Stewart Finally Conquers Talladega
Yellow-line rule upheld and Stewart holds on to win
Blown tires, twisted metal and 'typical Talladega' make for last-lap drama
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Sunday, Oct. 05, 2008
TALLADEGA, Ala. - Tony Stewart, who'd finished second six times without winning a Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway, finally got a victory at the 2.66-mile track in Sunday's Amp Energy 500.
But not without a little controversy and a lot of typical Talladega mayhem.
Stewart was leading a trio of Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates - Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola - on a green-white-checkered finish after a big wreck on Lap 174 had put the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings into a great big paint shaker.
Almirola got shuffled out on the restart, but Smith and Menard stayed behind the leader until they ran through the trioval toward the checkered flag.
Smith, a Cup rookie with uncertain sponsorship prospects for his second season, was seeking his first career victory. He drove his No. 01 Chevrolet down to the low side of the track, clearly going below the yellow line that serves as an out-of-bounds marker here.
Smith got to the finish line first, but after a brief delay NASCAR ruled that Stewart was the winner.
"I was told the rule is that if you're forced down there you're the winner and on the last lap anything goes," said Smith, who said he felt that Stewart had blocked him and forced him below the yellow line.
As NASCAR tried to decide where to place Smith in the finishing order - he was eventually given 18th, the final car on the lead lap - the driver was asked where he thought he should be.
"Doing burnouts out there right now," Smith said.
Instead it was Stewart celebrating his first victory of the season, his final year with Joe Gibbs Racing.
"It's one thing to get back to victory lane, but to do it to Talladega ...I've wanted to win here for so long," Stewart said.
Menard was scored in second with David Ragan third, Jeff Burton fourth and Clint Bowyer fifth.
The day's other big story was Jimmie Johnson, who went from a lap down early to a going a leg up on a third straight Sprint Cup title with an eighth-place finish that leaves him with a 68-point championship lead.
What might wind up being the pivotal moment in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup came on Lap 174. It happened when Carl Edwards, who'd lagged back in the field most of he day trying to keep his car out of trouble, tried to push Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle toward the front of the field.
As Edwards rapped on the rear of Biffle's Ford as the lead pack entered Turn 3, Biffle got sideways and started a wreck that caught up at least 11 cars - including Edwards, who came into the day 10 points behind Johnson, and Biffle, who was 30 back when this race started.
It also wiped out Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick, all of them also in the Chase.
"I was just pushing Greg as hard as I could," Edwards said. "It was my fault. I guess we got in exactly the wrong spot going into (Turn) 3. I feel bad I took my teammates out. ...Sometimes things like this happen. I was worried about idiots when I came here and it turned out to be my fault."
Johnson, somehow, found a way through it all without damage, allowing him to complete his recovery from having lost the lead draft from the start and falling a lap down after just 25 laps.
He got that back later on a caution and when his team changed a component in his ignition system to help the No. 48 Chevrolet run higher RPM it seemed to help.
But after a red flag following the Lap 174 wreck, the second red flag in a caution-heavy race, Johnson restarted ninth with just 10 laps to go and played it cool from there.
"I am just trying to keep my focus and keep things simple," Johnson said.
Stewart was first, and he held off first Elliott Sadler and then Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola until Jamie McMurray's Ford hit the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 185. That set up the two-lap finish, with Stewart trying to fend off the DEI trio and everybody else behind him.
Johnson had to drop to the back of the field for the start because his team checked his engine for a problem after qualifying and this was an impound race.
Johnson then lost the lead draft at the start and found himself falling way back. His team convinced Ken Schrader to drop back and help, but it was too little, too late. On Lap 25, Johnson got lapped.
One lap later, that lead changed hands as Earnhardt Jr. - who also had to go to the rear of the field after losing an engine and, in a separate incident, wrecking his primary car on Friday - swept into the top spot. The guy Earnhardt Jr. passed for first, David Ragan, also started at the rear of the field for an engine change.
But Ttavis Kvapil, who started first, was holding his own, too. He was third when the first caution came out for debris on Lap 34. The bad news for Johnson there was that Robby Gordon had just been lapped when the yellow flew, meaning Johnson did not get the free pass to get back on the lead lap.
Jeff Gordon led on the restart, but one lap later Matt Kenseth was on the point with the Busch brothers, Kurt and Kyle, in pursuit. Brian Vickers led Lap 43, then Elliott Sadler and then Casey Mears led the next before debris brought out another yellow.
