Talladega can be a defining track in the course of a NASCAR season. It has seen more than it's share of catastrophic accidents over the years in what has come to be the definition of "the big one" in each race that takes place there. The fact that more drivers haven't been seriously injured at this venue over the years is a testament to the safety innovations within motorsports as well as driver ability to limit the damage to his car (and himself).
Some of the ugliest accidents at Talladega have involved some big names. The late Dale Earnhardt is Talladega's most celebrated winner with 10 Cup victories (not to mention the success his namesake, Dale Jr., has had there as well with five wins to his credit), but he was also involved in some horrific crashes at the track that looked like they could have ended his career. Drivers either thrive on the close bumper-to-bumper, high-speed action that Talladega provides or they fail miserably.
I was a first-hand witness in my only Talladega experience to this "thrill of victory, agony of defeat" in what may have been the most interesting tale of "two different races within a single race" experiences. The event was the 2003 Aaron's 499, held three years ago this month. The schedule was a bit different back then than it is now (Talladega was the first weekend in April, following the Texas race and preceding Martinsville on the Winston Cup schedule). As the eighth race on the calendar after venues like Daytona, Rockingham, Darlington, and Bristol (as well as the intermediates of Las Vegas, Atlanta, and the aforementioned Texas), some of the shakeup in points had happened by this point already. Matt Kenseth, the eventual 2003 Champion, was leading coming into the race and was leading after the race as well.
Here were the Top 20 in the standings before:
1 Matt Kenseth 1090
2 Kurt Busch 935 -155
3 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 924 -166
4 Michael Waltrip 898 -192
5 Jimmie Johnson 885 -205
6 Jeff Gordon 864 -226
7 Tony Stewart 849 -241
8 Ryan Newman 848 -242
9 Ricky Craven 840 -250
10 Kevin Harvick 802 -288
11 Bobby Labonte 784 -306
12 Ricky Rudd 780 -310
13 Mark Martin 773 -317
14 Rusty Wallace 771 -319
15 Dale Jarrett 752 -338
16 Johnny Benson, Jr. 748 -342
17 Joe Nemechek 741 -349
18 Jeff Burton 740 -350
19 Robby Gordon 737 -353
20 Elliott Sadler 725 -365
Here were the Top 20 in the standings after:
1 Matt Kenseth 1233
2 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 1104 -129
3 Kurt Busch 1046 -187
4 Jimmie Johnson 1013 -220
5 Jeff Gordon 1011 -222
6 Ricky Craven 1000 -233
7 Michael Waltrip 994 -239
8 Kevin Harvick 977 -256
9 Tony Stewart 937 -296
10 Elliott Sadler 895 -338
11 Ryan Newman 894 -339
12 Dale Jarrett 884 -349
13 Robby Gordon 871 -362
14 Mark Martin 858 -375
15 Bobby Labonte 851 -382
16 Sterling Marlin 850 -383
17 Joe Nemechek 841 -392
18 Rusty Wallace 823 -410
19 Ricky Rudd 817 -416
20 Dave Blaney 801 -432
This 2003 Talladega race was a defining moment for one driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior was chasing history that day, looking to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive races at the superspeedway. His father never accomplished that feat, despite having won a record 10 races at the Cup level. Junior was tied with Buddy Baker, a racing legend, after winning the 2002 fall race and capturing his third straight victory on the 2.66-mile tri-oval.
On a day that saw Jeremy Mayfield lead the field to the green from the pole position, things began innocently enough. By the time the cars reached full speed after one time by, the pack was still tightly bunched from nose to tail. As the field passed the line heading into the fourth lap and out of turn 1, chaos erupted.
Ryan Newman's #12 car veered upwards on the track towards the outside wall and into fellow driver Mark Martin, starting a massive multi-car pileup. Newman's tire, which had been cut and was going flat, flew off the car and outside of the track (smashing into a police car's windshield as we came to learn later). The carnage on the track was nothing short of catastrophic -- 27 cars in total sustained some form of damage (a NASCAR record) and five cars sustained inoperable damage (Newman, Casey Mears, Johnny Benson, Ricky Rudd, and Hermie Sadler). Other cars were significantly damaged as well, like Jimmy Spencer and Rusty Wallace among others. Mark Martin, who was directly involved in the incident, as well as fellow competitors Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Bobby Labonte, et.al. were able to do enough repairs to get back out on the track for running laps, but all finished well back in the pack (greater than the 25th position).
