THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
October 8th, 2012
Volume VI, Edition CCII
~~~~~~~~~~
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Kenseth Avoids Record-Setting Crash for Talladega Victory
by Jeff Wolfe
The wait was long, but the result was sudden.
As is often the case with NASCAR Sprint Cup races on restrictor plate tracks, the anticipation of the potential "Big One," the accident that takes out several cars in one fell swoop, creates a different atmosphere than at most other tracks.
The big one at Talladega Sunday didn't take place until the last of the 189 laps on the 2.66-mile superspeedway, where cars race in big packs and speeds push 200 mph. Emerging from the carnage, which featured 25 cars, the largest last-lap accident in NASCAR history, was Matt Kenseth with the victory, his second this season and the 23rd of this career.
Kenseth, who led 33 laps, escaped because he was near the front of the pack when leader Tony Stewart moved down from in front of Kenseth and tried to block a charging Michael Waltrip on the bottom on the backstretch. Stewart admitted he made a bad move, one that left a lot of expensive cars looking like they belonged in a junkyard.
"I just screwed up. I turned down and cut across Michael and crashed the whole field," Stewart said. "It was my fault, blocking and trying to stay where I was at. I was trying to win the race and I was trying to stay ahead of Matt there and Michael got a great run on the bottom and had a big head of steam, and when I turned down, I turned across the front of his car. Just a mistake on my part but cost a lot of people a bad day."
Stewart then went for a ride on his side, landing on the hood of Clint Bowyer and the door of Paul Menard as the melee went on all around. That allowed Kenseth, who made a save when his car nearly spun on lap 42, to surge ahead of the wreckage.
"Well, I saw Tony's back bumper," Kenseth said. "I saw him getting spun out. I don't know how that happened or how he got in that position. But I saw him spinning out. We were clear of him. I didn't know if Kevin was still back there. You check your mirror in a lot of these places.
"I looked in the mirror and there was nobody back there. I thought that it was our race then. So just kind of slowed down and got it back to the finish."
With the finishing places frozen once the yellow flag came out, that left NASCAR needing about two hours to sort out the final results behind him. Literally everyone else was involved in some way, shape, or form; once the smoke cleared, Jeff Gordon was credited with second for the second consecutive week.
"That was the craziest, craziest finish I've ever experienced at Talladega," Gordon said. "It was just insane. I remember when coming to Talladega was fun, and I haven't experienced that in a long time. That was bumper-cars at 200 mph. I don't know anybody who likes that."
In typical wreck-avoiding fashion, Gordon knew his finish was a matter of some rare good luck for him this season.
"We were like four-wide, went into three, and I saw smoke," he said. "When I saw smoke, everybody checked up in a hurry, and I hit the 5 and the 18 hit me, and it just turned me right down to the apron and I drove by pretty much everybody but the 17. So we got really lucky there."
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wasn't one of the lucky ones. The five-time winner at Talladega led 18 laps and ended up finishing a frustrating 20th.
"If this was what we did every week, I wouldn't be doing it," he said. "I'll just put it to you that way. If this was how we raced every week, I'd find another job. That's what the package is doing. It's really not racing. It's a little disappointing. It cost a lot of money right there.
"If this is how we're going to continue to race and nothing is going to change, how about NASCAR build the cars? It'll save us a lot of money. It's not safe. It's not. It's blood thirsty. If that's what people want, that's ridiculous."
The rest of the top-10 in front of an estimated crowd of 88,000 after Kenseth and Gordon were Kyle Busch in third, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Regan Smith, points leader Brad Keselowski, Travis Kvapil, Ryan Newman and Jeff Burton.
The drivers, whether they like it or not, know the finishes at Talladega and Daytona, the other restrictor plate track, are likely going to be a bit crazy.
"At the end you know it's going to get aggressive,'' Gordon said. "It started to ramp up, so you're pretty sure there's going to be a caution, and then with the green-white-checker, you know you're not making it back to the checkered. You wonder if you'll make it to the white. You know you're not going to make it back to the checkered without there being a wreck."
The final caution was the fifth one of the day in a race that featured 54 lead changes among 18 drivers.
Jamie McMurray led the most laps on the day with 38 and looked to be a contender for the win, but he spun with five laps to go to set up the final dash, which amazingly was avoided by the rest of the field,. That left him with a 34th-place finish.
