Aaron`s 499 Race Review

Talladega Superspeedway -- 04/26/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Apr 27 2009 1:49am

Call it crazy, call it controversial, but the ending of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Sunday was almost catastrophic.

After Brad Keselowski, driving the No. 09 Miccosukee Chevrolet for James Finch, pushed Carl Edwards past the duo of Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the front of the pack with two laps to go, Keselowski waited patiently for his chance to pass Edwards for the win. Keselowski faked high and when Edwards moved up the 09 went low. The 99 tried to block and came across the 09’s nose, sending Edwards airborne and collecting 10 cars in the process.

Edwards’ car, while in the air, took a second hit from the No. 39 of Ryan Newman and flew backwards into the backstretch catchfence. Debris from the incident injured eight fans, though the injuries were reported as non-life-threatening. Edwards, who wasn’t injured, climbed out of the car after it settled on the track and jogged to the start-finish line.

Fortunately, none of the drivers was injured in either that accident of the first ‘big one’ – a lap 7 accident that took out 14 cars, set off when Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth made contact going four-wide into turn 3.

The end result was that a number of possible contenders DNF’d at Talladega, including Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. (who led 24 laps), Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin. Many others, including Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne finished multiple laps down. There were 31 cars running at the end of the race with 12 DNFs and 23 cars on the lead lap.

Brad Keselowski did take the checkered flag for his first Sprint Cup victory, leading only the last lap of the race. Following him across the finish line were Earnhardt Jr. (2), Newman (3), Marcos Ambrose (4), and Scott Speed (5).

Rounding out the top 10 were Kurt Busch (6), Greg Biffle (7), Brian Vickers (8), Joey Logano (9), and Jeff Burton (10).

The wreck at the end of the race triggered the biggest controversy the sport has seen this year. In the prerace driver’s meeting, NASCAR reiterated the point that they would black flag any driver who drops below the plate track’s double yellow line to advance his position. When Edwards moved down to block Keselowski, the No. 09 driver held his line to avoid violating the yellow line rule. “I've got to apologize to Carl for wrecking him at the end,” said Brad. “The rule is you can't go below the yellow line and he blocked and I wasn't going below it. I don't want to wreck a guy, but you're forced in that situation. There was nothing else I could do.”

Edwards also cited the yellow line rule as a cause of the melee, stating, “I’m very fortunate we hit the wall in a way it didn’t crush my roll cage down on my neck because that would have been a lot worse. NASCAR just puts us in this box. Brad did a great job. Congrats to him on the win, but they put us in this box and we’ll race like this until we kill somebody and then they’ll change it. But I’m just glad nobody got hurt today.”

As a result of Talladega’s unexpected results, there was a pretty big shakeup in the point standings, including at the top, where Kurt Busch climbed two spots to 1st, displacing Jeff Gordon, who slipped to 2nd by just five points.
Other big movers up include Greg Biffle, up four spots to 10th, Ryan Newman, up four to 13th, and Dale Earnhardt Jr, up four to 15th.

Kasey Kahne fell four spots to 14th, Mark Martin down five to 18th, and Kevin Harvick down four to 20th.

Kyle Busch was the overall lap leader at Talladega, leading 42 laps early on, but finishing 25th after being involved in a two-car incident on lap 172. Denny Hamlin led 28 laps, but finished 22nd after he was collected in the Edwards crash. In total, 25 different drivers led at least one lap.

After a wild ride on the superspeedway, it’s back to short track racing this week for a Saturday night race under the lights at Richmond.

Check back with Nascapper.com for my Richmond race preview later this week.

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