Stewart Tears Up ‘Dega
After a long, long two weeks of controversy centered around Tony Stewart, he visited Victory Lane in the Nationwide Series for the third time this season, and for the first time in his career at Talladega Superspeedway.
Stewart worked with his unofficial restrictor plate teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr, throughout the race to keep their cars at the front of the field. With only five laps left, the caution flag waived for debris, setting up a green-white-checkered finish. The two drivers raced in line for the first lap, but Junior pulled out of line after that to try and slingshot past him. Unfortunately for Earnhardt Nation, though, Junior didn’t get the support behind him that he was hoping for, and Stewart cruised to the finish to pick up the win.
The next four cars in line behind Stewart all went onto pass Earnhardt, and surprisingly enough, none of them are Sprint Cup regulars. Stewart was followed to the line by David Stremme, Bobby Hamilton Jr, Jason Leffler, and Mark Green, all of whom recorded their best finishes of the season. Earnhardt eventually finished in sixth.
The race was plagued with 8 caution flags, one of which was a 12-car wreck set off by Kevin Lepage. Carl Edwards – who came into the race only nine points out of the series lead – was collected in the carnage, and the race was then red flagged for about 25 minutes. Clint Bowyer, the series points leader, finished 25th and Kyle Busch came home 18th.
The victory marked Stewart’s third win in the Nationwide Series in 2008 in only five races run, and it was the first in his career at Talladega in any of the series. He’s finished 2nd in the Sprint Cup Series on six occasions, and last year’s 2nd place run in the Nationwide Series was his previous best effort prior to this race. Before finishing 2nd last year, he had 4 consecutive DNF’s in the Nationwide Series. The win is also the sixth time a Joe Gibbs Racing car has won this year in the series, as well as their fourth in a row.
Nationwide Standings (from nascar.com):
| RANK |
+/- |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
BEHIND |
STARTS |
POLES |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
| 1 |
– |
Clint Bowyer |
1427 |
Leader |
10 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
7 |
| 2 |
– |
Carl Edwards |
1400 |
-27 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
6 |
| 3 |
– |
Kyle Busch |
1388 |
-39 |
10 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
| 4 |
– |
David Reutimann |
1298 |
-129 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
| 5 |
+2 |
Mike Bliss |
1282 |
-145 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
| 6 |
-1 |
David Ragan |
1274 |
-153 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
| 7 |
-1 |
Brad Keselowski |
1252 |
-175 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
| 8 |
– |
Jason Leffler |
1227 |
-200 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| 9 |
– |
Mike Wallace |
1173 |
-254 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| 10 |
+5 |
Bobby Hamilton Jr. |
1055 |
-372 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| 11 |
-1 |
Kelly Bires |
1051 |
-376 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| 12 |
– |
Jason Keller |
1044 |
-383 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 13 |
+3 |
David Stremme |
1027 |
-400 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5 |
| 14 |
-1 |
Marcos Ambrose |
1022 |
-405 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| 15 |
-1 |
Steve Wallace |
989 |
-438 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 16 |
-5 |
Kevin Harvick |
977 |
-450 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
5 |
| 17 |
– |
Brad Coleman |
935 |
-492 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 18 |
– |
Kenny Wallace |
890 |
-537 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 19 |
– |
Dario Franchitti* |
825 |
-602 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 20 |
+3 |
Tony Stewart |
806 |
-621 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
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POSTED IN: NASCAR
2 opinions for Stewart Tears Up ‘Dega
RevJim
Apr 27, 2008 at 1:29 am
Oh man I got all emotional when Smoke introduced that little girl from Make-A-Wish Foundation in victory lane.
When an “Insurance Adjuster–” that is a Cup driver who isn’t going for the Nationwide championship–wins, it actually helps out the Nationwide regulars. That really became evident when the regulars finished ahead of the claim jumpers. Look at Mike Bliss only 143 points out of the lead! I remain optimistic that a Nationwide regular can win the championship this year, and that would be great for the series.
Tim Zaegel
Apr 27, 2008 at 11:02 am
RevJim, I really, really wish I could agree with you that a Nationwide regular could win the championship, but I just can’t make that statement as long as Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, and potentially Kyle Busch plan on running the full schedule.
That was cool, though, when Tony introduced the girl from Make-a-Wish.
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