These pictures were taken on 09/01/06 through 09/03/06 at the 2006 Sony HD 500 at California Speedway. Click on any thumbnail and a new window will open with a larger version so you can see the details.
I took some with my little Casio Exilim Digital Camera but Michael took most of them with his Nikon D2H Digital Camers with a 70 MM to 200 MM Optical Zoom.
I have created a screensaver slideshow at Eyetide.com with some of these pictures. You can download it for free! Once they are on you system, you can add or delete images at will. You can also set images as your desktop / wallpaper using the Eyetide control panel. It's very easy to use! There are also some free collections from nascar.com you can subscribe to.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to my "September 2006 Sony HD 500 Pictures" 48 images from the race weekend Slideshow.
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Friday morning we spent in the pits. I took this picture looking through the gates into the garage. |
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Working on Bobby Labonte's car before practice. |
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Meanwhile Michael was out front on pit road taking pictures of the guys coming back into the garage during practice. |
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Matt Kenseth |
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Greg Biffle |
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Carl Edwards |
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Bobby Labonte |
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This was a close call - Tony Raines had stopped for a tire check. He pulled out just as Mark Martin was turning into the garage. |
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David Stremme |
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I called this Jeremy Mayfield's car at least a dozen times! Hard to get use to it being Elliott Sadler! |
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Jeff Gordon |
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Kasey Kahne |
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Reed Sorenson |
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Martin Truex, Jr |
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I came out on pit road to get some pictures as the guys stopped for tire checks. You can see Scott Rigg's helmet as he sits inside. |
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Here's Kasey Kahne waiting for his tire sheet. |
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Kyle Petty with Jeff Burton in the background |
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Todd Kluever is gonna try to qualify for the race. He'll have to make it in on time! |
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Bill Elliott is in the 00 Burger King car this weekend. |
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Here sits Jeff Burton. It was really HOT I hoped he'd take his helmet off - but no luck. |
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Tony Stewart's crew push the card back to the garage. Must be looking for a plug check. |
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Jimmie Johnson took his helmet off but didn't drop the net. |
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Brian Vickers |
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Kurt Busch |
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
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Kyle Busch |
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Bobby Labonte lifted his shield and you can see an eye & his nose - LOL! |
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Now here's a cooperative driver! Ken Schrader took his helmet off & dropped his net. |
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Terry Labonte in his next to the last race of his career! I'm gonna miss him. |
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Cool - look at the flames coming from unburned gas on Ryan Newman's car. |
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Jeff Burton shows a little flame to. |
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OK - I admit I still call this Bobby's car sometimes and have to stop and say - NO it's J.J. Yeley. |
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Kyle Petty |
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WOW! Big flames from Brian Vicker's car. |
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Bill Lester is going to attampt to qualify for the Cup race. |
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Unfortunately Bill Lester is going to spin on his qualifying lap and won't make the field. |
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Back in the garage later in the day Kevin Harvick's car goes through final pre-qualifying inspection. |
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Reed Sorenson's car gets the final once over. |
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Crew watches closely as Tony Stewart's car gets checked. |
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Ryan Newman's car fits the templates. |
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Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Jimmie Johnson wait in line. |
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Inspector gets ready to put a template on Jimmie's car. |
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Mark Martin's car came out of the "Room of Doom" and headed back to the garage. His car had to go through back through again. |
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Boy, now that Rusty isn't driving any more he walked right through the garage and hardly anybody recognized him! |
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Here comes Kevin Harvick. He just finished Busch practice and is headed out to qualify his Cup car. |
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Jack Roush and back and forth all day! I almost caught David Stremme behind him. |
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Here's Tony Raines wandering through the garage. |
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Greg Biffle's crew chief Doug Richert heads out to watch the car qualify. |
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Ryan Newman looks so serious! Guess he's thinking about how his car will do in qualifying. |
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Tony Stewart is ready for qualifying. |
