Aarons 499: Winners and Losers

Well, that’s Talladega!! With three huge crashes that changed the complexion of the race, and the points. Check out who made this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Brad Keselowski

Well, technically this is a Hendrick race car; James Finch bought the engine and the car from HMS, so technically its four in a row. What a race for this team. A few times they looked like they would cause caution and then to go from 10th to second in less than four laps and then to win the race. 

He didn’t mean to wreck Edwards, he didn’t want to go below the yellow line and he had nowhere to go. He apologized but to be honest he did nothing wrong.

He’s not a full time racer yet, but I think that Mr. Hendrick needs to work really hard at locking him into a ride soon, because he has the talent to run in this series, it’s just a matter of for which team.

Points: 41st

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He finally ran the near perfect race. I say near perfect cause he didn’t win. He was excellent on pit road and was one of the best cars all day on the track.

It’s a race like this that can build momentum for them, and they needed a strong run.

It was Earnhardt’s race to lose and he lost it to his prodigy, but his finish today could help them next week at Richmond a race he nearly won last year.

Points: 15th

The Rookies: Joey Logano and Scott Speed

At a race track where it doesn’t matter how many times you have ran at Talladega you can be a part of the big one or multiple big ones, and these two drivers avoided all three and finished within the top 10.  This was an impressive thing to do.  

Logano and Speed ran up front all day and both knew seeing that they were rookies many veterans wouldn’t line up behind them, so instead both worked with drivers and helped draft and push to the lead.

They might not have led a lap today but both earned the respect of other drivers, something many won’t forget come this fall.

Logano: 33rd

Speed: 36th

Casey Mears

It’s nice to put this team in the winners this week. They were caught early in the first big one, but repaired the damage and ran with the leaders all day long. They had solid pit stops and worked well with other drivers.

The draft is so unpredictable that most finishes don’t tell you how they ran but this 16th-place finish is a strong run for a team that has struggled to run so far this year. This might be the finish they needed to help turn this season around.

Points: 21st

Clint Bowyer

It took till lap 186 to get the car fixed, but with two laps to go Clint Bowyer and team fixed the car and was able to complete the final two laps and continue his streak of 82 consecutive races of running at the end.

If you saw this car after the wreck you would have never figured they would get this car on the track. As a team they were able to pull out a modern day record of finishing a every race.

On to Richmond a track they pulled out an improbable win last year. Points: Eighth

Losers

Jeff Gordon

Since their win before Easter break they have a finish of 25th and 37th. They were involved in the early wreck and spent the first 56 laps or so repairing the car.

They came back out and rode around with Kevin Harvick. At one point there was discussion to park for the day with 55 to go, but Gordon seemed hesitant to do that and stayed out and attrition started happening.

Instead of dropping multiple positions had they parked for the day, they only lost one position and only five points off the lead, basically bonus points for leading a lap.

They need a strong run at Richmond to get back on track.

Points: Second

Kyle Busch

I bet Kyle Busch is wishing it was 2008, he was unbeatable last year at this point, and this year this team can’t seem to find a rhythm on the track.  

This was another race where Busch was leading the race and looked like he would be the one to beat.

But in trying to protect the lead he lost control and spun out, he amazingly hit nothing in front of the entire field. But fell off the lead lap and finished a disappointing 25th.

Points: Sixth

Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards figured he would try and avoid the big ones by riding along in the back all day; he did that last fall and knocked out his teammates and much of the front of the pack.

With ten to go, Edwards was in the top 10. Edwards hooked up with eventual winner Keselowski and moved toward the front; on the white flag he had the lead.

Keselowski attempted the outside but Edwards went on to block and Keselowski went toward the inside, Edwards tried to block but Keselowski run was to strong and he spun out and literally went up into the fence in the tri-oval. Thankfully Edwards walked away from this dangerous and scary wreck.

Points: Seventh

Final Lap…

Drivers and fans hold their breath for 188 laps around here, and it takes one move, one tap, one mistake and the big one can occur.

Hopefully all the fans that were injured will be okay, who knows what would have happened had this ended differently but thankfully that scenario didn’t happen.

The COT did its job in protecting the driver, had this been the old car we could have been reading a different story right now.

This fall race happens four races from the finale, and there will be crashes like we saw today, and the leader of the points coming in better hope they survive Talladega. 

The points like today will see a shake up, this week we have plenty of time to rebound.

On to Richmond, a short track that has the best racing we see all year.