Saturday, April 26 Talladega Superspeedway Talladega, Alabama

Tony Stewart celebrates his win with Britney Brewster, Stewart's special guest from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Stewart Claims First Talladega Win
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 26, 2008) -- Polesitter Tony Stewart held off a last-lap challenge from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Saturday to claim his first victory at Talladega Superspeedway in any series.

"Boys, we won at Talladega!" Stewart shouted as he crossed the finish line in the Aaron's 312 NASCAR Nationwide Series race .302 second ahead of runner-up David Stremme. It was Stewart's third NASCAR Nationwide win of the season.

Bobby Hamilton Jr. ran third, Jason Leffler fourth and Mark Green fifth, as Earnhardt dropped to sixth after Stewart repelled his last-ditch run on the final lap.

"I didn't think leading was the place to be," said Stewart, who led Earnhardt to the line for a restart with two laps to go in the 117-lap event, after a caution for debris in Turn 4 had slowed the race on Lap 113. "I still don't think, even after winning the race, that being the leader there with two laps to go was the right place to be.

"But we did what we had to do, and they got spread out behind us, and we got the push we needed there at the end."


Tony Stewart (20) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5) ran much of the race in this formation.

Earnhardt surged to the front on the final lap but faded on the outside when Stremme stayed with Stewart on the bottom of the track.

"Me and Tony worked great together the whole race," Earnhardt said. It was down to the last lap, and I thought we had it timed good, but my run wasn't as strong as it could have been -- and Tony was just so strong."

The entire complexion of the race changed dramatically in an instant, 12 laps past the halfway point.

Stewart was leading Earnhardt through Turn 1 on Lap 71 when Kevin Lepage pulled onto the track from the pit road into the front of the field and triggered a chain-reaction pileup that collected 15 cars, including the contending vehicles of Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, David Reutimann, Steve Wallace, Reed Sorenson and Kyle Busch.


Fifteen cars were involved in "the big one."

Casualties of the wreck included six of the top 10 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings entering the race and the other two drivers of the Wallace contingent -- Mike and Kenny -- all of whom were running in the top 10 when the melee occurred. Mike Wallace sustained minimal damage and was able to continue.

Notes: Dario Franchitti, driver of the No. 40 Chip Ganassi Racing entry, was injured during a crash on Lap 11 of Saturday's race. Franchitti blew a tire, hit the outside wall and slid down the track in Turn 3 into the path of Larry Gunselman, whose No. 91 Ford slammed into the driver's side of Franchitti's Dodge. Conscious and alert, Franchitti was taken to an ambulance on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Gunselman likewise was taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

NASCAR announced that Franchitti suffered a fractured left ankle and minor contusions. He was expected to be released from the hospital Saturday evening but will not race in Sunday's Aaron's 499. Stremme, who drove for Ganassi last year, will replace Franchitti. Stremme needed approval from Rusty Wallace Inc., his Nationwide team, and from Penske Racing, whom he recently signed with as a test driver, to have the opportunity.

Clint Bowyer entered the race as the series points leader but was caught in the same wreck that sidelined Franchitti. After repairs to his No. 2 Chevrolet, Bowyer returned to the track and finished 25th, helping him hold on to the top spot in the standings.

Complete Race Results click here

Post-Race Driver Point Standings click here


Tony Stewart won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Aaron’s 312, lapping the Talladega Superspeedway in 51.676 seconds at 185.308 mph.

• This is Stewart’s sixth pole in 82 career NASCAR Nationwide Series races.
• This is Stewart’s second pole and fifth top-10 start in as many NASCAR Nationwide Series races this season. His other pole this season came at Daytona.
• This is Stewart’s first pole and second top-10 start in six Talladega races. His previous best start here was ninth in 1998.
• Mike Bliss (second) third top-10 start – and career-best – in four races at Talladega. This ties his season-best start set at Nashville.
• Jason Leffler (third) posted his third top-10 start in five Talladega races and tied his best, set last season. Leffler tied his season best start of third – set at Daytona.
• Dario Franchitti (fourth) was the fastest qualifying rookie.
• With 43 teams on hand and 43 starting spots available there were no teams that did not qualify.

Complete Qualifying Results click here

Starting Lineup for Saturday's Aaron's 312 click here

Schedule/Broadcast Times - AT*

Qualifying: Friday, April 25 (SPEED at 6 p.m.)

Pre-Race: Saturday, April 26 (ABC at 3:30 p.m.)

Race: Saturday, April 26 (ABC at 4 p.m.)

*AT is one hour ahead of ET, i.e. if it's 2 p.m./AT - it's 1 p.m./ET...

