Catchfence

Racing has long been known to produce weekends of astonishing competition. It has also been known for staging multiple features in a single day. Multi-feature shows at speedways, though, are mostly a staple of the local tracks such as in the rain-delayed Spring Sizzler at Stafford, CT; local Modifieds, Late Models, etc. are a staple of many a short track.

Lately, though, the multi-feature in a single day has become common at the major-league touring level of NASCAR out of necessity – that darned rain again – but at Talladega it was taken to a new level, a level impossible to take one’s eyes off of. Talladega has always produced the greatest racing in motorsports; for the Alabama 500/312 weekend, though, it reached a level it may never see again, as over 800 miles of racing possessed the endurance of a 12-hour race yet was exactly the opposite of the grind that is endurance racing – instead it managed to stretch over 800 miles of racing and then compress the competition into the savage frenzy of combat.

Long has the 1984 Winston 500 been seen as the most competitive in motorsports history as the lead changed 75 times among 13 drivers. That record was not just broken, it was pulverized as the lead changed 88 times among 29 drivers; the latter was also a record, breaking the mark set just two years ago at 28 leaders in the Autumn 500.

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The day set the bar for competitive depth to a level that may be impossible to break now – NASCAR managed to see over 100 official lead changes in one day of racing, and it also may have set a new level of irony.

First was the stunning triumph of Kevin Harvick, days after his present sponsor made the move for 2011 to Penske Racing. Over three years after his previous Winston Cup win, this Talladega triumph served as an unexpectedly fast serving of vindication thrown in the face of backers that he won’t be blamed if he feels have deserted him. It is also a vindication of the RCR team amid a resurgence of muscle in this season after a lengthy drought, and coming after the car that appeared strongest of the RCR fleet was eliminated in a late wreck with Jeff Gordon.

While it was vindication for Harvick and RCR it was vindication denied to a host of stout challengers. The memory of a rules dispute for which the sanctioning body has no credible defense returned as Regan Smith stormed into the lead; the memory of Michael Waltrip’s Daytona-Talladega successes returned as he stormed from last to the lead; the memory of the chaotic last lap of 2006 came to the fore with Brian Vickers.

And of course Junior Nation erupted with each race to the front by the #88. Indeed, for awhile it appeared the outcome might involve resurrection of the first half of the most recent decade, when Dale Junior couldn’t lose at Talladega. It brought reminder that this has been a rather stout early burst in the season for Junior following years of struggle to get anything going.

Amid the controversy surrounding his new contract with Hendrick, Kasey Kahne raced his #9 to the front after getting a plug wire changed under the early competition yellow. As at Daytona the Petty-Gillett fleet stormed to the front, and with AJ Allmendinger leading the answer to who will pick up the slack after Kahne is gone from that team may lie in the #43 seat. It made the swamping of Allmendinger under late restarts all the more galling (and all too familiar after the late Phoenix restart), evoking memory of several victory efforts for the #43 at Talladega lost in the previous fifteen seasons, notably 1994, ’99, and 2000, with strong efforts in 2002, 2006, and 2008 worth note.

And at the end the recent controller of plate prowess patiently found himself back up front, but it turned into a day of heartbreak for Jamie McMurray, and not just with the one-foot margin of defeat. Even in defeat, one’s previous view of McMurray as a racer can’t be sustained, as he may not display the muscle with enough frequency, he nonetheless has made believers out of people who had ample reason for doubt not two years ago.

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The competitive joy and frustration of the day was not yet finished, and the fullness of the day’s irony only became apparant in the last lap of a BGN 312-miler that was thrilling in its own right even if it was impossible to match the sheer ferocity of what had transpired minutes before. The battle for the win picked up pretty much as it left off, albiet with noticably looser racecars and a curious reluctance on the part of drivers to physically blast cars forward as was the norm in the Alabama 500. The contrast between the two classes showed most graphically here, as Brad Keselowski seemed the only driver willing to push-draft another car not only on a straightaway but to do so all the way around with any kind of consistency.

Kevin Harvick’s bid for history found another showdown with Jamie McMurray but the full irony of the day exploded as Keselowski stormed to the win and McMurray found himself blocking the field in a last-lap spin; the result was a melee that was unsettlingly vast even by past Talladega standards, one that will outdo any fireworks show Charlotte Motor Speedway can cook up amid Dennis Setzer’s four-second inferno.

Thus was the irony of the day fulfilled – one year after winning the Alabama 500 on a last lap with a savage flip into the fencing, Brad Keselowski exploded to the win amid a far more brutal melee involving a car hammering the fencing, this one erupting in fire. And that scenario started to play out in the 500, except that one car decided to leave room that Carl Edwards didn’t.

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As for Carl Edwards, after he tried to get in the way of the Alabama 312 leaders and spun himself out, one need not wonder why he may not win again at this level.

Even with that, NASCAR saw a raceday of a ferocity and depth it may never again experience.