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Travis Kvapil hopes to make the race on time - he's outside the Top 35 in points. |
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Denny Hamlin's car get checked with the templates. |
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Todd Kluever signs a few autographs as he heads out to Cup qualifying. |
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Kenny Wallace also signed some autographs. |
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Michael took this picture of Joe Nemecheck. I'm in the crowd on the other side of pit out. |
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Here comes Denny Hamlin. Long about now we had to get out of the sun. It was 102 degrees and we had been in the heat way to long! |
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Saturday we were in out seats for practice - they are in the shade of the skyboxes! Here are Elliott Sadler and David Gililland. |
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Scott Riggs, JJ Yeley and Clint Bowyer stop for tire checks. |
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Kyle Petty is gonna save time and just stop on pit road for a wedge adjustment. |
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Bobby Labonte gets his tires checked as Kevin Harvick heads to the garage for adjustments. |
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Terry's crew come to check out the car, one of JJ's guys lean in the window to ask a question and Bill Elliott heads to the garage. |
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Kevin Harvick pulls up behind Terry and Ryan Newman goes to the garage. |
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Looks like practice is over and everyone heads to the garage to debrief and "tweek" on the cars before qualifying. |
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Carl Edwards does an interview after his Busch qualifying run. He'll start the race in 7th place |
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Jimmie Johnson give Carl a little wave as he goes by. |
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Kasey Kahne climbs out of the car after his Busch qualifying run. He'll start 4th. |
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Kasey talks to the crew as Tony Stewart climbs out of his Busch car. Tony starts 6th. |
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Kevin Harvick will start the Ameriquest 300 in 3rd place. |
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The pace truck pulls onto pit road and we're ready to start the Ameriquest 300. GO GO GO GO!! |
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Sunset over the speedway and it's finally cooling off a little! |
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Tony's car sure is pretty under the lights. His crew sure moves fast. |
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Paul Tracy spun the #34 Great Clips Chevy in Turn 4. Luckily no one hit him and hit nothing. |
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But later in Turn 1 Paul slid up into JJ Yeley and cut JJ's tire. JJ spun taking Regan Smith and Paul with him. |
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JJ's car is junk - he'll finish 40th |
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Paul has a lot of front end damage. The crew will push him to the garage. Paul will finish 37th. |
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Regan went to the Care Center and his car went to the garage on a rollback. Regan was treated and released. |
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Greg Biffle pits for a splash of gas and right side tires. |
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Kasey Kahne wins! He did a bunch of donuts then a Victory Lap. |
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Victory sure is sweet! |
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Sunday morning I wandered around the souvenir trailers a little looking for drivers. Here's Sterling Marlin signing autographs. |
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I jumped in line and got a Jeff Green autograph after snapping this picture. |
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You needed a ticket to get a Casey Mears autograph - but I already have one so I just took a picture. |
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Same for David Stremme |
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Todd Kluever had a real short line so I got a picture and an autograph. |
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I got Kyle Busch's autograph in the pits on Friday. |
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Robby Gordon's line was REALLY long and he was like a half hour late arriving. I just took a picture. |
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Now it's time for the drivers to come out for Driver Introductions. Here comes Travis Kvapil starting 43rd, Dave Blaney starting 41st and Sterling Marlin starting 27th. |
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Ken Schrader starts 29th. |
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Scott Wimmer starts 17th. Most of the drivers WALKED out from the garage. But Dale Earnhardt, Jr rode out on a golf cart! Dale Jr starts 6th. |
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Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth walk out together chatting. Mark starts 38th and Matt starts 11th. |
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Dale Jarrett starts 36th. |
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Terry Labonte starts 26th in his next to last Cup race. Jeff Burton starts 7th. |
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Michael Waltrip starts 37th. |
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Carl Edwards starts 24th. |
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Bobby Labonte starts 28th. |
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Clint Bowyer starts 3th and Reed Sorenson starts 34th. |
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Reed & Clint a little closer. |
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Jeff Gordon starts 14th and behind him comes Martin Truex, Jr who starts 5th. Martin is still getting derssed - LOL |
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Kyle Petty also has his uniform tied around his waist! Kyle starts 35th. Behind him is Elliott Sadler who starts 18th. |