With the field decimated by attrition (cars that just couldn't run up to speed to stay in contention), a new (yet old) story unfolded. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fortunate to have been far enough back of the mess (the rear of the field, after a pre-race engine change) and avoided any major damage to his own potentially-contending vehicle.
The field had effectively been pared from 43 cars only a few laps earlier to only around 20 cars with a legitimate chance to still win. Among the names remaining were the top seven (Mayfield, Kevin Harvick, Elliott Sadler, Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Robby Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson, respectively) who were all ahead of the Newman crash (as Newman was in 8th place at the time). Junior (42) was one of the "trailing" cars (starting spots noted) fortunate to survive along with Sterlin Marlin (11), Steve Park (12), Ricky Craven (15), Michael Waltrip (16), Dale Jarrett (18 ), Tony Stewart (19), Kyle Petty (21), Kenny Wallace (25), Kurt Busch (26) and Terry Labonte (28 ), among others. It probably didn't hurt that the surviving crop in total had a decent amount of driving experience under their collective belts as the race would again commence.
As the race remained on a running caution from laps four through 12, nothing changed in the running order. The racing would be caution-free for a large portion of the remainder of the race with the exception of "debris" cautions on laps 37, 64, and 133 (somewhat expected with banged-up cars leaving parts behind). Two contact collisions shook up what was left of the field around mid-race. Michael Waltrip got loose on lap 84, making contact with Mike Wallace, and spinning out into the wall. Sadler and Mayfield were also caught up slightly in this accident but managed to stay running. On lap 91, teammates Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle bumped each other (a potential sign of things to come?), and Busch hit Stewart, pushing his #20 car into the wall, effectively ending his day.
The long stretches of green-flag racing, which were very exciting, took place between that caution on Lap 91 (with the green flag waving on Lap 95) and the debris caution on Lap 133 followed by the restart on Lap 137 until the finish (Lap 188 ). Only 32 of the 188 laps were lost to cautions, with the biggest chunk of laps coming from the Lap 4 "big one". Those final 50+ laps were certainly some of the most exciting I have ever witnessed at any race I have attended to date.
The final pass of the race, a controversial one at that, occurred with only four laps to go. Dale Jr. was charging towards the lead, as race leader Matt Kenseth had taken command over the previous handful of laps. Junior dove to the inside, with his left-side tires below the yellow line as the pass took place in Turn 3. Arguably, this could have resulted in a penalty, which would have sent Earnhardt back to the end of the lead-lap cars (many (16) places back). Instead, NASCAR's officials ruled things were legal, and Junior cruised on from that point to victory, a record-setting fourth straight Talladega win.
With the win, Dale Earnhardt Jr was the eighth different race winner is as many races in the 2003 season. Sixteen (16) different drivers led at least one lap in this wild ride, and there were 48 lead changes in total.
