Jamie McMurray survived another wild and
crazy finish at Talladega Superspeedway to win Sunday's Amp Energy 500 and
snap an 86-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup Series.
McMurray crossed the finish line in the lead when the caution flag was
displayed for a multi-car crash that featured Mark Martin's car flipping on
the track during a green-white-checkered finish. McMurray scored his third
career Cup victory, but his first since July 2007 at Daytona.
Hours before the start of the race, NASCAR announced during their drivers'
meeting a ban on bump-drafting through the turns at the 2.66-mile track.
Officials warned drivers an aggressive driving penalty would be assessed for
any one caught bumping in the turns.
The 500-mile race ran relatively incident free, as several drivers opted to
hang around the back of the pack for most of the day. Then a horrifying crash
involving Ryan Newman on lap 184 made it chaotic from there.
Newman hit teammate Tony Stewart and then flipped upside down onto Kevin
Harvick's car. Newman slid up to the outside wall and came back down the track
before his car barrel-rolled onto the infield grass. Safety officials had to
turn his car right-side up and then cut the roof off before he climbed out of
his vehicle on his own. He was not injured.
"I'm just really disappointed," Newman said. "We had a race back here in the
spring and complained about cars getting airborne, and now I'm ironically the
guy who gets upside down.
Newman went on to blame NASCAR for a boring race due to the bump-draft ban.
"I wish NASCAR would do something because it was a boring race for the fans,"
he said. "That's not something that anyone wants to see, at least I hope not.
If they do then go home, you don't belong here."
NASCAR halted the race for almost 13 minutes when officials helped free Newman
from his battered car. The accident set up the two-lap overtime finish.
McMurray led the way for the final restart and protected his lead before Kurt
Busch triggered the 13-car pileup coming out of turn four on the second-to-
last lap.
"Luckily Matt Kenseth was right behind me, and Matt's my teammate, and he's
also a really good friend of mine," said McMurray, who has yet to secure a
ride for the 2010 season. "I had a lot of faith that he would not hang me out
at least until one or two to go. And he helped out a lot by being able to when
it was two or three wide to get behind me. He had numerous times he could have
shot me whether on the inside or outside and he let the record reflected to
stay with me, and it made it a lot easier."
Kasey Kahne finished second, while rookie Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jeff
Burton completed the top-five.
After finishing sixth, Jimmie Johnson is on the cusp of winning his record
fourth straight Cup championship. Johnson extended his lead to 184 points over
Martin and 192 ahead of Gordon with just three races remaining.
"I feel good about things," Johnson said. "I hate to see so many tore up cars
and the big wreck that took place, but for us what really made the difference,
obviously we were conservative all day long."
Michael Waltrip came in seventh, followed by Brad Keselowski, who won here in
April, Elliott Sadler and Bobby Labonte.
Gordon, who ran out of fuel during the late-race caution finished 20th, while
Martin wound up 28th.
"It was just a wreck, and I hope everyone enjoyed the show there," Martin
said. "I don't know what it looked like, but it looked pretty exciting from my
view point."
©2009 Sports Network. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
