A Chase race decided by a restart move and a caution flag, with Juan Pablo Montoya third and a penalty for the Whitney Motorsports team days later.
The 2010 AMP Energy Juice 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on 31 October 2010 at Talladega Superspeedway, the seventh race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Clint Bowyer of Richard Childress Racing won it, with teammate Kevin Harvick second and Juan Pablo Montoya third.
Clint Bowyer beat his Richard Childress Racing teammate Kevin Harvick by a narrow margin at Talladega, with Juan Pablo Montoya third. Days later a penalty for the Whitney Motorsports team added a second story to the weekend.
Who won the 2010 AMP Energy Juice 500?
Clint Bowyer won the race for Richard Childress Racing, his second win of the 2010 season and his first Sprint Cup victory at Talladega. He earned $226,450 in race winnings. The margin was tiny: Harvick, his teammate, said he finished about 6 inches behind.
Bowyer's win was decided in the closing laps. Harvick had made up ground on the outside after a restart, and the sixth caution came out while the two were still side by side. Bowyer said he had quit dragging his brakes and had thought he was clear at the line.
Clint Bowyer won by inches over his teammate Kevin Harvick, and a penalty days later showed how close the Whitney Motorsports team came to losing its results.
How did the race start and who led?
Montoya started on pole at 51.863 seconds but dropped to third during the first lap, as Joe Nemechek moved to the front from fourth. Harvick then became the leader, and the lead changed hands eighty-five times among twenty-six drivers over the race.
Nemechek dropped to the back of the grid after the first lap, while Earnhardt took the lead on the third lap. Burton used the draft to help Earnhardt pass Montoya later on, and Bowyer, Kahne and Hamlin all spent time near the front in the first half of the race.
What happened in the middle of the race?
The Chase drivers stayed near the back for much of the race. Jeff Gordon remained at the rear for almost the whole race, but with about twenty laps left he and Jimmie Johnson moved up to first and second.
Harvick, Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose all took turns at the front. Bowyer collided with the rear bumper of Ambrose during the third caution, sending Ambrose down the track where Harvick hit him as well.
The second caution came on lap 134, when Burton and Earnhardt collided and went into the wall. Burton said his car was too badly damaged to return, and Montoya took the lead from Johnson after the pit stops that followed. Montoya led the lap 138 restart ahead of Reutimann and Menard.
Kyle Busch led sixteen laps in one spell, while Earnhardt led a race-high 24 laps before his accident. Logano and Truex also had short spells at the front.
How did the closing laps unfold?
After the fourth caution, Hamlin and Kyle Busch swapped the lead, and Gordon's engine trouble let Johnson move to the front. With nine laps remaining Bowyer passed Johnson for the lead, and Harvick took first on lap 187 as the sixth caution came out for Allmendinger, who turned onto his roof and hit the wall.
Bowyer had led the restart after the previous caution, but Harvick passed him with one lap remaining. The race then ended under the sixth caution with the two Richard Childress Racing cars side by side in the first turn, and Bowyer was declared the winner.
Bowyer said Harvick came to the outside and that Montoya had helped push him to the lead. Harvick said it was hard to complain, since losing by inches was part of racing, and he was happy the trophy stayed at Richard Childress Racing.
What did the penalty for Whitney Motorsports involve?
Three days after the race, NASCAR penalised the Whitney Motorsports team, which ran Michael McDowell's car. The penalty included a $50,000 fine for crew chief Thomas Tucker, who was also suspended indefinitely. Dusty Whitney and McDowell each lost 50 owner and driver points. Points of that kind feed into the team and driver standings, so the penalty carried weight beyond the race itself.
The reason was unapproved added weight, caused by lower A-frames being filled with weight pellets. Richard Boga, the car chief, and Tony Furr, the team manager, were also suspended indefinitely. The case showed how a technical infraction can change the picture long after the checkered flag.
How did the result change the standings?
Johnson remained the Drivers' Championship leader with 6,149 points after the race, while Denny Hamlin was second on 6,135. Bowyer rose to twelfth, 367 points behind Johnson. Hamlin stayed 24 points ahead of Harvick and 193 points ahead of Jeff Gordon.
Chevrolet kept its manufacturers lead with 245 points, forty-five ahead of Toyota and ninety-three ahead of Ford. Three races remained in the season, and 110,000 people attended the race at Talladega.
What was the championship picture before the race?
Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,998 points before the race, ahead of Denny Hamlin on 5,992 and Kevin Harvick on 5,936. Chevrolet led the manufacturers with 236 points, 42 ahead of Toyota.
