May 3, 2015
By Mark McCarter
NASCAR Wire Service
TALLADEGA,
Ala. – It's a toss-up which is greater, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s passion
for Talladega Superspeedway or the Talladega fan base's passion for Dale
Earnhardt Jr.
On
a glorious afternoon, Earnhardt offered a one-word order to his team
over the radio, a message that could be shared with the thousands of his
devotees in the stands: "Celebrate!" he proclaimed.
Earnhardt,
his team and Junior Nation could celebrate his 0.159-second victory
over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series GEICO 500 Sunday afternoon, his sixth Sprint Cup win here. It
all but assures Earnhardt a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Championship for a fifth consecutive year.
Paul
Menard was third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth. Points
leader Kevin Harvick, racing with a mangled hood after an early
accident, was eighth.
The
victory came barely 24 hours after Earnhardt had acknowledged a
responsibility to perform well here for his fan base, saying, “I feel
like I’m supposed to get up there and lead.”
He
did so, leading 67 of the 188 laps, then wove his way into Victory
Circle, where he gushed nearly as dramatically as the geyser spewing
from an engine that began overheating because of debris on the grille.
“It’s
just real emotional,” Earnhardt said. “I haven’t won here in a long
time (November 2004), my daddy’s birthday was a couple of days ago. It
was real emotional. Everything is so good for me right now. I don’t know
why I don’t feel like I deserve it. I just feel overcome with a lot of
emotion.”
Unlike
many Talladega races, the final two dozen laps were essentially run in a
single-file parade, first with a 10-car string, then ultimately caught
up by a line of another 20 cars.
“I
don’t know what creates that in the drivers’ minds to say we’re all
going to ride at the top,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t happen every time
(but) it does happen every now and then and today was one of those
days.”
At the white flag, Johnson tried to get a run with Blaney on his bumper, and defending race winner Denny Hamlin made a run.
“I
knew he would wait and that’s what I would do,” Earnhardt said of
Johnson. “I wouldn’t want to screw it up for both of us. He tried to
back up but he couldn’t get a run.”
As
a wreck happened in their rear-view mirror, with Carl Edwards being
spun out, Earnhardt kept his lead, zooming past a nearly filled
grandstands celebrating his triumph.
“Everybody at Talladega is happy,” Truex said of the fans. “So all is good.”
There
was the typical “Big One” accident. On the backstretch on lap 47,
Trevor Bayne was passed on the right side by Menard as Kurt Busch was
closing on his left rear quarterpanel. It was, as Bayne put it, “double
trouble.” He lost control of his No. 6 Ford and careened into the
outside retaining wall, triggering a crash that affected 14 cars.
It
effectively took out of contention Kasey Kahne, who started on the
front row, Kyle Larson, Greg Biffle and, in his final ride subbing for
Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Toyota, David Ragan.
It
was otherwise relatively clean – only six cautions for 23 laps all day –
until Austin Dillon’s car caught fire on lap 156. Jeff Gordon’s day
went up in smoke, too. He was penalized for going too fast on pit road,
the second time in five races such a penalty spoiled his day.
Following
the penalty, his crew chief Alan Gustafson encouraged Gordon over the
radio with 26 laps remaining, “Now put on a show right here.”
However, the show in the final laps belonged to his Hendrick teammates, Earnhardt and Johnson.
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