No. 77 for Gordon
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Talladega Superspeedway is Earnhardt country and Jeff Gordon is considered by many an interloper.
It was no surprise, therefore, when Gordon's latest victory at the sprawling Alabama track was met with anger and flying beer cans.
Dale Earnhardt won 10 races here, and his son, Dale Jr., has won five times and inherited the popularity of his late father, who would have turned 56 on Sunday.
At the end of the Aaron's 499, in the aftermath of a chaotic and confusing finish to the latest NASCAR Nextel Cup race, Gordon was awarded his second straight victory, the latest one his 77th, moving him past the Intimidator into sole possession of sixth place on the all-time 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 Earnhardt Jr. called the tribute classy and urged his supporters to stop throwing beer cans out of safety concerns.
"I thought Junior had more power," Gordon said. "I thought they'd throw toilet paper, which is what he asked them to throw. I saw maybe one roll."
With about 140,000 fans in the stands, many of them wearing Earnhardt red, the cheer that went up when Junior briefly took the lead on Sunday was so deafening it drowned out the sound of the race car engines.
When Earnhardt faded out of contention — eventually finishing seventh — the crowd became subdued. But things livened up again when it appeared there would be another in a series of great finishes after a late caution flag set up an overtime, green-white-checker finish.
But the anticipated charge to the finish never happened, thanks to a crash moments after the restart. With Gordon ahead when the yellow flag waved, he was declared the winner and the last, slow lap and a half were just going through the motions under caution.
But that also set off the barrage of beer cans and garbage.
"I certainly didn't want to start a riot, and hopefully nobody got injured," Gordon said. "But I wanted to break that record. I keep going back and forth. Why did it have to happen at Talladega?"
Really, Talladega was the perfect place for Gordon to get this win.
While most Earnhardt fans dislike Gordon, the elder Earnhardt and Gordon were friends and business partners away from the track.
"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 finish was so confusing that Gordon wasn't even sure if he won.
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 the overtime 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.
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, Gordon was the winner.
But not everyone realized that.
