2011 Aaron's 499: NASCAR's Thrilling Showdown

On April seventeenth, twenty eleven, the record for the closest NASCAR race happened at Talladega Speedway during the Errands four ninety nine race, where Jimmy Johnson won by point zero zero two less than one inch. Here's the story behind this photo. Finish today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. Now, the Errands four ninety nine happens at Talladega Speedway, one of six superspeedways that NASCAR runs. Now, what makes it a speedway is the four turns and the degrees at which the racetrack is banked. See Talladega at the straightaways is banked sixteen degrees and over thirty degrees on its turns, making for a faster race. And Talladega can fit over one hundred and forty thousand people, which another reason it's known as a super speedway. Now, the reason it was built was actually because Bill Francis wanted to build a faster track than Daytona and the only place he could find was somewhere in between Birmingham and Atlanta, and they finally got It all finished in nineteen sixty nine, costing four million dollars, which would be about thirty three million dollars today, and Talladega actually holds the record for the fastest speed by NASCAR on an oval course at two hundred and sixteen miles an hour, set by Rusty Wallace in two thousand and four, which is crazy to think. This happened due to what happened in nineteen eighty seven when Bobby Allison was racing and contacted debris on the course from another blown engine, cutting his right rear tire and sent him flying through the air for over one hundred feet into the catching fence that protected the spectators, but didn't stop debris from hitting spectators and causing them all to run in fear. Luckily, no one was injured in this wreck, but it showed that they were going too fast and with the bankments so high, they needed to limit the speeds, and that's where they introduced restrictor plates. What this did was limit the speed you could run by reducing airflow into the engine, and this changed how the racing was done, as a lot of times you saw before then the racers would get spread out during the race, but this made team racing more popular. Many racers are part of a team that puts together the cars. They work together during these races to bump draft, which means they are very close, including bumping each other from time to time where one car is so close behind the other car it is actually pushing the front car and that front car is pulling the back car, creating a larger draft and making them go faster together. It's a unique thing to watch and it also makes for some exciting races, and that's exactly what happened at the airin four ninety nine. In two thy and eleven, this was just the eighth race of the season and it was a beautiful day outside and in the front row to start the race was Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon, and Jimmy Johnson had his teammate Dll Harnhart Jr. And Jeff Gordon had his teammate Mark Martin joining them as drafting partner for the entire race. And just behind them was Clint Bauer and Michael Waltrup, another racing duo that would join for this final run. Now this was an regular race, they had multiple cautions, over six caution flags happened throughout the race, and Clint Bauer ended up having the mostly laps at just thirty eight, which isn't a lot for a race that only had one hundred and eighty eight laps, and due to this, no one really got a huge lead during the race. They would go back and forth, back and forth with all the caution flags and all the pit stops, but as we come closer to the end of the race, eight cars actually end up being very very close to each other. So Jimmy Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Junior are teamed up as one group, Clint Bauer and Kevin Harvick in another group, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin in another group, and Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle were all competing for a win, and after another caution flag on lap one hundred and eighty five, they all came out, which finally opened up on that final lap when they laid the white flag, which is way to signify the pairing of Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin overtook Carl Edwards and Greg Beffel for the lead, but it wasn't by much. One thing to remember about Talladega is it's one of the widest tracks there is and you are able to go four wide, and that's exactly what happened after they took that final turn to head to the finish line. As these four pairings were neck and neck for wide, it was so close that Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were being pushed almost into the infield. But as it came up to the finish line with that checker flag waving, it was a complete photo finish. In real time you could not tell who won. It looked like Jimmy Johnson with dale On Hart pushing them, and Clint Bauer with Kevin Harvick pushing them and actually tied. But with the photo finish coming, it showed that Johnson had won by one inch which equaled point zero zero two seconds, and the top eight all finished in under two car links as they all were teamed up, and it was an amazing final photo finish. It is so close that unless you have a zoomed up shot, you may not even be able to tell who actually won. It's all because of this restricted plate racing that this was so close. It creates an excitement and a different feel to these races. And to give you an idea of how much of a winning margin does a car usually win by in Nascar, It actually equals about one second of margin, which is five hundred times larger than this one race. It was a crazy finish and one that will always be remembered and in a reason why NASCAR has gotten so exciting and so big over the year. 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