That allowed Johnson to get back on the lead lap, a huge break for the No. 48 Chevrolet team. Everyone came to pit road, with most simply topping off their fuel tanks.
Sadler led on the restart, but on Lap 51 Kyle Busch got a push from Denny Hamlin and went to the lead. On the next lap it was Kurt Busch, being pushed by Vickers, who'd bumped their way into the lead.
David Reutimann blew a tire on the backstretch on Lap 54, sending him sideways in front of Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet and putting the No. 24 into the outside wall. Johnson's Chevrolet also had a piece of that, getting a chunk of the blown tire on the nose of his car and apparently damaging the splitter.
Edwards, who came into the day second in points and was looking to capitalize on Johnson's troubles, came to pit road twice under the yellow to see if he had damage. He was OK, but that left him at the back of the pack for the restart on Lap 59.
Vickers, Kvapil and Mike Skinner were the top three on the restart. The lead kept shifting hands until, on Lap 68, Vickers blew a right-front tire will running right among the leaders. That caused a major pile-up in which at least eight cars - including Martin Truex Jr., who got hit at least five times - were involved.
The race was halted for 17 minutes to clean up the track, and after it was withdraw everyone came to pit road.
Earnhardt Jr. had the lead on the restart on Lap 73, but he got shuffled back and Hamlin took over the top spot on Lap 74. Two laps later the leader was Johnson, who had fought all the way back from being a lap down.
Johnson led Lap 78 and had Earnhardt Jr. pushing as they tried to get a little breakaway going.
But the story of this race was fast becoming that nobody had yet found a way to keep the lead once he had it.
One lap after being first and second, Johnson was ninth and Earnhardt Jr. was 13th with Tony Stewart leading.
Mike Wallace then blew a right-rear tire on Lap 81, somehow managing to keep from wrecking in front of the whole field as it roared down the backstretch. Kyle Busch came off pit road first that time, just ahead of Earnhardt Jr. and Montoya.
Drivers kept swapping the lead lap after lap as the race moved toward the halfway point. Earnhardt Jr. moved up and then fell back in the outside line going from the lead to outside the top 10 like a coin flipping through the air.
Hamlin was leading going into Turn 2 on Lap 99 when his right-front tire blew, sending him swerving hard into the outside wall. Hamlin was awake and alert but was taken to a local hospital to be checked out.
After that yellow, the lead swapped hands several more times until Harvick got his car out front and actually led a line that got a momentary breakaway. But by Lap 125 the lead back was back together again. Harvick was holding the lead with David Ragan second and Stewart third as things settled just a bit - if only for a few moments.
Debris on the track on Lap 139 brought out a yellow at an interesting time. It was just outside most team's fuel window for going the rest of the way without stopping again. Carl Edwards, who'd been pitting by himself and staying at the back of the field all day trying to stay out of trouble, spun by himself as he left his pit stall. But he didn't hit anything in the No. 99 Ford. He came back in the next time around to get more tires in case he'd flat-spotted the previous set - and he also topped off his fuel tank.
Biffle pitted on Lap 142 and Burton and Clint Bowyer also came in that time by, also topping off. Another large group came in on Lap 143 as the field remained under yellow. The green came the next time by, with Kyle Busch leading Ragan and Kvapil off into Turn 1.
By Lap 150 a lead pack had formed with Busch leading Montoya, Earnhardt Jr. Burton and Harvick at the front of the pack. Busch blocked several advances until, on Lap 154, Earnhardt Jr. gave Busch's Toyota a nudge and led a line of cars around Busch.
That put Earnhardt Jr. first with Burton and Harvick leading the field on his bumper. On Lap 156, three Richard Childress Racing cars lined up and Burton went to the lead with a push from Harvick and Bowyer through the trioval.
On Lap 160, Earnhardt Jr. pushed Ragan on the outside line to the top spot. On the next lap, Earnhardt Jr. went to the outside of Ragan trying to take the lead, but Ragan tried to hold on in the low lane. Michael Waltrip, who'd had damage to his car earlier in the race, worked his way toward the front of the pack and was third by Lap 163.
As Waltrip was moving toward the lead, Harvick’s Chevrolet spun off Turn 3 and that brought out a yellow flag. Waltrip and many of the lead-pack cars came in, some getting tires and some just getting enough fuel to go the distance.
Montoya led at the restart on Lap 179 with Mears, Paul Menard, Bowyer and Earnhardt Jr. lined up behind him. There were 19 laps of racing left.
Yellow-line rule upheld and Stewart holds on to win