Posts tagged Aarons499 at FanHouse

Kevin Lepage must have finally seen the replay.

"I caused 'The Big One,' " Lepage said. "I realize I need to apologize to NASCAR, the car owners, my fellow competitors and most importantly the fans. I made a huge driver error by blending onto the race track in the wrong area.

[...] "Speaking yesterday before reviewing the tapes of the accident made me look like a heel and there is not a single person to blame for this huge mistake except myself."

Lepage's apology came after his -- uh -- involvement in Saturday afternoon's 16-car Nationwide pileup shown on the right. Yours truly may or may not have jumped on his case slightly after the incident. (And, oh, 97 or so of you did as well)

While its quite obvious that Lepage made likely one of the worst driving mistakes of all-time, I do feel kind of bad for the amount of heat he's taking. He surely isn't sleeping well at night.

Yahoo!'s Bob Margolis thinks the guy will never drive for another team in NASCAR again after the incident.

I can't say I disagree. What sponsor would want a guy that made arguably the dumbest move in NASCAR history behind the wheel of their car? Not mine, that's for sure.

Though your move will live in Youtube glory for a long, long time, your apology is accepted, Kevin.

Kyle Busch may have missed his pit stall once during Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, but it didn't hold him back from finding victory lane as he put his No. 18 Toyota into victory lane for the 2nd time in 2008.

Busch secured the victory after a pileup in turn 2 on the last lap took out a number of drivers battling for a Top-10 finish.

Because of the incident, the final finishing order is definitely unofficial, but as of now, Juan Pablo Montoya finished second, Denny Hamlin third, David Ragan fourth, and Brian Vickers fifth.

Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and a host of others were taken out in a crash on lap 173 as they entered turn 1. Stewart was four-wide with Dale Earnhardt Jr. when contact got the pack shuffling around. Bobby Labonte eventually spun and collected a number of cars.

Then, on the last lap an incident in turn 2 took out Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Regan Smith, Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorenson and a host of others to complete jumble the finishing order after NASCAR waved the yellow flag as the leaders jockeyed to pass Busch on the backstretch.

What: Aaron's 499
Where: Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Ala.
When: Sunday April 27th 2:00pm/ET FOX
Distance: 188 laps, 500.08 miles (The 499 mile mark is somewhere on the backstretch on lap 188)
Weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 76. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
2007 Winner: Jeff Gordon
Predictions: Keep Reading





"Boo" That Man! "Boooooo!" - Excuse my cheesy high school basketball anti-referee chant, but it surely rings true after the tremendous mistake made by Nationwide Series driver Kevin Lepage in Saturday's Aaron's 312 Nationwide Race.

Dario Franchitti won't get to join the mayhem that is scheduled to start Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway when the green flag drops.

The Scottish IndyCar star turned NASCAR driver fractured his ankle during Saturday's Nationwide race.

Franchitti was injured early in the event when Larry Gunselman plowed into the side of his No. 40 after Franchitti blew a tire in turn 3.

David Stremme, the driver who was canned by Chip Ganassi from the ride Franchitti now holds at the end of 2007, is expected to make the start in place of the injured Indianapolis 500 champion for the Sprint Cup Series' Aaron's 499.

Stremme has already had a very decent weekend at Talladega after finishing second to Tony Stewart during the Nationwide Aaron's 312 driving for Rusty Wallace Inc.

Subbing in Stremme won't make a difference in the team's starting position because Franchitti was scheduled to roll off dead last in 43rd from the grid anyways.

It's known right now when Franchitti will be back in the drivers seat, especially given that he isn't competing for anything driver points-wise. Instead, a primary goal of the team right now is to keep moving up in the Top-35 standings to keep the No. 40 in each event.

Knowing that, Franchitti might be able to take at least next week's race at Richmond off without having to worry about qualifying the car or starting the race and could potentially do so at Darlington the week after as the Nationwide Series races side-by-side with the Sprint Cup for those weeks.

Whether it was the threat of rain, Dario Franchitti's grinding wreck, or Kevin Lepage's horrendous move, Saturday's Nationwide Series Aaron's 312 was a fun ride all the way to Tony Stewart crossing under the checkers for his first time at Talladega Superspeedway.

Stewart, who led a race-high 80 laps from the pole, has never won at Talladega in either the Nationwide or Sprint Cup prior to Saturday's race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. mounted a terrific challenge from second-place off of turn 2 on the last lap after hanging off of Stewart's bumper to get a run on the No. 20. Junior's No. 5 entry pulled alongside Stewart's Toyota on the backstretch, but the help Earnhardt Jr. had behind disappeared and Stewart pulled back in front.

Preface: The hardest part of this post was coming up with headline. Everything from "Kevin Lepage's $4 Million Mistake" to "Kevin Lepage Proves Worthlessness" to "Kevin Lepage Nominates Himself for Darwin Award" were all considered. Got an idea? Leave a comment.

As the headline stated, Kevin Lepage made a mistake that most normal human beings don't make when they travel down the highway everyday in Saturday's Nationwide Series event at Talladega Superspeedway.

Also unlike most human beings, Lepage's crash took out no less than 16 race cars from the lead pack. Most amazingly, though, Lepage failed to take any responsibility for the wreck.

