NASCAR Capsules: Harvick nips McMurray for Talladega victory

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kevin Harvick executed the pass exactly how his team drew it up in the playbook.

With a last-second slingshot past Jamie McMurray, Harvick snapped a 115-race winless drought with an overdue victory Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. It was the payoff for perfect strategy devised in conversations over the weekend with crew chief Gil Martin and their Richard Childress Racing team.

Harvick lurked behind in traffic, trying to move his way into second place as the race hit the closing laps. His plan was to set himself up for one attempt at the lead, which he made roughly 500 yards from the finish line by sliding inside of McMurray then drag-racing him to the checkered flag.

"We made a plan, and I’m telling you, every piece of it played out exactly how we wanted to play it," Harvick said. "Coming into to the last lap, that’s exactly how we planned it out on paper."

The win gave Harvick his first victory since the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500, and it came in the longest Talladega race in Sprint Cup history. Because NASCAR’s new overtime rule allows for three attempts at its version of overtime, the race went 12 laps past the scheduled distance of 188 trips around the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

It covered a record 88 lead changes among a record 29 drivers, and the final pass was the one that had everyone talking.

"I hate to show my age, but that was a tremendous pass just like the old days, like you would have seen Buddy Baker or Cale Yarborough," Martin said. "That was a tremendous pass, and it was timed perfectly."

McMurray, this year’s Daytona 500 winner after winning the October race at Talladega, couldn’t hide his disappointment at misplaying the final half-lap. Seeking his third consecutive restrictor-plate victory, he stretched his fuel tank to the bitter end while racing wide-open to the finish line.

He held the bottom line, one eye on the finish line and the other in his rearview mirror, certain that Harvick’s lone attempt to pass would be on the outside.

He was wrong.

"I really thought that Kevin was going to go high," McMurray said after his second-place finish. "I felt like I was close enough to the yellow line that there was a lot more racetrack to the right. I was really guarding against the outside. It’s hard to explain to you guys that aren’t in cars, but when there’s someone directly behind you and they pull their car out of line really fast, it’s like you pull a parachute in your car.

"It literally feels like you lose three or five miles an hour immediately, and when that happens, the car that’s doing the passing just has the momentum."

The margin of victory of 0.011 seconds was the eighth-closest in NASCAR since it began using electronic scoring in 1993.

But Felix Sabates, co-owner of McMurray’s Earnhardt Ganassi Racing team, questioned whether Harvick’s pass was even legal. Because McMurray left so little real estate below him, Sabates believed Harvick dipped below the yellow out-of-bounds line.

"He passed Jamie under the yellow line and the rule is very specific," Sabates argued.

Harvick’s victory celebration was a short one.

Because rain postponed the Nationwide Series race Saturday, the winner had to hustle across the garage to run another 312 miles. He was joined in the Nationwide field by nine other Cup drivers doing double-duty, including a weary McMurray, who asked his crew for aspirin to treat a headache on an early pit stop in the second event.

They almost finished 1-2 again in the second event, but a frightening last-lap crash triggered when McMurray tried to squeeze in behind Harvick in a tight pack of traffic. Harvick settled for third, while McMurray was 14th.

Juan Pablo Montoya, teammates with McMurray at EGR, finished third and silently watched a replay of the finish as he waited to start his post-race interviews.

"Wow," he said with a sympathetic shrug for his teammate.

It was the first victory at Talladega for team owner Richard Childress since October 2000 in what was the final win of the late Dale Earnhardt’s career.

The race was fairly clean for the first 465 miles, as drivers simply tried to ensure they’d be around at the end. That’s when the chaos usually breaks out at Talladega, and Sunday was no exception.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson tangled on the track in the second consecutive race. Gordon believes Johnson squeezed him down the track late in the race, triggering a crash that took Gordon out of contention, and Gordon didn’t mask his anger after the race.

"The 48 is testing my patience, I can tell you that," said Gordon, who finished 22nd. "It takes a lot to make me mad. I am (mad) right now. I don’t know what it is with me and him right now."

Johnson was later involved in his own accident, tangling with Greg Biffle on the second attempt at overtime. Biffle had been second on that restart, but struggled taking off and dropped back through the field. Johnson had thought he cleared him, but then drifted into his lane to trigger a crash that sent the defending four-time champion hard into the inside retaining wall.

That set up the third and final "green-white-checkered" finish. Before this season, NASCAR made one attempt at a two-lap sprint to the finish. The week of this year’s season-opener, though, NASCAR decided it would allow up to three attempts to finish a race under green.