Kyle Busch was 110 points behind Harvick and Jeff Gordon 141 behind in fifth. Jamie McMurray was the defending race winner, and Ford sat 24 points ahead of Dodge in the battle for third among manufacturers.
How did practice and qualifying go?
Two practice sessions were held on Saturday. Hamlin was quickest in the first, while Martin set the fastest time in the second at 48.409 seconds, with Burton and Kyle Busch both timed at 48.414 seconds.
Montoya took pole at 51.863 seconds, his fifth in the Sprint Cup Series, with Bowyer alongside on the front row. Kurt Busch qualified third, Joe Nemechek fourth and Burton fifth. Johnny Sauter, Travis Kvapil and Landon Cassill failed to qualify.
What was the Talladega track like?
Talladega Superspeedway is one of six superspeedways that host NASCAR races. The track is 2.66 miles (4.28 km) long, with turns banked at thirty-three degrees, a front stretch banked at 16.5 degrees and a back stretch with 2 degrees of banking. It can seat up to 143,231 people.
The race was dry, with the air temperature around 18 C (64 F). Josh Gracin performed the national anthem, and Randy Norris of Alabama Raceway Ministries gave the invocation before the start at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN.
On a superspeedway the draft is the main source of speed, and drivers spend much of the race running in tight packs of three and four abreast. That kind of racing was on show throughout this event, and it made the lead hard to hold for any length of time.
Why did the Chase matter for this race?
The race was the seventh of the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, with three races left in the season. Johnson arrived as the points leader, and the result kept the top of the standings tight, with the battle still wide open heading into the finale. The Chase is the run of ten races that decides the champion, so every finish carried weight in this format.
Before the race Bowyer was twelfth in the standings on 5,592 points, while Biffle was eleventh on 5,682. Johnson said afterwards that the championship fight would stay intense all the way to Homestead, and he said he was looking forward to it.
How did Montoya's pole fit the weekend?
Montoya took his fifth Sprint Cup pole at 51.863 seconds and said the team ran well at restrictor-plate tracks. Bowyer started alongside him on the front row, and both drivers had strong days, with Bowyer crossing the line first.
Montoya said the team planned to run near the front for a while and might drop back if the situation called for it, and that he would play it by ear. He finished third, behind Bowyer and Harvick.
What happened on pit road and in the late laps?
Hornish was given a drive-through penalty for speeding on pit road on lap 144, which handed the lead to Logano. Logano led five laps before Truex, with help from Montoya, took the first position.
McMurray drove to pit road on lap 164, while Kyle Busch and Hamlin remained in the first two positions. Menard briefly led a lap before Jeff Gordon claimed first, and Gordon's engine problems then let Johnson take over. With nine laps remaining Bowyer passed Johnson, and a fifth caution for debris from Nemechek's car came out two laps later, with the restart on lap 184.
How did the rest of the top ten finish?
Reutimann and Logano finished fourth and fifth behind Montoya, while Truex, Johnson and Gordon took sixth to eighth. Hamlin and Keselowski completed the top ten, leaving a leading group that was packed with Chase drivers.
| Finish | Driver | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clint Bowyer | Richard Childress Racing, second win of 2010 |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | Richard Childress Racing, about 6 inches behind |
| 3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Pole sitter, fifth Sprint Cup pole |
| 4 | David Reutimann | Led one lap late in the race |
| 5 | Joey Logano | Led five laps before the lap 145 restart |
| 6 | Martin Truex Jr. | Led one lap in the middle stage |
| 7 | Jimmie Johnson | Left the race leading the points |
| 8 | Jeff Gordon | Stayed near the rear for almost the whole race |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | Second in the championship after the race |
| 10th | Brad Keselowski | Completed the top ten |
What did Bowyer say about the win and the season?
Bowyer won twice in 2010, first at the Sylvania 300 and then at Talladega. The Talladega win was his second Chase victory, the other coming at New Hampshire, and it was his first Sprint Cup win at the speedway.
Bowyer admitted he had turned Ambrose around and got into his teammate Harvick, which left him feeling sick about it. He said that when two cars hooked up they tended to drive away from the rest, and that his spotter told him the caution was coming out while he was still side by side with Harvick.
What did the drivers say after the race?
Harvick said the finish was about six inches and that it was good to lose to a teammate, since the trophy and the money stayed within the same team. He added that the team had won by a few inches before and had also lost that way.
Johnson, who finished seventh, said he was optimistic about the championship fight. Hamlin finished ninth, and Gordon's team dealt with engine trouble late in the race.
