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Oh, you know, just another ho-hum day at Talladega Superspeedway. A “Big One,” a final lap wreck……and another Dale Earnhardt Jr. win.
Earnhardt Jr. led 67 laps and took home his sixth win at Talladega, his first since 2004.
The win also ties him with teammate Jeff Gordon for the most wins by an active driver at the track.
The all-time leader of wins at Talladega? None other than Dale Earnhardt Sr., ten wins at the “Fastest Speedway on Earth.”
With the win, Earnhardt Jr. clinches the 8th spot in the season-ending “Race for the Chase” and leaves just eight spots up for grabs in NASCAR’s version of the playoffs.
Earnhardt took the lead on lap 162 and held on for the last 27 laps after the final caution of the race. He had to battle a water temperature that kept rising as the laps were counting down due to debris on the grill of his Nationwide #88. Crew chief Greg Ives told him to gamble and go for the win, and the gamble paid off big time for the most popular driver on the circuit. It was also Earnhardt’s first win of the season, and the first win for an Ives-led crew, the highlight of his first year as the crew chief.
The water temperature was a problem for the last 15 laps, but the crew and their driver held steadfast, raced hard, and got into the winner’s circle.
Earnhardt Jr. on his win:
“It’s just real emotional. I haven’t won here in a long time, it was my daddy’s birthday a couple days ago. Everything’s just so good for me right now, in my personal life, my racing, the team I’m with. I don’t know why, I don’t feel like I deserve it, but with so much emotion. … God has blessed me. I’m blessed, man. Everything’s going so great.”
Earnhardt Jr. won four straight races at the Superspeedway from 2001 to 2003 following his father’s untimely death at the Daytona 500 in 2001, then followed that up with two straight runner-up finshes in 2003 and 2004.
Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson finished second as the Hendrick stable of cars (Earnhardt Jr, Johnson, and Gordon) led the majority of the laps on Sunday afternoon.
Paul Menard finished third, Ryan Blaney (rookie and son of former NASCAR driver and Talladega veteran Dave Blaney) finished fourth, Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth, Sam Hornish Jr came in sixth, Ryan Newman took seventh, defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick slid in at eight, and Denny Hamlin and Josh Wise rounded out the top ten at ninth and tenth respectively.
For pole-sitter Gordon, it turned out to be a disappointing day. First, he was cited for speeding down pit road during the last green flag pit stop, and then he had to restart from the tail end of the lead lap. To cap it all of, he was then involved in the last lap wreck that collected a host of drivers.
“The Big One” happened on lap 46. Trevor Bayne lost control of his car after getting sucked up in Menard’s air as he went high, and then Kurt Busch’s air as Busch went low on him. It ended up spinning Bayne out on the middle of the backstretch, collecting 16 other drivers in typical Talladega fashion due to the restrictor plates on the cars, and the pack racing that it results in. Among the notables involved in that melee were Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, Danica Patrick, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson, and Harvick. It caused an eleven-minute red flag that froze the field as the cleanup crews worked on the mess of wrecked parts, oil, and tires from the race track.
It wasn’t the first wreck of the day however. On lap 17 Brian Scott blew his engine and ended up spinning around and getting Fox commentator and part-time driver/owner Michael Waltrip involved, knocking them both out of contention early. Waltrip had nowhere to go as Scott ended up spinning right in front of him, and made contact. The #55 car went to the garage and needed quite a while to repair the car – a disappointing day for Waltrip, who usually only suits up for the races at Daytona and Talladega.
NASCAR got a boost from the weather this week as the past two weeks have wreaked havoc on the start time of the races, and even caused a race postponement last week in Richmond. Bristol had to endure a delay that went well over four hours and Richmond had to push back their Saturday Night primetime race to Sunday afternoon. Today at Talladega they raced under great spring conditions with 79 degree temperature at the start, and sunny skies all day.
Here is hoping next Saturday night at Kansas Motor Speedway, the weather cooperates like it did this weekend.
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