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Auto Racing
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Exploding tires mar Talladega, Edward triggers a big crash, and Tony Stewart wins the 500
Tony Stewart wins NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
TALLADEGA, Ala.
Tony Stewart held on to beat a trio of Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers in a controversial Talladega 500 finish to a wildly dramatic afternoon.
But NASCAR officials and Goodyear engineers took it on the chin again here Sunday, when yet another rash of major tire issues led to numerous crashes during the race and sent championship challenger Denny Hamlin to a local hospital.
And then a dramatic late-race crash may well have made this turning point of the title chase – So this race certainly lived up to its wild card reputation, when a major 12-car crash took out NASCAR championship contenders Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. Edwards took the blame.
On the restart with 11 to go, Stewart was leading Joe Nemechek and Elliott Sadler and David Ragan. However at that point there were about 14 men still with a legitimate shot at the win, and the DEI three charged into contention.
And Stewart’s biggest challengers were the DEI trio: rookie Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola, belying the doom-and-gloom scenarios surrounding Dale Earnhardt Inc.
A final caution for Jamie McMurray’s spin set up a three lap shootout.
And Stewart ended a long losing streak with the controversial finish, when Smith pulled off a last-lap pass below the yellow line that NASCAR disallowed.
“I got a nose down in there, and then got forced down there, and we’re told in the driver’s meeting that if you’re forced down below the line it’s okay, and he forced me down there,” Smith insists. “I should be out there doing burnouts.”
Menard called Smith’s pass legitimate: “We’ve seen last-lap passes like that for the win before, so I thought that call was a little odd.”
Tony Stewart, after half a dozen second-place finishes, finally wins at Talladega.....though several of his rivals pointed to rookie Regan Smith as the man who really won the race with a dramatic last-lap pass—which NASCAR officials disallowed (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jimmie Johnson, the two-time defending NASCAR champion, who finished ninth and padded his Sprint Cup points lead heading to Charlotte, said he too thought Smith’s pass might have been legal, and he said that tactic had been talked among drivers all Sunday morning before the 500, following a similiar situation in Saturday’s Truck race. “I would have made the same move as Regan made,” Johnson said.
How ironic then that so many NASCAR drivers were so unsure about the last lap rules at such an important event.
Nevertheless NASCAR gave the win to Stewart, whose last tour win was well over a year ago.
And to add insult to injury for Smith, NASCAR apparently penalized him back to 18th.
“To do it at Talladega…I’ve wanted to win here for so long,” Stewart said emotionally of his first Talladega victory. “I know some fans here haven’t been too happy about me, but there are a lot of orange shirts up there in the stands, and this is for them.
“I knew with three DEI cars behind me it would be tough. I just had to try to protect at the end.”
NASCAR’s Jim Hunter, vice president of corporate communications, released a statement late Sunday:
“You cannot improve your position any time you go below the yellow line.
“In our judgment he (Smith) improved his position, and the penalty for that is a pass-through (down pit road).
“So he was moved to the tail end of the longest line, or 18th.
“At the driver’s meeting we clearly state that you cannot improve your position by going below the yellow line.
“Any time you get into a situation like this, there are going to be two different opinions. We respect Regan’s view. But we made the call, we think it is the right call, and the finish is final.
“NASCAR has to maintain some kind of control, and that’s the reason we say you cannot advance your position by going below the yellow line. If he had not improved his position, he probably would have been awarded second place.”
This isn’t going to be good: Brian Vickers (83) blows a right-front tire and crashes into Martin Truex at Talladega Superspeedway The race was red-flagged for 17 minutes and 1 second. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Edwards took the blame for his crash: “I was just pushing Greg as hard as I could. It was my fault. I apologize to everyone who got caught up in that wreck. It was my fault. I know Matt’s mad….
“I’m always worried about the idiots when we come here…and today it was me.”
Edwards bump-drafted teammate Biffle a bit too hard and turned him, triggering the massive crash.
Biffle tried to brush it off as ‘just Talladega: “I think Carl tried to give us a little help in the center of the corner.
“I felt we drove really smart all day…. but you just can’t expect anything out of Talladega.
“I know it will hurt us in the points, but we’ve got six more. And we ran good at Charlotte in the spring.”
Car owner Jack Roush, after losing his three title challengers: “I guess Carl just got into the back of Greg too hard.
“Some days are harder than others. And this is a hard one.
“These cars are organized so the front and rear bumpers match up well, and NASCAR lets people push each other through the corners.”
Harvick blamed Edwards “for tearing up most of the field.
“It’s just Talladega. You’ve got a 50-50 chance of getting out of here okay.”
The Edwards’ incident and blown tires were the stories of the afternoon.
Hamlin took one of the hardest licks, when he crashed while leading after s his right-front blew in the middle of the corner. “That’s as hard an impact as you can have, 180 mph,” Dale Jarrett said.
