While everyone else worried about a major wreck wiping out half the field, for Bowyer and Burton, it was a calm day which went according to plan.
“Thanks to my teammate Jeff Burton,” Bowyer told ESPN in Victory lane. “We were really good together. We thought about it, we talked about it a lot before the race and things really did play out just how we planned.
“It was a pretty calm day, just kind of methodical. I wanted to stay up front. I told him ‘We need to stay up front, stay racing with these guys so when the time comes, we’re practiced, we’re ready for it’.
“This is Chevrolet’s 100th anniversary and [team owner Richard Childress’s] 100 race that he’s won in the Cup Series. It meant a lot to me to get all these guys back in Victory Lane before we cap off this season.”
In a race typical of this season’s restrictor-plate contests, pairs of partners ruled the track, and on the final restart, two laps from the end, Bowyer found the rear bumper of race leader Burton while the rest of the field shuffled and searched. The two Richard Childress Racing drivers powered away from the rest of the field, making it a two-car race for the win.
“Out restart, we got bunched up before everybody else. I was really worried about especially the 14 the 27, they were hooked up; the Red Bull cars were hooked up—I didn’t think it was going to be like that but sure glad it was.
“I was trying to figure out where to pass him [Burton]. I said, ‘I‘m at least going to give him a shot at it—it’s going to be a drag race’.”
Bowyer made his move in the final turn, dropping inside his teammate, who nudged Bowyer a bit but let him by. Bowyer won the drag race down the home stretch and stole the win from a disappointed Burton, who hasn’t won a race since the end of 2008.
“Part of me wants to cry, part of me wants to cheer,” the second-place driver told ESPN. “Any time you leave here with your car in one piece you should be happy, but to come that close after the year we’ve had is pretty disheartening.”
The win was the 100th for RCR and the second Talladega win for Bowyer; he beat Kevin Harvick there in a photo finish in 2010.
The Chase Shuffle
Only five Chase drivers finished in the top 24 Sunday. Points leader Carl Edwards, driving in tandem with Greg Biffle, made the move many drivers hoped to: Biffle took Edwards from 23rd to 11th in the final two laps keeping him atop the leaderboard.
Second-placed Kevin Harvick got caught up in a wreck with AJ Allmendinger, losing nine laps and falling to fifth in the points.
Matt Kenseth’s 18th-place finish earned him second in the points, 14 back. Brad Keselowski pushed David Blaney to third, Blaney’s best finish, and the points for fourth advanced Keselowski from sixth to third.
Johnson’s Sixth Seems Impossible
Possibly the biggest loser of the day was Jimmie Johnson, whose quest for a sixth consecutive title seems all but certainly thwarted. Johnson drove with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the back of the field for most of the race. With 19 to go, Johnson radioed Junior, “You want to wait a bit and let these guys crash or are you ready to go racing?” Earnhardt replied, “I’m in no big hurry to run up in there but I think we waited too long before.”
Seven laps later...
Seven laps later, Bobby LaBonte lost control and took out Kurt Busch, bringing out the race’s eighth of nine cautions. Johnson, hiding in 25th spot to avoid accidents, got hit in the right front by Andy Lally in the ensuing scuffle, possibly bending a toe-link.
Johnson had to pit for repairs, and restarted 25th with 10 laps to go. He didn’t have enough time to hook up with Earnhardt and push through the field, and possibly didn’t have the car to do it, after the damage.
Three laps later Mark Martin slid into the front of Denny Hamlin, pushing him into Regan Smith who slammed the wall hard. Cleanup took five laps, setting the stage for the Burton/Bowyer shootout. Jimmie Johnson had gained six spots to 19th, but fell back to 25th in the final two laps.
It would seem impossible for Johnson to overcome a fifty-point deficit in the remaining four races. Only a series of miracles could prevent the ending of the 48 car’s dynasty.
Johnson acknowledged the all but impossible task ahead. All he could do, he said, was to “Just keep grinding.
“I had hoped to make up some points on the 99 today—that didn’t happen, I don’t believe. I don’t know where he finished but there weren‘t many cars behind me when I crossed the line so I assume he was in front of me [chuckling.]
“We’ll just keep fighting—every position counts, every spot counts. I want to finish as high as I can in the points. If it isn’t the championship, as high as I can possibly finish. We’re going to keep fighting and see what we can do.”
For the first time 2005, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup will have a new winner, it seems. The Chase is still too close to call, but it seems fate will not be calling on Jimmie Johnson this year.
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