5-times Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson won Aaron's 499 with a razor-thin .002-second margin of victory over Clint Bowyer in a wild four-wide finish at the 2.66-mile track. Johnson's edged victory at Talladega is only his 2nd in the demanding track and the 54th of his Cup career. But more importantly it was Johnson's first victory of the season after 5 races in his attempt to win a 6th consecutive Sprint Cup championship.
The race featured a broad display of two-car drafting and ended with eight cars – in drafting pair – charging toward the finish line. Bowyer, with drafting help from Kevin Harvick, led the white-flag lap, but the duos of Johnson/Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon/Mark Martin and Carl Edwards/Greg Biffle were coming.
Johnson went to the inside and pulled ahead of Bowyer at the last moment, tying the NASCAR record for closest finish since the advent of electronic scoring. The record had been held by Ricky Craven’s win at Darlington Raceway in 2003.
However, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s assist to Johnson was so important that the champ tried to give him the checkered flag after the race.
"We got hooked up and rolling. I drove through three and four. I was hoping we’d get another chance. They were worried about us. But they left the bottom open, and we had some big momentum going...
Well I got it and gave it to him. He goes, 'I don't want it.' I said, 'Well, I've got to give you something -- here. Thanks.' He's got the checkered flag over there, and I can't wait to tilt a cold one back with him and thank him for a good job done today."
Earnhardt was happy to provide the big push to victory.
"If I couldn't win the race, I wanted Jimmie to win the race, because I had worked with him all day, and he's my teammate and I'm proud to be driving for Hendrick Motorsports. This was a great finish and a great weekend for us to be able to qualify like we did [sweeping the top four starting spots], race like we did and we have awesome engines, and we build great cars. And we all finished very well today, and that's a tribute to the craftsmanship we have back in Charlotte."
Jeff Gordon ran third and Earnhardt fourth, as Hendrick drivers claimed three of the top four finishing positions in the paired-n-push Talladega race. Kevin Harvick finished fifth, followed by Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, David Gilliland and Joey Logano.
In fact, both Johnson and Earnhardt spent approximately half the race in the back of the field risking to be wrecked by the backmarkers but took their turns up front -- enough for Johnson to lead 14 laps and Earnhardt 11. Gordon and Martin, on the other hand, stuck to their strategy of running six to 10 seconds behind the leaders, successfully avoiding the wrecks that took out other contenders.
By the time the race restarted for the final time on Lap 178 -- after the sixth caution of the day for a wreck involving Ryan Newman and Juan Montoya -- Gordon and Martin had already moved to the front in a two-car tandem, and Johnson and Earnhardt joined them shortly thereafter.
Bowyer led 38 laps – a race high – as the race posted 88 lead changes, tying a series record. He seemed most upset after the race by the fact that Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. had lurked back in the field most of the day before charging at the end.
"It's never very good to know you made NASCAR history by losing. Sooner or later I need to start making history by winning. That guy's won enough.
The only thing that bums me out about that is those guys lagged back all day long. That's what makes it tough, losing to somebody that did that. We were up front for our sponsors and our team, digging all day long. When you get it taken from you at the end by somebody who lagged back all day, it's hard to take."
Gordon, however, said executing the lag-behind strategy wasn't as easy as it appeared.
"It comes down to a strategy race to try to get yourself in position with 20, 25 [laps] to go. And there's more to it than you think. I mean, you know, when you see me and Mark out there riding around, six, eight seconds back of the lead, it's not as easy as you think it is to manage that and to figure it out.
You still are having to watch your temperatures and different things. But let's be honest -- in my opinion, Talladega has always been about a 15-, 25-lap race, and the rest is just trying to get to the end. And that's basically what we have now."
The race’s first major accident occurred near the halfway point as cars slowed in turn three and David Ragan’s Ford slammed into the outside wall. As traffic slowed, Kurt Busch bumped into teammate Brad Keselowski, sending Keselowski spinning.
On lap 139 (of 188), Kyle Busch and teammate Logano were drafting together when Busch lost control of his car off turn two, sending him into a spin and into Matt Kenseth, sparking the day’s fourth caution.
Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne also were involved in the accident, and Kahne’s car burst into flames as he rolled to a stop.