Hamlin’s crash here was eerily similar to the Daytona crash that killed Dale Earnhardt. NASCAR’s safety improvements, particularly the soft Safer Barrier outside wall, may well have saved Hamlin’s life. “Denny’s okay, he’s just got a bad headache and a bruised foot,” car owner J.D. Gibbs said.
Too many races this season have had tire issues, most notably the Indianapolis Brickyard 400, where NASCAR had to throw yellows every 10 laps – 25 miles—to allow drivers to change tires.
Excessively high right-side tire pressures might have been part of the tire problem here, according to one crew chief. Higher tire pressures will apparently reduce rolling resistance of the tires and provide a little more speed. But that can be abusive on the tires.
Another crew chief suggested there might have been an improper fit between the tire itself and the safety inner liner.
Right-side tires have been issues at several tracks apparently because the design of the car-of-tomorrow puts much more strain on the right-side tires.
Earnhardt blew a tire in Friday practice and was forced to race a backup car: “I was worried about the tires, and that made me nervous. We had too many tires blowing, for no reason.”
David Reutimann blew a tire 150 miles into the race, and Jeff Gordon got the worst of it, hitting the outside wall. And Johnson’s front bumper was also damaged in the incident.
“No chance of us winning this race and gaining any points on anyone,” Gordon said. “We’d gotten shuffled to the back, and we were trying to hook up, but we couldn’t.”
Pole-sitter Travis Kvapil (No. 28) leads the field at the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AMP Energy 500 on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Minutes later came the first big one: Brian Vickers, battling Earnhardt for the lead, blew a right-front tire and triggered a massive pileup, which took out Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Mike Skinner, Terry Labonte and Tony Raines.
“I felt like a bomb exploded in my right-front tire,” Vickers said. “It didn’t cut; it just exploded. It was very similar to what happened to Junior in practice.”
NASCAR put out the red flag for the cleanup.
Several drivers, including Jeff Burton, made almost miraculous escapes. In fact all chase drivers managed to avoid that melee.
“Brian’s right-front tire just exploded. Bam! Like a shotgun going off,” Truex said dejectedly.
“That’s two tires that took out two of our cars this week,” Gilliland said.
One of many great saves was by Juan Pablo Montoya, who was upset at getting chopped off by David Ragan.
Another save was by Mike Wallace, when his right-rear blew.
“When tires explode like that, there is a problem,” Johnson said.
Goodyear’s Rick Heinrich, the company’s NASCAR product manager, called the tire problems perplexing because he said these are the same tires that performed problem-free here in April.
“There are a lot of questions we have right now, a lot of things to be considered when you have a performance issue with the tire.
“That’s what we’re doing right now, gathering all those facts. We’re looking at what material has come off the race track—tire parts, and tires that have come off the car….trying to put everything together and find some correlation, to come up with a definite explanation.”
Ironically Goodyear has a major tire test this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with perhaps as many as 16 cars there, to find a good tire for next season’s 400. However Goodyear has never said exactly what the problem at Indianapolis was to begin with.
Heinrich said one question here it the lack of commonality in the conditions when the tires failed. Might that lead to speculation that the real issue might not be the tire itself, but rather something else?
“It does suggest to us that something is influencing the tire,” Heinrich said. “Too many tires here are looking too good…and we have really good conditions for tires – good ambient temperatures…and the tires haven’t shown any signs of heat or stress.
“That’s the perplexing thing, that lack of commonality. We’ve seen right-fronts, right-rears….
“And some of the tires (that failed) have ‘looked’ different. We’re trying to put together things that correlate, to find an explanation.”
Might the design of the car-of-tomorrow be an issue here? “I really can’t make an observation related to car construction,” Heinrich said. “It’s just one of the things we’re taking into consideration.
“The car design is
Tire issues have rarely been an issue at Talladega over the years. In fact Goodyear’s Talladega tires are typically seen as the company’s most reliable.
“And this particular tire was trouble-free here in April, which is why we brought it back,” Heinrich said.
Jimmie Johnson had to start from the rear of the field, after his engine men asked NASCAR to let them inspect the cylinder walls of his motor before the race. Scarred cylinder walls were apparently the issue in teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s blown engine Friday.
Earnhardt also had to start at the rear of the field, after going to a backup car. But Earnhardt was able to draft up to the lead in the first 25 laps, while Johnson languished at the back and was a lap down by the first caution, on lap 35, for debris.
Johnson, Earnhardt and Denny Hamlin all complained about some strange engine issues in the draft.
“The engine seems to be okay, but it’s not running like it was Friday,” crew chief Chad Knaus said of Johnson’s engine.
NASCAR officials, criticized for not be more aggressive in monitoring pit road at Kansas, cracked down early Sunday, penalizing Bobby Labonte, Robby Gordon and Kenny Wallace for violations.
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PGA Tour golfer and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AMP Energy 500 honorary starter Boo Weekley waves the green flag for pole-sitter Travis Kvapil (No. 28), Casey Mears (No. 5) and the rest of the field on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