The melee began when Lepage had to pit for a loose wheel. Upon coming off pit lane, Lepage's spotter told him that the field was coming out of the tri-oval and that he should stay low. Low for Lepage must have meant right in front of the entire pack as it barreled into the corner at full speed with Lepage still well off pace.

UPDATE: Team owner Chip Ganassi said that Franchitti is currently undergoing X-rays on his ankle. Larry Gunselman was also later transported to the hospital.

Original: Sprint Cup Series driver and 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti was helped to a waiting ambulance after being involved in a drivers-side impact Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway during the Aaron's 312 Nationwide Race.

The impact occurred after Franchitti cut down a rear tire on his No. 40 Chip Ganassi Dodge entering turn 3 on lap 10. Franchitti's Dodge snapped sideways and brushed the nose into the side of Nationwide point leader Clint Bowyer.

The No. 40 then slid down the track -- nearly to a stop -- when Larry Gunselman plowed into his left side.

From video replays, I can't understand how Gunselman didn't slow down any more than he did. There was no tire smoke and no last second attempt to swerve out of the way.

Had Gunselman missed Franchitti, Dario's car likely could have continued in the race. Instead, he hobbled to the ambulance in obvious pain.

Don't be looking for Sprint Cup qualifying results Friday afternoon from Talladega Superspeedway in preparation for Sunday's Aaron's 499.

Instead, NASCAR will continue a format it started 2 years ago at the 2.5-mile restrictor plate track by qualifying for Sunday's race on Saturday morning.

Friday, Sprint Cup teams will hit the track for the first time at 2:30pm/ET for an hour long practice session. Final practice will then get underway at 4:05pm/ET and run until 4:55pm/ET.

Saturday morning, qualifying will roll off at 11:15am/ET with each driver taking two laps around the tri-oval. Once a car has completed the run, it will then move to impound where teams will have virtually no chance to make any significant changes to the car.

The process will also be used to the Nationwide Series as they will qualify Friday afternoon following Sprint Cup final practice.

NASCAR moved to adopt this weekend strategy a few years back for a number of tracks, but soon changed back to the traditional practice-qualify-final practice schedule for many events. Restrictor plate tracks have generally kept the schedule -- except for the Daytona 500's long, drawn-out process -- because the way teams qualify is no where near the way they'll race.

All in all, its a cost-saving measure, and makes qualifying interesting to see which teams may push their cars a little over the edge in qualifying to be guaranteed a spot in the race, though it may cause problems during the 500 mile race.

Rain could play some factor in the weekend activities as thunderstorms have a 70 percent chance on Saturday and a 60% chance on Sunday.

If nothing else, A.J. Allmendinger learned one thing from being benched by his team several races ago in favor of Craftsman Truck Series driver Mike Skinner after missing the first three events of the Sprint Cup season.

His No. 84 is bad no matter who drives it.

"It really gave me a peace of mind because I learned more about what each adjustment does, what [crew chief Ricky Viers] likes to hear and I felt better with Mike saying some of the same things I had been saying," Allmendinger said.

In other words, Allmendinger has seemingly learned some about how to talk about how bad is car is, rather than just post bad lap times.

Red Bull Racing had hoped that Skinner could get the No. 84 back in the Top-35 of owner points as fellow team driver Brian Vickers has done in his No. 83 Toyota. That didn't happen, but the No. 84 is only 111 points out of 35th in 40th position.

With Allmendinger coming back to the car for Friday's qualifying Talladega, the team is hoping that the Toyota restrictor plate qualifying package -- which some have said packs some extra horsepower -- will help Allmendinger put the Camry in the field.

Should Allmendinger make the field, he'll be sporting a very cool silver scheme that RBR paint shop manager Matt Briggs referred to as "bad ass".

A car like that has to make the field, right?

With the checkered flag nearly in sight, Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the race car to win the 2008 Daytona 500 in his first official start with Hendrick Motorsports in February.

He didn't, though, have the right calls from pit road to help him find that victory after his tires began to wear and the No. 88 never came to pit road.

With that in mind, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has to be very, very stoked to be heading to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday's Aaron's 499.

The day will already be memorable for the third-generation stock car driver as he makes his career start No. 300 at a track where he has won five previous times.

Unfortunately, Dale Jr. has gone nearly a fourth of his career since his last victory in the Sprint Cup series -- a number that translates to 70 races since his 17th career win.

Could he make Talladega Superspeedway his 18th on Sunday?

I know I'll find it hard to bet against Dale Earnhardt Jr. with Hendrick Motorsports at Talladega. Heck, it'd be hard to bet against him if he was driving for Petty Enterprises.

He's just that good with the restrictor plate program.

Jeff Gordon has assumed the as the ace of the restrictor plate tracks since the passing of Dale Jr.'s father in 2001 by picking up four wins at Talladega since the spring of 2004. Teammate Jimmie Johnson and former teammate Brian Vickers have picked another pair of Talladega wins in that period, which means two things for Dale Jr.

One, he's got the performance package to win Sunday, and two, likely his stiffest competition will come from those who will work with him the most.