Rating the Race: Talladega – Aaron’s 499

Image details: Aaron’s 499 served by picapp.com   
 

If you were one of the many fans that came into Sunday afternoon’s Aaron’s 499 expecting to not be able to expect what would happen in the closing laps of the race, then you got exactly what you expected! Kyle Busch came to Talladega this weekend with five finishes of 32nd or worse in his six Talladega starts, went a lap down after a serious pit road misque, and yet somehow managed to find a way to win the race.

The race started out with a Joe Gibbs Racing dominant sort of look with Tony Stewart leading the way, with teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch trailing behind. Stewart led the first 34 laps of the race – with the exception of one lap led by Ken Schrader, who stayed out on the track when Matt Kenseth had a tire go down to bring out the caution on lap 19 – but, Denny Hamlin slungshot off of Jamie McMurray to make the pass.

Twelve lead changes later, the field was forced to pit under green, which can always be exciting at Talladega. With a couple of cars below him, Kyle Busch was unable to hit his pit box, and was forced to drive through and come back around – all under green. On the same stop, Brian Vickers turned his car around coming off of pit road, and consequentially lost several spots in the process.

The next caution came on lap 119 when Carl Edwards – much like his Roush Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth – had a tire go down just before smacking the safer barriers. The race resumed, and Dale Jr led the field back to green.

Tony Stewart was running out front on lap 145 when he became yet another victim of a blown tire, though he was able to escape with minimal damage. Still, after leading 7 times for more than 60 laps, he was forced to restart in 31st place when the field came out from caution with only 43 laps remaining.

The fourth and fifth cautions came out when Juan Pablo Montoya spun Paul Menard through the infield with 29 laps to go, and then when NASCAR spotted debris from the car of Brian Vickers with 24 to go.

Kyle Busch – who had finally found his way back to the lead lap – passed Ryan Newman for the lead on lap 172 and held that lead until a six-car spin brought out the caution with just 15 laps left. The accident occurred when Tony Stewart – who had made his way back inside the top-15 – got pinched going through the turn. A couple cars got loose, and eventually Bobby LaBonte got turned into Stewart, also collecting the cars of Earnhardt Jr, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, and Martin Truex Jr.

Racing resumed, and Michael Waltrip took the lead for the first time on the day, but action was halted again shortly after when LaBonte slid up through the infield setting up a wild race to the finish with only a handful of laps remaining.

Kyle Busch retook the lead on lap 184, but going into the final lap it was anyone’s ballgame. Denny Hamlin had charged from 11th place the lap before, but now had only Juan Pablo Montoya between he and the race leader. It appeared that Denny might have been setting up Busch and Montoya for the same slingshot maneuver he had used several times throughout the race, but he never got the opportunity. Cars started piling up behind the frontrunners, and NASCAR eventually waived the final caution of the day, freezing the field and bringing out the checkers for Kyle Busch.

Montoya finished second and Hamlin third, with David Ragan and Brian Vickers closing out the top-five. Travis Kvapil, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, and Dale Earnhardt Jr – who suffered only minor damages in the earlier accident – rounded out the top-10.

Waltrip and Jeff Gordon both got shuffled back from the leaders after running in the top-five with only a couple laps remaining, and both went onto finish 27th and 19th respectively. Last week’s race winner, Jimmie Johnson, bounced back and forth from the front to the back throughout the day and finished 13th. Kevin Harvick got caught up in the melee on the final lap and finished in a disappointing 24th.

There were nearly fifty lead changes during the race split amongst twenty drivers, of which Tony Stewart led the most with 61. Montoya, Ragan, Vickers, and Kvapil – who all finished in the top-six – earned themselves their best finish of the season, while Casey Mears mirrored his best results in ‘08 with a seventh place run. Montoya’s run was also good enough to put himself 12th in points, taking the place of Kasey Kahne who finished 23rd and dropped from 11th to 13th in points.

Series points leader, Jeff Burton, finished in 12th which was good enough to keep him out from in the points standings, but Kyle Busch has now closed that gap to within a mere 22 points.

Grades:
the Race:  94%
the Drama:  77%
Coverage:  88%
Pre-Race:  75%

Overall Grade:  87.5%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):