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By Leon H Wolf Posted in NASCAR — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Another race at Talladega, another crazy race filled with wrecks and a crazy finish.

Much was made going into this race about the new surface on the track, which was supposed to make it slicker. Combined with the fact that NASCAR had problems getting the restrictor plates to keep cars under 200mph, and it was anticipated that this Talladega race might feature one of the more spectactular crashes in history. However, for talladega, this race was relatively mild - and the biggest crash of the day involved only three cars.

More below...

Talladega is such a competitive race, that it's hard to give a breakdown of the various lead and momentum shifts. In fact, this race at Talladega featured more lead changes than any other race at NASCAR this year. Early on in the race, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and others all took their turns at the front of the pack. When the biggest pileup of the day finally did happen on lap 139, Gordon got swept up in the morass, and had to take his car to the garage. He eventually returned to the track to finish 36th, and he is now 147 points behind Chase leader Jeff Burton, which has him in 7th place.

Toward the end of the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. started to assert himself at his favorite track, grabbing the lead late and pulling away from the pack before a second pileup brought out a caution flag. As the race restarted with 10 laps to go, Chase leader Jeff Burton was still in the top 5, and was in position to continue to pull away from the field. At the time, Earnhardt and Kenseth were battling for second, but both were 90 points behind. However, almost immediately after the restart, Burton had to head down pit road for a flat tire. Unfortunately, Burton misdiagnosed the flat tire, believing it to be on the left side. After his team changed the left side tires, Burton left the pit box, but had to immediately return when his team noticed that the flat was actually on the right side. As a result, Burton finished 27th, allowing the field to tighten considerably.

In the meantime, Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued to lead a long single-file procession over the last 10 laps, followed closely by Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, and Kasey Kahne. None of the cars wanted to dive low and try to pass Earnhardt because drafting is so important at a restrictor-plate track, and the drivers were clearly afraid that no one else would dive low and provide drafting, and they would lose several spots. Then came the last lap, when things got really interesting. During the white-flag lap, Brian Vickers started bump-drafting teammate Jimmie Johnson to get him in position to possibly pass Earnhardt for the win. When the drivers came through the first turn, Johnson dived below Earnardt to attempt a pass. Vickers, right on his bumper, dived down with him. However, Johnson's car lost just a little steam when it lost it's draft, and when Vickers dived down, the nose of his car barely caught the back of Jimmie Johnson's bumper. Johnson's car responded by flying up the track and right into Earnhardt Jr. The race ended on caution, and it was several minutes before NASCAR loop data confirmed that Vickers was in the lead when the caution flag came out. Earnhardt Jr. and Johnson finished 23rd and 24th to ruin their potential chances to make up ground on Jeff Burton. For Jimmie Johnson, this probably means the end of his chase hopes.

In the meantime, Matt Kenseth did what he does, finishing fourth, to close to within 6 of the points lead. The standings this week are much tighter, as you can see here.
Meanwhile, Brian Vickers earned his first ever NASCAR victory, but his erstwhile teammates are none too happy with him. Given that he's been effectively shunted out of his car, I imagine he'll manage to get by, somehow.