play by play of the last few laps:

kyle busch spins trying to block kenseth from taking the lead from him. truex spins trying to avoid hitting the car in front of him.

the big one #2...

with about 9 laps to go, another big wreck involving the whole back of the field, including david stremme, jimmie johnson, michael waltrip, denny hamlin, martin truex, bobby labonte, j.p. montoya (i think he started it, not intentionally - he got into denny hamlin) and robbie gordon hit the inside retaining wall HARD. luckily they have "safer barriers" in a good portion of the interior wall and that's where he hit.

tony reports he is either losing a cylinder or a plug wire but "something isn't right". CRAP!! lets hope whatever it is can hold off until the end of the race. he thinks they're gonna "get run over or wreck". #39 ryan newman currently leading though.

4 laps to go on the restart...
stewart drops to the inside with engine issues. () dale jr. pushing newman up front. kurt busch 3rd.

2 to go...
edwards pushed by brad keselowski coming to challenge for the lead on the outside...

white flag...
carl takes the lead with brad pushing him. newman 3rd, jr. 4th....

checkered flag, brad keselowski moves to the bottom to pass carl, carl tries to block high, brad gets into carl's left quarter panel and spins edwards out, brad keselowski wins the race. ryan newman plows into carl, carl goes upside down backwards, up in the air, flips over in mid-air into the catch fence. thank god for that fence or his car would be in the crowd!! carl's car comes to a stop, a few hundred feet or so from the start finish line, car engine on fire!! he is ok, gets out of the car and RUNS to the start finish line!! the crowd gives him a standing ovation!!

amazing, that's talladega for you!! dale jr. finishes second. newman, front end pretty much destroyed, still managed to finish third. he is asked by his spotter (his father) if he is ok and he says yes, we finished third!!

on the cool down lap dale jr. comes over to congratulate keselowski, brad goes up to go back up on the track and gets into kyle busch by accident and gets spun out, not intentional but pretty funny!

top 10:
1. brad keselowski
2. dale earnhardt jr.
3. ryan newman
4. marcos ambrose
5. scott speed (r)
6. kurt busch
7. greg biffle
8. brian vickers
9. joey logano (r)
10. jeff burton

unofficial results: http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2009...nofficial.html

video of the first "big one" on lap 7: http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009...ml?MostPopular

video of the second "big one" with 9 to go: http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009...car/index.html

video of the last 2 laps, including carl edwards' flip/wreck on the last lap: http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009....final.nascar/

this is what racing at talladega is all about!!

 

 

i couldn't help it...even those here who are not nascar fans i thought might get a kick out of reading/watching the craziness that is 'dega!! i usually text updates to one of my friends when she doesn't get to watch the race in that lap by lap style, it translates a lot better to the computer

space i'm sure they'll show a good recap of the race on the sports wrap, they better!! after all florida is where it all started!! don't work too hard buddy, have a good night. i'm gonna go take a cruise, my head is pounding now from holding my breath for the last 20 laps, i need some nice fresh spring air!

 

Wow!!! What a finish and what a crash, I am sure glad Edwards is okay... my heart raced as Edwards took the lead and held it in the beginning of the tri-oval and then stopped as his car careened into the catch fence.

I'm going to play talk show host to Jamie's announcing. At the time I am posting this, the NASCAR.com headlines barelly mention Keselowski's victory. The main headline is "Keselowski dips, Edwards flips." The pictures are 3 still shots of Edwards crash, 1 of which has Keselowski's car visible. The second headline is how 8 fans suffered minor injuries (quite frankly, I'm glad it was only 8, that catch fence saved probably 20 lives), the next 2 are videos of Edwards crash and an interview with Edwards, then theres the post race media results of Earnhardt Jr. and Newman. Finally, a race recap that has a picture of Keselowski's car, and 2 headlines concerning two Busch's spins....


Now, that was alot... and notice, barelly anything on this rookies impressive first victory at one of NASCAR's most exciting tracks. Given, that was a spectacular crash... but lets give this rookie some more credit where it is due, especially considering the crash wasn't his fault!

