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Updated April 28
Can you imagine if every weekend was a restrictor-plate race? With their unpredictable nature and the new cars, we could very well end up with 36 different winners.
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| Talladega has been entertaining and exasperating. (AP) |
Sunday was the textbook example of how Talladega can be entertaining and exasperating at the same time.
For three-quarters of the race, it was fairly clean with plenty of passing and lead changes.
And then in the final quarter, all heck breaks loose, ultimately resulting in the race ending under caution.
Tony Stewart led the most laps, but once everybody started to ramp it up with the race winding down, a couple of late wrecks dropped him to 38th in the final running order.
"The majority of the day we had a great day going," said Stewart, ultimately finished by a wreck that also took out Bobby Labonte, Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch. "We were really in good shape with this Home Depot car until I had the right front go down and then I got us in the back.
"As late as it is in the race with 15 laps to go, you've got to sit there and do what you can to get those spots back. I thought we were all right, and the closer we got to Turn 1, the smaller that hole got, so I was as close to Bobby (Labonte) as I could get right there and the hole closed up. It's just what happens late in these races."
Truex was beside himself.
"It is Talladega, man," he said. "You know, you get to the end and guys do things that shouldn't do. Try to fit in holes they shouldn't fit it. It's just typical here. It is too boring for a while and then people are too stupid at the end, so there is really no reason. It just sucks sitting in the garage with 10 to go looking at a good finish."
On the flip side, for those who managed to avoid the carnage like Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin, Sunday's race was about the most fun they've had at Talladega in a while.
"Every time you come to superspeedway racing, it seems like it's with 25 to go things just really kind of bust loose and it gets kind of crazy," Hamlin said.
"I thought the race was still really good up to that point. There was a lot of exchanges for the lead between myself and the 20 (Tony Stewart) and the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and those guys. I thought it was a great race. I think this package is really right where it needs to be for a superspeedway, so I really commend NASCAR with all of the adjustments they made to this car for superspeedway racing."
Busch admitted he wasn't too excited coming to Talladega, but winning changed all that.
"I wreck every time I come here, so what's there to be excited about except a tore-up race car?" Busch said about his attitude before the race. "But I am (excited) now and that's pretty cool."
Power Rankings after Talladega:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 1 |
| He's off to the same kind of start Jeff Gordon enjoyed a season ago. | ||
| 2 | Carl Edwards | 2 |
| His team worked mighty hard to snag that second-place finish because his car was junk through all the practices and qualifying and wasn't much better through the early portion of Saturday night's race. | ||
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 3 |
| Comes back with a solid seventh-place run after the disappointment of the win that got away at Richmond. | ||
| 4 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 4 |
| He's been putting his car up front -- leading double-digit laps in all but two races -- but victory continues to elude him. | ||
| 5 | Jeff Burton | 5 |
| Darlington can bite you, but he kept his car clean all night and snagged yet another top 10. Still no finish worse than 13th this season. | ||
| 6 | Clint Bowyer | 6 |
| He struggled all night, twice falling a lap down, but cautions earned him the free pass and he was able to salvage a decent 15th. | ||
| 7 | Tony Stewart | 7 |
| It took awhile for his crew to get his car back up to speed after an early wreck with Elliott Sadler. By the end of the race, he was among the fastest on the track, but cautions never came at the right time to get him the free pass, and he finished a lap down in 21st. | ||
| 8 | Jeff Gordon | 9 |
| Reporter: "Could you talk about the feeling that Kyle must be enjoying right now about how when you get up on race day you know you're gonna be up front and running for the wins, having so much success on a week in, week out basis?" Gordon: "No, I've forgotten what it was like, so I can't answer that." Funny, but so far true this season. | ||
| 9 | Kevin Harvick | 8 |
| He appeared to have a car at the very least capable of a top five, but he lost it and smacked the wall. After extensive repairs, he wound up 39th. | ||
| 10 | Jimmie Johnson | 10 |
| Jimmie Johnson: After three consecutive top fives, the 48 team has turned in three consecutive finishes outside the top 10. Saturday they were derailed by a bad alternator. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 11 |
| Would have been nice to see a Biffle-Busch battle for the win as they were clearly the class of the field, but mistakes and a parts failure were his undoing again. | ||
| 12 | Matt Kenseth | 16 |
| Led three laps Saturday night, only the second time in the past eight races he has managed to lead. | ||
| 13 | David Ragan | 17 |
| Who'd have guessed that he'd have more top five finishes than Kenseth at this point in the season? | ||
| 14 | Ryan Newman | 12 |
| A tough night all around. It started early with an unscheduled stop for a damaged splitter and got a lot worse later when he had to bring it to the garage to fix a broken rear end. | ||
| 15 | Martin Truex Jr. | 15 |
| His No. 1 car was looking strong through the middle part of the race, but contact with Hamlin sent him into the wall, and his car was never the same as he faded to 14th. | ||
| 16 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 13 |
| Following his second at Talladega, he has put up a couple of duds. | ||
| 17 | Kasey Kahne | 14 |
| Wrecked his primary car in qualifying and was forced to his backup, which wasn't up to snuff. | ||
| 18 | Bobby Labonte | 18 |
| He ran among the top 10 the first half of the race, but once the track cooled, he started to struggle with a tight race car. | ||
| 19 | Travis Kvapil | NR |
| For a while there I thought he might challenge for the victory, but he had to settle for eighth. Hopefully, the strong efforts of him and Yates Racing teammate David Gilliland will land them full-time sponsors soon. | ||
| 20 | Mark Martin | 20 |
| Martin Martin: Dropped to 35th in the early going and was never a factor, winding up 16th. | ||
