Talladega Wildcard

                                                          “Camping World RV Sales 500”

TALLADEGA, ALABAMA- As the “Biggest” wildcard of the Chase, the drivers showed up at the 2.66 mile Superspeedway to race 188 laps. Due to qualifying getting rained out, the field was set by Friday’s practice speeds. Aric Almirola (43) took the pole position ahead of Jeff Burton (31). Austin Dillon (14) replaced Tony Stewart for this race. In other racing news this week, Kevin Harvick was signed up by JR. Motorsports to drive in next year’s NNS for twelve races. Brian Vickers unfortunately did not have as good of news, as his Dr.’s found another blood clot in his leg. He will not drive anymore races this season in either series, just like in 2010, when he was sidelined for similar issues and heart surgery that he went through. Elliott Sadler will replace him for the remainder of 2013 in the Cup Series. A replacement driver for the NNS has not yet been set. Michael Waltrip Racing had a few things that came up this week with Vickers, and they’ve decided to shut down the 56 team all together for next season, releasing Martin Truex Jr. (56). Richard Petty Motorsports was in the news as well, when Crew Chief Todd Parrott failed the NASCAR Drug Testing. NASCAR has indefinitely suspended Parrott until he completes the “Road to Recovery Treatment Program” they have implemented for all employees.

In Opening Ceremonies, Chaplain Ken Farley provided the Invocation. Taylor Hicks, an American Idol winner, sang the National Anthem. Marcus Lemonis was the Grand Marshall, and Matt Kenseth (20) was the In-Race Reporter.

It took very little time for the first caution to come out, as Tony Raines (40) had an engine failure on lap 3. Many of the drivers chose this as the time to make a pit stop, and restart at the rear of the field, where they believe it is safer to run at the beginning of the race. Commentator/Ex-driver Dale Jarrett made a comment that was heard by many as a shot at a great driver of the past. He stated over the air, that “You never wanted to make a deal with Dale Earnhardt Sr., because he never kept them.”

During green flag pit stops near lap 42, Kyle Busch (18) missed his pit box and had to make a second trip onto pit road. The biggest issue this brought up, he lost the draft. His verbal response to missing his pit box was extreme, as every other word was swearing and he carried on for a very long rant. It would be surprising that NASCAR would not penalize him for “Actions detrimental to the sport”. It was very clear that he was mad at his own mistake, but he tried blaming anyone and everyone he could come up with. He fell to 42nd place, well away from the group. Brad Keselowski (2) and Bobby Labonte (47) were both penalized for speeding on pit road, and also fell well back of the pack. Both Keselowski and Labonte would fall a lap down to the lead pack on lap 62, and Busch fell a lap down on lap 67.

On lap 80, the second caution came out for Marcus Ambrose (9) and Juan Montoya (42) getting together. Ambrose was running high on the track, and as he came out of turn two, the rear of his car broke loose. He crossed the track and T-boned Montoya.

During the next green flag run, Kasey Kahne (5) lost the lead group and fell a long way back. Then when there were green flag stops on lap 125, Kahne was tagged for speeding on pit road. He fell two laps down at this point.

On lap 142, Denny Hamlin’s (11) day came to an end, with an engine failure. He was able to get off track before a caution would be required. Just about the same time, Kyle Busch was running his mouth about Brad Keselowski running so close to him. He made the claim that if Keselowski was stupid enough to retaliate against Busch, then he would have the majority of the garage pissed at him for wrecking their cars. Shortly there-after, Busch came very close to wrecking Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17), when he tagged his rear corner of his race car in front of the majority of the field.

One big notable of the race, was that Danica Patrick (10) was clearly a top runner in the race, as she stayed in the top ten for a big part of the day. Near lap 158, the final round of pit stops began. Danica was entering pit road way too fast, running through the grass and missing her pit box. Her great day of racing went out the window, as she was penalized for speeding on pit road and she needed to make another stop on pit road for service. She finished the day in the thirties after being in the top ten most of the race.

On the final lap of the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) was poised to make a final lap pass for the win, when NASCAR threw the yellow flag when the leaders were on the backstretch. This went against everything NASCAR has stated in the past about letting the driver’s race back to the checkered if a yellow came out on the white flag lap. This took the victory away from Jr. and gave it to the leader of the race at that point, Jamie McMurray (1). The caution was thrown for Austin Dillon (14), being spun out by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (17) on the backstretch. Dillon was running third when he was spun. His car went airborne and as he came down, he was run into by Casey Mears (13).

The rest of the top ten were: Stenhouse Jr. (17), Paul Menard (27), Kyle Busch (18), David Regan (34), David Gilliland (38), Martin Truex Jr. (56), Ryan Newman (39) and Clint Bowyer (15). Jimmie Johnson led the most laps with 47 led. There were a total of 52 lead changes among 20 drivers.

The point standings are: Johnson (48), Kenseth (20) (-4), Harvick (29) and Busch (18) (-26), Gordon (24) (-34), Earnhardt Jr. (88) (-52), Biffle (16) (-53), Bowyer (15) (-57), Kurt Busch (78) (-61), Edwards (99) (-68), Newman (39) (-72), Lagono (22) (-75) and Kahne (5) (-101).

The next race is at Martinsville on Sunday at 1 PM EST on ESPN.