The
majority of the race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway was actually extremely
clean. Carl Edwards, Cole Whitt and Joey Logano got in an early wreck and Jamie
McMurray spun out to cause the green-white-checkered finish, but that was the
extent of the damage.
Until
the final turn of the final lap.
Casey
Mears, who had a strong car all day, gave Michael Waltrip, who was irrelevant
until the final lap, the mother of all pushes through Turn 3 and the pair was
headed to the lead. But then Tony Stewart saw them coming, tried to block and
ended up setting off a 25-car wreck.
Needless
to say, the race ended there. Matt Kenseth was ahead of the wreck and drove off
for the win. Jeff Gordon finished second, but he was 15th or worse
when the wreck began. For once he was on the receiving end of some good luck,
and it kept him on the edge of championship contention.
Like
it or not, that’s what happens at restrictor-plate tracks. The field was
four-wide at least six rows deep nearly the entire two laps of the final
restart. That is incredibly exciting to watch, but it would be a miracle for
the field to make it back around without some sort of incident. It’s already
amazing they made it to the final lap without a wreck.
Since
the Sprint Cup Series was at a restrictor-plate track, let’s go ahead and
discuss the style of racing. The cool temperatures should’ve helped the cooling
issues the cars tend to experience after the offseason rule changes to restrict
air flow to the engine, but nobody was able to push for more than a lap, if
even that far.
The
race actually felt more like the old style of restrictor-plate pack racing than
any race since the drivers discovered the two-car draft in 2008 and 2009.
Drivers were able to pass for the lead (there were 54 lead changes), and the
field never got strung out despite a couple of green-flag pit stops.
This
was the last race of the current car model, but early indications are the new
model in 2013 will produce similar, if not better, racing. But we’ll find out
about that in February at Daytona. For now, the Chase drivers will focus on the
final six races of the Chase and how to catch Brad Keselowski, who extended his
lead to 14 points over Jimmie Johnson.
Next
up is Charlotte Motor Speedway for a Saturday night race. It’s the fifth race
in the Chase, and this is the point where drivers start to get eliminated from
championship contention either mathematically or practically. Johnson wrecked in
this race last year to end his hopes of a sixth-straight title.
Either
way, the racing at Charlotte is usually pretty entertaining. It might be some
of the best intermediate track racing we see the rest of the season.
Have
a great week, everybody.
5 stars? seriously, did you turn this on with the last 3 laps left and excited to see those mangled wrecks? this race was a 3 at best. jayski must be desperate linking to you off their article page
ReplyDeletePretty interesting that the amount of excitement is governed by the number and size of wrecks.
ReplyDelete499 miles of mindnumbing boredom followed by one mile of "excitement" does not make a 5 star race. It was a horrible race and I expect the crowd to be even smaller next year and the TV ratings will drop except for the last lap.
ReplyDelete499 miles of mindnumbing boredom followed by one mile of "excitement" does not make a 5 star race. It was a horrible race and I expect the crowd to be even smaller next year and the TV ratings will drop except for the last lap.
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