The fifth race in the 10-race Chase for the Championship will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday on ABC when the circuit goes to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
-- Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
October 8th, 2012
Volume VI, Edition CCII
~~~~~~~~~~
Sprint Cup Race Recap: Kenseth Avoids Record-Setting Crash for Talladega Victory
by Jeff Wolfe
The wait was long, but the result was sudden.
As is often the case with NASCAR Sprint Cup races on restrictor plate tracks, the anticipation of the potential "Big One," the accident that takes out several cars in one fell swoop, creates a different atmosphere than at most other tracks.
The big one at Talladega Sunday didn't take place until the last of the 189 laps on the 2.66-mile superspeedway, where cars race in big packs and speeds push 200 mph. Emerging from the carnage, which featured 25 cars, the largest last-lap accident in NASCAR history, was Matt Kenseth with the victory, his second this season and the 23rd of this career.
Kenseth, who led 33 laps, escaped because he was near the front of the pack when leader Tony Stewart moved down from in front of Kenseth and tried to block a charging Michael Waltrip on the bottom on the backstretch. Stewart admitted he made a bad move, one that left a lot of expensive cars looking like they belonged in a junkyard.
"I just screwed up. I turned down and cut across Michael and crashed the whole field," Stewart said. "It was my fault, blocking and trying to stay where I was at. I was trying to win the race and I was trying to stay ahead of Matt there and Michael got a great run on the bottom and had a big head of steam, and when I turned down, I turned across the front of his car. Just a mistake on my part but cost a lot of people a bad day."
Stewart then went for a ride on his side, landing on the hood of Clint Bowyer and the door of Paul Menard as the melee went on all around. That allowed Kenseth, who made a save when his car nearly spun on lap 42, to surge ahead of the wreckage.
"Well, I saw Tony's back bumper," Kenseth said. "I saw him getting spun out. I don't know how that happened or how he got in that position. But I saw him spinning out. We were clear of him. I didn't know if Kevin was still back there. You check your mirror in a lot of these places.
"I looked in the mirror and there was nobody back there. I thought that it was our race then. So just kind of slowed down and got it back to the finish."
With the finishing places frozen once the yellow flag came out, that left NASCAR needing about two hours to sort out the final results behind him. Literally everyone else was involved in some way, shape, or form; once the smoke cleared, Jeff Gordon was credited with second for the second consecutive week.
"That was the craziest, craziest finish I've ever experienced at Talladega," Gordon said. "It was just insane. I remember when coming to Talladega was fun, and I haven't experienced that in a long time. That was bumper-cars at 200 mph. I don't know anybody who likes that."
In typical wreck-avoiding fashion, Gordon knew his finish was a matter of some rare good luck for him this season.
"We were like four-wide, went into three, and I saw smoke," he said. "When I saw smoke, everybody checked up in a hurry, and I hit the 5 and the 18 hit me, and it just turned me right down to the apron and I drove by pretty much everybody but the 17. So we got really lucky there."
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wasn't one of the lucky ones. The five-time winner at Talladega led 18 laps and ended up finishing a frustrating 20th.
"If this was what we did every week, I wouldn't be doing it," he said. "I'll just put it to you that way. If this was how we raced every week, I'd find another job. That's what the package is doing. It's really not racing. It's a little disappointing. It cost a lot of money right there.
"If this is how we're going to continue to race and nothing is going to change, how about NASCAR build the cars? It'll save us a lot of money. It's not safe. It's not. It's blood thirsty. If that's what people want, that's ridiculous."
The rest of the top-10 in front of an estimated crowd of 88,000 after Kenseth and Gordon were Kyle Busch in third, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Regan Smith, points leader Brad Keselowski, Travis Kvapil, Ryan Newman and Jeff Burton.
The drivers, whether they like it or not, know the finishes at Talladega and Daytona, the other restrictor plate track, are likely going to be a bit crazy.
"At the end you know it's going to get aggressive,'' Gordon said. "It started to ramp up, so you're pretty sure there's going to be a caution, and then with the green-white-checker, you know you're not making it back to the checkered. You wonder if you'll make it to the white. You know you're not going to make it back to the checkered without there being a wreck."
The final caution was the fifth one of the day in a race that featured 54 lead changes among 18 drivers.
