2007 Sharpie 500

2007 Sharpie 500

Race details
Race 24 of 36 in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season
The 2007 Sharpie 500 program cover, with artwork by former NASCAR artist Sam Bass. The painting is called "Concrete Clash!"
Date	August 25, 2007 (2007-August-25)
Official name	Sharpie 500
Location	Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, Tennessee
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.857 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching as low as 69.1 °F (20.6 °C); winds speeds reaching up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)[1]
Average speed	89.006 miles per hour (143.241 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kasey Kahne	Gillett Evernham Motorsports
Time	16.016
Most laps led
Driver	Kasey Kahne	Gillett Evernham Motorsports
Laps	305
Winner
No. 99	Carl Edwards	Roush Fenway Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Rusty Wallace

The 2007 Sharpie 500, the 24th race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup season was run on the newly repaved and reconfigured .533 mile Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on Saturday night, August 25, 2007.

This race was the tenth to use NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, as Kyle Busch won the inaugural event with this car, the Food City 500 on March 25 this year. But that race was on 36-degree high banked turns and the old concrete surface. For this race, one of the most popular in NASCAR, the new concrete surface with its new progressive banked turns between 24 and 30 degrees made its NEXTEL Cup debut.

• Kenny Wallace, who was the driver of the #78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet until after the Watkins Glen race, replaced the injured Kyle Petty in the #45 Petty Enterprises Dodge. Sterling Marlin piloted the #78 car, but did not make the starting lineup.
• Aric Almirola made his Nextel Cup debut in the Dale Earnhardt, Inc. #01 Chevrolet.
• Matt Kenseth clinched a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup by taking the green flag.

Kasey Kahne won the pole position on the newly rebanked and resurfaced track. This was Kahne's 14th start on the point. Juan Pablo Montoya joined Kahne on the front row; Montoya's second starting position is the best of his NASCAR career so far.

Failed to qualify: David Reutimann (#00), Sterling Marlin (#78), Brian Vickers (#83), Kevin Lepage (#37) and Stanton Barrett (#34).

Carl Edwards won the Sharpie 500 for his second win of 2007 and the sixth of his career. Together, he and second-place finisher Kasey Kahne led 487 of the race's 500 laps. Kahne alone led 305 of them, more than in any other race in his career.

The rest of the Top 5 finishers were Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Denny Hamlin suffered an engine failure and did not finish. It was the first such occurrence in 53 races.

Owing largely to the new, wider racing surface, there were only nine cautions at a track which typically sees 15 or more in a 500-lap Cup race. The first of those did not come until lap 127.

Jeff Gordon left with a 359-point lead over Stewart on top of the championship standings. Kurt Busch retained a 158-point lead over Earnhardt Jr. for the 12th and final position in the Chase. Gordon, Hamlin, Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Stewart have assured themselves of participation in the NASCAR "playoff."

• Complete race results Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Point standings Archived 2007-09-21 at the Wayback Machine