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Robby Gordon starts 25th. Joe Nemechek starts 13th. |
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Ya gotta love John Hunter dressed like his Dad. |
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Kevin Harvick starts 15th. |
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Tony Stewart arrived "fashionably late". He starts 22nd. |
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Driver introductions - pesky fence & poles really get in the way. Mark Martin stopped at the top and waved. |
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Michael Waltrip. You can see "The Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of the reception line. |
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Carl Edwards gets and award. |
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Bill Elliott comes down the stairs. |
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Jeff Gordon gets an award. |
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Kasey Kahne waves to the crowd. |
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Dale Earnhardt, Jr |
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After a trip around the track in a pickup truck Terry arrives at his car. |
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Carl Edwards talks to a crewman. |
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Bobby Labonte chats with several members of his crew. |
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Awesome fly over by TWO F117 Night Hawks |
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And the Pace Car pulls onto pit road. GO GO GO GO - be careful guys!! |
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Lap 10 - Robby Gordon loops it between Turns 3 and 4. It was amazing - he hit nothing and no one hit him! |
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Pit road was VERY busy - 1st chance for adjustments. |
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Pit stops always amaze me. |
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It's like a well choreographed dance. |
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The rear tire carrier carefully steps over the air hose. |
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Roll the tires so somebody can catch them - don't want any penalties. |
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Drop the car being careful not to catch the air hoses. |
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Then everybody run around to the other side of the car. |
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Repeat on the other side! |
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Then it's GO GO GO! |
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Bill Elliott had a tough night. Somewhere he got some fender damage and it plagued him all night. | Then it's GO GO GO! |
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Martin Truex, Jr had a little fender damage - a crewman gives it a little tug. |
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NASCAR Officials carefully oversee each pit stop. |
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One guy has the job of pulling back the air hose so it doesn't tangle. |
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Pit stop complete Mark Martin heads back down pit road. |
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On his way to his pit Elliott Sadler got tapped from behind and turned sideways. |
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And the guilty party was Ryan Newman who was pitted right in front of him. Ryan's crew has front end damage to attend to. |
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Lap 110 -- Brian Vickers has blown a left front tire and that has ripped the fender off his car. Caution's out. The front row jinx appears to be alive and well (no front row starter has won at California). | |
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Lap 115 -- Green flag. Martin restarts 28th, but the crew may have fixed the problem: a bent fender. |
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Lap 157 -- Kahne gets docked for a pit road speeding penalty and gets sent to the end of the lead lap cars. Ouch. Looks like Dale Jr was pushing Kasey & should have a penalty also. But Kasey was clocked at .06 miles per hour faster in one segment than the posted limit + 5 miles per hour when averaged through the segment. Dale Jr was OK. |
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The "Killer Bees" at work. |
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Lap 173 -- Yellow. David Gilliland spun but didn't hit anything. |
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More pit stops. |
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Robby Gordon to the garage. His night is done. |
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Fule mileage caught Terry. He pitted out of gas & although the team pushed & pushed he couldn't get it refired. He turned into the garage. BUT it did finally restart and he returned to the track. Terry finished 40th four laps down. |
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Reed Sorenson tried to steal a win but fuel mileage got him. He ran out of gas on Lap 249 on the back stretch. |
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After a splash of gas he'll finish 21st. |
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2nd night in a row Kasey gets to do Victory Donuts. |
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Everybody else head to the garage to start planning for Richmond. |
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Dale Jr does an interview after finishing 2nd. Clint Bowyer stands by his car waiting for his turn on camera - he finished 3rd. |
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Carl finished 4th and Jeff Gordon finished 5th. Top five cars wait on pit road for final inspection. Jeff Burton finished 16th and goes to the garage. |
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Meanwhile Kasey has the Checked Flag for a Victory Lap. |
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Kasey climbs out in Victory Circle. |
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Then jumps into the arms of his team. |
Official Race Results
Sony HD 500 California Speedway
September 03, 2006 Race 25 of 36
Average Speed: 144.462 mph
Margin of Victory: 3.427
Time of Race: 03:27:40
Lead Changes: 26
Cautions: 11-13, 29-31, 83-86, 111-115, 156-159, 173-178, 192-195
