2008 SPRINT CUP RACE 9: Aaron's 499 @ Talladega

After another week off, the Sprint Cup Series headed the the second restrictor plate race of the year for Race #9, the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. There was a surprise polesitter for this race, "Front Row Joe" Nemechek. He beat out Tony Stewart for the pole in knockout qualifying. The race on Sunday was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 300th career start in the Sprint Cup Series. The race overall was fairly clean until the last parts of the race when two moderate sized wrecks broke loose. The first wreck occured 16 laps to go when the field was racing 3 and 4 wide throughout the pack. In the middle of all that, Tony Stewart got sandwiched between two cars, lost control of his car and wrecked collecting Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch. The winner of Talladega was sort of surprising given this driver's luck here every other visit to the track. Kyle Busch defied the odds of avoiding wrecks to score his very first restrictor plate track win after caution flew on the final lap for a big wreck in Turn 2. That wreck was at the back of the field collecting 10 or more cars. This was Kyle Busch's second win of 2008. Juan Montoya was hot in pursuit of Busch, but unfortunately ran out of time to make a pass. Three Three Toyotas, three Chevrolets, two Fords, and two Dodge's got Top 10 finishes.


The Top 10:
1. #18 Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2. #42 Juan Pablo Montoya (Dodge)
3. #11 Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
4. #6 David Ragan (Ford)
5. #83 Brian Vickers (Toyota)
6. #28 Travis Kvapil (Ford)
7. #5 Casey Mears (Chevrolet)
8. #12 Ryan Newman (Dodge)
9. #07 Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet)
10. #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Chevrolet)