Monday, October 06, 2008
Regan Smith crosses the finish line first, but NASCAR calls Tony Stewart the Talladega winner
Who wins Talladega? You decide: Regan Smith, driver of the #01 DEI/The Principal Financial Group Chevrolet crosses the finishline with Tony Stewart, driver of the #20 Subway/Home Depot Toyota at the end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2008 in Talladega, AL. Stewart won the race after NASCAR Officials reviewed the finish and found Smith crossed below the yellow line to pass. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
By Mike Mulhern
TALLADEGA, Ala.
So Tony Stewart finally got his first Talladega win, and his first win with Toyota, breaking a losing skid dating back to August 2007. So while Stewart was jubilant, crew chief Greg Zipadelli was quite emotional – the two have been virtually brothers in this sport for 10 years, and now they’re down to their last days together. Stewart is moving to Chevrolet to build a team of his own; Zipadelli is staying with Joe and J. D. Gibbs, to work with newcomer Joey Logano next season.
But those weren’t the only big stories of the beautiful fall afternoon here in the heart of Alabama: Blown tires ruled, scaring drivers and sending Denny Hamlin to the hospital with a concussion. And rookie Regan Smith, one of the forgotten men at beleaguered Dale Earnhardt Inc. nearly pulled off the surprise win
After Edwards cleaned house at the front of the field with 40 miles to go, the race was Stewart’s, but he had three DEI men to battle: Smith, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola. It was easily one of DEI’s finest days at a track in some time, and Menard, who wound up second, credited new technical boss Bobby Hutchens, the Winston-Salem engineer who has taken this assignment at the behest of veteran car owner Richard Childress, who has not been a bit happy with the decline of DEI – created by the late Dale Earnhardt, Childress’ man for so many championships.
NASCAR’s last lap call against Smith – for a below-the-line pass that rivals like Johnson said they felt was clearly legal – was curious in several respects. Principally, NASCAR was faced with exactly the same situation here a few races back, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. clearly went below the yellow line in a pass for the win – and NASCAR executives let the pass stand, with a no-call.
Smith, however, got bounced back to 18th in the final rundown.
Regan Smith says he won the Tallladega 500. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Nevertheless Smith’s performance, and Menard’s and Almirola’s, serves notice that it’s a bit too soon to bury DEI, despite a run of troubles in finding sponsorship.
And if those fans who weren’t at the track for the race but were rather in front of TV, the ratings for this thing could be a big boost for ABC/ESPN.
Maybe the crowd was a little thin, but the 145,000 who did have seats at Talladega Speedway got more than their money’s worth, that’s for sure.
But then that’s usually the way it is at NASCAR’s biggest track: unpredictable….dangerously unpredictable.
Tour leader Jimmie Johnson had a bad day, a sour engine, started back in the pack, went a lap down early….but he rallied to ninth, in a surprisingly comeback, and he got through the second ‘big one’ of the 3-1/2-hour race, “but I don’t know how, to be honest with you.”
That was the melee that Carl Edwards triggered, with a hard bump-draft on teammate Greg Biffle…who had criticized Edwards’ exuberance at Kansas as too dangerous a move.
Carl Edwards does make things exciting....but he made things a little too exciting Sunday at Talladega (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
“When you look at the trouble that chasers had, that’s what we all feared,” Johnson, the tour leader now by 72 points over Edwards and 77 over Biffle. “And those two cars, Greg and Carl, rode in the back all day long until it was time to go.
“You still get all these guys together racing for the win and stuff happens, and it certainly did.
“And you wouldn’t think it would between teammates, but it did.”
Tony Stewart (right of the trophy) and crew chief Greg Zipadelli (left of the trophy) celebrate their first Talladega victory....an emotional win because it might well be their last as teammates after 10 years together (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
So just how did Smith see that last lap?
“I wanted to ‘back’ the corner up going into three; I knew I could get a run on him,” Smith said. “I had Paul giving me some awesome pushes.
“We came off four, and I was right where I wanted to be on the track. I shot to the outside, Tony went up to block, I went to the inside, and he forced me down to the inside.
