Greg Biffle held most of the aces, but there were plenty of good cards left to deal Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman Top-10 hands in the NASCAR Nextel Cup MBNA 400 at Dover International Speedway Sunday.

Biffle had the winning play taking the lead on Lap 241 of the 400-lap event on the Dover “Monster Mile” surrendering the point only one time in the final 160 circuits.

Meanwhile, the Dodge Chargers of EMP Stewart Components racers Wallace and Newman were also racing their way to the payout window with top performances.

The field for the 72nd Cup clash on the Dover track was set by points after rain washed out Friday’s qualifying activities. That put Wallace in the 11th starting position and the driver of the No. 2 Penske Racing South Dodge quickly left little doubt he would be a challenger as he raced into the Top-5 and stayed there for most of the race.

Newman, meanwhile, started fourth, battled handling problems and probably would have finished in the Top-5 if he had not gambled on a no-tire, fuel only pit stop in the final 20 laps. The strategy backfired as Newman lost several positions in the waning laps and finished eighth. It was Newman’s fourth-straight Top-10 Cup finish.

Both Wallace and Newman employ the EMP Stewart Components/MERE Dodge Water Pump (left) on their Penske Jasper Racing Engines. Newman is still fourth in the season standings, just nine points out of the third slot, while Wallace jumped all the way to seventh in the Chase for the Nextel Cup – a mere 22 markers out of fifth.

"We had a fast car, but we never got a chance to lead any laps,” Newman stated afterward. “ I'm happy to come home with a Top 10. We gained a few points on third place today, so we'll go after it again next week and try to keep chipping away. We're halfway to 'The Chase', and we're in pretty good shape right now. We've just got to stay there or get better."

A third Penske car employing the EMP Stewart Components/MERE Dodge Water Pump – the No. 77 of Nextel Cup rookie Travis Kvapil – started 33rd and finished a respectable 17th in the final running order.

The final driver with EMP ties in Sunday’s MBNA 400 – Brian Vickers – rallied from several recent disappointing performances to finish sixth in the event.

Vickers, who features EMP associate sponsorship on his No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, started 27th and methodically moved his Monte Carlo through the field and into the Top-10 where he finished sixth. It was the third Top-10 finish in 13 events this season for Vickers who jumped three spots to 24th in the season standings with the solid Dover effort.

Biffle scored his fourth win of the season in front of Nextel Cup rookie Kyle Busch in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet followed by Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson and Wallace. Biffle averaged 122.626 miles per hour in winning the event, which was slowed seven times for 33 laps of yellow flag racing. Biffle now trails Johnson, the leader in the Nextel Cup points standings, by just 46 points.

The NASCAR Nextel Cup crowd will stay busy heading to Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PA for the Pocono 500 on Sunday, June 12. The race will take the green flag at 1:40 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday and will be telecast live on FOX. The event will also be broadcast worldwide as it happens on MRN Radio.

The NASCAR Busch Series was also in action at Dover this weekend with two drivers with EMP Stewart Components ties finishing in the Top-10 of the MBNA 200.

Dale Jarrett continued to give the new EMP Stewart Components Ford Pro Series water pump a workout rolling the No. 90 Citifinancial Ford (pictured right) to a fourth-place finish.

Martin Truex won the race followed by Reed Sorenson, Jamie McMurray, Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson.

The new EMP Stewart Components Ford Pro Series Water Pump – designed in conjunction with Robert Yates Racing – continued to perform flawlessly during its NASCAR Busch Series research and development stage.

The Dover race was the final R&D test for the EMP Stewart Ford high performance pump (pictured on Yates NASCAR engine above left), which will make its NASCAR Nextel Cup points race debut next week at Pocono.

“We ran the EMP Stewart pump on DJ’s (Jarrett) Cup car in the All-Star race at Charlotte and I’m sure you’ll be seeing it on a lot more of our Cup cars in the near future,” said legendary NASCAR engine builder and team owner Robert Yates. “I’m pretty sure it will be on the 38 (Elliott Sadler) and 88 (Jarrett) Cup car engines at Pocono and since we build all the engines for the Fords, it’ll pretty much be on all of them soon.”

