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Stewart wins Nationwide at Talladega

Tony Stewart claimed his third Nationwide Series win of the year in dominant fashion in the Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway

Stewart led 80 out of the 117 laps of the event, claiming his first ever win at the 2.6-mile oval. Despite a green-white-chequered finish, 'Smoke' was able to stay in control after being under attack from his race-long drafting partner Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"This is not like winning a regular Nationwide race," Stewart said after taking his fifth Nationwide Series career win. "To me this is the biggest one I've had. To finally win at Talladega, it's more than I can put into words."

Dale Earnhardt Jr led 14 laps and was on Stewart's rear bumper for most of the race. A couple of times they even managed to pull away from the field but as the race got to the last few miles, Earnhardt worked to try to get someone to bump-draft him to get a run on Stewart.

However his attempt didn't work out despite almost clearing Stewart on the last lap and he was eventually left without help in the end, dropping down to sixth place by the chequered flag.

"Well me and Tony worked great together the whole race," Earnhardt said. "If I could help it, I wanted it to be between me and him. So we worked together for the whole race and it was down to the last lap and I backed off trying to pack up the 16 (Biffle) and a couple of guys there on the rear bumper of my car to get a run.

"I though we had it timed good but I ran as good as it could've been and Tony's car was very strong. That was a lot of fun today."

David Stremme finished second as he decided to stick behind the leading car of Stewart at the bottom of the track in the last few laps instead of going with Earnhardt. His strategy paid off and he was able to get his best result of the season and the best also for Rusty Wallace's team.

"At the end it was wild," said Stremme. "When I was sitting there in third, [Stewart and Earnhardt] had probably the two strongest cars here... They were in their own deal and the rest of us were just kind of trying to work together and make the right moves."

Bobby Hamilton Jr finished third getting his best result of the season as well, with Jason Leffler fourth and Mark Green in fifth behind him.

The race saw two major incidents, the first of them coming as early as lap 12 when Dario Franchitti's car was sent spinning into the wall after blowing a tyre.

His car was collected by Larry Gunselman's machine, and both were out of the event on the spot, with the Scot requiring further observation at a local hospital after initial checks at the track's care centre.

However the biggest wreck of the day took place on lap 71 and involved more than a dozen cars. Kevin Lepage was coming out of the pits and driving on the apron when he crossed the yellow line just as the pack came storming by him.

The first few cars passed him safely but Carl Edwards was slightly to the left of the line running at the bottom of the track entering turn one and crashed heavily into the back of Lepage's car, almost ripping off the whole rear of the No. 61 machine.

The impact ignited the usual Talladega chain reaction, which involved many of the frontrunners. Although no drivers were injured in the incident, the red flag waved for nearly half an hour as safety crews worked to clean the track from debris.

"I just want to make sure that I don't say some kind of stupid statement before I see a replay," Edwards said following the crash. "But in my mind, unless it shows otherwise, it just looked like somebody, I think it was the 61, Kevin Lepage, I think he just pulled up right in front of the field. I don't know. It's too bad."

Lepage defended himself from his colleague's remarks, saying he didn't do anything wrong and simply got hit.

"As I was coming out of the pit the spotter said that the field was coming," Lepage said. "So I stayed down, blended when I was told so, and the first dozen cars get by me and next thing I know I get hit.

"A lot of those guys probably blame me but I've been doing this for a lot longer than half of these guys. I didn't do anything wrong."

Clint Bowyer was among those involved in the incident, although he was running several laps down after getting caught in Franchitti's crash early on. Despite that he finished the race and continues to lead the points ahead of Edwards, Kyle Busch and David Reutimann, as all of them were also involved in the 'big one'.

Pos  Driver                Car        Laps
 1.  Tony Stewart          Toyota      117
 2.  David Stremme         Chevrolet   117
 3.  Bobby Hamilton Jr     Ford        117
 4.  Jason Leffler         Toyota      117
 5.  Mark Green            Chevrolet   117
 6.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet   117
 7.  Mike Bliss            Chevrolet   117
 8.  Patrick Carpentier    Dodge       117
 9.  Scott Wimmer          Chevrolet   117
10.  Mike Wallace          Toyota      117
11.  Greg Biffle           Ford        117
12.  Kertus Davis          Chevrolet   117
13.  Morgan Shepherd       Dodge       117
14.  Donnie Neuenberger    Chevrolet   117
15.  Eric McClure          Chevrolet   114
16.  Kyle Busch            Toyota      114
17.  Mike Harmon           Chevrolet   113
18.  David Ragan           Ford        111
19.  Robert Richardson Jr  Chevrolet   108
20.  David Reutimann       Toyota      105
21.  Jason Keller          Chevrolet   103
22.  Cale Gale             Chevrolet   101
23.  Brad Keselowski       Chevrolet    97
24.  Brad Coleman          Ford         95
25.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet    93
26.  D.J. Kennington       Dodge        88
27.  Brett Rowe            Chevrolet    88
28.  Marcos Ambrose        Ford         81
29.  Reed Sorenson         Dodge        76
30.  Kenny Wallace         Chevrolet    75
31.  Carl Edwards          Ford         70
32.  Steve Wallace         Chevrolet    70
33.  Kyle Krisiloff        Dodge        70
34.  Stephen Leicht        Chevrolet    70
35.  Kevin Lepage          Ford         69
36.  Kelly Bires           Ford         69
37.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota       47
38.  Justin Ashburn        Dodge        35
39.  Johnny Chapman        Chevrolet    29
40.  Dwayne Leik           Chevrolet    24
41.  Dario Franchitti      Dodge        10
42.  Johnny Sauter         Chevrolet    10
43.  Larry Gunselman       Chevrolet    10

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