Mayhem at 'Dega

TALLADEGA, AL – If you thought the short-track race last week was mayhem, ‘dega lived up to her reputation of being super-mayhem!  The race was won by Denny Hamlin who happened to be at the right place at the right time.  On the last lap of the race, Hamlin’s Gibbs-Toyota car was out in front when a back-marker crash brought out the caution which fixed the field.  Greg Biffle was able to claim second for Roush-Fenway and Clint Bowyer third.  "It feels good to be back in Victory Lane in a points-paying event," said Bowyer, "but I'm still a short-track guy.  Those are my roots, that's where I love racing the most, but we've come a long way. We couldn't finish 22nd at superspeedway races for the longest time and now it seems like when we go we've got the knowledge and car that can win."

Mayhem started early when on lap 6, Danica Patrick took her first lead, but on lap 14, Brad Keselowski attempted to pass Patrick but spun, putting him I the midfield.  Patrick was able to salvage a 22^nd place finish on the lead lap.  Keselowski wasn’t done causing trouble though.  On lap 137, Brad was trying to make up a 7-lap deficit when running with the front runners when he broke loose taking 15-cars including Gordon, Bayne, Kenseth, Menard, Stewart Busch and Johnson with him.  Darrell Waltrip had this to say about Brad’s move “I know the Monday Morning Quarterbacks are saying Brad had no business up front racing being six laps down. The guy is paid to race. He was simply trying to get his laps back.”

And the mayhem continued on lap 174 when Jimmie Johnson’s car broke loose in turn 4 taking out 7 including Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and David Ragan.  On lap 183, Carl Edwards lost a rear tire ending the day for Newman and Cole Whitt.  DW summarized it best “I had a great time. I always have fun at Talladega. As I said on the broadcast, the whole day was just as clear as mud to me. I could see right through it all day long. I'm just kidding. I just threw that out there during the broadcast. It's a saying from way back in the day when you couldn’t  understand something because the explanation was so convoluted they used to say, ‘Clear? Or clear as mud?’"