Vickers bumps Johnson into leader Earnhardt Jr. to steal Talladega win

[irish_blue69]

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Brian Vickers stole his first Nextel Cup victory Sunday by turning teammate Jimmie Johnson into race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., then skirting by the two spinning cars on the last lap at Talladega Superspeedway.
The finish robbed Earnhardt of what seemed to be a victory as he headed into the third turn in pursuit of the checkered flag. But Johnson dipped low to attempt a pass, Vickers went with him and slight contact between the two Hendrick Motorsports drivers sent Johnson spinning directly into Earnhardt.
"That's the last thing I wanted to do was get into Jimmie," Vickers said amid a shower of boos in Victory Lane. "But what happened, happened. And it's still nice to get this win."
The dramatic ending capped what had been a curiously calm event on Talladega's sleek new asphalt. The race was incident free until 50 laps to go, when an 11-car melee crippled Jeff Gordon's championship hopes.
A second accident set up a final restart with 10 laps to go and Earnhardt out front. Then points leader Jeff Burton got a flat tire and had to make a desperate pit stop while the championship board tightened up considerably.
With Earnhardt chugging along -- and only 20 points out of the championship lead -- the finish seemed secure.
But the two Hendrick drivers apparently had a game-plan of hooking up to run down Earnhardt. They moved low together, and Earnhardt threw a huge block to prevent the pass. It apparently caused Johnson to bobble and Vickers drilled him in the back bumper, sending Johnson spinning into Earnhardt.
"There on the last lap, I knew that Jimmie was going to go and I was going to push him to the front," Vickers said. "I didn't expect for us to be able to get the win. I was looking for us to maybe get a second place, and push him by [Earnhardt]
"When he swerved to miss the 8, I was just there."
Earnhardt understood.
"They got a good run coming at the end. They got a good push together and I knew there wasn't going to be much I could do," Earnhardt said. "I tried to block him a little bit, but once I understood that he was there I didn't push the issue anymore and [Vickers] turned him into me.
"Brian was just excited there. I'm not really that upset, I mean, that's just the way racing goes here and sometimes you come out on the good end of the deal."
Johnson wasn't nearly as forgiving.
"I just can't believe it," he said. "Here we go all day long, I had a great chance to make up some points, and I end up getting wrecked by a teammate."
Only for six more weeks. Vickers is leaving Hendrick at the end of the season to drive for a Toyota team, and his impending departure led the organization to lock him out of their team meetings.
Now he might not even be allowed in the building.
His contact dropped Earnhardt to a 23rd-place finish, Johnson to 24th and prevented either from making any gains in the Chase for the championship. Although Burton's lead was cut to six points over Matt Kenseth, Earnhardt is 106 back in sixth place and Johnson is 156 out in eighth place.
Even more disconcerting for Hendrick is that Gordon also took a huge hit in the standings.
After leading seven times for 27 laps, he was denied a chance to run for the win when he received the worst of the first accident in the race. It came with 50 laps to go when contact between Carl Edwards, Joe Nemechek and Johnson set off an 11-car melee.
Gordon spun toward the outside, seemed to keep his car off of it, then skidded back down the track with minimal damage. But Casey Mears tagged him from behind, sending a disheartened Gordon puttering into the garage amid a flood of cheers from the crowd.
As he watched his crew furiously try to make enough repairs to get him back on the track, he declared his championship hunt pretty much over. Six points out of the lead two races ago, a 39th-place finish last week and a 36th here has him seventh in the standings, 147 points out.
"I've said all along that if it's meant to be, it's meant to be," he said. "And it just doesn't seem meant to be. Right now I am not even thinking about it because I am just so bummed out because I know that our chances are pretty slim of winning this championship, if not completely done."
NASCAR slapped smaller restrictor plates on the cars Saturday because speeds on the repaved track were nearing 200 mph during two early practice sessions. The new plates were designed to slow the cars, and they did in qualifying.
But many of the average speeds throughout the race were still over 200 mph.

SI.com - Racing - Vickers spins leaders to steal Talladega win - Sunday October 8, 2006 7:05PM

[irish_blue69]

Man I bet Jr. is ticked off big time. I know that I would be.

[AT3Weins]

I sincerely hope somebody kicks Brian's ass!

What a ****ing moron...AND he's blaming it on Jr!

Stupid ****er.

[BloodThirstyWench]

Okay, I'm not an Earnhardt fan by any means...but Vickers is a wanker! He was not remorseful or anything...what a DICK! But Kenseth got bumped up to 4th so, I'll not shed too many tears.

[AT3Weins]

LoL yea Matt had a good race

So 6 of the 10 in the chase got screwed last weekend, let's see how they fair this weekend.

[irish_blue69]

This has been an interesting chase for the championship this year.