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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