LAST-LAP MISHAP INVOLVING TEAMMATE BRIAN VICKERS ENABLES LEFFLER TO MAINTAIN TOP TEN STREAK

When Jason Leffler took the white flag Saturday afternoon in Loudon, NH, signifying the final lap of the Camping World RV Sales 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, he was running in the 11th position that would have ended his current streak of top ten finishes at 10. That is when Leffler’s Braun Racing teammate, Brian Vickers, innocently got involved.

Vickers, driving the #32 Dollar General Toyota, was making a last-ditch effort to pass Mike Bliss for fourth place, ducking inside Bliss’ Chevrolet coming into the fourth and final corner. The two cars almost got together, and with the Toyota of rookie Scott Speed just behind the two, something had to give.

What gave was Speed getting into the rear of Vicker’s car, sending the latter’s yellow race machine spinning up the track and hard into the outside retaining wall in the fourth turn. That incident enabled Leffler to bypass Vickers to pick up a position and nail down the tenth spot for Jason’s eleventh straight top ten finish and 12 in the last 13 races.

“We lost a gamble earlier in the race when we elected to put on just two tires on our second pit stop to gain track position. But the race stayed green for a bunch of laps and gave some of those positions back when we pitted for the final time and had to put on four tires,” Leffler explained. “The strategy (to put on just two tires while the other leaders took on four) was good, because track position is critical at a track like New Hampshire. But we never figured that the race would stay green for so many laps allowing several cars running with fresher rubber to get past us,” he added.

Jason entered the pit lane for the final time on lap 157 in the 6th position but exited tenth when most of the other lead lap cars only took on two Goodyear Eagles. When the race re-started on lap 160, Leffler’s #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Toyota Camry held the tenth spot for all but 12 of those final 40 laps with Carl Edwards driving his Ford around Leffler’s car to take the tenth position on lap 188 of the 200-lap affair.

It finally looked as if Jason’s streak was going to finally end only to have his teammate’s bad luck turn into some good luck for himself.

“I had a good car, probably the best I have ever driven here at Loudon,” said Jason. “But when we lost our track position there, I had no chance to recover and had to get a break at the expense of my teammate to keep my streak alive. But I’ll take it heading back to Daytona next week,” he added.

Torrid Kyle Busch battled his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Joey Logano, tooth and nail in New Hampshire with Busch running away at the end to earn his fifth win of the 2009 Nationwide Series season and in the process extended his point lead to 162 over Edwards who ended up sixth Saturday.

Logano was second and was followed across the finish line in order by red-hot Brad Keselowski (his fifth top five finish in his last six starts), Bliss and Kevin Harvick.

With the finish, Leffler maintained his hold on fourth place in the Championship Driver Point’s Standing and leads fifth place Logano by 221 points heading into Friday night’s race at the Daytona International Speedway. Leffler trails third place Keselowski by just 77 points and hopes to accomplish two things in Florida – score another top ten finish and draw closer to Keselowski in the point’s battle.

Friday’s Winn-Dixie 200 race on Daytona’s high banks is scheduled to get the green flag at 8 p.m. EDT with TV coverage on ESPN2 to begin at 7:30.