Fans 'Salute' Jeff Gordon at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- At the track where Dale Earnhardt dominated, and on the day he would have turned 56, Jeff Gordon scored career victory No. 77. It was the fitting venue, the perfect day, for Jeff Gordon to move past Earnhardt on NASCAR's wins list. And, as expected, it was wildly unpopular.
Fans littered the track with debris Sunday as Jeff Gordon crossed the finish line under caution at Talladega Superspeedway to move into sixth place on the win list.
"I never caused a riot before for winning - well, maybe once or twice," Jeff Gordon laughed.
It was the same reaction he received last week in Phoenix when he tied Earnhardt's mark and flew a No. 3 flag on his victory lap. That gesture didn't sit well with Earnhardt fans, even though Dale Earnhardt Jr. called the tribute classy and urged his "Red Army" of supporters to stop throwing beer cans out of safety concerns.
"I thought Junior had more power," Jeff Gordon said. "I thought they'd throw toilet paper, which is what he asked them to throw. I saw maybe one roll."
But Talladega is Earnhardt country. The Intimidator won 10 times here, and his legion of fans adopted his son following Earnhardt's 2001 death. The fans turn the grandstands into a sea of red, and when Junior charges to the front the roar is deafening.
It's what made this the perfect place for Jeff Gordon to surpass the seven-time champion. Although their fans mix like oil and water, Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were pals. They shared a competitive rivalry on the track and a healthy friendship away from it.
Earnhardt would have been proud, and Jeff Gordon was conflicted about it.
"On one side I just want to jump up and down and be fired up about getting 77 here at Talladega where three-quarters of the grandstands were pulling against us," Jeff Gordon said. "And then on the other side, I respected Dale so much, learned so much from him, today being his birthday and knowing how many of those people up there wanted to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win today - it's tough.
"I certainly didn't want to start a riot, and hopefully nobody got injured. But I wanted to break that record. I keep going back and forth. Why did it have to happen at Talladega?"
The ending was anticlimactic and confusing, finishing under caution with Jeff Gordon unsure if he'd actually won. Nobody was quite sure after two separate accidents on the first lap of a two-lap shootout to the finish froze the field and had NASCAR scrambling to make sense of the finish.
Jeff Gordon, who started from the pole, ran up front early but was 14th on a restart with 10 laps to go. He stormed to the front, and with three laps to go passed Jamie McMurray for the lead a split-second before a caution came out.
It set up a the green-white-checkered flag finish, with Jeff Gordon out front on the restart. But before the field reached full speed, a wreck far behind the leaders brought out the caution and effectively ended the race.
NASCAR makes only one attempt to complete the race in overtime, and if a caution comes out, the field is instantly frozen. So when Elliott Sadler bumped the back of Greg Biffle to trigger a wreck, Jeff Gordon was essentially the winner.
But it was unclear as the action continued.
Tony Stewart, embroiled in controversy all week for likening NASCAR to pro wrestling, was knocked into the wall far ahead of the first accident. He bounced off the outside wall, slid down the track and into the inside wall, then stood fuming on the apron as he waited for the field to pass. He made an angry gesture at McMurray and David Gilliland as they passed under caution.
With all that going on, Jeff Gordon was too hesitant to claim the win.
As the field slowly headed to the flag, and the beer cans began to fly over the fence and onto his car, he accepted it.
"I love it," he radioed. "That's awesome."
Jeff Gordon made one attempt at a celebratory burnout, which he later admitted was a bad decision because it egged fans on to throw more debris at him.
Track officials warned fans they would be arrested for throwing anything on the track, and 10 fans were detained as Jeff Gordon's crew frantically called for security help to get the team spotter out of the stands.
"It don't look like it's something you can control," Earnhardt Jr. sighed.
NASCAR condemned the debris throwing.
"It's very unfortunate a few unruly fans can ruin things for a lot of people," spokesman Jim Hunter said. "The track put a lot of effort into preventing this type of behavior. Our fans are passionate, but this type of behavior doesn't represent a majority of our fans."
Earnhardt Jr., who made a brief run at the victory, finished seventh. But unlike last week, when he visited Jeff Gordon in Victory Lane, he stayed away from the celebration.
"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,'" Junior said. "He's a great race car driver. I knew years ago he would eventually pass my old man. I think he has the opportunity to pass a couple more."
Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon's teammate, finished second as Hendrick Motorsports cars continued their season-long domination. Hendrick drivers have won six of the first nine races.
Kurt Busch was third, Gilliland fourth and McMurray finished fifth. Kevin Harvick was sixth, followed by Earnhardt, David Stremme, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr.
Tony Stewart, who had a disastrous race but was still in position to race for the win at the end, wound up 28th.
Ironically, he needed a debris caution - something he questioned the integrity of this week - to save his race. The two-time champion was penalized for speeding on pit road early in the race and went one lap down after returning to the pits.
But he got the lap back shortly after when NASCAR found debris on the track and called for a caution. He struggled on the restart, though, and fell out of the draft. But he got another break moments later when Clint Bowyer wrecked.
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