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Tony Stewart leads Regan Smith and Paul Menard on the final lap of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Todd Warshaw/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
Sunday’s AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was the very definition of bittersweet for the beleaguered Dale Earnhardt Inc. organization.
On one hand, Paul Menard drove the race of his life to finish second behind race-winner Tony Stewart, earning his first top-five finish in 69 career NASCAR Sprint Cup race starts piloting the No. 15 DEI Chevrolet Impala SS.
On the other hand, the team will forever be left to ponder the woulda, coulda, shouldas of a wild finish at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. With the race going to a green-white-checkered finish, DEI drivers Regan Smith, Menard and Aric Almirola lined up behind Stewart for the Lap 189 restart.
Behind an experienced squad of teammates, Stewart would have been a sitting duck in such a situation. But the three DEI drivers — two of whom are rookies, with Menard a second-year driver — stayed on Stewart’s bumper for nearly all of the final two laps before Almirola got shuffled all the way back to 13th and Smith made an ill-advised pass of Stewart under the yellow out-of-bounds line on the bottom of the track. Instead of ganging up on Stewart together for the victory, each of the three DEI drivers did his own thing.
Smith actually took the checkered flag ahead of Stewart, but because of his illegal move to get there, NASCAR dropped him to 18th in the final running order, the last car on the lead lap.
“I was pumping my fists like we won it because I thought we did,” said Smith. “ … I had a nose inside (Stewart) and my only alternative was to wreck ‘em so next time that’s what I’ll do. And that’s not a knock against Tony. I like Tony a lot. He’s a great guy but I wanted to win pretty damn bad there.”
Equally disappointed was Almirola. “Let me tell you, we were much better than 13th today,' said Almirola, who like Smith is in his rookie season. “I got shuffled out of the draft at the end and was left without a pusher. It's hard to swallow, because we had a really, really fast U.S. Army Chevy today. All we needed was a strong drafting partner, but never got one.'
And so the team was
As days go, bittersweet it was.
“It's plate racing,” said Menard. “It's hard to make a move. I thought Regan had it. That was cool to see him beat him (Stewart) to the line but I guess he went underneath the yellow line or whatever.”
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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