Jeff Gordon Scores Talladega Victory

Talladega kept the fans on the edge of their seats today. The Aarons 499 featured a green-white-checkers finish and dozens of lead changes. Unfortunately those same people who were treated to a classic Talladega race then chose to disgrace themselves by once again throwing garbage on the track when they didn't like the outcome.

Qualifying

Point leader and last week's winner Jeff Gordon set the fastest time in qualifying to put his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy on the pole for the second week in a row. David Gilliland rolled off second in his Robert Yates Ford. Denny Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Chevy started third along side Sterling Marlin's Chevy. Ricky Rudd rounded out the top five in his Yates Ford.

Drop The Green Flag

Jeff Gordon lead lap one by himself but they were all two-by-two behind him. Sterling Marlin lead lap two as they stacked up three-by-three behind him.

Talladega's classic restrictor plate racing was in full effect as the lead pack was a mess. Three and four wide all the way back through the pack. The lead changed hands many times over the early laps as nobody was content to settle into line until after the first round of green-flag pit stops.

Storylines

Jimmie Johnson was a pinball today. Like they said in "Days of Thunder" he hit everything but the pace car. Johnson was involved in turning Casey Mears hard into the wall when there was a miscommunication among Hendrick teammates. Then a few laps later Jimmie Johnson was involved in the start of "The Big One" when he got together with Ricky Rudd and triggered a multi-car incident.

Neither incident was Jimmie's fault exactly. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time twice in a row.

Chasing The Checkers

There were no "mystery cautions" today but this race saw a green-white-checkers two lap dash for the checkers. Jeff Gordon lead them to the flag over Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and David Gilliland.

They only made it a quarter of a lap before the yellow flag came out and ended the race. Jeff Gordon took the victory but the rest of the scoring was confused as there were two separate incidents on that final restart.

Once again the rednecks in Talladega were throwing beer cans onto the track as Jeff Gordon won. You people are a disgrace to the rest of us that are actually race fans. I'm sure there were thousands of race fans in Talladega today, but those who were throwing stuff on the track ruin it for the rest of you. There is no excuse for throwing trash on the track. I was happy to hear that the police were escorting people out who were caught throwing stuff on the track.

Top Ten

1. Jeff Gordon
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Kurt Busch
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Jamie McMurray
6. Ryan Newman
7. David Gilliland
8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
9. David Stremme
10. Martin Truex Jr.

The Points

Jeff Gordon again extended his point lead with another big win. The top five in points remained unchanged. Further back in the pack Mark Martin didn't compete today and fell out of the top twelve in points. This allowed Kurt Busch to make his way into the top twelve.

The top twelve are now:

1. Jeff Gordon -0
2. Jeff Burton -203
3. Matt Kenseth -229
4. Jimmie Johnson -231
5. Denny Hamlin -332
6. Tony Stewart -440
7. Kevin Harvick -459
8. Jamie McMurray -462
9. Kyle Busch -467
10. Kurt Busch -483
11. Clint Bowyer -500
12. Carl Edwards -517

Next Week

Next week we go back under the lights for a Saturday night short-track shootout. The NEXTEL Cup stars roll into Richmond International Raceway as Crown Royal presents the Jim Stewart 400. This wide 3/4 mile speedway has provided some great racing in its history. Short track racing under the lights on a Saturday night is always some of NASCAR's best racing.