Jamie McMurray led the most laps on the day with 38 and looked to be a contender for the win, but he spun with five laps to go to set up the final dash, which amazingly was avoided by the rest of the field,. That left him with a 34th-place finish.
The fifth race in the 10-race Chase for the Championship will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday on ABC when the circuit goes to Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chasing the Chase: Keselowski's Victory Helps Him Retake Points Lead
by Jeff Wolfe
Brad Keselowski didn't need to win to keep his points lead in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship, but he mostly avoided one of the biggest accidents in NASCAR history Sunday at Talladega to walk away with a seventh-place finish and increase his lead in the point standings.
Keselowski saw his margin increase to 14 points over second-place Jimmie Johnson, a nine-point increase over what he had heading into the race. Johnson was caught up in the final lap accident, which featured 25 cars, and finished 17th. Keselowski also narrowly avoided a crash that involved Carl Edwards, Cole Whitt and Joey Logano on lap 18 that could have easily been a disaster for him as well.
The driver who made the biggest gain in the standings was second-place finisher Jeff Gordon. He jumped from tenth to sixth place, but picked up just six points on Keselowski, leaving him 42 behind the leader.
And even though Matt Kenseth won, he remained 12th in the points, still 62 behind Keselowski, a ten-point gain on the day.
Two drivers who saw their Chase chances take a big hit were defending champion Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Stewart was in the lead on the final lap when he pulled down to try and block Michael Waltrip, only to clip Waltrip and start the big one. That left Stewart, a three-time champion, with a 22nd-place finish. He went from 32 points back to 46 points behind, sitting seventh in the standings.
Earnhardt Jr. was also caught in the final lap melee and finished 20th. That dropped him from 39 points behind to 51 behind first place and to 11th in the standings. Another loser in the final-lap wreck was Clint Bowyer. He seemed set for a top-10 finish, but was one of the cars to hit Stewart and finished 23rd. That dropped him from 25 points back to 40 points back, even though he is fifth in the standings.
Another winner in avoiding the last lap melee was Denny Hamlin, who sits third in the points, 23 behind Keselowski. Hamlin spent much of the day running at the back of the lead lap and never appeared to be a threat to win the race. But the strategy paid off in the final lap as he had time to make his way through the wreckage for a 14th-place finish rather than the high-20s ending that he seemed destined for.
Chase contender Kasey Kahne also had some good luck on a couple of occasions. One, of course, was the final lap, where he avoided enough trouble to finish 12th. He also caught a break when a caution came out on lap 99. Kahne had just run out of gas and was heading to the pits when Kurt Busch also ran out of gas while leading the race, causing him to spin and bring out a caution. That allowed Kahne to stay on the lead lap as he coasted into the pits.
Three other Chasers also avoided bad luck. Greg Biffle finished sixth, Kevin Harvick 11th and Martin Truex, Jr. 13th. However, Truex is still eighth in points 48 back, and Biffle and Harvick are ninth and 10th each 49 points back. Only Biffle made any gain, picking up two points on the leader.
Chase for the Championship Standings: 1) Brad Keselowski 2179 points, 2) Jimmie Johnson -14, 3) Denny Hamlin -23, 4) Kasey Kahne -36, 5) Clint Bowyer -40, 6) Jeff Gordon -42, 7) Tony Stewart -46, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -48, t-9) Greg Biffle -49, t-9) Kevin Harvick -49, 11) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -51, 12) Matt Kenseth -62.
Best of the Rest: 13) Kyle Busch 912, 14) Ryan Newman -47, 15) Carl Edwards -68, 16) Paul Menard -82, 17) Marcos Ambrose -96, 18) Joey Logano -115.
Race Winners: Matt Kenseth (Daytona 500. Talladega 2), Denny Hamlin (Phoenix, Kansas, Bristol 2, Atlanta, New Hampshire 2), Tony Stewart (Las Vegas, Fontana, Daytona 2), Brad Keselowski (Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky, Chicagoland 2, Dover 2), Ryan Newman (Martinsville), Greg Biffle (Texas, Michigan 2), Kyle Busch (Richmond), Jimmie Johnson (Darlington, Dover, Indianapolis), Kasey Kahne (Charlotte, New Hampshire), Joey Logano (Pocono 1), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Michigan 1), Clint Bowyer (Sonoma, Richmond 2), Jeff Gordon (Pocono 2), Marcos Ambrose (Watkins Glen).
