Nascar Blog

As I said on Twitter yesterday, you either have a good day or a bad day at Talladega, and Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and others were involved in a big early wreck Sunday, bringing an early end to many drivers day. Check out the video:

This, of course, is one of the reasons that there are many first time winners at Talladega, and Brad Keselowski has joined that list. When the big one happens, there are always drivers who are favorites to win the race that get put out, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and others, allowing the drivers who don’t win as much, a shot at the title. The very first race at Talladega, Richard Petty and other didn’t think the tires could take the track and wanted to skip that race and Nascar let them allowing Richard Brickhouse to get the win.

Here is a shot of the other big one from Talladega Sunday.

Of course we can’t forget the big finish in which Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski drove past Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take first and second. Brad tried to go high, Carl blocked, he went low and got the position on him and he tried to block him again, spinning Edwards, who then flipped over the hood of Ryan Newman sending him flying into the safety fence where 7 or 8 fans were injured. I really hate the fact that anyone got hurt, but it was one heck of a finish. Carl Edwards climbed out of his car and jogged across the finish line ala Talladega Nights.

Nascar is thinking about passing out penalties for aggressive driving and blocking after Sunday’s events, saying, “We might have to start making some judgment calls of our own and issue penalties for drivers who blatantly block and abuse the bump drafting. We’re going to take whatever measures we need to in order to ensure the races are as safe as possible for everyone.” I wouldn’t mind seeing them try to do something about the blocking, but, aggressive driving is an exciting part of Nascar.

Just when you think Nascar is getting boring and predictable, you get an exciting race such as this one.

Here is how they finished:
1 9 09 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 190/5 188 Running 312,075
2 11 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy 175/5 188 Running 224,200
3 25 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Prelude to the Dream / U.S. Army 170/5 188 Running 201,104
4 34 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Little Debbie / Kingsford / Clorox 160/0 188 Running 161,598
5 8 82 Scott Speed * Toyota Red Bull 160/5 188 Running 144,798
6 28 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 155/5 188 Running 130,750
7 2 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 151/5 188 Running 140,225
8 30 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 147/5 188 Running 136,648
9 22 20 Joey Logano * Toyota The Home Depot 143/5 188 Running 153,276
10 20 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 139/5 188 Running 146,456
11 41 43 Reed Sorenson Dodge U.S. Air Force 130/0 188 Running 137,401
12 10 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 132/5 188 Running 107,500
13 24 98 Paul Menard Ford Turtle Wax / Menards 129/5 188 Running 129,431
14 17 187 Joe Nemechek Toyota NEMCO Motorsports 126/5 188 Running 92,900
15 6 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet National Day of Prayer / Furniture Row 118/0 188 Running 91,775
16 15 07 Casey Mears Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 120/5 188 Running 110,175
17 13 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Dewalt 117/5 188 Running 136,315
18 43 113 Max Papis * Toyota GEICO 109/0 188 Running 88,975
19 39 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy 111/5 188 Running 100,275
20 1 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Tums Dual Action 108/5 188 Running 133,298
21 31 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA 105/5 188 Running 98,600
22 18 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Freight 102/5 188 Running 104,275
23 29 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Old Spice / Office Depot 94/0 188 Running 101,198
24 16 99 Carl Edwards Ford Claritin 96/5 187 Accident 139,506
25 23 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Pedigree 98/10 187 Running 138,273
26 33 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 85/0 187 Running 107,548
27 40 34 John Andretti Chevrolet Taco Bell 87/5 187 Running 94,825
28 12 96 Bobby Labonte Ford Ask.com 79/0 179 Accident 113,804
29 42 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Jim Beam 76/0 179 Accident 104,635
30 36 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools 78/5 179 Accident 137,026
31 37 12 David Stremme Dodge Penske Racing 70/0 179 Accident 118,915
32 27 41 Jeremy Mayfield Toyota Big Red 72/5 179 Accident 82,075
33 3 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 69/5 179 Accident 121,190
34 4 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Penske Truck Rental / AAA 66/5 179 Accident 103,685
35 38 44 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge Hunt Brothers Pizza 58/0 164 Running 84,675
36 35 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 55/0 133 Running 123,973
37 14 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Pepsi Throwback Challenger / DuPont 52/0 128 Running 121,201
38 19 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 49/0 127 Running 118,353
39 5 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet BB&T 46/0 8 Running 88,875
40 26 171 David Gilliland Chevrolet TRG Motorsports 43/0 6 Accident 80,550
41 21 36 Scott Riggs Toyota Tommy Baldwin Racing 40/0 6 Accident 80,325
42 32 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal 37/0 6 Accident 88,155
43 7 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet Carquest / Kellogg’s 34/0 6 Accident 88,464

Here are the current top 12 in points:
1 +2 Kurt Busch 1299 Leader
2 -1 Jeff Gordon 1294 -5
3 -1 Jimmie Johnson 1235 -64
4 — Tony Stewart 1232 -67
5 — Denny Hamlin 1190 -109
6 +1 Kyle Busch 1124 -175
7 +1 Carl Edwards 1119 -180
8 -2 Clint Bowyer 1098 -201
9 +2 Jeff Burton 1092 -207
10 +4 Greg Biffle 1081 -218
11 -2 David Reutimann 1077 -222
12 — Matt Kenseth 1063 -236