That tweak to the rules cost Harvick the Daytona 500 — he would have won the opener if the rules had not been changed — but benefited him Sunday. The three restarts gave him opportunity to slice his way through traffic; he was in seventh on the first attempt, fifth on the second and third on the final restart.

He immediately hooked on with McMurray, while Denny Hamlin lined up with Montoya.

"I had a really good restart, and I’m like, ‘We got him. I’m with (Hamlin), I’m going to win this,"’ Montoya said. "All of a sudden, the inside just took off."

With Harvick pushing hard on his bumper, McMurray pulled him far ahead in a two-car breakaway that ultimately cost him the race.

Harvick had rehearsed his next move several times this weekend, knowing what he’d do and where on the track he’d do it if in position to win the race.

"He made the move to the outside and I jerked left, so I was going the opposite way that he was going," he said. "It’s kind of like that old theory, if you’re the car leading the race, you don’t want to be the one that makes that call. He made the move to the right and I just went left."

It gave Harvick a victory just days after sponsor Shell Oil Company announced it was leaving the driver and owner Richard Childress at the end of the season to move to Penske Racing. The sponsor shift means Childress, who is trying to re-sign Harvick, must also shop for funding that can keep the driver at RCR.

"I think it’s great karma with everything that has happened this week with the sponsor and everything," Harvick said. "I think it’s kind of funny in itself. The karma thing is the best part."

Hamlin finished fourth and was followed by Mark Martin, David Ragan and Clint Bowyer. Kurt Busch was eighth, while Kyle Busch and Mike Bliss rounded out the top 10.

Notebook: Gordon-Johnson rivalry intensifies

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The Jeff Gordon-Jimmie Johnson rivalry may now be a full-blown feud.

Gordon and Johnson were involved in an incident for the second straight Sprint Cup race, leaving the pair of four-time champions and Hendrick Motorsports teammates needing to repair more than some cars.

They might have to patch up their differences — again.

"The 48 is testing my patience, I can tell you that," Gordon said Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. "It takes a lot to make me mad. ... I don’t know what it is with me and him right now."

Gordon was making a run to the front when he was forced by Johnson to the apron late in the race. Gordon connected with Scott Speed — Jeff Burton also was collected — and the No. 24 headed to pit road.

"The 48 decided to change three lanes and keep me from going by him and that’s just not cool when a car’s going that much faster than you," Gordon said. "Maybe he just didn’t know."

Gordon finished 22nd and Johnson was 31st. Gordon said he wasn’t exactly sure what happened in the wreck.

"I’m just excited we finished on the lead lap, to be honest," Gordon said.

Gordon and Johnson also tangled on the track last week at Texas Motor Speedway. Gordon and Johnson insisted Friday there were no hard feelings after their public tiff after aggressive driving and critical comments of each other over the radio.

Team owner Rick Hendrick defused any talk before the race of a feud between his four-time champion drivers.

Hendrick said Gordon’s competitive streak had him fired up when the No. 48 and No. 24 had their first dust-up last week at Texas. The drivers and friends then made critical comments of each other after the race.

Both drivers said they patched up their differences. Hendrick said on Sunday he liked Gordon’s attitude.

"He’s not sick of Jimmie, he’s just on the chip," Hendrick said. "He drove that race in Vegas where he was sideways on the outside and wouldn’t give it up. He’s fired up. He should have won three races already — three or four maybe. I’m excited about a little bit of a rivalry between them — as long as they don’t wreck each other."

HMS teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished 13th, downplayed any friction.

"These guys laugh and joke at the stories in the media about it," he said. "Both of them want to be champions. ... Everybody butts heads once in a while. Rick ain’t gonna let ‘em do too damn much."

SHORT TRIP, WALTRIP: Michael Waltrip briefly rekindled memories of his lone win at Talladega Superspeedway when he took the lead Sunday.

His lead was short-lived — and so was his race. Waltrip, who stopped driving for Michael Waltrip Racing after the season-opening Daytona 500, was knocked out after he got caught up in a wreck about 83 laps into the race.

Kyle Busch tapped Johnny Sauter, triggering a 10-car pileup that included Waltrip. Waltrip said Busch hadn’t learned the art of bump-drafting.

"He’s quite the driver, and he’ll tell you about it," Waltrip said. "You’d think that anybody with that much talent would be able to figure out bump-drafting. Everybody else had."

Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, drove in only his third race this year. He’d love to return for the Oct. 31 race.

"Maybe I ran good enough to convince (his sponsor) to let me come back in October and try again," he said.

CHANGING LEADS: Kevin Harvick had the only lead that counted at Talladega Superspeedway. The last one.