Tracking The Top 35: The Gap Shrinks Just a Little
The gap between the 35th and 36th place remained significant after Sunday's race at Talladega, putting the gap between 35th and 36th place at 120 points. The top-35 in points are guaranteed a starting spot in each week's race, and as has been the case since the first two months of the season, the margin remains a wide one.
The No. 36 car driven by Dave Blaney finished 29th and sits in the 35th spot, while the No. 21 car driven by Trevor Bayne finished 21st and sits in 36th. Bayne is driving a partial schedule for the Wood Brothers this season.
Here's your owner point standings around the all-important cutoff...
29) Front Row Motorsports (No. 34 - David Ragan), 273 points ahead of 36th.
30) Front Row Motorsports (No. 38 - David Gilliland), 263 points ahead of 36th.
31) Germain Racing (No. 13 – Casey Mears), 254 points ahead of 36th.
32) BK Racing (No. 83 - Landon Cassill), 218 points ahead of 36th.
33) Tommy Baldwin Racing / Stewart-Haas Racing (No. 10 – David Reutimann), 171 points ahead of 36th.
34) FAS Lane Racing (No. 32 – Terry Labonte), 156 points ahead of 36th.
35) Tommy Baldwin Racing (No. 36 – Dave Blaney), 120 points ahead of 36th.
36) Wood Brothers Racing (No. 21 - Trevor Bayne), 120 points behind 35th.
37) Circle Point, LLC (No. 33 – Cole Whitt), 143 points behind 35th.
38) Inception Motorsports (No. 30 – David Stremme), 166 points behind 35th.
39) Phil Parsons Racing (No. 98 – Michael McDowell), 212 points behind 35th.
40) Robinson-Blakeney Racing (No. 49 – Jason Leffler), 227 points behind 35th.
41) Front Row Motorsports (No. 26 - Josh Wise), 229 points behind 35th.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~
Secret Star of the Week: The Race You Never Saw
At Talladega, the Big One can always skew the final results based simply on who makes it through and who doesn't. When the crash occurs ultimately doesn't matter. On Sunday, this crash happened on the final lap and almost no one on the lead lap was spared. However, despite the carnage, there were a couple of "minnow teams" who came out of the smoke Sunday with a decent finish, despite crash damage. The best of these drivers was David Ragan in the 8-Hour Energy Ford (Note: Unlike 5-Hour Energy's liquid shots, 8-Hour Energy is actually a pill). Ragan's car suffered significant damage in the final lap crash, but Ragan was able to drive his Fusion over the line to finish in 4th. This is the best finish of the year for both Ragan and Front Row Motorsports. - Phil Allaway
STAT OF THE WEEK: 346. According to NASCAR, 25 cars were involved in Sunday's last-lap crash in Turn 4. This is the largest wreck in the Sprint Cup Series since a Lap 4 wreck in the Aaron's 499 back in 2003, which involved 27 cars. That crash was not started by contact, but by a blown tire on Ryan Newman's Alltel Dodge. - Phil Allaway
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Quotes to Remember: Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500
"Well, I'm a finely tuned athlete. I've got a really strenuous workout regimen, so I'm really good." - Tony Stewart, finished 22nd, to ESPN's Jamie Little
"I was trying to win the race, and I was trying to stay ahead of Matt (Kenseth). Michael (Waltrip) got a great run on the bottom, had a big head of steam. When I turned down, I turned down across the right-front of his car. A mistake on my part. It cost a lot of people a bad day because of it." - Stewart, in his press release
"If this is what we did every week I wouldn't be doing it I will just put it to you like that. If this is how we raced every week I would find another job. My car got clobbered, but somehow I was able to drive it to the checkered flag with a fifth-place finish. I need to look at replays to see how it all came about and how it all finished. There are plenty of smart people out there that can figure something out where when one guy gets in trouble we don't have 30 cars tore up at the expense of it. I mean it's awesome in a word and everybody can get on the chip about it and get excited about all that which just happened, but for the longevity of the sport that aint healthy. I don't care what anybody says for the good of the sport I mean it's good for the here and now and it will get people talking today, but for the long run that is not going to help the sport the way that race ended and the way the racing is. It's not going to be productive for years to come. I don't even want to go to Daytona or Talladega next year, but I ain't got much choice." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 20th
"Everything happened so quickly. What a wild ending. I am sure the fans and television audience thought it was exciting, but it was pretty hairy inside the car. It was just another typical Talladega finish. It's hard to say where we would have ended up had there not been that final-lap accident, but we had a fast car all day and deserved a strong finish." - Regan Smith, finished fifth
