Jeff Gordon's 77th win is greeted by beer cans
Talladega fans were not happy he passed Earnhardt's total.
By REID SPENCER
SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Jeff Gordon and the heavily partisan Dale Earnhardt fans at Talladega Superspeedway chose to celebrate Gordon's 77th NASCAR Nextel Cup victory in decidedly different ways.
In Sunday's Aaron's 499 at the 2.66-mile track where Earnhardt won a record 10 times -- and for the last time in 2000, just four months before his death in the 2001 Daytona 500 -- Gordon took the checkered flag under caution, and under a hailstorm of beer cans and other debris thrown by the more demonstrative members of Earnhardt Nation.
Gordon then did a burnout in Turn 4 and earned another volley of beer cans in return.
"That wasn't a good decision on my part," said Gordon, who increased his lead over second-place Jeff Burton to 203 points.
Birthday was Sunday
Had he lived, Earnhardt would have celebrated his 56th birthday Sunday. But the race was about Gordon, who won from the pole in what is arguably the four-time champion's best start to a season in the Cup series.
Gordon also tied Dale Earnhardt Jr. with five victories at Talladega, the most among active drivers.
"There are a lot of fans who are Earnhardt fans who didn't want to see [the tie] broken," said Gordon, who came from 14th place after a restart on lap 179 to take the lead from Jamie McMurray on Lap 185. "There are a lot of my fans out there as well, and they want to see me celebrate. I appreciate the enthusiasm and the opinions of all the fans out there.
"What are you going to do? We're here to win."
Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson ran second, followed by Kurt Busch, David Gilliland and Jamie McMurray.
Earnhardt Jr., who finished seventh, believed Gordon eventually would surpass his father.
"It was bound to happen," said Earnhardt, who paid a visit to Gordon in victory lane when the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet tied Earnhardt Sr. for sixth on the all-time list April 21 at Phoenix. "I told him this week, I said, 'You win this one and I ain't coming into victory lane this time. That caused too much trouble.'
"He's a great racecar driver. I knew years ago he would eventually pass my old man. I think he has the opportunity to pass a couple more."
Yarborough is next
Fifth-place Cale Yarborough (83 wins) is the next driver ahead of Gordon on the all-time list, with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip tied for third with 84 each. Gordon said he wouldn't race long enough to catch David Pearson (105) in second place. Richard Petty is in first with 200 wins.
Gordon took the checkered flag after a wreck behind him on Lap 191 ended NASCAR's attempt at a green-white-checkered flag restart as the race went 192 laps, four beyond its posted distance.
Gordon took the lead from McMurray on Lap 185, right before NASCAR called a caution for oil on the track after the engine in David Reutimann's No. 00 Toyota exploded. After an extended cleanup, the field restarted on Lap 191, but a wreck that resulted from contact among Elliott Sadler, Greg Biffle and Johnny Sauter froze the field with Gordon in the lead.
Miscommunication
A rare case of miscommunication between Hendrick Motorsports teams led to the first major accident of Sunday afternoon. On Lap 125, as Casey Mears slowed in Turn 4 to access pit road, Johnson banged the rear bumper of the No. 25 Chevy and sent Mears careening into the inside wall.
Mears said he thought Johnson and Gordon were supposed to come to the pits with him, but the No. 48 team was unaware of the plan, and though Mears said later he had waved on the backstretch to signal his intention to pit, Johnson didn't see it.
Less than two laps after the subsequent restart on Lap 130, Johnson got a piece of a seven-car wreck that eliminated teammate Kyle Busch, Joe Nemechek, Jeff Burton and Ricky Rudd. Tony Raines triggered the crash when he hit the left side of Johnson's No. 48 Chevy and knocked him into Rudd, who was running three-wide on the outside.