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 Needing a win to advance to the Round of 8 in the Chase for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup, Earnhardt drove the race of his life, only to
lose by six inches to Joey Logano when caution froze the field after
the final restart in overtime.
The memory of that race in all likelihood will remain indelible,
because it occurred on the anniversary of his father's final victory
at Talladega, and, in fact, the 76th and final victory of the late
Dale Earnhardt's career.
"I'm going to pat myself on the back a little bit, but I swear the
race I ran here last year, I thought was the best race I had ever
ran at Talladega," Earnhardt said on Friday after opening NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series practice at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. "It will
not ever really get remembered because I didn't win.
"I'm disappointed because of what happened in that race and what we
were doing with the car and what the car was doing was amazing. It
sucks, because we were just six inches short of being declared the
winner. No, we've lost a lot of races here, but I can't even
remember any of them that stand out like that.
 "That was frustrating, because that was actually the anniversary of
my father's last win. I'm a bit envious he gets so much credit for
what a race that was and how he came back and all that stuff. Man, I
thought I was writing my own little story here last fall, but it
just didn't work out for me. We'll have to try again this weekend to
see if we can write it again and hopefully get the win."
STEWART WOULD PREFER TO MAKE CHASE ON OWN MERITS
In NASCAR racing, the driver of record in an event is the driver who
starts the race.
Even if a relief driver should take over, the driver who took the
green flag to start the race gets credit for the victory.
You'll recall that in 2007 Aric Almirola got his only NASCAR XFINITY
Series win at the Milwaukee Mile, though he got out of the car after
58 laps to make way for late-arriving Denny Hamlin, who had travel
issues on his commute from Sonoma Raceway.
Though the box score gives Almirola credit for the victory and for
107 laps led, it was Hamlin who took the checkered flag in the No.
20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet.
Similarly, if Tony Stewart hands over the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing
Chevrolet to Ty Dillon under the first caution in Sunday's GEICO 500
at Talladega Superspeedway, as planned, and if Dillon happens to win
the race, Stewart would get credit for the victory and everything
that comes with it-including a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup (provided he finishes the regular season in the top 30 in
points).
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But after missing the first eight races of the season while
recovering from a back injury, Stewart would prefer to get to
Victory Lane the old-fashioned way.
"I don't think I will feel good about it if I were to get a spot
that way," Stewart said on Friday at Talladega. "I know I wouldn't
feel good about it.
"I think for me to make the Chase, it needs to be because I ran the
whole race and won the race. Not started it and somebody else won it
for me."
NO FIREWORKS AT JGR COMPETITION MEETING
After last Sunday's final-lap bump-and-run, there was no tension
between Richmond race winner Carl Edwards and bumpee Kyle Busch
during Joe Gibbs Racing's weekly competition meeting.
There couldn't have been -- because Edwards wasn't there.
And on Friday at Talladega, Edwards acknowledged that he and Busch
hadn't spoken about the pass in Turn 4 at RIR, where Edwards used
his bumper to move Busch's Toyota up the track and into second
place.
"No, Kyle and I haven't had a chance to talk yet," Edwards said. "I
was testing in Indy for two days (at a Goodyear tire test) and I
missed the meetings. This weekend will require us to talk together
as a group and work well together (at Talladega), and I'm sure we'll
have a chance to talk."
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