Sean Caisse finally got what he was looking for - a ‘monster trophy. ’ Racing on the NASCAR Busch East Series’ biggest stage, Caisse held off newly crowned Series champion Joey Logano to score his first win at the Monster Mile, and fourth of the 2007 season.
As Friday’s Sunoco 150 NASCAR Busch East Series race wound down at Dover International Speedway, Jeffrey Earnhardt was looking for his first career NASCAR Busch East Series win, while Joey Logano was looking for what quite possibly could be his last. And Sean Caisse was hanging out in third place, hoping for a break.
Caisse, No. 44 Casella Waste Systems Chevrolet, got that break when a caution came out with 12 laps to go. When the green flag fell with nine laps remaining, Caisse blew past Earnhardt and worked his way past Logano to take the win with the setting sun casting long shadows across the Monster Mile.
“They were running at 150 percent and I was hanging back in third, ” Caisse said in victory lane. “I had a little bit left but I needed a caution at the end. I knew what I had to do, and that’s what I did. “
What Caisse did was get a jump on Earnhardt right off the restart to take second place. Then he ran down Logano with about seven laps remaining, giving the rookie enough of a nudge to send him off his stride a bit before passing him to the inside.
Logano’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Driven/Coca-Cola Chevrolet briefly fell behind Earnhardt’s No. 1 Tracker Boats/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet to third, but quickly regained that position and turned his attention to running down Caisse. But Logano ran out of laps, and was about a car length behind Caisse at the checkered flag.
Caisse finished second to Logano in the 2007 points race. Jesus Hernandez finished fourth with Tim McCreadie fifth. McCreadie will attempt to qualify for the RoadLoans.com 200 NASCAR Busch Series race at Dover on Saturday.
Logano, who clinched the 2007 NASCAR Busch East Series championship simply by taking the green flag, celebrated with his own burnout on the track once Caisse was done with his. After Caisse celebrated in Victory Lane, Logano accepted the series championship trophy from NASCAR president Mike Helton on the frontstraight at Dover.
Earnhardt finished third, and was a bit disappointed afterwards.
“I felt like we had the car to beat, ” he said. “We were fast. Every time we got behind a car, we got a very bad air push. We’d run Logano down, get a bad air push and we’d play that game. I was terrible on restarts, and that’s where it got us. “
Earnhardt’s car was a hand-me-down from his uncle. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ran the car at the All-Star race in May.
“It’s a pretty nice car, ” Earnhardt said. “I was just panicking because it’s one of the nicest cars we’ve got, and I didn’t want to wreck it in practice. It showed it was a good car today, and we were there all day long, we just couldn’t get it. “
Meanwhile, Logano, who was driving a hand-me-down car of his own that was originally Tony Stewart’s, was able to just have fun.
“It was a fun race for me, ” Logano said. “I didn’t have to worry about points and I just raced my guts out the whole race. “
And what will he be doing to celebrate the championship?
“We’re about to find out, ” he said.
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