RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Joe Nemechek overcame a pit-road blunder that cost him 24 spots by gambling on tires and getting help from late-race cautions and rain to win the Pontiac Excitement 400 on Saturday night.

Nemechek was declared the winner during a red-flagged stoppage with 61/2 laps to go when rain showers that caused the pause persisted. The red flag followed three cautions in the last 30 laps that also helped the Hendrick Motorsports veteran prevail despite his challengers’ fresher tires.

Bobby Labonte was second, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Robby Gordon, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the top four spots. Mark Martin was fifth in a Ford.

The race featured a track record-setting 15 cautions for 91 laps, and the rain deprived Labonte and Earnhardt from making a late push.

“We really didn’t need any of those cautions,” Earnhardt said.

Gordon and Nemechek gambled by staying on the track with four others during a caution with 100 laps to go. When the race went back to green, Gordon was leading, Nemechek was fifth and a handful of contenders were right behind them, counting on fresher tires to carry them forward.

On lap 331, Nemechek passed Gordon for the lead, then pulled away trying to extend his advantage. Chief among his pursuers was Earnhardt, who moved into second on lap 355 as the crowd of 100,000 roared wildly.

Nemechek had built his lead as high as almost 2 seconds and was easily disposing of lapped traffic when Dale Jarrett spun out on the 363rd lap, the caution erasing the lead and setting up the closing shootout.

Nemechek held onto his lead through three more restarts, taking advantage of a duel for second in which Bobby Labonte finally passed Earnhardt, and then was handed the last 61/2 laps when the race was called.

The victory was a stunner for Nemechek, who seemed to have the best car in the first half of the race, then forced himself to prove it when he missed the turn for pit road and was shuffled from first to 25th place.

Nemechek led six times for 155 laps, winning for the first time since November 2001 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. His only other victory came at Loudon, N.H., in September 1999.

The second five included Kevin Harvick, points leader Matt Kenseth, Roush Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton, and Rusty Wallace.

Kenseth remained the points leader, but his edge was cut from 44 to 20 over Earnhardt. Busch moved into third place, 167 behind.

Among those not enjoying the night were two-time defending champion Tony Stewart, who apparently ran over some debris, crashed and was 41st.

Nadeau’s vital signs improve

Jerry Nadeau was in intensive care with head, lung and rib injuries from a crash in Winston Cup practice, and his vital signs are “very good,” team general manager Jay Frye said Saturday.

Nadeau remained in critical condition a day after the crash at Richmond International Raceway. He has not spoken since the accident, Frye said, but has been communicating with visitors despite being sedated.

“He was aware that I was there,” said Frye, who has seen the 32-year-old driver three times since the accident in practice Friday afternoon. Frye said Nadeau acknowledged his presence by squeezing Frye’s hand.

“He looks phenomenal,” Frye said. “Once I went in to see him and left, it made a world of difference to me. You go in not knowing what to expect, and then you see – there’s your guy. Everything’s OK.”

Nadeau continues to undergo a series of tests, Frye said, but he could not specify what those tests were or what they have shown to this point. He also could not say whether Nadeau was breathing on his own again, but said each time he’s seen Nadeau, he looked better than the last time.

“We’re very encouraged,” he said. “We’ll know so much more tonight or tomorrow morning” after more testing has been completed and studied.

“We feel like he’s in great, great care,” Frye said.

Nadeau suffered a partially collapsed left lung and rib injuries, although Frye said “we don’t know how many or which ones.”

The driver was injured during the final practice for Saturday night’s Pontiac Excitement 400 when his car skidded entering the first turn, spun and slammed into the wall between the first and second turns.

Rescue crews sawed the roof off his Pontiac, and the 32-year-old driver from Danbury, Conn., did not appear to be moving when he was lifted from the car strapped to a body board. He was being given oxygen through a bag, and his neck was in a brace. His uniform appeared to have been removed when he was loaded a short time later onto a helicopter and taken to Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. Frye said it appeared the back end of Nadeau’s car began to come around as he entered the first turn and tried to compensate by mashing the gas pedal to the floor, common practice for drivers trying not to crash.

“It looked like that helped accelerate it going backwards,” he said.

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said Nadeau was wearing a HANS device, a head and neck restraint made mandatory in October 2001 – eight months after the death of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

The accident occurred a few hours before the Busch series race on the track Friday night. The event had a record 14 caution flags for 93 laps.

“It’s not the safest sport,” said Kyle Petty, whose 19-year-old son Adam was killed in a crash while practicing for a Busch Series race at Loudon, N.H., in May 2000. “But we know that, and we accept that.”

Nadeau’s wife, Jada, was attending her grandfather’s funeral in Spartanburg, S.C., when contacted by NASCAR. Nadeau teammate Johnny Benson’s team sent a plane to pick her up, but it had to turn back because of severe weather in the Spartanburg and Charlotte, N.C., areas. A second plane, this one sent by NASCAR, brought Jada Nadeau to Richmond at about 11 p.m., and she stayed with her husband until 3:30 a.m.

Jada also was encouraged after getting to see her husband, Frye said.

NASCAR impounded the car and was transporting it to its research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further testing, Hunter said.

Investigators already have ruled out early speculation that the accident was caused by a stuck throttle or a blown tire, he said.

Nadeau was rac