NASCAR: McMurray wins at Talladega for first victory in 87 races

TALLADEGA — In typical Talladega Superspeedway fashion, a series of frightening crashes tainted the end of the AMP Energy 500 on Sunday.

Following the second “Big One” over the final five laps, it was Jamie McMurray coasting in under caution for his first Sprint Cup win in 87 races.

McMurray’s only challenge on the final lap was if he had enough fuel to cross the finish line.

“As soon as I crossed the start-finish line, I shut the engine off and pushed the clutch in and coasted around as far as I could,” McMurray said.

McMurray passed for the lead on lap 181 of the 191-lap race — the 58th lead change among 25 drivers.

He credited Ford teammate Matt Kenseth for helping push him to the lead.

“Matt put me where I was at the end, and then he kept helping me out,” McMurray said. “You have to have somebody behind you who is willing to help, and when it’s a teammate and a friend, it makes a big difference.”

The race was fairly dull until the final laps as most drivers played it safe after listening to a warning from NASCAR president Mike Helton during the morning meeting not to bump-draft in the corners, or else be penalized.

The warning was made in hopes of making it safer on the track for the drivers. It came in addition to the shrinking of the hole slightly in the restrictor plates this week to slow the cars a tad more.

So instead of aggressive bump-drafting that has become the norm on this track, there was mostly single-file racing until drivers began making a move over the final 20 laps.

During the closing laps with the cars still very-much bunched, the first “Big One” wreck came when Ryan Newman got nudged by Marcos Ambrose, sending Newman into the front of Tony Stewart and causing Newman’s car to flip several times before coming to a rest upside down in the infield.

Newman avoided injury, but had to wait for his roof to be cut off in order for him to get out once the car was turned back over.

“Just a byproduct of Talladega racing,” Newman said. “We got hit from behind that turned me sideways, then I got up in the air and just kept flipping.

“Unfortunately, the cage came down on the top of my head and I couldn’t get out. Pretty sore. Just really disappointed.”

Shortly after the re-start for a two-lap finish, Mark Martin went tumbling after he was caught up in a multi-car crash, bringing out the final caution and ending the race with McMurray in the lead.

“It was just a wreck,” Martin said. “I hope everybody enjoyed the show there. It looked pretty exciting from my viewpoint.”

Kasey Kahne finished third, followed by rookie Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton to round out the top five.

“When all these cars are bunched up, just one little move by one car and the other guy moves the other way to block, or just go in another gap and that closes, the others wreck,” Kahne said. “That’s just this type of racing and I think everybody understands that. It’s happened at Daytona plenty of times.”

Jimmie Johnson stayed back in the pack most of the day to avoid trouble, and was in 25th place near the end before the wrecks opened up an opportunity. Johnson then managed to finish sixth, virtually wrapping up the Chase for the championship. He leads by 184 points now over Martin.

“I feel good about things,” Johnson said. “Obviously we were conservative all day long. I was so concerned about this race.

“But I just can’t stop doing what I do. I’m not going to let up and lose focus to the job I need to do. I can lose 165 points next week if I miss a shift and blow the engine at the start of the Texas race and Mark has a perfect day.”