Rating the Aaron's 499: 5 Stars *****

The spring race at Talladega certainly lived up to, and possibly surpassed the hype coming into the weekend. This was the most anticipated event since the Daytona 500 and everybody involved got their money’s worth. In the biggest understatement of the year, this race gets a 5 Star Rating.

What a Sunday afternoon. With a perfect sunny day, the drivers got up on the wheel and put on one heck of a show, a historic one at that. Twenty-nine different leaders? Eighty-eight lead changes?! Both are records I thought would not be broken in my lifetime, if ever, and the lead change record wasn’t just broken, it was shattered. Nearly three-quarters of the field led a lap Sunday. Simply unbelievable.

Last year, many people were looking forward to the fall Talladega race because the series was stuck in a rut of Jimmie Johnson dominance. Then, on race day, NASCAR pulled the rug out from everyone and applied stricter rules on bump drafting. While the race had an exciting finish, most people had expected more from that event.

Well, over the winter NASCAR got their butt in gear and loosened things up and finally made several positive changes, most of which were just changes back to a prior way of doing things. What a novel idea. Anyway, after an exciting Daytona 500, many people couldn’t wait to see what kind of race would take place at Talladega, which is even bigger, wider and smoother than Daytona. What they got was a race for the ages. Not only were there a ton of lead changes and close racing at the front, but when it came down to it, the race produced one of the greatest finishes in NASCAR history.

Maybe this is the culmination of five years or so of changes to the Sprint Cup car. There were certainly some rather large bumps along the way, but Denny Hamlin’s car stayed on the ground during his spin, the racing was incredibly exciting and the drivers policed themselves.

Also, how about that move by Kevin Harvick at the end? Each restrictor-plate race, the announcers talk about how a driver needs to make the right move at the right time to win the race. Well, Harvick made the perfect move Sunday. If there was a tutorial on how to pass the leader of a restrictor-plate event on the final lap, the video of Harvick’s pass should be the first one shown.

After the race it felt like I had just eaten a wonderful meal and was completely full and satisfied. This race had everything a race fan could want, supposedly, I know three are still those out there who have problems with the green-white-checkered finishes and what not, but there is no denying the extra 12 laps added to the race were exciting.

Each time they lined up for what could have been the final restart, I sat up a little straighter and moved to the edge of my seat. The anticipation was incredible, and the race delivered throughout the day.

Sorry Richmond, I know that track has racing perfection, but what we saw Sunday at Talladega was nearly as perfect as it gets. Don’t even bring out the argument that restrictor-plate racing isn’t real racing. There is a reason we watch NASCAR, and it is because every once in a while an event transcends a weekend and fuels our excitement for many weeks to come. Congratulations fans. Congratulations NASCAR. That was an amazing race.