#24-Jeff Gordon won the Kurt Busch won the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, holding off #20-Tony Stewart and #15-Michael Waltrip who tried to team up and make a run, but couldn’t catch Gordon on the Green-White-Checker finish. It is Gordon’s 72nd career win, 3rd of the 9 race season and 10th restrictor plate win. The win comes on Rady Dorton’s 51st birthday, Dorton was the Hendrick Motorsports engine guru who passed away in the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash last October. In a wild race which included not the BIG ONE but the HUGE ONE when #48-Johnson got into #4-Wallace after Wallace got loose when #8-Earnhardt Jr. bump drafted Wallace, sending Wallace spinning and collecting 25 cars total, the 2nd most cars involved in a wreck at Talladega [April 2003]. Then with two laps tp go, there was a mini-big one when Johnson smacked the outside eall, came down on Harvick, who came down on #1-Truex Jr. who hit #8-Earnhardt Jr. and shot across the track with Johnson. So we had a green-white-checker finish and the longest race ever at Talladega 194 laps for 516.04 miles. #48-Johnson still holds the points lead which really got suffled around with the wrecks. #49-Ken Schrader finished 8th, his first top-10 since Bristol in March 2003. #77-Kvapil was the highest finishing rookie at 18th. The race will re-air on Speed Channel, Thursday, May 5th at 3:00pm/et.
Race rundown, laps led, lucky dogs, cautions, narrative and more on Jayski’s Talladega Race Info/Rundown Page
Race Results on Jayski’s Talladega Race Results/award/links page.(5-1-2005)
