came back in first and third positions, respectively.
Stremme caused another caution flag on lap 412 with no changes in the top- three - Gordon, Newman, Johnson.
With 66 laps to go Johnson began to pressure Newman, who took only two tires on the last stop. Three laps later he was in second place and once again it was the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates racing for the win.
More caution flags slowed the race and allowed Johnson to close right on Gordon's rear bumper. On the restart Gordon got off to a great jump, despite telling his crew chief that he didn't think he had the best car.
It was a telling statement as just a few laps later Johnson got underneath Gordon and took the lead. A lap after that Ricky Rudd was sent spinning to bring out still another caution flag. More caution flags slowed the race to a crawl.
With 20 laps to go, Gordon was all over Johnson, who couldn't seem to keep it on the bottom of the track. But as he was going for the pass, the caution flag came out again, tying the record at 19.
The green flag came with 11 laps remaining. Again Gordon hugged the bottom line and Johnson was holding to the high line. But this time Johnson fought him off and built a three-length lead as Newman got alongside Gordon for second place. With seven laps left Newman completed the pass .
But the fight for second left Johnson with almost a one-second lead and five laps to go. Then Bobby Labonte was sent spinning and Johnson would have to hold off Newman one last time.
They began the green-white checker finish and Newman was right on Johnson's bumper. It would have been a great finish but just then David Ragan spun in the middle of the track and Johnson was declared the winner.
"The longer the run, the slicker the track gets the better I am," said Johnson. "That's what hurt me at the end. The No.12 and the No.24 were really good on the short runs."
Kyle Busch, Gordon and Kenseth completed the top-five.
Johnson cut Gordon's lead to 53 points with the win. Bowyer, who finished ninth, is 115 points back.
The next race in the "Chase" is scheduled for Sunday, October 28th at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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San Antonio, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took only two weeks, but John Cook has
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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