Stewart wins, Chasers struggle in wild Talladega affair

Tony Stewart has been on the opposite end of a NASCAR ruling before. He's also suffered the devastation of tire company Goodyear's growing pains with the new car. On Sunday at the Talladega Superspeedway, others understood his heartache, while Stewart himself celebrated his first win of the season in the AMP Energy 500.
 
Stewart led DEI teammates Regan Smith and Paul Menard on the race’s final green-white-checker restart. The trio flew in formation until the field hit the tri-oval with the checkered flag in sight. That’s when Smith, a rookie with only 35 career starts, dipped to the inside of Stewart's No. 20 Toyota to make the pass. Stewart reactively dropped low to block, and Smith's No. 01 Chevrolet dipped below the yellow out-of-bounds line. Despite a NASCAR rule stating that any pass below the yellow line is illegal, Smith continued to drive his car under the line, pulling ahead of Stewart at the finish line.
 
NASCAR quickly dashed his hopes of visiting his first victory lane, calling the move illegal and dropping him to the last car scored on the lead lap, in 18th.
 
Stewart was declared the winner, his first of the season in his final year with Joe Gibbs Racing. He's finished second at Talladega six times.
 
"I thought once we got through that first lap we were going to be all right, but we got to the backstretch and he got to the bumper which was the plan and I was hoping he would get there,” Stewart explained. “If he could have stayed there all the way around to four and all the way through the frontstretch then there was no way that anybody could get to the two of us. He got a gap there off of Turn 4 and that gave him a run and I just had to protect my line. You hate to have to do that, but to win here at Talladega I would just about wreck the whole field to win here at Talladega finally.”

Smith however, felt he should have won the race.

“My judgment and NASCAR’s are totally different. We just watched the tape and we can argue about it for five years. They’re not going to change their decision. That’s how NASCAR works. I totally disagree with them 110 percent ... In the driver’s meeting they tell us each week if you’re forced below the yellow line you can go there. That’s how it goes.”

Smith's DEI teammate Paul Menard was awarded second while David Ragan, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer closed out the top 5.

While Stewart, Burton and Bowyer had the consistent day they had hoped for, many Chase contenders entered the race calling the restrictor plate track a "wild card" in the final Chase events. And they were right.
 
Four-time champion Jeff Gordon was the first Chaser to feel the wrath of the 2.66-mile superspeedway — or rather, Goodyear tire troubles.
 
On lap 55 David Reutimann's Toyota blew a right front tire directly in front of Gordon. Gordon swerved to miss the spinning Reutimann, only to lose control and slam the outside retaining wall. He spent numerous laps behind the wall while his Hendrick Motorsports DuPont team made repairs. His day eventually ended after losing an engine. He finished the race 38th.
 
On lap 69, Brian Vickers was running second when he too cut a tire, shooting across the track and collecting seven cars. The race was then red-flagged for cleanup for 17 minutes.
 
Lap 82 brought another tire problem and another yellow flag when Mike Wallace, driving a fourth Richard Childress Racing entry, saw his tire shred while running in the top 5.
 
On lap 99, Denny Hamlin was leading the race when his No. 11 Toyota blew a right front, rocketing his machine from the bottom of the racetrack hard into the outside retaining wall. Hamlin sat in his car for a few minutes following the wreck before climbing out of the window under his own power. He was then escorted to a stretcher and was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation with a possible concussion.
 
A Goodyear spokesman was made available during the television broadcast and said that debris and the heavy contact which comes with the territory in restrictor plate events may have contributed to the problems. Adding that further tests would take place at the company's headquarters in Akron, Ohio.
 
Troubles with the tires have plagued the season. Most notably at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the event had to be stopped repeatedly for competition caution flags in order to check tire wear due to persistent problems.
 
For race winner Stewart, the win was bittersweet as he was one of few drivers on Sunday to not fall victim to the tire blowouts. In May at Lowe's Motor Speedway he was just three laps away from victory before he blew a tire.
 
"There's been opportunities, we've had opportunities to win, and something's happened,” Stewart added. “It was nice today. You look at all the things that happened on the racetrack, and we weren't a part of it. We finally had one of those days where everything went right for us.”
 
With 16 laps remaining the hits just kept on coming for his fellow Chase contenders. Literally.
 
Carl Edwards was pushing teammate Greg Biffle in the high line but a bump through Turn 3 wasn't to the liking of Biffle's Ford as it got sideways, spawning a 12-car wreck and a second red flag. Biffle, Edwards and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth were only half of the Chasers involved as Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt, Jr. were also caught up.
 
Jimmie Johnson somehow avoided the monstrosity and ended the day with a ninth-place finish. He now has a 72-point lead over Edwards in the Chase standings.
 
Johnson's Chad Knaus-led team could easily mark Sunday's Talladega event as the championship-winning event if they are able to pull off their third consecutive title. Johnson started the race at the end of the field after the team checked the engine under the impound. The low starting position got the team behind early and Johnson fell a lap down. 
 
“This track was the track I feared the most,” Johnson said. “To come out of here with a top 10, with guys that were real close to me having some problems, today was a good day, a really, really good day in the big picture.”
 
There were 64 lead changes among a record 28 drivers. Stewart led a race-high 24 laps.

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