The Final Results (finishing order) were:
Fin / St / Car# / Name / Make / Sponsor / Laps Run / Laps Led
1 (13) #8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Chevrolet / Budweiser / 188 / 34
2 (2 ) #29 Kevin Harvick / Chevrolet / GM Goodwrench Service / 188 / 12
3 (3 ) #38 Elliott Sadler / Ford / M&M's / 188 / 1
4 (15) #32 Ricky Craven / Pontiac / Tide / 188 / 0
5 (28 ) #5 Terry Labonte / Chevrolet / Kellogg's (got milk?) / 188 / 1
6 (11) #40 Sterling Marlin / Dodge / Coors Light / 188 / 2
7 (24) #22 Ward Burton / Dodge / Caterpillar / 188 / 5
8 (4 ) #24 Jeff Gordon / Chevrolet / DuPont / 188 / 24
9 (27) #17 Matt Kenseth / Ford / DeWalt Power Tools / 188 / 9
10 (6 ) #31 Robby Gordon / Chevrolet / Cingular Wireless / 188 / 0
11 (21) #45 Kyle Petty / Dodge / Georgia Pacific / 188 / 0
12 (18 )#88 Dale Jarrett / Ford / UPS / 188 / 2
13 (5 ) #9 Bill Elliott / Dodge / Dodge Dealers / 188 / 1
14 (40) #43 John Andretti / Dodge / Cheerios / 188 / 1
15 (7 ) #48 Jimmie Johnson / Chevrolet / Lowe's / 188 / 65 (MOST)
16 (43) #74 Tony Raines* / Chevrolet / Staff America / 188 / 0
17 (25) #23 Kenny Wallace / Dodge / Stacker 2 / 188 / 0
18 (1 ) #19 Jeremy Mayfield / Dodge / Dodge Dealers / 187 / 19
19 (26) #97 Kurt Busch / Ford / Rubbermaid / 186 / 1
20 (12) #1 Steve Park / Chevrolet / Pennzoil / 184 / 1
Other notables: #15 - Michael Waltrip - 24th, 10 laps led, 11 laps down; #20 - Tony Stewart (2002 Champ) - 25th, 32 laps down; #12 - Ryan Newman - 39th, 3 laps completed, DNF [Ditto for Ricky Rudd, in 42nd]
The point standings saw Junior vault into the second position, after being third one week earlier and 38th place after the first two races at Daytona and Rockingham. Matt Kenseth maintained the lead, extending it over nearly everyone in the field, except for Junior, while some individuals [like Ryan Newman (97 points further back, three positions), Bobby Labonte (76 points, four spots), and Ricky Rudd (106 points, six spots)] took bigger tumbles than others. Elliot Sadler was the biggest gainer in the field, jumping 10 spots from 20th to 10th and trimming his deficit to 338 points from 365 earlier in the day.
Side notes from this event: While the racing was a clear winner at this event, I had additional "excitement" at Talladega from a personal standpoint. This was the first race I attended where I got multiple autographs (and nice close-up photos) from select drivers before the race had even begun. On that beautiful Sunday morning, I was fortunate enough to get a ticket for Matt Kenseth's line at the DeWalt display while (unfortunately) missing simultaneous ticket giveaways at the trailers for Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle, who were also signing. Separately, I noted that other drivers had boards posted for autographs, but I was more concerned (at that moment) with those three.
After negotiating a deal with a fellow fan (who had a Biffle ticket), I had my newly-purchased Roush Racing jacket signed by Biffle while I was having my NASCAR Media Guide / Stats Book (2003 Edition, Tony Stewart on the cover) signed by Kenseth. As luck would have it, I went back over to the Biffle trailer to discover another fan who was willing to have my book signed by Biffle so that I would have two signatures from him in the same day. I tried (in vain) to capture a spot in Busch's line at his trailer, but it was to no avail. However, fate apparently had something bigger for me that day, as the NASCAR Images folks were filming scenes for the NASCAR IMAX Movie that same day.
I was oblivious to the fact that a huge camera (which sat to my immediate left, near Busch's trailer) was recording all of us fans at that autograph session to be included in the movie. When the movie was released over a year later, I was shocked to see myself on the huge IMAX (Omnimax, in my case here in Cincinnati) screen front and center of that transition into the "fan interaction" segment of the film. Little did I know I will forever be a part of a "historical" reference documentary that NASCAR itself created.
To close out this saga, I also got one more autograph -- Robby Gordon, that day's 10th place finisher -- along with the Kenseth signature (which was sweet to have the eventual 2003 champion in the 2003 book) and the two Biffle signatures (in the book in which Biffle is the reigning Busch Series champion as well). I would eventually collect more signatures in this same book, including Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace (both after their Speed Channel show last year), while building up my NASCAR signature collection that "officially" began that day at that race.
Talladega is a track among tracks, where men will be men and boys will be boys. I am proud to have seen a race at this Alabama legend and would go back to a future race there in a heartbeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment