Vickers Crashes the Party to Win

Midway through the final lap Sunday, more than 150,000 people gave out the strangest crowd reaction to a finish in the 37-year history of Talladega Superspeedway.

They went nearly silent, gazing blankly at a cloud of dust rising from the backstretch.

Seconds earlier they’d been jubilant but anxious as their favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr., tried to hold off Jimmie Johnson for the win in the UAW-Ford 500.

Earnhardt and Johnson each seemed sure to gain badly needed ground in the standings and liven up the Chase for the Nextel Cup, NASCAR’s playoffs.

Then both were wrecked by a noncontender for the championship. Johnson’s teammate, Brian Vickers, was trying to help him. And indeed, Vickers bump-drafted Johnson up alongside Earnhardt. But then Vickers knocked Johnson right into the side of Earnhardt, with both sent spinning.

Then Vickers was declared the winner after NASCAR’s electronic scoring system froze the field a moment after the wreck. That gave Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch, who finished second and third, no chance to race Vickers back to the flag.

“I’m not going to deny I got into the back of [Johnson],” Vickers said. “And I hate it. But it wasn’t intentional. I was trying to push Jimmie to a win.”

Earnhardt led going into the final lap, and had led the most laps in the race, 37. But he knew he was a sitting duck to the two Hendrick Motorsports teammates lined up behind him in the draft.

“Brian just got excited,” Earnhardt said. “I hate it for the 48 [Johnson], and I hate it for our team. I’m not really that upset. That’s just the way racing goes here.”

Earnhardt had been annoyed on Saturday when NASCAR had refused to add a practice session after abruptly ordering smaller restrictor plates in mid-weekend. That was to slow the cars down from the 198-mph speeds they’d reached Friday in practice.

The win was the first of Vickers’ Nextel Cup career, although he said it was “not the way I’d planned it.”

The day was even worse for four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who got caught up in the biggest wreck of the day, a 13-car pileup 51 laps from the end. Gordon wound up 36th.

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Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.

* THE CHASE STANDINGS, D15