Talladega

Hi all,

            Sorry it has taken me so long to post again, but I’ve been a bit busy. I am going to be talking about the latest race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, Talladega everyone’s favorite track next to Daytona. That is for one reason and one reason only, the big one. Which surprisingly didn’t happen in Sunday’s race, the biggest wreck was only a grand total of 6 cars. The race was one for the ages, with drivers tying the record number of lead changes with 16. There was nothing but good clean racing with the new style the drivers have to use at the super speedways, and that it working with a partner the whole time, if you want to stay up front. The race set another record with all the Hendrix Motor Sports drivers qualifying in the first 2 rows. Jimmy Johnson had the pole, Jeff Gordon was in second, Mark Martin in third, and Dale Jr. was in forth. This is the first time in a long time that an entire team qualified in the first two rows all together and all side by side. When the race started Gordon and Martin decided they were going to work together and Johnson and Jr. decided they would work together this race. This strategy worked for all of them, because all of them finished in the top 10 which we will get to the finish in a bit. The team of Gordon and Martin decided they wanted to hang out in the back of the pack and see how the race panned out. While Jr. and Johnson wanted to run up front, and both lead a few laps or so. Near the end of the race Hendrix Motor Sports drivers were up in the front of the pack. The strategy worked to perfection. Though it did take some time to figure out which way they lined up would be the fastest. When the race had but 5 laps left there were 8 drivers who all had a chance to win the race. With one lap to go Gordon was out front with Clint Bowyer coming up fast on the outside. Behind them was the team of Jimmy Johnson and Dale Jr. Johnson and Jr. decided they were going to try and follow the team of Bowyer and Greg Biffle, when they seen a lane open up to the inside. Martin, who was pushing Gordon, could have moved to block and give Gordon the win. He didn’t react in time and Johnson and Jr. moved to the inside lane and started gaining grown coming out of turn 4. Once they came out of the tri-oval Gordon had the lead by only a few inches and Bowyer was right beside him. To everyone’s surprise Johnson made his move and the most perfect time and was next to Gordon on the inside lane. Once they got to the last 100 yards of the race they were all neck and neck. Jimmy Johnson seemed to have the best lane on the track as he inched out Gordon, and Bowyer to win by .002 seconds. He inched out Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon ended up in 3^rd, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took 4^th, Kevin Harvick came in 5^th, Carl Edwards got 6^th, Greg Biffle took 7^th, Mark Martin some how ended up in 8^th after a rub from Jr. when him and Jimmy made their move, in 9^th was David Gilliland, and rounding out the top ten was Joey Logano. This was a spectacular finish to a spectacular, clean race. Let’s hope that next week the drivers are not still on the high from Talladega and get prepared for short track racing at Richmond. I can’t wait to see how that one pans out with how Talladega went and will be blogging about it as soon as the race is over.