-- Dale Earnhardt was one of the most outspoken opponents on restrictor-plate racing at Talladega and Daytona. But his son doesn’t feel qualified to lead the fight in his dad’s stead.
"I don’t have the knowledge of what it’s like to race without a restrictor plate, so I don’t feel it’s fair to speak on that," Earnhardt Jr. said in his post-win press conference Sunday.
He did say he would like to see some changes, however, citing Saturday’s Food World 300 ARCA RE/MAX Series race as an example.
"The ARCA race was a good race (Saturday) and they don’t have roof blades on their cars," Earnhardt Jr. said. "They’ve got a plate. They were in single file. The fasts cars were up front and the slow cars were getting lapped. That’s how it should be."
-- One local promotional campaign leading up to Sunday’s EA Sports 500 challenged local video gamers to tame Talladega. In reality, Talladega might be considered a much tamer track than it used to be.
For instance, until a caution flag came out on Lap 96, the Winston Cup guys had driven 298 consecutive laps (over 792 miles) without seeing a yellow flag dating back to last October’s Winston 500. That was the final 15 laps of the Winston 500, 188 laps of the Alabama 500 in the spring and the first 95 laps Sunday.
The number of caution flags has been reduced drastically in recent years as well.
The big wreck at race’s end Sunday did not bring out a caution so the official count was only three caution flags for a total of 16 laps and that continued a trend. Last October, there were only three flags for 13 laps and in April there were only four caution flags for 17 laps.
"I think each time we run one of these races we are smarter about the patience we need to have," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It’s still not enough apparently. I’m just glad I wasn’t in any of the wrecks that happened today."
-- "Little E" was asked what it felt like to etch his name in a Talladega record book that includes 10 entries for his father.
"When I was a little kid, I would look back through all the books and old racing magazines and I’d look at the winners and all the statistics of the races my dad had raced," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Now every time I win, I feel like it’s a mark in the books of the sport forever.
"I want to go down as maybe one of the best. And then maybe one day when I have a son, he can look back in the books and see what his daddy has done."
-- The message was different, but the intent was the same.
Every year here, the message in the pre-race drivers meting invariably centers on being patient. On Sunday, however, that specific word was not mentioned once.
The thought for the day was "use good judgment" while racing in the close quarters Talladega affords.
"I think it's probably a different approach to the same message," Winston Cup event director David Hoots said. "They're the ones who are controlling the action, they're the ones who should be responsible for it."
Bobby Allison has attended these drivers meeting here for years. He said the terminology was perfect.
"They probably always should have said use your best judgment," he said, "because be patient wasn't the proper direction, instruction, for how you race this race track. You can't be patient (always), but you have to use your best judgment all the time, first lap, last lap, whatever."
Most of the drivers got the message. There were only two wrecks, a three-car mixup midway through the race and a rush-hour pileup on the last lap.
"The accidents have always been caused here by the drivers, it's not the cars' fault," Jimmy Spencer said. "And the rules are situated that we have to race by these rules and we sure don't like them. I think if we use good common sense sometimes there won't be an accident."
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win on Sunday made him an even richer man. He took home an extra million winning the race after being pre-selected as one of the five a Winston No Bull Drivers.
In Winston's No Bull promotion, each of the five drivers are paired with a NASCAR fan. If that particular driver wins, then the fan that driver is paired with also get a million-dollar payday.
It took a while to get Earnhardt's partner, Carrie Richter of Conneaut, Ohio, notification of her prize. In most cases, the individuals paired with the drivers attend the races, but due to circumstances beyond her control, Richter couldn't attend.
That created a problem. When the race ended at approximately 3:23 p.m., Winston officials were not able to reach Richter.
At 3:30 p.m., still no Richter.
And at 4:00 p.m., it was the same deal.
It wasn't until around 4:30 p.m. that Richter was reached via phone from the infield media center.
Richter indicated she would take her winnings and purchase a small farm for her and her two children.