"It's kind of how these races are in that you either have a really good day or a really bad day. The real fortunate thing was we ran really good all day. I was really proud of everybody on our Geico Ford. Roush built us a great car and our guys did a great job refining it. Bootie and the guys made good calls and kind of kept us in the game all day long and it was fun. I had a blast all day long. At the end we had the run to really win or be top three. That middle lane took off and went. I had the 55 and was shoving him pretty good. The 14, you could tell for a second that it's almost like he thought, 'should I go down or not,' and then when he decided it was already too late. This stuff happens. Everybody is trying to win and make something happen. Unfortunately, we didn't get the finish we deserved today, but it was fun to be competitive and run well." - Casey Mears, finished 26th
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. Unbelievable. I was probably 20th and five-wide up against the wall and then cars started wrecking. A car flew over the top of my car as I turned to the bottom and missed guys by three inches. It was like Days of Thunder coming through the smoke and the grass and just kept it going straight. That's all I did and once I was clear of all the stuff I kept going to the start-finish line, but it was the craziest thing I've ever been involved in in my life." - Greg Biffle, finished sixth
"You are kind of along for the ride once it starts, but I just about made it by and somebody got me I think in the right rear corner and turned me back to the right and sucked me up into it. I felt like I could downshift and try to steer it as long as I could. We ended up making it back to the line; a few cars passed us so we might be a little better than 13th. Just the way it goes. I was very close to getting through there and running right there with Jeff (Gordon) because Jeff was pushing me hard; it just took me to the right. You can feel it coming, you can see it coming. It is just whether it is going to hit you or not. It just hit us. We had just about snuck through the thing." - Kasey Kahne, finished 12th
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Talladega-2 Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: Scrambled Results, Twitter Troubles And Parker Kligerman's Future
by the Frontstretch Staff
It's A Three Horse Race
by Mike Neff
No Daytona 500 For Earnhardt? NASCAR Plate Racing Pushing Drivers To Edge
by Tom Bowles
The Big Six: Questions Answered After Talladega... But is Busch's Behavior One?
by Amy Henderson
Tracking the Trucks: Fred's 250 Powered by Coca-Cola
by Beth Lunkenheimer
Chasing the Chase: Keselowski's Victory Helps Him Retake Points Lead
by Jeff Wolfe
Brad Keselowski didn't need to win to keep his points lead in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship, but he mostly avoided one of the biggest accidents in NASCAR history Sunday at Talladega to walk away with a seventh-place finish and increase his lead in the point standings.
Keselowski saw his margin increase to 14 points over second-place Jimmie Johnson, a nine-point increase over what he had heading into the race. Johnson was caught up in the final lap accident, which featured 25 cars, and finished 17th. Keselowski also narrowly avoided a crash that involved Carl Edwards, Cole Whitt and Joey Logano on lap 18 that could have easily been a disaster for him as well.
The driver who made the biggest gain in the standings was second-place finisher Jeff Gordon. He jumped from tenth to sixth place, but picked up just six points on Keselowski, leaving him 42 behind the leader.
And even though Matt Kenseth won, he remained 12th in the points, still 62 behind Keselowski, a ten-point gain on the day.
Two drivers who saw their Chase chances take a big hit were defending champion Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Stewart was in the lead on the final lap when he pulled down to try and block Michael Waltrip, only to clip Waltrip and start the big one. That left Stewart, a three-time champion, with a 22nd-place finish. He went from 32 points back to 46 points behind, sitting seventh in the standings.
Earnhardt Jr. was also caught in the final lap melee and finished 20th. That dropped him from 39 points behind to 51 behind first place and to 11th in the standings. Another loser in the final-lap wreck was Clint Bowyer. He seemed set for a top-10 finish, but was one of the cars to hit Stewart and finished 23rd. That dropped him from 25 points back to 40 points back, even though he is fifth in the standings.
Another winner in avoiding the last lap melee was Denny Hamlin, who sits third in the points, 23 behind Keselowski. Hamlin spent much of the day running at the back of the lead lap and never appeared to be a threat to win the race. But the strategy paid off in the final lap as he had time to make his way through the wreckage for a 14th-place finish rather than the high-20s ending that he seemed destined for.