Fast Facts
The Race: Aaron’s 312
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
The Distance: 311.22 miles/117 laps
TV: ABC, 3:30 p.m./AT, 2:30 p.m./ET
Track Size: 2.66-mile tri-oval
2007 Winner: Bobby Labonte
2007 Pole: Brad Coleman
Schedule (local track time): Thursday–Practice 3-4:45 p.m.; Final Practice 5-6 p.m.; Friday–Qualifying, 4:05 p.m. (Impound)

Year-To-Date Race Results & Point Standings: click here

Thursday First Practice Speed Chart click here Wallace fast at 191.996 mph

Thursday Final Practice Speed Chart click here Leffler tops cahrt at 164.342 mph

Qualifying Order click here Starts Friday at 6 p.m./AT (SPEED)

Track Map



Pre-Race Pit Stops

• Busch Latest To Take Aim At Ard’s Record...What more can Kyle Busch (No. 18 Z-Line Designs Toyota) do for an encore? He’s been pretty successful in his follow-up work since winning three weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway. Since that victory, Busch has posted two more wins — at Phoenix International Raceway and last Sunday at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Not only has Busch — who is in the top 10 in the standings in each of NASCAR’s national series — won three in a row for the first time since Ryan Newman in 2005, but he’s shown his talent and versatility off the same way Newman did. Like Newman, Busch accumulated his wins on totally different tracks — the intermediate and racy venue at Texas; the one-mile short track at Phoenix and the winding road course in Mexico City. He has two top fives in four series races at Talladega, but was 39th last year after an early accident. The only series driver to win four races in succession is Sam Ard. The two-time series champion did so in 1983. Three of Ard’s four consecutive wins were on short tracks while one was an intermediate-track victory.
• Three Degrees Of Dale Jr. At Talladega...Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 5 Delphi Chevrolet) has one NASCAR Nationwide Series win (2003) at Talladega but his connections in the series there extend beyond his own results. His father, Dale Earnhardt Sr., won at Talladega in series competition 10 years before his son. Martin Truex Jr., like Earnhardt Jr. a two-time series champion, is the all-time series wins leader at the track with three—all in succession (2004-06). Those came with Chance 2 Motorsports, the team co-owned by Earnhardt Jr. and Teresa Earnhardt. His current connection is his own JR Motorsports team, led by driver Brad Keselowski (No. 88 U.S NAVY Chevrolet). Keselowski comes to Talladega sixth in the standings, the highest-ranked NASCAR Nationwide Series-only driver in the top 10.
• Ambrose, Wallace Back In The Groove?...The collective sigh that emanated Sunday from Mexico City was let loose by two drivers who came into this season with high expectations but thus far hadn’t delivered. Marcos Ambrose (No. 59 Kingsford Ford) collected a runner-up finish, not a surprise for the veteran of road-course racing. More surprising was the career-best result for the Aussie, his first top 10 since last year’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway (10th). Steve Wallace (No. 66 Atreus Homes & Communities Chevrolet) was due for his breakthrough top-10 finish but few figured it would be on a road course in his 61st start. Wallace finished 10th in Mexico and moved to 14th in the rankings, tying his career-best standing. He was 26th at Talladega in 2007. Ambrose, who finished eighth in the final standings last year, had understandably lofty goals for 2008, but it’s been his JTG Racing teammate, Kelly Bires (No. 47 Clorox Ford), who’s been the leader for the organization. Bires is 10th in the standings and will make his track debut at Talladega. Ambrose was 25th at last year’s race.
• Bowyer, Edwards Engaged In Battle...Clint Bowyer (No. 2 Camping World/RVs.com Chevrolet) has a nine-point lead over defending series champion Carl Edwards (No. 60 Save-A-Lot Ford) in the standings. This is the closest the drivers in first and second have been since 2001 when Greg Biffle (No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford) led Kevin Harvick by three points after nine races.
• Brad Coleman (No. 27 USPS Ford) is one driver who is looking forward to returning to Talladega. The 20-year-old Houston, Texas native captured his first career pole at this event last year then went on to finish ninth in the race — his career-best at the time. Coleman had three top fives and five top 10s in 17 starts last year, but has only one top 10 in his first nine races this season.
• Eric McClure (No. 24 Hefty Brand Chevrolet) will reach a milestone at Talladega where he will record his 50th series start. The superspeedway is McClure’s favorite track; he recorded his series-best finish (18th) there in 2007 and made his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in 2004, finishing 26th.
• Different team, same solid results. That’s the M.O. of Mike Bliss (No. 1 Miccosukee Resorts Chevrolet), who registered his fourth top-10 finish of the season at Mexico City. Bliss began the season with Fitz Motorsports but moved to Phoenix Racing during the season’s first open week. He had two top 10s for Fitz and after a 24th-place finish at Texas in his first race in the No. 1. Since then he has posted back-to-back top 10s. In three career series starts at Talladega, Bliss has two — what else? — top 10s.
• When he was signed by Richard Childress Racing early this year, Stephen Leicht’s (No. 21 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet) original schedule was two races, sharing time with 1991 series champion Bobby Labonte, who was set for 15 events. But with two top-10s in three starts this season, Leicht was extended to at least four races with the addition of Talladega. He’ll drive the chassis that has produced one win (Kevin Harvick — Daytona) and a top-10 (Harvick — Talladega) on superspeedways since 2007. However, Leicht’s two-race average finish at Talladega is 29.5.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.