 

i'd be willing to bet that fence saved a lot more than 20 lives today, but you're right it's good to hear it was only 8. i read one lady had a broken jaw! she and one other person were air-lifted to hospitals in the area (only because of the traffic), the other person apparently had a medical issue not related to debris, i'm guessing a heart attack or something. the other 6 people were treated and released in the infield care center, 2 of whom said they will follow up with their own doctors.

i listened to post race coverage on XM and a lot of fans weighed in with their opinions of both the wreck and keselowski's win. brad said in the media center afterwards that he "wasn't in a position to lift" and he thought about regan smith from last year and he wasn't going to go that route, even though smith "probably did the right thing, the smart thing, the cool thing" by going below the yellow line and not wrecking anyone. a lot of people think he was out of line by some of the comments he made. i'm not sure he meant things the way he said them and i think a lot of people are going to take his comments out of context. he could have maybe been a little more selective with his words. but i'm sure he was just excited. i think there isn't a driver in the field who wouldn't have attempted to do what he did and win the race, he didn't mean to wreck carl by any means, and had he let off he probably wouldn't have won. so it's a tough call either way.

as for the issue with the racecars flipping over, we saw it twice this weekend, and i think nascar needs to go back and come up with another option to keep cars on the ground at these restrictor plate tracks. the speeds are insanely high and one wrong move by a driver and we've seen what can happen. there are a lot of opinions on the fans getting injured too. some say that you shouldn't have to pay for expensive tickets with your hard earned money only to worry about your safety and health during an event that is supposed to be fun. they say the stands should be moved back further than they are. some say when you sit 50 feet from where 3800 pound machines are flying by at 200 mph, you have to be alert and aware of your surroundings and know that debris can fly into the stands.

i honestly don't know what nascar or the tracks can do to keep the fans any safer than they are. the catch fence is obviously there for a reason and does its job as well as it can. (if anyone remembers, bobby allison wrecked there in 1987 and his car did the nearly the same thing as carl's did, bobby blew a tire, turned sideways then the car went up into the air, flipped around and caught the fence and ripped 150 feet of it completely down. a few fans were injured then too, including a woman who lost an eye from the flying debris. that wreck was the reason nascar introduced the restrictor plate to restrict speeds at talladega and daytona.) the difference between allison's wreck and carl's wreck are the cars themselves. when allison wrecked, big pieces of the car - decklid, hood, bumpers, etc. - likely went flying off the car into the stand. the cars are now built with tethers that keep these pieces on the car so that they can't go flying off and go into the stands or onto the track. whatever pieces of debris that came off his car today must have been small. i have no idea what exactly went flying into the stands but it wasn't anything big.

there is a yellow line about 10 feet away from the stands that the fans are not allowed to cross. but they do, until they are chased away by security. and as soon as security walks away, they are right back at or over the line. now i don't know if any of the fans who were injured were by that line, but if so then they should have known better. if they were sitting in their seats, then i'd say unfortunately it is a part of racing and i feel horrible for them but what can you do at that point? it all falls on nascar and the individual tracks, as it is their responsibility to keep their fans safe. until they can come up with something that will make the cars safer when they wreck, people are going to either be pissed off or have to go to races and wonder/worry about their safety.

so i don't know what will happen. i know we'll soon see some modifications made to the cars, whether it be changing the roof flaps or doing something to slow them down. but as ryan newman said "talladega is short for, 'we're gonna wreck, we just don't know when'. ...i'm pretty sure we're going to come back to talladega, and i'm pretty sure that we're gonna have restrictor plates, and i'm pretty sure we're gonna run 3- and 4-wide for most of the race, so what we can do to make everybody safer is what we need to come out of (this) today."

well said.

 

That was spectacular! I wouldn't change a thing. Ever see that bumper sticker "I remember when sex was safe and racing was dangerous". Anyway. I like the danger. Its part of the thrill - nothing needs to be safe. Half of those injured were probably honored and enjoyed it. I would - "We're part of the event now!" I'm not a sadistic son of a b*tch who wants to see people die, but sh*ts gotta happen!

 

Well the point there OP (I know your JuniorCar here, but I know you better as OptimusPrime), is that we were scary close to a death on Sunday. closer than we want to be. I think NASCAR should adopt the law the truck series has... below hte yellow line after turn 4 on the final lap is fair game!! That would resolve the issue.. and it has been the deciding factor in several truck races. It would be safer and more exciting to allow the drivers below the yellow line off turn 4 on the final lap.