Chase contender Kasey Kahne also had some good luck on a couple of occasions. One, of course, was the final lap, where he avoided enough trouble to finish 12th. He also caught a break when a caution came out on lap 99. Kahne had just run out of gas and was heading to the pits when Kurt Busch also ran out of gas while leading the race, causing him to spin and bring out a caution. That allowed Kahne to stay on the lead lap as he coasted into the pits.
Three other Chasers also avoided bad luck. Greg Biffle finished sixth, Kevin Harvick 11th and Martin Truex, Jr. 13th. However, Truex is still eighth in points 48 back, and Biffle and Harvick are ninth and 10th each 49 points back. Only Biffle made any gain, picking up two points on the leader.
Chase for the Championship Standings: 1) Brad Keselowski 2179 points, 2) Jimmie Johnson -14, 3) Denny Hamlin -23, 4) Kasey Kahne -36, 5) Clint Bowyer -40, 6) Jeff Gordon -42, 7) Tony Stewart -46, 8) Martin Truex Jr. -48, t-9) Greg Biffle -49, t-9) Kevin Harvick -49, 11) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. -51, 12) Matt Kenseth -62.
Best of the Rest: 13) Kyle Busch 912, 14) Ryan Newman -47, 15) Carl Edwards -68, 16) Paul Menard -82, 17) Marcos Ambrose -96, 18) Joey Logano -115.
Race Winners: Matt Kenseth (Daytona 500. Talladega 2), Denny Hamlin (Phoenix, Kansas, Bristol 2, Atlanta, New Hampshire 2), Tony Stewart (Las Vegas, Fontana, Daytona 2), Brad Keselowski (Bristol, Talladega, Kentucky, Chicagoland 2, Dover 2), Ryan Newman (Martinsville), Greg Biffle (Texas, Michigan 2), Kyle Busch (Richmond), Jimmie Johnson (Darlington, Dover, Indianapolis), Kasey Kahne (Charlotte, New Hampshire), Joey Logano (Pocono 1), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (Michigan 1), Clint Bowyer (Sonoma, Richmond 2), Jeff Gordon (Pocono 2), Marcos Ambrose (Watkins Glen).
Tracking The Top 35: The Gap Shrinks Just a Little
The gap between the 35th and 36th place remained significant after Sunday's race at Talladega, putting the gap between 35th and 36th place at 120 points. The top-35 in points are guaranteed a starting spot in each week's race, and as has been the case since the first two months of the season, the margin remains a wide one.
The No. 36 car driven by Dave Blaney finished 29th and sits in the 35th spot, while the No. 21 car driven by Trevor Bayne finished 21st and sits in 36th. Bayne is driving a partial schedule for the Wood Brothers this season.
Here's your owner point standings around the all-important cutoff...
29) Front Row Motorsports (No. 34 - David Ragan), 273 points ahead of 36th.
30) Front Row Motorsports (No. 38 - David Gilliland), 263 points ahead of 36th.
31) Germain Racing (No. 13 – Casey Mears), 254 points ahead of 36th.
32) BK Racing (No. 83 - Landon Cassill), 218 points ahead of 36th.
33) Tommy Baldwin Racing / Stewart-Haas Racing (No. 10 – David Reutimann), 171 points ahead of 36th.
34) FAS Lane Racing (No. 32 – Terry Labonte), 156 points ahead of 36th.
35) Tommy Baldwin Racing (No. 36 – Dave Blaney), 120 points ahead of 36th.
36) Wood Brothers Racing (No. 21 - Trevor Bayne), 120 points behind 35th.
37) Circle Point, LLC (No. 33 – Cole Whitt), 143 points behind 35th.
38) Inception Motorsports (No. 30 – David Stremme), 166 points behind 35th.
39) Phil Parsons Racing (No. 98 – Michael McDowell), 212 points behind 35th.
40) Robinson-Blakeney Racing (No. 49 – Jason Leffler), 227 points behind 35th.
41) Front Row Motorsports (No. 26 - Josh Wise), 229 points behind 35th.
Jeff Wolfe is a Contributor for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via email at jeff.wolfe@frontstretch.com.
