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closeRace rewind | Continuing to impress
DAVID POOLE
The Charlotte Observer
Sunday, Apr. 27, 2008
Rewinding Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway:
REAR-VIEW MIRROR
• If you're not impressed by the way Kyle Busch is driving this year, you're not paying attention. In the past month alone, he's won races on an intermediate track, a short track, a road course and now a restrictor-plate track. Late in Sunday's race, just before he came up to take the lead, Busch made a save on the backstretch when he bounced off Jamie McMurray's car that just didn’t seem possible.
• This is a sport in which people keep babbling about how important safety is. How is it possible that racing at a place where pushing another car around like a bulldozer shoving a tree stump at 200 mph is not only allowed, but is the pathway to success? Everybody knows it's insane, but they keep right on doing it.
• After the debacle when Kevin Lepage came up on the track into the middle of the lead pack Saturday to cause a massive wreck, NASCAR told drivers at Sunday morning's meeting they must keep all four tires below the yellow blend line until they exit Turn 2. Why in the world wasn't that the rule all along?
PIT STOPS
Stewart’s good run goes sour
Tony Stewart led 61 laps and appeared to have at least a shot at a Saturday-Sunday sweep at Talladega. But he blew a tire and then got caught up in a wreck and wound up 38th.
"The majority of the day we had a great day going," Stewart said. "We were really in good shape until I had the right-front go down and then I got in the back."
That happened on Lap 143, but Stewart had made up some of the lost ground until he got involved in a crash on Lap 174 that put him in the garage.
"I just went into the second lane," Stewart said. "I thought we were all right and the closer we got to Turn 1 the smaller the hole got. I was as close to Bobby (Labonte) as I could get right there and the hole closed up. It's just what happens late in these races."
Earnhardt Jr. still without a win
There was no Talladega magic for Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Sunday. He's now gone 71 races without a win - next weekend's Richmond race marks two full seasons since his most recent Sprint Cup win.
Earnhardt Jr. led 46 laps Sunday, but he got shuffled back in the draft after a restart on Lap 169 and wound up getting into a seven-car wreck a few laps later. His car was not damaged so badly he could not continue, however, and Earnhardt Jr. did manage to get his series-leading seventh top-10 finish by finishing 10th.
"The wins will come, I know that," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I want them to and we are going to have to keep talking about them until they do.
"(But) if you look at my career over the past several years we are definitely in a better position. It would be foolish for us not to appreciate the good things we have going for us and get frustrated."
Ragan racks up a top five
David Ragan said he had to be a little bit conservative as he ran in the Aaron's 499 on Sunday.
"I probably didn't have that many friends that would go with me, so I had to do what I could ... and not worry about anybody else," Ragan said after finishing fourth. "I would have been nice to have had some teammates up there.
"For the most part the best move I made was just not making a move at all, just staying in line."
Vickers rallies after early mistake
Brian Vickers found trouble in an unlikely place at treacherous Talladega, spinning as he came off pit road at one point in Sunday's race. But he didn't hit anything and managed to recover quite nicely with a fifth-place finish.
"I got turned ... trying to dodge an official and not hit the 20 (Tony Stewart)," Vickers said.
Vickers said the caution that kept the field from completing the final lap was not what he wanted to see.
"I really think I would have had a chance at the win," Vickers said. "Denny (Hamlin) and I worked really well together. We were both there at the end and could have made a run for it."
Stremme a victim of last-lap wreck
David Stremme went back to his former Cup team for one race Sunday, driving the No. 40 Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates after Dario Franchitti broke his ankle in a wreck in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.
For most of the day, Stremme looked like a super-sub. He led the race twice and was still running fifth on a restart with 12 laps to go. But he was among the 12 drivers caught up in a last-lap wreck and that left him 28th, the first car a lap down.
"It's disappointing, but I had fun today," said Stremme, who drove the No. 40 car last year. "We ran well. There's not much we can do. I ended up in a bad position at the end, I was left hanging out in the draft and when everything started I had not place to go."
Steve Hmiel, director of competition for the team, said there is no long-term plan yet for what might happen if Franchitti is out for an extended period. Stremme, who drives for Rusty Wallace Inc. in the Nationwide Series and is a test team driver for Penske Racing, said this was a one-week thing for him.
"It's a matter of getting through today and seeing where Dario ends up," Hmiel said. Franchitti is expected to see Dr. Terry Trammell in Indianapolis this week to have the injury assessed and treated. "We'll sit down as a group and decide on who's the best option for where we’re going."
Briefly
• Jeff Burton retained his lead in the Sprint Cup standings with a 12th-place finish that leaves him 22 points ahead of Kyle Busch and 79 ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Matt Kenseth, who had early problems Sunday and finished 41st, slipped to 19th in the standings.
• Travis Kvapil finished sixth in the No. 28 Ford. "I just logged 490 miles' worth of learning the moves I could make and couldn't make," he said. "The car was fast enough to drive our way back up there when it counted."
• Rain threatened both Saturday's and Sunday's races, according to the weather forecast, but both were run to completion. It did, however, begin pouring within an hour after Sunday's race and well into the early evening.
KEY MOMENTS
Lap 117
Carl Edwards blows a tire, the third time he’d had difficulty with a tire during the race. The ensuing caution allows Kyle Busch, who had lost a lap when he couldn't get to his pit stall earlier in the race, to get back on the lead lap.
Lap 143
Tony Stewart, trying to hold onto the top spot, has a right-front tire go down and slips up into the outside wall. That dumps Stewart back into the pack and he is never able to get all the way back.
Lap 174
Any hopes of a Stewart rally, along with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s chance to get his first victory of the season, ends when they're involved in a multicar crash. It was typical Talladega – with the laps winding down things just got stacked up in traffic.
Lap 181
Debris brings out a caution flag, setting up a five-lap run to the checkered flag. Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson are up front for the restart on Lap 184, but they get shuffled to the high side as Kyle Busch gets pushed to the lead by Jeff Gordon.
Lap 187
Gordon tries to make a run down the backstretch, but Busch moves over to halt the No. 24's momentum. Juan Pablo Montoya took over second, but when a caution finally flew on the final lap that left no time for Montoya or anyone else to make a move.
NEXT RACE
Race name: Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400.
Where: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
TV: Fox Sports.
Radio: Motor Racing Network.
Last year’s winner: Jimmie Johnson.
