From the looks of the victory celebration at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon, track officials may have been a little premature in dismantling the portions of the grandstands they haven’t been able to fill in recent years.
After Talladega fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. held off Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard and rookie Ryan Blaney to win the GEICO 500, there was no rush to the exits like after most races.
Fans stayed around through Earnhardt’s victory lap as he carried the checkered flag by an enthusiastic audience that also stayed around for his trip to Victory Lane.
It was Earnhardt’s sixth career victory at Talladega, where he’s tied with Jeff Gordon for most wins by an active driver and where his late father leads all drivers with 10 Cup victories.
“This is real emotional,” he said. “I haven’t won here in a long time. It was my Daddy’s birthday a couple of days ago. I feel overcome with emotion.”
Earnhardt said the win comes at a time when things are going well in both his personal and professional life.
“I’m blessed,” he said. “Everything’s going so great.”
The reaction of the crowd and the happiness shown by Earnhardt, wasn’t lost on the drivers who finished behind him.
“Everybody at Talladega is happy, so it’s all good,” said Martin Truex Jr., who continued his rebound from a miserable 2014 season with a fifth-place finish.
Earnhardt said winning at Talladega — and at other tracks where his late father had success — is something that means very much to him.
“I love it when I get to go to Victory Lane,” he said. “It adds to his legacy.”
Unlike other races at Talladega, there was little late-race drama at the front of the pack. Earnhardt took the lead for good with 26 of 188 laps remaining, and Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate running just behind him, never really made a bid to take the lead.
Johnson said no one made a move in the closing laps because they knew they’d most likely fall to the rear of the pack because of a lack of drafting help. He said that when Denny Hamlin did try to form a new line with one lap to go it foiled his plan to make a last-lap bid for the win.
“The energy of the draft just died out,” Johnson said.
The race was without the usual major crash that usually occurs at Talladega, but there were some smaller incidents, including one involving Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon, who tangled on the last lap well behind the leaders. NASCAR officials left the green flag flying and Earnhardt sailed under it to take the win, which all but assures him of a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
With a fourth-place finish in just his sixth Cup start, Blaney added to the feel-good atmosphere of the afternoon as he gave the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Ford a ride reminiscent of that team’s glory years back in the day at Talladega. The Woods have won five times at Talladega with drivers David Pearson, Donnie Allison and Neil Bonnett, and Blaney’s finish was the team’s best at Talladega since Morgan Shepherd’s fourth-place finish in 1995.
Blaney, who is one of the more modest NASCAR youngsters, did say he believed he earned the respect of his peers by running with the leaders all afternoon without incident.
“Luckily, about three-quarters of the way through the race we made a couple of strong moves and guys went with us, and I think that helped put us in position later in the race for guys sticking with us,” he said. “The yellow [rookie] stripes back there don’t help out at all, but hopefully this helps us out for the next Daytona.”
Blaney also appreciated the reaction of the Talladega fans to Earnhardt’s win.
““I looked up through the tri-oval coming to the checkered and I think everybody was on their feet,” he said. “It’s cool to see the atmosphere. It’s cool when you talk about the history of this place and how good Dale is here and then how good [Earnhardt] Senior was, so it’s really cool to see, and it was cool to see all the fans out there.”
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