2007 Sam's Town 250

The 2007 Sam's Town 250 was a NASCAR Busch Series race held at Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tennessee on October 27, 2007. The race was the 9th iteration of the event and the 32nd race of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series. The race also marked the Busch Series debut of that years' IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti and for Rolex Sports Car Series driver Colin Braun, both of whom were making their second career start in NASCAR. Australian Marcos Ambrose won the pole for the race but it was David Reutimann who dominated the whole race leading the most laps and won the race giving him his first Busch Series win. But this race was most remembered for a major wreckfest as the race almost set a record for most cautions in a race as the race saw a total of 25 cautions for 117 laps with the longest green flag run only being 19 laps. The race was one caution short of the all-time NASCAR record set by another Busch Series race at Hickory Motor Speedway in 1992 that had 26 cautions. The race still remains as the second most caution period race in all of NASCAR history ahead of the 2005 Coca-Cola 600.

Background

The Memphis International Raceway (more commonly known as MIR) was founded in 1986 by Ed Gatlin, who along with a group of investors, bought a 400-acre tract of land within the northeastern section of Shelby County, and built a drag strip with an adjacent road course, including a dirt track and a go-kart track.
The facility opened in 1987 with a drag strip and 1.8-mile (2.9 km) road course. It includes a 3/4-mile tri-oval short track, built in 1998, which once hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series, as well as an ASA Late Model Series race. The drag strip hosts events such as International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) World Finals and Nitro Jam, Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA), HOT ROD Power Tour, Super Chevy Show, Fun Ford Series and Mega Mopar Action Series.

Entry List

*(R) denotes rookie driver
*(i) denotes driver is ineligible for points

Qualifying

Marcos Ambrose won the pole for the race with a time of 22.901 and a speed of 117.899.

* – Made the field via owners points

** – There were 4 different driver changes by Raceday as there were drivers qualifying the cars for the Cup Series drivers. Auggie Vidovich qualified for David Ragan, Casey Atwood qualified for J. J. Yeley, Kenny Wallace qualified for Jamie McMurray, and Matt McCall qualified for Carl Edwards. This was during the peak of the Buschwhacker era where Cup Series drivers would drive in the Busch Series and would ask for other drivers to qualify their Busch Series car while they tried to qualify the Cup Series race which would be the Pep Boys Auto 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

*** – J. J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, and Carl Edwards all had to start at the rear of the field due to driver changes.

Race

Outside pole sitter David Reutimann took the lead from pole sitter Marcos Ambrose and Reutimann led the first lap of the race. The first caution flew on lap 8 when D. J. Kennington spun down the frontstretch and ended up getting stuck in the wet infield grass after it rained the previous night. The race would restart on lap 16. But on the restart, the second caution would fly when Kyle Krisiloff, Robert Richardson Jr., and Bobby Hamilton Jr. crashed in turn 2. The race would restart on lap 21 with Reutimann continuing to lead. On lap 39, the third caution would fly when Bryan Clauson spun off of turn 4 after he got squeezed in by Richard Johns and then got bumped and spun by Jamie McMurray. David Reutimann won the race off of pit road but Ron Young did not pit and he led the field to the restart on lap 45. On the restart, David Reutimann immeadietly took the lead from Young. But, the fourth caution would fly on the same lap. Kyle Krisiloff bumped and ran into Robert Richardson Jr. in turn 2 which pushed Richardson up the track. Richardson didn't like that and decided to retaliate on the backstretch by hooking a dead left into Krisiloff and turning him into the outside wall right in front of the pack of cars. The race would restart on lap 52. But on the restart, the 5th caution would fly when Ron Young spun in turns 3 and 4 after he got bumped by Brad Coleman. The race would restart on lap 56 and got some green flag racing in, but not for long. The 6th caution would fly on lap 60 when John Graham spun down the frontstretch. The race would restart on lap 65 with Reutimann still leading. On the restart, Bobby East spun in turn 2 after getting bumped by Landon Cassill but no caution was thrown since he got back going again. On lap 74, the 7th caution would fly when Matt Carter spun in turn 4 after contact with Richard Johns. The race would restart on lap 79. On lap 80, the 8th caution would fly when Chase Austin spun in turns 1 and 2. The race would restart on lap 85. But on lap 86, the 9th caution would fly when Chase Austin crashed in turn 3. The race would restart on lap 90. On lap 93, the 10th caution would fly when Ron Young spun off of turn 2 after he made contact with Kelly Bires where he spun down and got T-boned in the drivers side door by Chase Miller. The race would restart on lap 99. On lap 100, the 11th caution would fly when Jeremy Clements crashed in turn 2 after contact with Brandon Miller. Clements was unhappy with Miller and showed his displeasure with him under caution when he door slammed him. Miller followed Clements to pit road where Clements cut off Miller and the two moved on. The race would restart on lap 104. But on the restart, the 12th caution would fly when Steve Wallace crashed in turn 3 after he got bumped by Brad Keselowski. The race would restart on lap 109. But on the restart, the 13th caution would fly when Landon Cassill spun in turns 1 and 2 after he got bumped by Jamie McMurray. The race would restart on lap 114 and got some green flag laps in. But once again, not for long. On lap 118, the 14th caution would fly when Brad Baker spun in turn 4 after he got turned by Tim McCreadie and collected Brad Coleman in the process. The caution was also the new season high for the Busch Series after it passed the 13 cautions from the fall Dover race that happened 3 races ago.