While Jarrett was putting his Ford solidly in the Top-5, Joe Nemechek was also authoring a Top-10 in his No. 87 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Outfitted with a Carl Wegner Racing Engines powerplant that features an EMP Stewart Components GM Pro Series Water Pump, Nemechek started deep in the field in 33rd after qualifying for the event was washed out Friday.

The veteran driver then stayed out of the nine caution flag incidents that slowed the race for 47 laps and worked his way into the Top-10 for the third time in just nine NBS starts this season.

The NASCAR Busch Series will next head for Nashville, TN and the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. The Saturday, June 11 event on the 1.333-mile Nashville concrete oval will roll off at 8:05 p.m. and will be telecast live on FX. MRN Radio will also broadcast the event as it happens.

The Craftsman Truck Series completed the list of NASCAR action at Dover this weekend. The MBNA 200 was originally scheduled for Friday, but Mother Nature proved to be the big winner on the day washing out all activity at the track.

That pushed the race back to Saturday afternoon where Kyle Busch won his second consecutive event in the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado. Busch captured the 200-lap event on the high-banked Dover track in front of Tony Stewart, Terry Cook, Ron Hornaday, Jr., and David Reutimann.

Two drivers with EMP Stewart Components ties – Kevin Lepage and Rich Bickle (right) – finished 19th and 27th in the event. Both Greenlight Racing Chevrolets feature Carl Wegner engines fitted with EMP Stewart Components GM Pro Series Water Pumps.

The next event on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series tour – the Fort Worth 400K – at Texas Motor Speedway will take the green flag at 9 p.m. Eastern Time and will be telecast live on the Speed Channel. The event will also be broadcast live on MRN Radio.

On the short tracks this week, Mike Gardner overcame a poor start to finish fourth in the Fox River Racing Club Super Late Model feature event at Wisconsin International Raceway Thursday evening.

"My foot fell off the accelerator when the green flag came out,” said Gardner after losing some positions on the initial start of the race. “That’s only the second time that ever happened to me.”

Gardner, piloting an EMP Oilmate sponsored entry, gathered things back up and was able to fifth at the drop of the checkered flag.

“We were happy with that finish,” said Gardner. “We have some more changes to make, but we’re getting a better feel for the car.”

Gardner will return to the famed Kaukauna, WI half-mile paved oval for a pair of events this week. On Thursday, Gardner will compete in a special 50-lap FRRC main event at WIR before returning to the track Saturday for the first event of the annual Red, White and Blue State Championship series. That race will feature twin 50-lap main events. Racing both nights gets underway at 7 p.m. Central Time.

Finally this week, Tracy Gienger stepped out of weekly competition at Marshalltown (IA) Speedway to compete in a special Memorial Day event at Independence, IA.

Unfortunately, Gienger’s 1987 Buick Regal International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) stock car missed the set up and finished 12th in the 26-car field.

“We ran strong in the heat race and finished third, but we totally misjudged what the track was going to do for the feature,” said Gienger of the Independence clay surface. “We thought the track would stay tacky, but it dried out much more we expected. We needed to have the car much tighter than we adjusted for.”

In Friday’s regular Marshalltown IMCA stock car showdown, Gienger started sixth and finished fifth in the main event.

“It was a good night and solid run for the most part,” stated Gienger. “We needed a little confidence boost after some of the poor finishes we've had the last couple weeks.”

Gienger will return to weekly IMCA action at Marshalltown Friday, June 10. Action gets underway at 7 p.m. Central Time.

Also on tap this week - The NHRA Pro Stock division returns to action after a week off in the Carquest Auto Parts Nationals at Route 66 Speedway near Joliet, IL, Saturday-Sunday, June 9-12. The Sunday, June 12 final-round action will be televised on ESPN2 beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

Meanwhile, the NHRA Sony Xbox Sport Compact division will also be back in action after a weekend off in the second-annual Mopar Mountain Madness Sport Compact National at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, CO, June 11-12.

For news and information about all the EMP Stewart Components drivers, events, new product and trade show news, please visit www.stewartcomponents.com on a regular basis.