Earnhardt Sees Red Before Talladega Win

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was relaxed and confident as he raced toward a dominating victory Sunday in the Winston Cup Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

It was when NASCAR waved the red flag, pausing the action six laps from the end, that the worrying began.

“Sitting on the back straightaway, I was real nervous because I’ve led a lot of races like that and not won,” Earnhardt said.

“I knew it wasn’t over. It gets really crazy out there at the end because everybody does anything and everything to win.”

Earnhardt, who managed to avoid a 24-car wreck earlier in the race, easily kept his lead on the restart and held off teammate Michael Waltrip over the last five laps for his second consecutive victory on the 2.66-mile oval.

Earnhardt, like his late father, has become a master of the superspeedways, racing off to his third victory in the last four restrictor-plate races and leading 133 of 188 laps.

Still, there is always the specter of a multicar crash in the races on NASCAR’s big tracks.

“I knew I didn’t want to be any farther back than fifth because I knew it was going to happen,” Earnhardt said, referring to crash that came on Lap 164.

“With the rules package, we’re gouging and getting into the sides of each other just because it’s so hard to pass, and I didn’t want any part of it.”

Mark Martin, involved in the big wreck, brought out the third and final caution flag of the day when his battered car stalled in the grass on the back straightaway eight laps from the finish.

With oil dumped on parts of the track, NASCAR--as it did in the season-opening Daytona 500--brought out the red flag and stopped the cars on the backstretch on Lap 183 to give the safety crews time to clean the track and allow the race to finish under green.

The cars were restarted after a delay of 15 minutes 29 seconds and, after the green waved with four laps to go, the 27-year-old Earnhardt, whose father won 10 times on this track, fought off the challenge from his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate.

Although he’s a winner again, Scott Sharp has some unfinished business.

After prevailing in a battle of strategies when pole-sitter Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the final lap of the IRL Firestone 225 at Nazareth, Pa., Sharp is heading for the Indianapolis 500.

He’ll be returning to the scene of one of the greatest embarrassments in auto racing history. As the pole-sitter last year, he spun out on the first turn. But Sharp insists there are no lingering effects.

“Just getting back on the track took care of that,” he said. “That’s behind me now.”

And that’s where De Ferran finished for lack of a splash of fuel.

De Ferran had stopped on the 95th of 225 laps in the inaugural IRL race at Nazareth Speedway and was trying to nurse his car to the end.

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NASCAR This Weekend

When: Friday-Sunday.

Where: California Speedway, Fontana.

Saturday: Busch Grand National Auto Club 300, 12:30 p.m.

Sunday: Winston Cup Napa Auto Parts 500, 11:30 a.m., Channel 11.

Defending Winston Cup champion: Rusty Wallace.