NASCAR

New rules can't stop Talladega mayhem

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Updated Nov 5, 2009 9:30 AM ET
     
 
TALLADEGA, Ala. - Some things never change at the Talladega Superspeedway, no matter how many rules NASCAR makes. There were big wrecks during Sunday's AMP Energy 500. There were angry drivers. The garage area was littered with crumpled cars. There was a surprise winner. And Jimmie Johnson continued to extend his lead in the Chase for the Championship. Jamie McMurray, who hadn't had a top-five finish all year, was out front and declared the winner as he approached the white flag with 13 cars crashing behind him. It was his first win in more than two years, and it came on a day when NASCAR said it would penalize teams for aggressive driving. There were no such penalties issued during the race, but cars driven by Ryan Newman and Mark Martin flipped on their roofs in separate incidents. There were two crashes involving 18 cars in the final five laps. Anger was divided equally in the garage area after the race - half against other drivers; half against a racing organization that can't seem to figure how to keep Talladega safe without affecting the track's reputation for being wildly entertaining. McMurray was one of 25 different leaders in Sunday's race. He was out front when Newman's flip happened along the backstretch with five laps to go. The cleanup forced the race into three laps of overtime, and he was out front for the 13-car crash that ended the race with the white flag. All McMurray had to do was circle the track one more time - without running out of gas - under caution to win the race. "This is a different type of racing we do," McMurray said. "It's all about getting in the right line and having a good engine. Even when they're policing the bumping-drafting, it's really hard when they're three wide and stacking up 10 deep." McMurray, who will leave Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the year, turned off his engine and coasted most of the way around the 2.66-mile raceway on the final lap. He had enough gas to take the checkered flag. "We were sweating it there a little bit," crew chief Donnie Wingo said. McMurray said being up front at Talladega is like winning the lottery - being at the right place at the right time. His teammate Matt Kenseth got behind him and pushed him to the lead, but Kenseth got shuffled to a 24th-place finish. "It takes a little bit of luck to be in that position," McMurray said. NASCAR warned drivers before the race not to make any contact with another car in the turns, supposedly to end an old practice known as bump-drafting. Since they couldn't use their front bumpers to push their way through traffic, drivers seemed content with riding in a long single-file line for most of the race. As the field started to fan out for a late-race charge, Newman's car was turned on its roof for 300 yards before it crashed into the third-turn wall with five laps to go. The accident started when his car owner, Tony Stewart, suddenly slowed after hitting the wall. Marcos Ambrose rear-ended Newman, who rear-ended Stewart. Cards driven by Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler also were involved, but none of the drivers were injured. The race was stopped for 12 minutes, 34 seconds to cut Newman out of the car. It also set up a two-lap sprint to the finish line.
Tagged: Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth

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