Midway through the final lap Sunday, more than 150,000 people gave perhaps the strangest crowd reaction to a finish in the 37-year history of Talladega Superspeedway.
They went nearly silent, gazing blankly at a cloud of dust rising from the backstretch.
Seconds earlier they’d been jubilant but anxious as their favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr., tried to hold off Jimmie Johnson in the UAW-Ford 500.
Either way, both drivers seemed sure to gain badly needed ground in the standings and liven up the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Then both were wrecked by a non-contender for the championship.
Johnson’s teammate was trying to help him. Indeed, Brian Vickers bump-drafted Johnson up alongside Earnhardt.
But then Vickers knocked Johnson right into Earnhardt, sending both spinning.
Then Vickers was declared the winner after NASCAR’s electronic scoring system froze the field a moment after the wreck. That gave Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch, who finished second and third, no chance to race Vickers back to the flag.
“I’m not going to deny I got into the back of [Johnson],” Vickers said. “And I hate it. But it wasn’t intentional. I was trying to push Jimmie to a win.”
Said Johnson: “I got a run on [Earnhardt] and got in front of him and just got hit from behind. It turned me into [Earnhardt], and then off we went. I just can’t believe it. Here we go all day long, I’ve got a chance to make up some points and I end up getting crashed by a teammate.”
Earnhardt led going into the final lap and had led the most laps in the race, 37. But he knew he was vulnerable to the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates lined up behind him.
“They had a good run coming at the end,” Earnhardt said. “I knew there was really not going to be much I could do. [Johnson] went inside, and I tried to block him a little bit. But once I understood he was there, I didn’t push the issue anymore, and [Vickers] turned him into me.
“Brian just got excited. I hate it for [Johnson], and I hate it for our team. I’m not really that upset. That’s just the way racing goes here.”
The win was the first of Vickers’ Nextel Cup career.
“It’s not the way I’d planned it,” he said. “But what happened, happened. And it’s still nice to get this win. The last thing I wanted to do was get into Jimmie and have all that take place. But when [Earnhardt] chopped him and Jimmie swerved, I just got him.”
Earnhardt countered: “I threw a small block, but nothing major. They were coming so fast it was kind of pointless.”
In further self-defense, Vickers pointed out that without his bump-drafting, Johnson would have had no chance to beat Earnhardt one on one.
“He could say, `Well, man, I wish you wouldn’t have been bumping me,'” Vickers said. “But he’s not going to. Because he knows as well as I do that if I hadn’t been bump-drafting him, he wouldn’t have had a shot to pass Junior. This is Talladega. If I’d laid off him, we would have finished 1-2-3: Junior, Jimmie and me.”
Earnhardt and Johnson wound up 23rd and 24th for the day. Johnson remained mired in eighth place in the standings. Earnhardt actually managed to climb a notch to sixth but is 108 points behind leader Jeff Burton.
Burton was lucky to keep the lead, considering a late flat tire that cost him 22 positions in the race.
The day was even worse for four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who got caught up in the biggest wreck of the day, a 13-car pileup 51 laps from the end. Gordon wound up 36th after leading the second-most laps in the race, 27, and dropped to seventh in the standings, 147 points behind.
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Chase for the Cup
Key: C–Chevrolet; D–Dodge; F–Ford; W–wins; T5–top 5s; T10–top 10s
DRIVER NAME M PTS W T5 T10
1. Jeff Burton C 5,598 1 6 18
2. Matt Kenseth F 5,592 4 14 19
3. Mark Martin F 5,588 0 7 14
4. Kevin Harvick C 5,565 4 12 16
5. Denny Hamlin C 5,547 2 5 15
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. C 5,492 1 8 15
7. Jeff Gordon C 5,451 2 12 14
8. Jimmie Johnson C 5,442 4 8 18
9. Kasey Kahne D 5,413 5 10 15
9. Kyle Busch C 5,413 1 9 16
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ehinton@tribune.com