~~~~~~~~~~
Secret Star of the Week: The Race You Never Saw
At Talladega, the Big One can always skew the final results based simply on who makes it through and who doesn't. When the crash occurs ultimately doesn't matter. On Sunday, this crash happened on the final lap and almost no one on the lead lap was spared. However, despite the carnage, there were a couple of "minnow teams" who came out of the smoke Sunday with a decent finish, despite crash damage. The best of these drivers was David Ragan in the 8-Hour Energy Ford (Note: Unlike 5-Hour Energy's liquid shots, 8-Hour Energy is actually a pill). Ragan's car suffered significant damage in the final lap crash, but Ragan was able to drive his Fusion over the line to finish in 4th. This is the best finish of the year for both Ragan and Front Row Motorsports. - Phil Allaway
STAT OF THE WEEK: 346. According to NASCAR, 25 cars were involved in Sunday's last-lap crash in Turn 4. This is the largest wreck in the Sprint Cup Series since a Lap 4 wreck in the Aaron's 499 back in 2003, which involved 27 cars. That crash was not started by contact, but by a blown tire on Ryan Newman's Alltel Dodge. - Phil Allaway
~~~~~~~~~~
Quotes to Remember: Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500
"Well, I'm a finely tuned athlete. I've got a really strenuous workout regimen, so I'm really good." - Tony Stewart, finished 22nd, to ESPN's Jamie Little
"I was trying to win the race, and I was trying to stay ahead of Matt (Kenseth). Michael (Waltrip) got a great run on the bottom, had a big head of steam. When I turned down, I turned down across the right-front of his car. A mistake on my part. It cost a lot of people a bad day because of it." - Stewart, in his press release
"If this is what we did every week I wouldn't be doing it I will just put it to you like that. If this is how we raced every week I would find another job. My car got clobbered, but somehow I was able to drive it to the checkered flag with a fifth-place finish. I need to look at replays to see how it all came about and how it all finished. There are plenty of smart people out there that can figure something out where when one guy gets in trouble we don't have 30 cars tore up at the expense of it. I mean it's awesome in a word and everybody can get on the chip about it and get excited about all that which just happened, but for the longevity of the sport that aint healthy. I don't care what anybody says for the good of the sport I mean it's good for the here and now and it will get people talking today, but for the long run that is not going to help the sport the way that race ended and the way the racing is. It's not going to be productive for years to come. I don't even want to go to Daytona or Talladega next year, but I ain't got much choice." - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., finished 20th
"Everything happened so quickly. What a wild ending. I am sure the fans and television audience thought it was exciting, but it was pretty hairy inside the car. It was just another typical Talladega finish. It's hard to say where we would have ended up had there not been that final-lap accident, but we had a fast car all day and deserved a strong finish." - Regan Smith, finished fifth
"It's kind of how these races are in that you either have a really good day or a really bad day. The real fortunate thing was we ran really good all day. I was really proud of everybody on our Geico Ford. Roush built us a great car and our guys did a great job refining it. Bootie and the guys made good calls and kind of kept us in the game all day long and it was fun. I had a blast all day long. At the end we had the run to really win or be top three. That middle lane took off and went. I had the 55 and was shoving him pretty good. The 14, you could tell for a second that it's almost like he thought, 'should I go down or not,' and then when he decided it was already too late. This stuff happens. Everybody is trying to win and make something happen. Unfortunately, we didn't get the finish we deserved today, but it was fun to be competitive and run well." - Casey Mears, finished 26th
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me. Unbelievable. I was probably 20th and five-wide up against the wall and then cars started wrecking. A car flew over the top of my car as I turned to the bottom and missed guys by three inches. It was like Days of Thunder coming through the smoke and the grass and just kept it going straight. That's all I did and once I was clear of all the stuff I kept going to the start-finish line, but it was the craziest thing I've ever been involved in in my life." - Greg Biffle, finished sixth
"You are kind of along for the ride once it starts, but I just about made it by and somebody got me I think in the right rear corner and turned me back to the right and sucked me up into it. I felt like I could downshift and try to steer it as long as I could. We ended up making it back to the line; a few cars passed us so we might be a little better than 13th. Just the way it goes. I was very close to getting through there and running right there with Jeff (Gordon) because Jeff was pushing me hard; it just took me to the right. You can feel it coming, you can see it coming. It is just whether it is going to hit you or not. It just hit us. We had just about snuck through the thing." - Kasey Kahne, finished 12th
~~~~~~~~~~
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Matt McLaughlin's Thinkin' Out Loud: Talladega-2 Race Recap
by Matt McLaughlin
Pace Laps: Scrambled Results, Twitter Troubles And Parker Kligerman's Future
by the Frontstretch Staff
It's A Three Horse Race
by Mike Neff
No Daytona 500 For Earnhardt? NASCAR Plate Racing Pushing Drivers To Edge
by Tom Bowles
The Big Six: Questions Answered After Talladega... But is Busch's Behavior One?