Final laps

Sterling Marlin won the race off of pit road but 10 cars stayed out including Stephen Leicht and Leicht would lead the field to the restart on lap 125. On lap 129, the 15th caution would fly which would be the biggest crash on the day taking out 5 cars on the frontstretch. It started when Ron Young got turned by a car and spun down the infield grass. Sterling Marlin got bumped from behind and spun up to the outside wall and Brian Keselowski also got bumped and spun to the infield grass with Young. Carl Edwards attempted to navigate through the carnage but did not see Marlin stopped up high until the last second and ended up getting bumped from behind by Matt Carter in the process and ended up turning Edwards into Marlin and all three stopped up high. In comparison to the last two years of the race in 2005 and 2006, there were 15 cautions in both of those races. The 2005 race cautions happened in 254 laps while the 2006 race happened in 252 laps of the race, but this race had 15 in only 129 laps ran. The race was red flagged for a short bit for the wreck. The race would get back going again on lap 141. On lap 146, the track record for cautions was broken when the 16th flew when Kelly Bires spun in turn 2. Stephen Leicht pitted during the caution and handed the lead to rookie Marcos Ambrose and Ambrose led the field to the restart on lap 151. Eventually, the race would remain green for at least 10 laps for the first time since the race restarted on lap 65. On lap 161, an incident occurred when Richard Johns got sideways off of turn 4 and came down into Colin Braun and Brad Coleman. Coleman would cut a right front tire and hit the outside wall in turn 1. The 17th caution flew on the same lap. The caution was listed for debris which meant this would be the first and only non-incidental caution of the race. Marcos Ambrose pitted during the caution which would give the lead to Jason Keller and Keller led the field to the restart on lap 170. On lap 173, David Reutimann took the lead which would be only the 2nd and final lead change on track in the race. On lap 176, the 18th caution would fly when Mike Wallace spun off of turn 4 and had Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards both spin to avoid Wallace. The race would restart on lap 182. On lap 183, the 19th caution would fly when Bobby East spun in turn 4 after getting bumped by Steve Wallace. The race would restart on lap 189. On lap 191, the 20th caution would fly when Brandon Miller got dumped by Dario Franchitti in turn 3 and crashed hard into the outside wall. The race would restart on lap 199. With 51 laps to go on lap 200, the 21st caution would fly when John Graham and Dario Franchitti spun in turn 3. The race would restart with 46 laps to go. With 43 to go, the 22nd caution would fly when Tim McCreadie spun in turns 3 and 4. The race would restart with 39 laps to go. The restart would be the first green flag run to go over 5 laps since the race restarted on lap 151. But with 31 laps to go, the 23rd caution would fly when Bobby East and Colin Braun crashed in turn 4. The caution would pass the Cup Series' all-time record in cautions. The race would restart with 27 laps to go. The race got a green flag run in of over 10 laps before the 24th caution flew with 17 to go when Steve Wallace crashed in turn 3 after getting spun by Brian Keselowski. Wallace was unhappy with Keselowski and Wallace caught up to Keselowski during the caution and bumped him in the rear a few times before cutting him off on the entrance of pit road. The race would restart with 13 laps to go. The restart had another green flag run of over 10 laps. It looked like the race was going to come to an end. But with just a lap and a half to go, the 25th and final caution would fly when Brent Sherman spun off of turn 4. This meant that the race would get extended to a green-white-checkered finish for the 4th Memphis race in a row. On the restart, David Reutimann would pull away from second place and Reutimann would win the caution-filled race. The race would be Reutimann's first and only Busch Series win of his career. Mike Bliss, David Ragan, Marcos Ambrose, and Jason Leffler rounded out the top 5 while Scott Wimmer, Jamie McMurray, Jason Keller, Brad Keselowski, and Brian Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Aftermath

Overall, the race was 3 hours, 2 minutes, and 12 seconds. The race featured a total of 25 cautions for a total of 117 laps which was 45.5% of the race was run under caution which is nearly half the race. The average green flag run was only 5.3 laps with the longest green flag run being only 19 laps. The average speed of the race was only 62.487 mph compared to the 74.336 mph average from last years' race. The mark was one caution short of the all-time record that occurred in the 1992 Mountain Dew 500 at Hickory Motor Speedway when 26 cautions flew for 132 of the 300 laps ran in the race. NASCAR has not seen this many cautions since this race. The race still stands as the 2nd most cautioned period race in all of NASCAR history behind the 1992 Mountain Dew 500 and in front of the 2005 Coca-Cola 600.

Race results

Notes

References

{{NASCAR on ESPN

2007 in NASCAR
2007 in sports in Tennessee
NASCAR races at Memphis International Raceway
October 2007 sports events in the United States