Saturday, April 24, 2004
Martin Truex got a late shove from Dale Earnhardt Jr., and then beat him.
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- Martin Truex Jr. beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a video game at Talladega Superspeedway. Then he beat his boss on the racetrack.
With a few helpful shoves from Earnhardt, co-owner of Chance 2 Motorsports, Truex won his second NASCAR Busch series race, taking the checkered flag just ahead of his mentor on Saturday in the Aaron's 312.
The last 31 laps of the 117-lap event on the 2.66-mile oval. were marred by four of the six caution flags in the race. One, brought out by a wild, 10-car crash sent Tim Fedewa to a nearby hospital for a precautionary examination.
With Truex and Earnhardt just ahead of a long line of contenders and a great finish shaping up, rookie Clint Bowyer, who started from the pole in his first Talladega race, spun on lap 116. That started a chain reaction crash that involved five other cars, forcing the race to finish under yellow.
Truex gets a push
"What a crazy race. You never knew where you were going to be from one lap to the next," Truex said. "We were just in the right place at the right time, out front with Junior giving me a push from behind.
"It was really cool having him push me. He could have got out of line and tried to push by me, but he's a real class act."
Truex led four times for 29 laps, including the final 23. He averaged 136.783 mph.
Earnhardt, the defending race winner here and also of the season-opener in Daytona in his only other Busch start of 2004, gave Truex instructions by radio late in the race.
"At one time, there was a whole line of them coming up on the outside and I turned to his channel and told Martin to get up in front of them or he'd probably wind up getting kicked all the way to the back," Earnhardt said. "I'm sure he was thinking he had to stay in front of Earnhardt, but he listened and got up in front of them and stayed in the lead.
"I told him, 'Don't worry about me. I'll get back up front.' "
Fell behind
Earnhardt did fall back a bit but, following the last restart with eight laps remaining, the two-time Busch Series champion quickly moved from fourth to second and bumped the rear of Truex's Chevrolet several times to give him extra momentum to pull ahead.
"I decided to stay behind him and take what we could get as a team," said Earnhardt, who will go into Sunday's Aaron's 499 Nextel Cup race as co-favorite with DEI teammate Michael Waltrip. "I figured if I pull out, they're going to do to me what I did to the two guys who were between Martin and me on the last restart."
Earnhardt acknowledged playing computer games with Truex was a big help in getting the rookie ready for his first Talladega race.
"We spent a lot of time on a computer running simulations," Earnhardt said. "It's real close to real life and ... when you learn patience and self-discipline on that video game, it works in real life. And Martin's real good at that game."
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