But seemingly every other driver had a shot. There were a record 88 lead changes among a series-record 29 drivers. The previous records were 75 lead changes (May 6, 1984) and 28 leaders (Oct. 5, 2008).

Jeff Burton led the most laps (28) and seven drivers led only one.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought a roar out of the crowd whenever he took the lead. He ran up front late and led eight laps before fading to a 13th-place finish.

"When it counted at the end, we just kind of didn’t make the right moves," Earnhardt said. "The bottom line didn’t go very good on that restart and it cost us a few more spots. I’m pretty happy to come out of here in one piece."

Harvick led twice for two laps.

-- Dan Gelston

Hendrick says extensions coming for 2 crew chiefs

TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick is close to announcing contract extensions for crew chiefs Alan Gustafson and Chad Knaus.

"We absolutely should be able to announce something here in 10 days or so," Hendrick said before Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. "We weren’t that concerned about it, but that’s going to happen here real soon."

Hendrick has been working on an extension with Knaus since late last season, when driver Jimmie Johnson agreed to a deal to drive at Hendrick Motorsports through 2015. The driver and crew chief have won a NASCAR record four consecutive championships together.

Gustafson is currently crew chief for Mark Martin in the No. 5 car. Kasey Kahne recently completed a deal to drive that car in 2012, but Hendrick says he has not yet determined his crew chief lineup.

The owner did say, though, that the No. 5 team belongs to Gustafson — the first indication that he could be paired with Kahne.

"As long as I’m alive, Alan is going to work for me. And the 5 car is his," said Hendrick, who declined to be more specific on potential future pairings.

Kahne has a strong relationship with Kenny Francis, his longtime crew chief who is currently with him at Richard Petty Motorsports. But Kahne is leaving at the end of this season, and although he wants to continue working with Francis, he’s said he doesn’t know what will happen.

Hendrick, after all, has to first figure out where Kahne will even drive next season.

The deal the owner and driver agreed to doesn’t put Kahne in the No. 5 until 2012, but makes Hendrick responsible for finding a ride for him next season. The pairing will most certainly be with a Chevrolet team, but Hendrick said Sunday he had nothing figured out yet.

"It’s amazing how many options people have called me with in this garage area," Hendrick said. "We’re just not in any hurry right now. A lot of things can happen and seriously, I have so much going on that I told Kasey, ‘If you want to do it and I want to do it, we agree and then you go race and let me do my job.’

"We’ll worry about the rest of it later."

Also undetermined is if Budweiser, Kahne’s current sponsor, will be with him after this season. Hendrick said he’s got potential conflicts with current HMS sponsors, but also has options.

"I’ve got a lot of first-refusals where I can say to those people that you’ve got 30 days to decide," Hendrick said. "I have to abide by those contracts."

Same goes with Martin, who is signed through 2011, but indicated after Kahne’s signing that he has no plans to walk away from racing. Although Martin will likely scale back to a partial schedule starting in 2012, he expressed interest in some sort of owner-driver role with his own team.

"When you heard that, that was the first time I had heard that," Hendrick said. "I didn’t even know he had thought about that. I would be happy to help him. I think our sport needs more guys like that who want to own their own teams. But it’s really hard to plan when you’re going to run a limited schedule.

"I think he’s had to have had a ton of options, because I’ve had people calling me. And I’m like, ‘You gotta call him.’ Because I can’t run him in a limited deal and have four teams."

-- Jenna Fryer

Nationwide

Keselowski wins at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Brad Keselowski was minutes away from being benched for the Nationwide Series race. He was involved in a late wreck in the earlier Cup race, sending his carbon monoxide level soaring past NASCAR’s limit to drive.

He was a "real jerk" to the medical personnel in the care center because he demanded immediate clearance to race.

"If the race started 5 minutes earlier, I wouldn’t have been in it," Keselowski said.

Keselowski needed an oxygen mask for the majority of his break between races, then went out and won the Nationwide event at Talladega Superspeedway in a wild finish to end more than 850 miles of racing Sunday.

"We caught the right breaks today," Keselowski said.

He got the breaks on the track and off to win his first race with Penske Racing. Keselowski said his carbon monoxide level after the Sprint Cup race was at 13 — nearly triple NASCAR’s required numeric level to drive a stock car.

Team owner Roger Penske asked Sam Hornish Jr. to standby in case of emergency. After 45 minutes of breathing through an oxygen mask, Keselowski was given the green light to drive the No. 22 Dodge.