-- The HANS Device has a supporter in Johnny Benson.
Benson, involved in the last-lap crash that took at least 15 cars out of Sunday's EA Sports 500, switched from the Hutchens Device to the HANS for Sunday's race.
He did it as an experiment.
"I think they're both great. Don't get me wrong," Benson said. "I switched because I wanted to try it. I'm telling you what; that thing worked really good."
NASCAR stirred the garage area last week by mandating some sort of head-and-neck restraint. Driver Tony Stewart turned it into a full-blown controversy, engaging in confrontations with NASCAR officials and a television reporter.
Sunday, Stewart left Talladega Superspeedway without talking to media. Claiming claustrophobia, he said earlier in the week that NASCAR should not force drivers to wear head-and-neck restraints.
The devices came to public attention after Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash at Daytona in February. The devices could prevent injuries like those that killed Earnhardt, NASCAR has said.
"I'm glad I had it on today," Benson said. "I don't necessarily care if it's mandated or not. We're going to use it, either way.
"But I tell you, the devices are probably a good thing. I was pretty impressed with how the thing worked today."
How big of an impact did the device have in Sunday's last-lap crash?
"My neck doesn't hurt at all," Benson said. "My chest hurts a little bit, from the HANS Device, because it's going to work in that area. But I'd rather have my chest hurt than my neck."
-- The tactic of laying back and waiting to make a run in the final 50-or-so laps got another run Sunday, much like it did in the spring.
Not everyone was a taker, however.
"I didn't want to take any chances on laying back and not being able to get back to the front," race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "We laid back in the spring here and ended up trying to make a challenge at the end of the race."
He finished sixth in April's Talladega 500.
"I just knew I had a car that was fast enough to stay up there toward the front," he said. "We just tried to keep it up there all day long."
Second-place finisher Tony Stewart did wait to make his run. He began his charge from the back on the final restart, Lap 155.
"The last 35 laps were the only hard laps we ran all day," he said. "Are we happy with where we finished? Absolutely. I think we could have finished one spot higher, even, if a couple of circumstances hadn't happened."
-- Ron Hornaday took the heat for his 38th-place finish in one of the day's strangest gaffes.
He returned to the race after his team fixed transmission problems in his No. 14 Conseco Chevy, but he ran 148 of 188 laps.
"My stupidity, I guess," Hornaday said. "We had a real good car. We needed to make it up in the pits, but I just drove it in and overshot the pit putting on the breaks."
He put the car in reverse, "and I jumped the clutch," he said.
-- Michael Waltrip's Chevrolet appeared to be ready to challenge teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the EA Sports 500 championship until he left the race with car trouble with less than 20 laps to go.
Waltrip was almost certainly headed to his first Top 10 finish since he finished runner up to Earnhardt Jr. in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in July.
"It overheated I guess," Waltrip said. "I don't know if there's something in the radiator or what.
"I got high, and got out of the pack as best I could. I just ran too hot for too long and this NAPA Chevy just finally blew up."
This was the 22nd time this season Waltrip failed to run all of the laps. Waltrip's only victory this season came at the Daytona 500 in the season-opening race. His only other top five finish was the second place run at Daytona in July.
If Waltrip had finished in the top 10 Sunday it would have given all of the Dale Earnhardt Inc. team a top 10 finish. Earnhardt Jr. won the event and Kenny Wallace, driving for an injured Steve Park, finished sixth.
"I sure was looking forward to giving it a try and was really looking forward to being there to (win)," Waltrip said.
-- Dodge rookie Casey Atwood had a disappointing day, leaving the race on the 107th lap when he was involved in the accident with Kevin Harvick and Todd Bodine.
"We were coming in to pit that lap. It's real unfortunate it happened," Atwood said. "Somebody got into Todd and he got into the wall and everybody just stacked up. I didn't have anywhere to go."
Atwood has had three Top 10 finishes this season. His best finish came four weeks ago at the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 in Dover, Del., where he finished ninth.
