Call it a parting gift for Clint Bowyer.
Bowyer, who will leave Richard Childress Racing at the end of the season, snookered RCR teammate Jeff Burton on the last lap of a typically wild restrictor-plate race here to win Sunday’s Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I was going to make sure it was clean. I wasn’t going to put him in a situation where we were going to wreck,” said Bowyer, who made his winning move before reaching the tri-oval. “We’ve been through too much. I’m telling you, I have a ton of respect for Jeff Burton. He was still going to have a shot at it.” Scene Daily
On a two-lap run to the finish that followed the ninth caution of the race, Bowyer, the defending winner of the race, pushed Burton to a lead of more than 20 car lengths over the pack that was chasing them. That gave Bowyer the luxury of a slingshot move past Burton in the tri-oval. Bowyer nosed ahead 1,200 feet from the finish line and held on?barely.
“Whenever you leave here not wrecked, you ought to be happy, but at the same time, I’m heartbroke we didn’t win the race,” said Burton, who recorded his first top-five finish in more than a year. “Having said all of that, I don’t know what I would have done different.
“Honestly, I thought he made his move too early. I kind of gave him the bottom, because you tend to be able to pull them back to you better when you’re on their right rear quarter panel. He made his move really early, I thought. I thought I’d be able to pull back to him, but he had a lot of momentum when he made the move.” NASCAR.com
Dave Blaney finished third, while Brad Keselowski was the highest finisher of the Chase drivers with a fourth-place run. Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne took the fifth and sixth positions, respectively.
Carl Edwards finished 11th and increased his lead to 14 points over new second-place and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished 18th. Keselowski is now 18 points out of the lead, while Tony Stewart trails by 19 markers. Stewart finished seventh.
Jimmie Johnson finished 26th and fell 50 points behind Edwards. Just four races remain, with the series heading to Martinsville Speedway—the shortest track on the schedule—next weekend. Fox News
The Wheldon death made for some poignant moments during pre-race, as Kevin Harvick clung tightly to wife, Delana, and many drivers were seen giving long embraces to loved ones.
And as expected, the race heated up in the closing laps.
Drivers jockeyed for position and partners in the new two-car drafting system. Although the race was not marred by “the big one,” there was a series of accidents, and the last, with eight laps remaining, was a hard hit by Regan Smith that required repairs to the SAFER barrier. Los Angeles Times
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega - Race Results
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