#34-David Ragan won the Aarons 499 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway for his 1st win of 2013 and 2nd career win . On the green-white-checkered finish that was caused by a 2nd ‘big one, #20-Kenseth led on the restart, #99-Edwards took the lead on the white flag lap and #34-Ragan and teammate pushed thru and Ragan took the lead and won the race. The race was rained delayed for a few hours on lap 125 with #99-Edwards leading but NASCAR got the track dried and was able to finish the race. #38-Gilliland finished 2nd followed by #99-Edwards, #55-Waltrip (in his 2nd race of the year), #48-Johnson, #51-Smith, #20-Kenseth (led the most laps at 142), #56-Truex Jr., #95-Speed and #43-Almirola. #21-Bayne brought out the first caution on lap 22 when the engine let go. During that caution, #11-Hamlin pitted and the team made the driver change, putting Vickers in the car for the injured Denny Hamlin. Vickers finished 34th after being involved in the lap 42 crash, with 10 points going to Hamlin, as the driver who starts the race, gets the points. There was ‘a big one, a wreck that involved 14 cars on lap 42 when #18-Busch got into the right rear of the #5-Kahne car, sending the #5 into the wall, the #5 came down and collected the #18, involving #1-McMurray, #9-Ambrose, #11-Vickers, #13-Mears, #14-Stewart, #16-Biffle, #24-Gordon, #29-Harvick, #30-Stremme, #31-Burton, #78-Busch and #83-Reutimann. The red flag came out on lap 125 when the rains came. The track was close to dry when a storm with hail and wind came. The track was dried a 2nd time and restarted the race around 7:00pm/et. There was a 2nd ‘big one on lap 182 when #17-Stenhouse Jr. tried to squeeze by #36-Yeley on the outside, clipping the #36 which got sideways and slid into the pack. #78-Busch flipped over and landed on the top of the #39-Newman car and slid off. Other cars collected included #1-McMurray, #30-Stremme, #32-Labonte, #47-Labonte and #10-Patrick. After the 2nd ‘big one, NASCAR only allowed one green-white-checkered attempt due to impending darkness. There were 30 lead changes among 17 drivers and 5 cautions for 31 yellow flag laps and a lengthy red flag for rain. The average speed was 148.729mph. NASCAR no longer announces the track attendance. See race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Talladega Race Results page (pdf) and check out the Talladega Penalty Report (pdf) And see the Official Talladega Race and Points Report .
