Stewart top chaser again at NHMS

LOUDON, N.H. (WWLP) - We all want fuel mileage when we drive. NASCAR's Tony Stewart has found it at the speedway, 2 weeks in a row. Smoke won his 2nd straight race in NASCAR's 10 event Chase for the Championship on Sunday at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

Stewart passed leader Clint Bowyer with 2 laps to go when Bowyer ran out of fuel. After the race Stewart said he understood how Bowyer feels. That's because Stewart felt the same way last September at Loudon, when he ran out of gas and Bowyer passed him for the win. Brad Keselowski continued his late season hot streak with a 2nd place run with non-chaser Greg Biffle 3rd. Stewart is on top of the standings with Kevin Harvick 7 points behind. A NASCAR news release reported attendance at 95,000.

Part of race weekend at NHMS offered a tribute to the late modified king, Richie Evans. Evans is a 2012 inductee to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. The "Rapid Roman" won 9 modified titles, including 8 straight. He competed from 1973 until his death in October 1985 at age 44 during a practice crash at the Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. Evans' Big Orange #61 was a Saturday night fixture for a number of seasons at the former Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam. There were afternoons when Evans would play in practice, dirt tracking and sliding his modified through The Park's turn 4.

Bruce D'Alessandro is a former Riverside Modified Champ. He has his own memories of Richie Evans: "He was a hero to most of us and everybody liked him. I was just starting out. I had only been racing 2 or 3 years. We used to park next to him at Riverside a lot of times. He'd help us out if he could. We used to buy our used tires from him because back then I couldn't afford new tires. I'd get his 1 race old tires, sometimes he'd just give me some. He was a great, great guy, not just a great racer." On Sunday an old Evans modified paced the NASCAR Sprint Cup field for the Sylvania 300.

Dave Blaney's #36, owned by Tommy Baldwin, Jr., was painted orange and was named the Golden Corral/Hall of Fame Richie Evans Chevrolet. In Saturday's NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race the Evans' tribute car was the #4 Mystic Missile of Bobby Santos. Orange paint replaced the usual missile yellow. Richie Evans will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January of next year.

You won't find Brian Vickers name above the window opening on the #83 Red Bull Toyota. Instead "The Sheriff" is lettered there. You might draw the conclusion that the nickname got there after Richmond when Vickers decided to lay down the law on Marcos Ambrose after the incident taking out both Team Red Bull cars. But team spokesman Jayme Christianson told 22News "The Sheriff" has been on the car all season, explaining, "It's a nickname he was given several years ago from Jimmie Johnson & Marty Smith. They were all at a ranch in Texas together shooting guns. Putting the nickname on the car was just something he thought would be fun. Nothing more to it." The Sheriff raced to a 5th place finish at the Magic Mile.

Steve Park failed to qualify for the Sylvania 300. He would have been driving a 2nd Baldwin team car, the "Ole Blue Tribute" Chevrolet. Sunday's race fans got a subtle reminder that hockey season isn't that far off. Boston Bruins' pre-game legend Rene Rancourt sang the Canadian National Anthem during NHMS pre-race ceremonies. Rancourt's renditions of the Star Spangled Banner and Oh Canada are a part of Boston hockey tradition at The Garden.