Truex Wins Talladega Mayhem
Martin Truex Jr. emerged the winner of Saturday's Aaron 312 Busch Series at Talladega, in a race that saw almost every car in the field involved in a crash throughout the three-hour long event
With the start of the race delayed by three hours due to rain, trouble began when Mike Wallace and Casey Mears collided while going into Turn 1. As a result, Mears crashed into J.J. Yeley, who in turn crashed into the wall.
The demolition derby did not stop there. A total of 10 caution periods ensued, and even eventual winner Truex was involved in a car-damaging crash on lap 17, when no less than 16 cars crashed into each other.
The mayhem also meant that Carl Edwards, who had so far completed every single lap of the 2005 Busch season, had his streak of good luck broken as he retired after 47 laps. Nevertheless, he lost only nine points of his Championship lead, with so many other cars suffering a similar fate.
"It's really hard to dodge that stuff," said Edwards. "This is pretty bad but we're leading the points because we have got a great team.
"I thought we were going to make it through. The 18 (J.J. Yeley) hit the wall and started coming back down and I thought, 'I am going to sneak right around him and miss this whole deal,' and somebody else hit him and it was over with."
Yeley himself was uninjured, despite taking the hardest hit of the day: bouncing back off the wall, he collided with a dozen other cars who had just entered the corner.
"The first hit into the wall wasn't too bad," said Yeley afterwards. "I know what a pinball feels like. And it's not real good."
At the end of the day, only a quarter of the field was able to make it to the finish without damage, and Chevrolet's Truex crossed the finish line to take his second Busch win of the season, ahead of Ford's Jon Wood and Dodge's David Stremme.
Results of Aaron's 312 at the Talladega Superspeedway
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 120 2. Jon Wood Ford 120 3. David Stremme Dodge 120 4. Ashton Lewis Ford 120 5. Kerry Earnhardt Chevrolet 120 6. Randy LaJoie Chevrolet 120 7. Justin Labonte Chevrolet 120 8. Jason Keller Ford 120 9. Brent Sherman Dodge 120 10. Kertus Davis Chevrolet 120 11. Mark Green Chevrolet 120 12. Tim Sauter Chevrolet 120 13. David Green Ford 120 14. Justin Ashburn Chevrolet 120 15. Jimmy Kitchens Ford 120 16. Steve Grissom Ford 120 17. Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 119 18. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 113 19. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 108 20. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 100 21. Sterling Marlin Dodge 98 22. Aaron Fike Dodge 95 23. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 90 24. Joe Ruttman Dodge 87 25. Stacy Compton Ford 83 26. Casey Mears Dodge 82 27. Paul Menard Chevrolet 82 28. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 82 29. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 82 30. Michel Jourdain Jr. Ford 79 31. Kasey Kahne Dodge 76 32. Reed Sorenson Dodge 75 33. Carl Edwards Ford 73 34. Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 68 35. Kenny Wallace Ford 22 36. Greg Biffle Ford 21 37. Tim Fedewa Dodge 17 38. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 16 39. Mike Wallace Dodge 16 40. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 16 41. Johnny Sauter Dodge 16 42. Jeremy Mayfield Dodge 16 43. Shane Hmiel Chevrolet 16
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