2008 SPRINT CUP RACE 30: Amp Energy 500 @ Talladega

Talladega was stop number four for the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. The Yates car of Travis Kvapil came out of hiding to score his very first pole beating out Casey Mears in the #5 car. With restrictor plate tracks, you have to expect the unexpected yet expect "The Big One". In one of the practice sessions, Dale Jr. blew a tire collecting a few other cars. All of them went into backup cars for the race. So what wrecks happened in the race? Well, there happened to be two big wrecks, each collecting about 10 cars. The first incident occured when Brian Vickers blew a tire collecting Martin Truex Jr., David Gillliland, Kasey Kahne and more. The second big wreck happened when Carl Edwards went a little too far bump drafting his teammate Greg Biffle in Turn 3. Biffle, Juan Montoya, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Matt Kenseth were among those involved with heavy damage. So it came down to a battle between Tony Stewart, and two DEI cars of Regan Smith and Paul Menard. On the final lap as the field came to the dogleg coming to the line, Regan Smith attempted a pass low of Stewart but apparantly the #20 pinned the #01 below the yellow line. Smith did cross the finish line first but NASCAR declared his pass illegal handing the victory to Tony Stewart for Smoke's first win of 2008. Paul Menard scored his best career finish getting bumped up to 2nd, Bobby Labonte got 6th, Scott Riggs 7th, and Robby Gordon 8th. Five Chevys, three Dodges, one Ford, and one Toyota got Top 10s.

The Top 10:
1. #20 Tony Stewart (Toyota)
2. #15 Paul Menard (Chevrolet)
3. #6 David Ragan (Ford)
4. #31 Jeff Burton (Chevrolet)
5. #07 Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet)
6. #43 Bobby Labonte (Dodge)
7. #66 Scott Riggs (Chevrolet)
8. #7 Robby Gordon (Dodge)
9. #48 Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
10. #19 Elliott Sadler (Dodge)

Off to Charlotte for the Fall race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.