Key moments | Some of Sunday's turning points

Sunday, Oct. 07, 2007

Key moments in Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway:

Lap 136

Dale Earnhardt Jr. blows an engine on a day when most of the cars using power plants from the Richard Childress Racing-Dale Earnhardt Inc. operation encounter trouble. To that point, it appeared that the No. 8 Chevrolet was good enough to win.

Lap 153

Ken Schrader’s troubles are a huge break for Jeff Gordon, who’d had to serve a pit-road pass-through penalty after his previous stop for running over a hose and pulling an air hose out of his pit box. The subsequent yellow gets Gordon back in the game.

Lap 175

Tony Stewart can’t block the draft forming both to his inside and his outside at the same time, but it’s not for lack of trying. He goes low, then back high trying to keep the lead, but loses momentum and drops back after having led since Lap 153.

Lap 183

Just after the final restart, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears go to the low lane and line up in the draft. That allows them to mount a challenge to the outside line led by Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch.

Lap 188

Gordon pulls out from behind Johnson and gets to the outside just in time to get in front of Stewart, who has a big run with drafting help behind him. The push gives Gordon the impetus he needs to take the lead and the win.

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