All he needed then was the second green-white checkered finish of the day. Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray seemed poised down the stretch to duplicate their thrilling 1-2 finish in the Cup race. But McMurray got loose on the overtime laps and triggered a scary wreck that nearly sent Dennis Setzer flying over the fence.

Setzer went airborne, crashed into the safety fence and his car was on fire as it skidded down the track. It was similar to last year’s Cup race at Talladega when Carl Edwards sailed into the fence, allowing Keselowski to pull off a surprise win.

The left front spring and right front shock from the No. 22 was sent to R&D because it was under the minimum spring rate. NASCAR will make an annoucement on its findings Tuesday.

McMurray, who needed ibuprofen early in the Nationwide race after finishing second behind Harvick in the Cup race, tried to squeeze in behind Harvick in a pack of traffic to eek out the win.

"I tried to get back to the bottom and I saw a little gap between Harvick and (Clint) Bowyer, and when you are looking at it out of the side mirrors, it’s not as clear an angle as what it needs to be," McMurray said. "As soon as I saw (Bowyer), I tried to get back up the race track to not wreck everybody, but unfortunately I couldn’t save it and ended up spinning out there."

Keselowski won for the first time with Penske Racing. It’s only the second year team owner Roger Penske is running a full-time Nationwide program.

Keselowski was added this year to make it a two-car operation with Justin Allgaier, who gave Penske his first career series win this month at Bristol when he beat Keselowski in a 1-2 Penske Racing finish. Keselowski leads the points standings.

"Maybe we were behind when we started, but we sure got ahead today," Penske said.

Joey Logano was second and Harvick third.

"I can’t complain about third place," Harvick said. "It was a lot of the same scenario."

Keselowski, Harvick and Logano were among the 10 drivers who pulled double duty and drove about 850 miles after rain wiped out Saturday’s scheduled race. It was the second straight race weekend NASCAR had a Cup-Nationwide double because of rain. The drivers who double-dipped last Monday at Texas Motor Speedway went a combined 801 miles.

"I think this week is different than last week because last week was a more demanding race track," Logano said. "I was fine. I didn’t have any issues or anything like that, and last week I was good, too. It’s different getting out of the Cup car and walking over to the Nationwide trailer, changing suits, getting some food and then ‘All right, buckle back in. Here we go!"’

Setzer, who said he was fine, surely made the highlight reels after his frightening crash that saw him hurled into the safety fence. His car nearly flipped over the fence, but landed on the track in flames.

"Anything more exciting than this and we’ll have to go to the X-Games," Harvick said.

Keselowski’s win comes days after Penske Racing landed Shell Oil’s sponsorship for next season. The new partnership makes Pennzoil the primary sponsor for Kurt Busch, who will move to the No. 22 Dodge. Miller Lite will shift its sponsorship to Keselowski.

Penske said he was committed to bringing Hornish back next season and finding him sponsorship. Penske expects to again field two-cars in the Nationwide Series in 2011.

-- Dan Gelston

Miss America overcome by heat at NASCAR race

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Miss America Caressa Cameron was overcome by heat and unable to sing the national anthem Sunday before the NASCAR races at Talladega Superspeedway.

The Miss America Organization says Cameron was taken to the track’s medical care center, evaluated and quickly released. She is feeling better and resting comfortably.

Cameron was the first black Miss America since Ericka Dunlap in 2005.

Other Auto Racing News

Pruett, Rojas win in Virginia

DANVILLE, Va. — Scott Pruett survived two late-race restarts and a strong challenge by Burt Frisselle to win the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series’ Bosch Engineering 250 on Saturday at Virginia International Raceway.

Pruett teamed with Memo Rojas to give the No. 01 TELMEX Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley its third consecutive series victory.

Andy Lally had contact with Bill Auberlen with two laps remaining but held on to win the GT division, driving TRG’s No. 66 AXA Porsche GT3 started by Ted Ballou.

Pruett and Rojas led all but nine of the 84 laps in the 2-hour, 45-minute event.

Entering the final half-hour, Pruett brushed a GT car and half of his rear spoiler began flapping. It broke off on lap 73, bringing out the second caution of the day. Several Daytona Prototypes tangled on the restart, bringing out the final caution.

Action resumed for a five-lap dash to the checkered flag, with Pruett holding off Frisselle by 0.293 seconds. Frisselle matched his career-best finish, sharing the No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley with Mark Wilkins.

"It was sideways everywhere, because we lost a lot of downforce," Pruett said. "The only advantage was straight-line speed, so I knew if I could get off the turns well, I’d be very difficult to pass — because the straightaways are the best place to pass."