by Amy Henderson
Tracking the Trucks: Fred's 250 Powered by Coca-Cola
by Beth Lunkenheimer
~~~~~~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In the 1995 UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt was forced to take a Past Champions' Provisional in order to get into the field. However, he didn't stay back there very long. How long did it take Earnhardt to get up to second, which is where he ultimately finished?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: The 1989 Talladega DieHard 500 was the third restrictor plate race run with the smaller 15/16ths of an inch plates. Terry Labonte won, but eventual 1989 Champion Rusty Wallace was eliminated early on in a crash. What happened?
A: Geoff Bodine was leading the second pack of cars when he suddenly got loose and spun exiting Turn 4. Dale Earnhardt was right behind Bodine, but did not touch him. The crash collected Wallace, Derrike Cope and Michael Waltrip. Jimmy Means stomped on the brakes, but this spun Means' Alka-Seltzer Pontiac into the inside wall. The crash can be seen at the 14:30 mark of this clip, while the replays can be seen at the beginning of this clip.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: Take the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Tom Bowles
-- Fan's View Commentary by S.D. Grady
TOPIC: Why Erring On The Side Of Caution Can Be The Best Choice
-- Numbers Game: Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 by Garrett Horton
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Who's Hot / Who's Not in Sprint Cup by StarCoach Race Tours: Talladega / Charlotte Edition by Brett Poirier
The Chase is here, and Brett takes a look at which drivers are in position to take the field by storm... and which ones are already taking a look ahead towards 2013.
This year, we have an interesting new weekly feature for our readers where we'll have a special guest stop by on a weekly basis to discuss the technical aspects of the sport.
The Yellow Stripe by Danny Peters
Danny is back with another commentary to make you think.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2012 Frontstretch.com
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In the 1995 UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt was forced to take a Past Champions' Provisional in order to get into the field. However, he didn't stay back there very long. How long did it take Earnhardt to get up to second, which is where he ultimately finished?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Friday's Answer:
Q: The 1989 Talladega DieHard 500 was the third restrictor plate race run with the smaller 15/16ths of an inch plates. Terry Labonte won, but eventual 1989 Champion Rusty Wallace was eliminated early on in a crash. What happened?
A: Geoff Bodine was leading the second pack of cars when he suddenly got loose and spun exiting Turn 4. Dale Earnhardt was right behind Bodine, but did not touch him. The crash collected Wallace, Derrike Cope and Michael Waltrip. Jimmy Means stomped on the brakes, but this spun Means' Alka-Seltzer Pontiac into the inside wall. The crash can be seen at the 14:30 mark of this clip, while the replays can be seen at the beginning of this clip.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: Take the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
Coming Tuesday in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Tom Bowles
-- Fan's View Commentary by S.D. Grady
TOPIC: Why Erring On The Side Of Caution Can Be The Best Choice
-- Numbers Game: Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 by Garrett Horton
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Who's Hot / Who's Not in Sprint Cup by StarCoach Race Tours: Talladega / Charlotte Edition by Brett Poirier
The Chase is here, and Brett takes a look at which drivers are in position to take the field by storm... and which ones are already taking a look ahead towards 2013.
Five Points To Ponder by Bryan Keith
Bryan has his weekly edition of talking points to wrap up Talladega and get us ready for Charlotte.
Couch Potato Tuesday by Phil Allaway
This past weekend, the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series were both in action at Talladega Superspeedway. Were the telecasts of these events "up to snuff?" Find out in this week's TV Critique.
This year, we have an interesting new weekly feature for our readers where we'll have a special guest stop by on a weekly basis to discuss the technical aspects of the sport.
The Yellow Stripe by Danny Peters
Danny is back with another commentary to make you think.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2012 Frontstretch.com
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