TALLADEGA – “If you don’t like this, you must not be much of a racing fan.”That’s how Denny Hamlin described Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, a 210-minute wall-to-wall event that featured 52 lead changes, only a handful of cautions and intrigue that lasted from beginning to end.
Ultimately, the race went the way that much of the 2008 Sprint Cup season has gone, as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch rallied from a difficult start to take the checkered flag on a last-lap caution, just ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.
“It was a good win for us here today,” the 22-year-old driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota said after the race. “I’m proud of the fact that we won with Joe Gibbs.
“I haven’t really seen it from the fan’s perspective. I’m really excited now, though.”
The finish was significant for more reasons than can possibly be mentioned. For one, it was the second straight day a Toyota showed up in Victory Lane, after Tony Stewart took the checkered in Saturday’s Nationwide Series Aaron’s 312. The weekend results further drove home the notion that the foreign manufacturer – in its second season on NASCAR’s top circuit – is here to stay.
“Each of our teams are a group of really gifted guys,” J.D. Gibbs said afterward. “Having Kyle to fill that hole there, I just think there’s a lot of things that really fit in that package. He just has a natural talent for it. We’re blessed to be a part of that.
“You forget how young he really is, too. We’ve got a lot of years to spend with him too … or at least five years before he retires to an island somewhere.”
For another, it was the best finish for Juan Pablo Montoya in a Cup race – a career open-wheel driver in his second season with NASCAR, Montoya hadn’t finished better than 11th all season and no better than eighth since joining the Cup circuit full-time.
“I’ve loved restrictor-plate racing ever since the first time I came to Talladega,” Montoya said. “I loved it; because of the good result today – but you can finish 20th in a heartbeat, or 30th.
“It’s pretty exciting because it takes a lot of strategy and you always have to learn to pick the right lane, and when you pick the lane, you make sure you get enough shock to make sure the line moves.”
As for the victor, Busch had never finished in the top 10 in his previous trips to Talladega, much less earned a first-place finish.
“The 42 (Montoya) was my savior today,” Busch said afterward. “He pushed me all the way to the front, and we stayed together.”
That was the plan for most of the competitors from the beginning. Various duos spent most of the day teaming up as drafting partners, as the lead changed hands repeatedly.
Hamlin was one of the dominant drivers for much of the race, spending the majority of the early part of the race trading the lead with teammate Tony Stewart and crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“For sure it’s the best race we’ve had,” Hamlin said. “Every time you come to super speedway racing, it seems like it’s with 25 to go, just really kind of busting loose and it gets kind of crazy.”
Hamlin said afterward that he intended to “determine the victor,” before a last-lap crash ended the race under yellow.
“I definitely was going to push Juan beside (Busch), and if those two bogged each other down enough, I would try to get by and go for the win,” he said. “If he stayed, I was going to have to stay on his bumper.”
Earnhardt and Stewart were as dominant early in the race as they were in Saturday’s 312, drafting off one another and trading the lead. Stewart even finished as the leader in laps led, with 61. Earnhardt was right behind, with 46.
Both suffered some bad luck late in the race, however. Stewart cut a tire and hit the wall on lap 145, then got caught up in a seven-car incident on lap 175 to end his day for good.
“The majority of the day we had a great day going,” Stewart said. “We were really in good shape … until I had the right front go down and then I got us in the back.
“As late as it is in the race with 15 laps to go, you’ve got to sit there and do what you can to get those spots back.”
As for Earnhardt, he suffered some damage in the same crash, fell out of contention before rallying back to finish 10th.
“Getting another top-10 is something to be really proud of,” he said. “If you look at my career over the last several years, we are definitely in a better position. It would be foolish for us not to appreciate the good things we have going for us and not get frustrated and decide you aren’t running good or try to figure out why you aren’t running good.
“The wins will come.”
Roush drivers spent the day snake-bitten – Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth both failed to finish — both because of tire trouble. David Ragan was the highest-finishing Ford, running near the front most of the day and coming in fourth.
“We had solid track position all day,” said Ragan. “We weren’t in the back beating and banging. We never had an over-heating issue like some of the other people I saw here.
“So, just a good solid day and a lot of fun,” he said.
