Michael Waltrip was in charge to prevent to his companion Dale Earnhardt him Jr to obtain his fifth consecutive triumph in the impressive oval of Talladega, after containing the attacks of this last one in the last curve of the drawn up one, in a definition to best style NASCAR.
Waltrip took the picture flag remaining with EA SPORTS 500 when the dusk already was almost covering the complex with Talladega. And after the race was reinitiated after a spectacular accident that motivated the temporary suspension of the test with red flag.
The impressive accident, own of this oval, happened when Elliot Sadler literally took flight in its Ford Taurus. Before a NASCAR car had never risen so much as in this particular case of Sadler, that had obtained pole the day Saturday.
Luckily Sadler left unharmed the accident, although the destructions that its car caused motivated that the NASCAR commissioners suspended the race to clean the asphalt layer. After some minutes, and a pair of returns under yellow flag, the race was relaunched ahead with four turns.
Waltrip was the leader followed very close by its Earnhardt companion and the champion Jeff Gordon. Junior was able to match when coming out to Waltrip of the last curve, when this it plugged to Gordon, Waltrip reacted and also it blocked to his coequiper remaining with the triumph by as soon as an advantage car. For the veteran pilot this it was the fourth triumph of his race, and the second of the year. Exactly first it had been in Daytona, an almost identical circuit to the one of Talladega.
The celebration of Waltrip by this new victory drove crazy the fanatics of the category. The American realized several “donuts” in I graze, and later he was shown by new ventilete of the ceiling, installed by NASCAR from this race.
“He was very funny”, said Waltrip. “I had to make large-scale maneuvers to maintain the end in the end. I went above for blocking to Gordon, and I became for down because Junior was there”, adding, “If it did not block to Gordon, surely had won to me”, thought the pilot of Chevrolet.
Gordon fell until the fifth position after the obstruction of Waltrip. Stewart and Newman were able to surpass it to meters of the end.
Waltrip hardly obtained the triumph by 0,095 c on Junior. Both pilots of Dale Earnhardt Inc. took 9 of last the 12 races disputed in Talladega and Daytona.
“Today it was a very crazy day”, said to Dale Junior. “It has been a great fight by the first position, and the definition was of crazy people…”, ended up saying.
As usually it happens in Talledega, the race was spectacular. Altogether 41 changes of leadership were registered, distributed in 17 different pilots.
“It has been a typical race of Talladega”, said Stewart, that arrived third party. “Everybody by the left, soon by the right and thus in every short while. I can be given by satisfied of to have lowered walking with my car…”, thought the champion.
The leader of the points of the Winston Cup, Matt Kenseth, was not so lucky leaving for the first time in the season. Matt led the race in turn 158 when its motor exploded. Whatsoever still it maintains a comfortable difference of 354 points in the championship of pilots.
