Stewart holds off Earnhardt, Biffle for first ever Talladega win
Quote selected text Published April 26th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Tony Stewart held off Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s last-lap charge to win the Nationwide Series race Saturday for his first career victory at Talladega Superspeedway. “This is not like winning a regular Nationwide race,” he said. “To me this is the biggest one I’ve had. To finally win at Talladega, it’s more than I can put into words.”
Stewart started from the pole, led 81 of the 117 laps, and sat comfortably out front in the waning laps with Earnhardt on his rear bumper just biding his time to make a move. Caution came out with five laps to go for debris, setting up a two-lap sprint to the finish.
They raced nose-to-tail for the first lap, then Earnhardt pulled out of line to make his charge. But Earnhardt didn’t have enough momentum and didn’t get the help he needed to race past Stewart. It allowed Stewart to go virtually unchallenged for the final lap, as Earnhardt faded to sixth.
“Me and Tony worked great together the entire race and if I could help it, I wanted it to come down between me and him because we worked together the whole race and it was down to the last lap,” Earnhardt said. “I backed off trying to get the rear bumper to (Greg Biffle) and some of the others to get a run. I thought we had it timed good, but our run wasn’t as good as it could have been, and Tony’s car was just that strong.”
It was Stewart’s first win in any series at Talladega, where he has finished second in six Cup Series races. His previous best finish in a Nationwide race at the track was second last year. That race was just the first time he’d made it to the finish line in five starts, with four DNFs before it.
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UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER, MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 1 20 Tony Stewart Toyota Old Spice 195/10 117 Running
2 24 64 David Stremme Chevrolet Atreus Homes & Communities 170/0 117 Running
3 36 25 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Ford Smithfield 165/0 117 Running
4 3 38 Jason Leffler Toyota Great Clips 165/5 117 Running
5 26 170 Mark Green Chevrolet Foretravel Motorcoach 155/0 117 Running
6 7 5 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Delphi 155/5 117 Running
7 2 1 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming 146/0 117 Running
8 12 9 Patrick Carpentier * Dodge Lipton Tea 142/0 117 Running
9 19 29 Scott Wimmer Chevrolet Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express 138/0 117 Running
10 20 7 Mike Wallace Toyota GEICO 134/0 117 Running
11 15 16 Greg Biffle Ford CitiFinancial 130/0 117 Running
12 23 01 Kertus Davis Chevrolet RaceGirl 127/0 117 Running
13 33 89 Morgan Shepherd Dodge Victory In Jesus 129/5 117 Running
14 39 52 Donnie Neuenberger Chevrolet Jimmy Means Racing 126/5 117 Running
15 29 24 Eric McClure Chevrolet Hefty 118/0 114 Running
16 8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Z-Line Designs 115/0 114 Running
17 43 84 Mike Harmon Chevrolet Elite2 Racing / Bartlett 112/0 113 Running
18 21 6 David Ragan Ford Discount Tire 109/0 111 Running
20 27 99 David Reutimann Toyota Best Western / Aaron’s 103/0 105 Running
21 35 111 Jason Keller Chevrolet America’s Incredible Pizza Company 100/0 103 Running
22 9 33 Cale Gale * Chevrolet Camping World/ RVs.com 97/0 101 In Pit
23 5 88 Brad Keselowski Chevrolet U.S. Navy 99/5 97 Running
24 16 27 Brad Coleman Ford U.S. Postal Service 96/5 95 In Pit
25 6 2 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Camping World/ RVs.com 88/0 93 Running
26 17 81 D.J. Kennington Dodge Mahindra Tractors 85/0 88 Running
27 40 05 Brett Rowe Chevrolet 31-W Insulation / CertainTeed 82/0 88 In Pit
28 30 59 Marcos Ambrose Ford Kingsford Hickory Charcoal 79/0 81 Running
29 32 22 Reed Sorenson Dodge Supercuts 81/5 76 In Pit
30 28 28 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet U.S. Border Patrol 73/0 75 In Pit
31 11 60 Carl Edwards Ford Save-A-Lot 70/0 70 Running
32 25 66 Steve Wallace Chevrolet Atreus Homes & Communities 67/0 70 In Pit
33 14 41 Kyle Krisiloff Dodge Polaroid 64/0 70 In Pit
34 13 21 Stephen Leicht Chevrolet Childress Vineyards 61/0 70 In Pit
35 38 161 Kevin Lepage Ford Specialty Racing 58/0 69 In Pit
36 18 47 Kelly Bires Ford Clorox 55/0 69 In Pit
37 10 32 Denny Hamlin Toyota Hass Avocados from Mexico 52/0 47 Out of Race
38 42 157 Justin Ashburn Dodge dverve.net 49/0 35 In Pit
40 31 0 Dwayne Leik Chevrolet Lori Morgan 48/5 24 In Pit
41 4 40 Dario Franchitti * Dodge Fastenal 40/0 10 Running
42 22 275 Johnny Sauter Chevrolet Bob Schacht Motorsports 37/0 10 In Pit
43 34 91 Larry Gunselman Chevrolet MSRP Motorsports 34/0 10 Running
Bookmark to:
- Expect last lap drama at Talladega
- #20 Home Depot team not allowed to unload car, Stewart to NASCAR hauler?
- ‘Front Row Joe’ jumps up to win pole at Talladega
- Mayfield to sub for still injured Franchitti at Dover
- 2007 All Star video: Harvick holds off Jimmie Johnson
Nice job holding the bottom to keep Earnhardt from
clearing him.
HOWEVER.. Does anyone, anyone at all, believe Kevin
Lepage’s argument that it was the field’s/spotter’s fault
for the 16 car wreck? That was one of the stupidest
things I’ve seen a driver do. What was he thinking?
The whole pack to move up a lane for him? I mean
he pulled up right in front of them. Common sense buddy !
The Allstate Good Hands driver of the race award goes to…Kevin Lepage
jr. sucks
Lepage’s explanation for his position on the track was either under an old rule or is an explanation for another track, not Talladega. Talladega hasn’t used that procedure in years. I heard a couple different versions of why it might of happened. I just can’t believe Lepage didn’t think twice about it.
rofl jr sucks
Yay tony
and did anybody catch Jr picking his ears and then looking at it during the interview after the race..? Thought that was a bit disgusting. Ew. LOL, and it always seems like his attention is somewhere ELSE besides the camera and the reporter during an interview.
Sushstewart20 wrote:
Camera shy? Don’t know :\
Sushstewart20 wrote:
If you had a camera stuck in your face as much as he has wouldnt you want to be somewhere else?
I think that Garmin should award a navigation system to Lepage because he has no sense of direction.