Monday, October 06, 2008
Talladega! Blown tires, Carl Edwards, then Regan Smith vs Tony Stewart at the wire: What a day!
The money move on the last lap at Talladega, Regan Smith on the inside, with teammate Paul Menard pushing him past Tony Stewart (Photo:Toyota Motorsports)
By Mike Mulhern
TALLADEGA, Ala.
Tony Stewart has been looking for this day for so, so long, 10 years now, and he wanted to savor every moment….and every raucous scream from his sea of fan at Talladega Speedway.
Sunday’s numbers – Stewart’s 33rd tour win, Toyota’s 10th Cup win of the year – weren’t the story.
It was the sheer drama of the warm afternoon, with tires blowing, drivers scared, Goodyear and NASCAR again having no good answers….and then Carl Edwards making a high-stakes play that failed spectacularly.
And in the final moments NASCAR officials had to scratch their heads for a while before deciding that yes indeed Stewart had beaten rookie Regan Smith – even though Smith crossed the finish line first.
The championship chase is now clearly swinging Jimmie Johnson’s way, with three others in striking distance, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton.
But Stewart wasn’t thinking championship; he was thinking sweet home Alabama: “I’ve wanted to win here for so long. I have so many friends down here, Red Farmer and Donnie Allison and all these fans.
“I was just patient until the last half of the race, and finally got in position to stay up front.”
Greg Biffle (16) was battling for the lead late at Talladega when he got popped in the rear by teammate Carl Edwards, triggering a huge crash. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Stewart, though, had to brave a three-lap shootout: “I thought once we got through that first lap we were going to be all right.
“But we got to the backstretch and Regan Smith got to the bumper—which was the plan. I was hoping he would get there. If he could have stayed there all the way around to four and all the way through the front stretch then there was no way anybody could get to the two of us.
“But he got a gap off turn four, and that gave him a run, and I had to protect my line.
“You hate to have to do that (block), but to win here at Talladega I would just about wreck the whole field.”
Regan Smith heads to the NASCAR trailer to protest Sunday’s call at the finish at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2008 in Talladega, AL. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
NASCAR officials late Monday issued another statement about the controversial Talladega finish, trying to quell the debate—in which a number of drivers, including two-time champion Jimmie Johnson, defended Regan Smith’s move:
The statement: “At yesterday’s drivers meeting, NASCAR reiterated the rule about passing under the yellow line and provided the same information to all drivers and crew chiefs in a hand out, as we’ve done in past Daytona and Talladega races. The verbatim language is: ‘This is your warning: race above the yellow line. If, in NASCAR’s judgment, you go below the yellow line to improve your position, you will be black-flagged. If in NASCAR’s judgment you force someone below the yellow line (in an effort to stop him from passing you), you may be black-flagged.’
“During the last lap of yesterday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway the driver of the No. 01 (Smith) violated NASCAR policy by driving under the yellow line to improve his position,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “In NASCAR’s opinion he was not forced below the yellow line. NASCAR correctly took immediate action to enforce the policy by penalizing the No. 01 and scoring the No. 20 as the race winner.
“Since the end of the race there has been some confusion as to what is allowable during the last lap at Daytona and Talladega. To be clear, as we go forward, there will be no passing under the yellow line at any time during NASCAR races at Daytona or Talladega, period. This includes any passing below the yellow line near the start/finish line on the final lap.”
NASCAR president Mike Helton, here signing autographs for fans, has a very tough job, running Sunday’s races, and Talladega was just one big headache after another. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Meanwhile over on the Ford side of the garage, things weren’t going very well at all.
However maybe things aren’t as bad right now between Jack Roush teammates Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards as it might seem, following Edwards’ gaffe that wiped out most of the championship challengers, running at the front of the pack, late in Sunday’s Talladega 500.
“You can’t blame Carl,” Biffle said, magnanimously. “He was trying to help us, and he pushed us all the way to the front.
“We talked about it Saturday night; we talked about it the night before. We talked about it Sunday…what we were going to do. And that was our deal: to team up and shove each other all the way to the front.”
Not going to win a championship like this. Carl Edwards’ crew attempt repairs after crashing during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 5, 2008 in Talladega, AL. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Bump-drafting – the art of running into the back of a guy and giving both cars an extra burst of speed – has been an issue at Talladega for several years, because while it’s effective, not every driver does it well.
NASCAR has tried to police the tactic, particularly in the corners, but Roush appeared critical of lax NASCAR enforcement Sunday throughout the race, which resembled at slam-bam Martinsville affair.
“We had been able to push around the corner all day,” Biffle said. “I don’t know if I was moving down or he was moving up, but when he came to push a little bit, it just instantly slid.
“I had my foot in the gas, and it just spun the tires and went around, and that’s all she wrote.”
But Matt Kenseth, the third Roush man in the mix, wasn’t as kind, and let Edwards know it: “You knew it was going to be crazy, but I actually felt we were almost home-free.”
