TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Jeff Gordon led 139 of 194 laps and survived a green-white-checkered finish to repeat as winner of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. Tony Stewart finished second and Michael Waltrip third. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #8 Budweiser team finished 15th, this after being involved in a six-car accident two laps from the scheduled finish. Dale Jr. was in sixth place when the accident took place. The finish broke a string of eight consecutive top-10s at Talladega. Even so, he still improved three positions in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings to ninth (1070 pts.), putting him in the top-10 for the first time since the season-opening Daytona 500.
Key Moments: Starting 36th, it didn’t take long for Dale Jr. to become a factor, as he needed only 10 laps to take over 12th position and a few more to climb into the top 10. He took his first and only lead on lap 89 with a gusty pass of Kevin Harvick, holding the point for three laps. On lap 132 he narrowly missed the biggest crash of the afternoon – a 25-car accident that required a 43-minute red-flag period to clean up the carnage. Junior was in second place for a lap-174 restart, but he couldn’t hold the position. He slipped to as far back as 13th with eight to go, staged a late rally, and was knocking on the door of a top-five before the wreck took him out of contention.
Dale Jr. Quotes:
It didn’t seem like you got a lot of (drafting) help today. Were you disappointed in that?
“No not really. Everybody wants to win. You do what you gotta do out there. We didn’t have a good car either. That was it. They’ll push you if you’re fast, but we weren’t fast.”
Considering the way it ended, was this your most frustrating Talladega race?
“Nah, the first year we came out here our cars weren’t that good. That was probably more frustrating, but today wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
What did you see in the first big wreck (25-car accident that brought out the fifth caution on lap 132)?
“The 48 ran the 4 into the fence, and into the 10. I mean, we were all driving real hard, but – I don’t know – just driving hard. Your spotters are a big part here. I was pushing the 4, and the guy beside him, which I was told was the 48, squeezed him into the fence.”
Could you tell early on it was Jeff’s day? Was his car that good?
“To be honest, I never could get up there to see it. I mean, I finally did after awhile, but we didn’t have that good a car at all. Jeff’s car was awesome from what I could tell. When you get those kinds of cars, you need to get the wins, and they did. Congratulations to those guys.”
Best Radio Chatter:
After being relatively quiet through the first 130 laps, the chatter picked during a lengthy red-flag period that was needed to clean up a 25-car accident:
Dale Jr.: “Who’s that car on the rollback? Looks like Phil Parsons’ car when he wrecked here back in like ’84. (Pause.) Remember that wreck?”
Steve Hmiel (spotter): “Yeah. White Grand Am. Skoal car.
Dale Jr.: “Yeah, that was bad-ass, ya know, for Talladega!”
After several minutes of silence:
Pete Rondeau (crew chief): “You sleeping in there?”
Dale Jr.: “No, I’m flipping everybody off.”
Following a brief radio chat with Darrell Waltrip for Fox’s live telecast of the event:
Dale Jr.: “That was a cool piece of commentary. Maybe I’ve got a future.”
Hmiel: “Yeah, like you need it.”
Rondeau: “They’re getting restless out there (in the grandstands). They’re doing the wave.”
Dale Jr.: “Yeah, you should seem ‘em all down here. Crazy stuff going on.”
Today's Stats
Started: 36th
Finished: 15th
Led: once for 3 laps
Points: 9th place (+3 positions)
Best Pit Stop: Stop #5 of 7 / 12.98 seconds / lap 116 / 4 tires and fuel
Budweiser. True.
Thanks to Jade Gurss and Mike Davis from fingerprint inc. for sending the race reports and updates.
fingerprint inc. -
-- Anheuser-Busch NASCAR Publicity
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. / No. 8 Budweiser team
blogs and info: www.fingerprintonline.com
www.Budweiser.com |