“They always tell us in the driver’s meeting if you get forced to the inside then you can go for it, especially on the last lap.”
It took NASCAR a few minutes to give the win to Stewart, but officials then needed considerably more time to provide a precise explanation – basically saying it was “a judgment call.”
Johnson and others said they would certainly want NASCAR to make the rule more precise before next spring’s Daytona 500.
“I really feel we won this race,” Smith said, with support from several other drivers.
And Smith, Menard and Almirola all said the recent run of good performances by DEI teams shows there has been a dramatic turnaround since Hutchens arrived in late August.
Yep, Regan Smith was clearly below the yellow out-of-bounds line...but did Tony Stewart force him down there? Just one of several controversies at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2008 in Talladega, AL. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“I’m proud of DEI, proud of everybody at ECR (Earnhardt-Childress) Engines…They’ve stuck with me all year, and it’s not been the best of years,” Smith said.
“We’ll be disappointed with second, and feel like we won…but we’ll also be happy with it too.
“I knew if I made my move too early the whole field would get an opportunity to make a run on us, and I didn’t really want that.
“The move worked out just how I wanted it to, so I don’t know what I could have done different.
“This is an incredible finish for us…but I’m disappointed I really feel we won.
“I had a nose inside (Stewart), and my only alternative was to wreck him….so next time that’s what I’ll do,” Smith said with a laugh.
“That’s not a knock against Tony; I like Tony a lot. He’s a great guy. But I wanted to win pretty #### bad.
“The rule is on the last lap, anything goes. They always tell us that in the driver’s meeting. They always say ‘Well, on the last lap it’s NASCAR’s discretion.’
“I guess that was NASCAR’s discretion…but I felt I got forced down there.
“It was going to cause a heck of mess if I didn’t give a little room there.
“It might not say it in the rule book, or in the history books, but this car won.”
Blue skies, great fall weather, and one heck of a race at Talladega....with more than enough controversy for the 145,000 fans to feast on (Photo:Toyota Motorsports)
The finish should spark renewed sponsor interest in DEI, especially if these men can follow up strong at Charlotte.
“We needed a good run, we needed a good run for the company,” Smith said. “It’s been a long week for us (with Menard’s announcement of his move to Ford).
“This is huge for all of us. It shows the effort the whole organization is putting forward.
“We’ve been through a lot of adversity, and yet everybody keeps working hard. That’s the first time we can honestly say we’ve run anywhere close to where we’ve wanted to this year, and that’s good. Hopefully it’s a sign on things to come.”
The media has been rough on DEI, Smith said, which makes this performance all the more enjoyable: “A lot of scrutiny we’ve been given is pretty unjust. We’ve all been working hard to keep all four cars in the top-30 in points.
“The one thing that all of us have to remember each day when we walk through the door is that front door says ‘Dale Earnhardt Inc.,’ and that name is big as the name NASCAR itself.”
Those reports of the imminent demise of Dale Earnhardt Inc. are greatly exagerated: Here leader Tony Stewart fending off DEI’s Regan Smith, Paul Menard and Aric Almirola down the stretch at Talladega (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
NASCAR’s call will be ripe for debate.
“My judgment and NASCAR’s are totally different,” Smith said after reviewing the video tape with officials. “I totally disagree with them 110 percent.
“In the driver’s meeting they tell us each week if you’re forced below the yellow line you can go there.
“My nose was in there. The only other option I had was to wreck him.
“They told me ‘Oh, you could have got out of the gas.’
“I think it’s a bad call. I think as the week goes on, everybody will probably say it’s a bad call.”
Agree? Disagree? Don’t just brood. Express yourself here, and make your voice heard clearly in NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and Charlotte and in NASCAR race shops throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country.
We want your reaction, so please comment on this story and offer your own opinions and insight, on this topic, on our NASCAR videos, and anything about NASCAR. Any questions, just ask Mike at . And bookmark this page for continually updated NASCAR reports: http://independenttribune.net/index.php/sports/mulhern/
So who won the Talladega 500? Tony Stewart (L) and Regan Smith (R) had a little disagreement (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
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