“It’s my fault, and I apologize to everybody,” Edwards said. “We just got in exactly the wrong spot going into three, and he got real loose, and that was just the way it went.
“You just do the best you can and hope for the best. It just didn’t work out.”
Before the Talladega 500 Carl Edwards (L) and car owner Jack Roush (R) were all smiles.....but afterwards it was rather different (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Roush himself was upset and worried. But then he understands Talladega as typically an exercise in extreme frustration:
“Talladega is really a tough race. We’ve won twice here in 22 years, with multiple cars. We don’t have much of an average.
“We had great cars, the engines ran really well, the Ford support was awesome, and the engineers did their job.
“It came right down to the judgment of people deciding how aggressive they could be…..and Carl wound up pushing harder on Greg than he could stand.
“But NASCAR had set that up by allowing people to push all day: people pushed in the corners, and pushed in the trioval, and pushed in the straightaway….and pushed all the way around the track.
“It was real clear to me—and to everybody, including Carl—that if you weren’t willing to push the car in front of you, then you couldn’t advance as well as somebody else who was pushing.”
DEI’s Regan Smith makes his move to the inside of Tony Stewart in Sunday’s Talladega 500 (Photo:Getty Images for NASCAR)
THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK
Michael Waltrip has hired AJ Allmendinger to run one of his Toyotas at Charlotte Saturday night. “I look forward to it, and I think this is a great opportunity,” Allmendinger said. “Over the past couple of months the organization has really picked up with how everyone has been running. Hopefully, I can go out there and do a good job and get the team back inside the top 35.”
Kenny Wallace finished in 12th for the team at Talladega, its best finish yet.
Kevin Harvick, who was caught up in the big late-race crash triggered by Carl Edwards, didn’t have many kind words for Edwards or his lag-back strategy during the long race: “It looked like Carl should have been drafting the rest of the day, because obviously he didn’t know where the front of his car was.
“Maybe he should have raced the rest of the day. I know his fans won’t be very proud of him sitting back there riding around like a pansy.
“But when he got up there and decided to start racing, it caused a big wreck. It caused a big mess. But, man, that’s Talladega.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost two cars at Talladega, in Friday practice when a tire blew, and in Sunday’s 500, when Carl Edwards made a big mistake (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The crash also took out Dale Earnhardt Jr., who goes to Charlotte this week for Round Four of the 10-race chase a sizeable 249 points down.
“We was already kind of a long-shot for this thing,” Earnhardt said wearily. Earnhardt, who hasn’t won a rock’em/sock’em race in a long, long time (Michigan was a gas mileage win), hasn’t been running as strong as the tour’s top three men have. But Sunday Earnhardt did have a car that have won….until Edwards’ crash.
“Greg was turned sideways, and Carl had him hooked off in the corner, and he went down and hit Matt and turned up in front of me,” Earnhardt said.
“I was just sitting there trying to get to the front, man. I was getting for it to be ugly.
“I ran in to Matt pretty hard. I’m glad everybody is all right.”
Well, Denny Hamlin’s condition is still up in the air.
“Tearing up race cars….” Earnhardt grumbled. “We ain’t going to spend this much time, put as many man hours the next plate race. There is no telling what is going to happen anyways.”
Jeff Gordon was one of many victims of a rival’s blown tire in Sunday’s Talladega 500 (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Yeah, just ask Jeff Gordon. Still winless 30 races into the 36-race season.
He was tooling along minding his own business when David Reutimann blew a tire right in front of him and sent Gordon hard into the outside wall.
“There are all kinds of things that determine the chase and race wins,” Gordon said…."and you’ve got to take the good with the bad.
“Guys were idiots driving into one another. That’s the way you have to race any more. I include myself in that statement because that’s the kind of racing we have out there: You’ve got to beat the rear bumper off the guy in front of you in order to get ahead or make a move.
“And you’re stacked up three-wide, several rows deep….like bumper cars at 190 mph.
“It’s crazy.
“It’s great when you come to the checkered flag and you’re in one piece.
“But it’s getting there that’s tough.”
Brian Vickers said the epidemic of blown tires was scary: “I just went into the trioval, and it didn’t cut or go flat, it exploded. I saw the right-front fender going through the air before the front of the car even dropped.
“Unfortunately we had several of those this weekend, where a tire just comes apart.
“When you blow a tire at most tracks, you just take yourself out, or maybe one other. Here you blow a tire out in the middle of the pack and you take out 10-plus cars.
“The right-front exploded on us. I was just trying to hold on as tight as possible.
“When you lose a right-front tire there’s nothing you can do. Your brakes don’t work. You’re just at the mercy of momentum.”
David Reutimann had the same misfortune: “It’s crazy because you’ve got guys blowing right-front tires and right-rears.
“The only thing I know for sure is that when they blow out they do it all of the sudden and without warning. “
Even without all those crashed-out chase contenders in the hunt, Tony Stewart (20) still had his hands full down the stretch, here getting pressure from DEI’s Paul Menard (Photo: Toyota Motorsports)
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.
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