Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman walked away from Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway with smiles on their faces as both produced a top-10 finish in the season’s second restrictor-plate race.
Busch came home third in his Miller Lite Dodge Charger and jumped to 10th in the point standings. Newman, despite losing a right-front fender from his car in the race’s latter stages, produced a ninth-place finish in his Kodak Dodge Charger and gained two positions in the standings, moving into 24th. Newman now trails the 12th-place Carl Edwards by 161 points.
“This was just the boost that our Miller Lite Dodge team needed, ” a happy Busch said after the race. “Man, with about 20 laps or so to go, it didn’t look that promising. I figured that the high line was the best place to be, but when there were 30 cars running up there in single file, we had to look elsewhere.
“When we had the restart with about 10 laps to go, I knew we would see it get back to two- and three-wide racing. We were pretty aggressive moving up through there, but with the laps running out, we just had to go for it and get all the positions we could. They said we made up 23 spots in the final 10 laps and that’s pretty incredible. Like I said, this was a finish that we needed and it came at a really good time for our team. We had a great test at Richmond earlier this month and we’re really looking forward to getting back there this weekend. “
Busch started 26th and Newman directly behind him in 28th. Together they moved through the field. Busch eventually led twice for seven laps and Newman made it up to second in the high speed chess game.
With the race winding down on the 2.66-mile track, it appeared either Busch or Newman might claim Penske Racing’s first-ever restrictor-plate victory. However, on lap 162 of the scheduled 188-lap race, Juan Pablo Montoya, who was running in front of Newman, had a tire go down on his Dodge. That shot his car up the race track and the collision with Newman’s car cut the right-front tire on his Kodak Dodge and severely damaged the fender. Debris was spread over the track and Newman made his way to pit road just as NASCAR waved the fifth of eight caution flags.
The Kodak crew worked hard to keep Newman on the lead lap. They replaced the right-side tires and made two subsequent stops to repair the right-front fender. There was absolutely nothing left of the fender, but the team needed to make sure nothing would cut the tire.
Newman fell from 10th to 30th in one lap, but he was able to stay on the lead lap and was looking to make his way back to the front with a li ttle help from some friends.
Bobby Labonte, who had received the Lucky Dog Award with the caution, restarted behind Newman. Newman asked his spotter to pass on the following message: “Tell the 43 to glue his car to my bumper and push hard!
Labonte agreed and helped Newman move up to 28th when the caution flag came out again on lap 175 for a piece of debris that had flown off Newman’s Kodak Dodge.
On the next restart, it was Kenny Wallace who was behind Newman and this was the message to him, “Tell Wallace to push me like he pushed [Dale] Earnhardt [to victory in October 2000].
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