From a rain-delayed beginning to the green, white, checkered finish, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 43rd annual Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Matt Kenseth was highly critical of himself following his third place finish Sunday in the Aaron’s 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway. After leading the most laps, 78 of 194, and leading with just two laps to go in a green-white-checkered finish, it was he and he alone the reason his team wasn’t in Victory Lane.
499 or so miles will make up the Aaron's 499 tomorrow afternoon, and all 499 miles will surely be filled with chaos throughout the 43-car field. A slue of rule changes has been passed down by NASCAR officials to break up the two car tango, which we saw last season.
While every track is unique, there are certain tracks on the NASCAR circuit that can just get into a driver’s head. This weekend’s track, Talladega Superspeedway, seems to be one of those, especially given its speed, intensity and the infamous ‘big one’ that so often occurs.
For the first half of the race, it looked like Carl Edwards would be the man in victory lane at the end of the Capitol City 400. However, after a late race penalty Edwards was put to the rear of the field, giving the lead up for grabs.
What more fitting of a facility than Martinsville Speedway to travel to on this Halloween weekend. Martinsville Speedway has been known to create some very wild and down-right ere finishes.
The Red Bull Racing team of Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne need to be recognized for their effort on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Kahne started 26th, Vickers 30th, and used the two-car tandem to push their way into the top-five within 10 laps.
In the world of the tandem draft, Talladega just sweetened the pot with $100,000 bonus, to be paid to the driver who takes the lead the most number of times throughout the race at the 100th lead change at the the Good Sam Club 500.
Debates started last year about the likability of two by two racing that is now occurring at both Daytona and Talladega on the NASCAR superspeedway circuit.
While Sam Hornish Jr. has taken a bit of a step backwards, from racing in the Cup Series last year to now competing in select Nationwide races, he firmly believes that this step back will most surely lead soon to big steps forward.
