CUP: Bowyer Edges Burton For Talladega Win

Sprint Cup

CUP: Bowyer Edges Burton For Talladega Win

RCR drivers battle to finish line as several Chase drivers falter…

Mike Hembree | Posted October 23, 2011 Talladega, AL

Lame-duck driver Clint Bowyer nudged past teammate Jeff Burton in the closing seconds and won Sunday’s Good Sam Club 500 Sprint Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway to conclude a frantic day of tandem drafting.

Burton and Bowyer, who had drafted together virtually the entire race, sprinted away from the rest of the lead pack on a restart with two laps to go and were able to decide the finish within the Richard Childress Racing team.

Their dash to the finish matched a driver in his final weeks of employment with RCR (Bowyer) and a driver who has had a miserable season and was looking for an elusive victory (Burton).

Leaving the fourth turn on the final lap, Bowyer slipped to the inside of Burton and took the lead as they charged toward the checkered flag. Burton rallied briefly and tapped the right rear of Bowyer’s car as he moved up on the outside.

They finished side by side, Bowyer winning by .018 of a second.

“Everybody was hooked up,” Bowyer said. “I was trying to figure out where to pass him. I said I’m going to give him a shot at it. I’ll try it early. And it’s going to be a drag race.”

It was.

“I thought he made his move a little too early,” Burton said. “I gave him the bottom. I thought I could pull back to him. He had a lot of momentum when he made the move. He had a little more speed in his car. Nonetheless, it was a good finish for us. It’s really hard to hold that guy off when he’s coming.”

The win was Bowyer’s first of the year. At the end of the season, he’ll be moving on to Michael Waltrip Racing for the 2012 season.

The win was the 100th Sprint Cup victory for team owner Childress.

Carl Edwards finished 11th and padded his point lead. With four races remaining, he leads Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth by 14 points.

Completing the top five in points are Brad Keselowski (18 points behind), Tony Stewart (19 back) and Kevin Harvick (26 back).

Finishing out the top five in Sunday’s race were Dave Blaney, Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

The race boiled down to a two-lap shootout after the day’s ninth caution bunched the field. Burton and Bowyer led Vickers, Stewart and Kahne on the restart, and the front duo quickly moved away from the rest of the contenders.

As drivers scrambled behind them, Burton and Bowyer put space between their cars and the others, making it clear as they rolled out of the backstretch on the final lap that they would decide the issue.

After an afternoon of two-car drafting and occasional wrecks involving drafting partners, the racing got really serious over the final 10 laps as drivers in the upfront two-car drafts struggled to advance. Mayhem erupted in the middle of the pack as Mark Martin clipped Denny Hamlin and then hit Regan Smith, sending Smith’s car hard into the outside wall. He was not hurt.

Tandem drafting was the order of the day, and it was not without peril.

On lap 105, the tight double drafting resulted in a six-car crash in the trioval. AJ Allmendinger, rolling in front of teammate Marcos Ambrose, lost control of his car and slid down the track, hitting Kyle Busch and causing a big mess. The cars of Chase contenders Busch and Kevin Harvick were damaged, although they stayed in the race.

With 25 laps to go, a drafting crash involving Andy Lally and Terry Labonte resulted in Lally looping down the track and hitting the right front of Jimmie Johnson’s car. Johnson’s 48 didn’t seem to be affected by the contact, but he finished 26th and probably is out of the hunt for a sixth straight championship. He trails Edwards by 50.

Ten laps later, Bobby Labonte lost control of his car, and Chase contender Kurt Busch slammed hard into the rear of Labonte’s Toyota as the car slowed in the middle of the track.

On lap 77, Joey Logano spun while drafting with teammate Kyle Busch as they slowed in a pack of traffic as Trevor Bayne tried to drop onto pit lane. Logano’s left front fender was damaged, and Busch moved his drafting partnership to Hamlin.

Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick wreck on the front straight at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Fifteen laps later, the Stewart-Haas Racing pair of Stewart and Ryan Newman ran into trouble in the trioval. As they moved low out of turn four, Stewart bumped Newman into a spin and off the track, causing some damage. On the ensuing green flag, Stewart moved into a draft with Logano, driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing car Stewart formerly piloted.

On lap 130, teammates Kahne and Vickers saw their two-car draft come unglued, and Kahne shot across the track to the inside, causing the day’s sixth caution. No other cars were involved in the incident.

Edwards, who entered the race with the point lead, stayed with Biffle all the way. Their plan was to shoot toward the front in the closing laps, but traffic blocked them from top-10 finishes. Edwards was 11th, Biffle 14th.

“This race was insane,” Edwards said. “Greg and I had laid back. We wanted to get a Ford to victory lane but thought we’d do best by staying out of the wrecks. But I’m pleased. I wouldn’t do anything differently.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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