Monday racing roundup: Earnhardt Jr. Scores Emotional Win at Talladega
May 04, 2015 | By IMS
It's a toss-up which is greater, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s passion for Talladega Superspeedway or the Talladega fan base's passion for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
On a glorious afternoon, Earnhardt offered a one-word order to his team over the radio, a message that could be shared with the thousands of his devotees in the stands: "Celebrate!" he proclaimed.
Earnhardt, his team and Junior Nation could celebrate his 0.159-second victory over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500 Sunday afternoon, his sixth Sprint Cup win here. It all but assures Earnhardt a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship for a fifth consecutive year.
Paul Menard was third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fifth. Points leader Kevin Harvick, racing with a mangled hood after an early accident, was eighth.
The victory came barely 24 hours after Earnhardt had acknowledged a responsibility to perform well here for his fan base, saying, "I feel like I’m supposed to get up there and lead."
He did so, leading 67 of the 188 laps, then wove his way into Victory Circle, where he gushed nearly as dramatically as the geyser spewing from an engine that began overheating because of debris on the grille.
"It’s just real emotional," Earnhardt said. "I haven’t won here in a long time (November 2004), my daddy’s birthday was a couple of days ago. It was real emotional. Everything is so good for me right now. I don’t know why I don’t feel like I deserve it. I just feel overcome with a lot of emotion."
Unlike many Talladega races, the final two dozen laps were essentially run in a single-file parade, first with a 10-car string, then ultimately caught up by a line of another 20 cars.
"I don’t know what creates that in the drivers’ minds to say we’re all going to ride at the top," Johnson said. "It doesn’t happen every time (but) it does happen every now and then and today was one of those days."
At the white flag, Johnson tried to get a run with Blaney on his bumper, and defending race winner Denny Hamlin made a run.
"I knew he would wait and that’s what I would do," Earnhardt said of Johnson. "I wouldn’t want to screw it up for both of us. He tried to back up but he couldn’t get a run."
As a wreck happened in their rear-view mirror, with Carl Edwards being spun out, Earnhardt kept his lead, zooming past a nearly filled grandstands celebrating his triumph.
"Everybody at Talladega is happy," Truex said of the fans. "So all is good."
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will race on July 26 at IMS in the Crown Royal presents “Your Hero’s Name Here” 400 at the Brickyard – and you can have a vote in who the hero is. Five finalists have been named, click here to submit your vote.
NASCAR XFINITY Series: Logano stays hot at Talladega
Fresh from an "intense" final eight laps, Joey Logano parked his No. 22 Ford, caught his breath and proclaimed that it was "cool to get this thing in Victory Lane."
This, then, can be pronounced a season of "cool" for Logano, who’ll turn 25 later this month. His triumph in Saturday's NASCAR XFINITY Series Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway was his third in five series starts, to go along with two runner-up finishes.
"This has been a pretty special season so far," Logano said. "We’ve had some fast race cars."
Brian Scott was second, followed by his Richard Childress Racing teammate Austin Dillon, the Coors Light Pole-sitter. (The front row was All-Dillon, All-RCR, with younger brother Ty on the outside, and Scott starting third.)
J.J. Yeley was fourth and Joey Gase, a youngster with a team budget so small "I don’t even have a PR person," was fifth. Gase, who started 39th, noted that his sponsorship funding "for the entire year is what some of these teams have for one race."
Logano stole the lead from Elliott Sadler after a restart with eight laps remaining, then it "was just having the right people behind you, making the right moves, making the right block and getting that clean air. Then it’s all in the mirror," Logano said.
The XFINITY Series comes to IMS on July 25 for the Lilly Diabetes 250.
MotoGP: Lorenzo dominates at Jerez
Jorge Lorenzo reclaimed the Circuito de Jerez as “Lorenzo Land” as he proved to be simply untouchable on his way to his 55th World Championship victory. The Spaniard dominated throughout the weekend and continued during the race as he led from the lights to the flag.
His winning margin of 5.576 seconds was an indication of just how much he was in control of the race, as he even had time to salute the fans on his final lap before crossing the line to take the checkered flag.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez rode valiantly with his broken finger and even managed to hold off a charging Valentino Rossi at the end of the race to claim second. Rossi was two seconds behind Marquez with 10 laps to go, and the Spaniard must have had a feeling of déjà vu when his pit board said Rossi had closed the gap to a second with only seven laps left.
Unlike in Argentina he managed to respond to keep the Italian at bay with Rossi eventually crossing the line in third, a further six seconds back, to claim his 200th World Championship podium.
CWM LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow secured fourth as the leading satellite rider, ahead of Pol Espargaro on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1. Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone won a hard-fought battle for sixth against Aleix Espargaro on the Team Suzuki Ecstar GSX-RR.
Bradley Smith finished in eighth, while Andrea Dovizioso (ninth) had to ride through the field after running wide twice during the opening laps and finding himself down in 25th.
Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez completed the top ten with Hector Barbera finishing as the top Open class rider in 14th, just ahead of Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista (15th) who claimed the final Championship point.
Rossi (82 points) now has a 15-point advantage over Andrea Dovizioso (67) in the MotoGP World Championship standings whilst Jorge Lorenzo (62) has moved into third, with Marquez (56) in fourth.
MotoGP comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Aug. 9.