Talladega, Ala. – At the track where Dale Earnhardt dominated, and on the day he would have turned 56, Jeff Gordon scored career win No. 77.
It was the fitting venue, the perfect day, for Gordon to move past Earnhardt on NASCAR’s victory list.
And, as expected, it was wildly unpopular.
Fans littered the track with debris Sunday as 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,” 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 because of safety concerns.
But Talladega is Earnhardt country. The Intimidator won 10 times here, and his legion of fans adopted his son following Earnhardt’s 2001 death.
It’s what made this the perfect place for Gordon to surpass the seven-time champion. Earnhardt and Gordon were pals. They shared a competitive rivalry on the track and a healthy friendship away from it.
Earnhardt would have been proud, and 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,” 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.”
The ending was anticlimactic and confusing, finishing under caution with 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.
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 green-white-checkered-flag finish, with 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.
Tony Stewart, embroiled in controversy all week, 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.
