The 2008 AMP Energy 500 was the 30th stock car race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the fourth in the ten-race, season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on October 5, 2008, at Talladega Superspeedway, in Talladega, Alabama before a crowd of 145,000. Tony Stewart of the Joe Gibbs Racing team won the 190-lap race starting from 34th position; Paul Menard finished second, David Ragan was third.
Travis Kvapil, who had the pole position, led until Carl Edwards passed him on lap nine. The race was first stopped 63 laps later when a multi-car collision was triggered by Brian Vickers, and was restarted 17 minutes later, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading the field. A second red-flag period was triggered after Edwards ran into teammate Greg Biffle starting a chain-reaction accident involving a further ten drivers. Stewart led the field for the remainder of the race, until Regan Smith passed him below the yellow line (out of bounds line) on the final lap. Stewart was therefore handed the victory, and Smith was demoted from second to 18th. The race had a total of ten cautions, and 64 lead changes among 28 different drivers, setting a new Sprint Cup Series record.
It was Stewart's first victory of the season, his first at Talladega Superspeedway, and the 33rd of his career. The result advanced him to seventh in the Drivers' Championship, 232 behind leader Jimmie Johnson who extended his lead to 72 points over Edwards. Toyota extended its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, twelve points ahead of Ford in second place. Chevrolet remained in third with a 41-point advantage over Dodge with six races left in the season. The race attracted 7.44 million television viewers.
Background
The 2008 AMP Energy 500 was the 30th of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the fourth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Sprint Cup. It was held on October 5, 2008, at Talladega, Alabama at Talladega Superspeedway, a superspeedway that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at the speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is long. The track's turns are banked at thirty-three degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 16.5 degrees. The back stretch has a two-degree banking.
Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,575 points, with Carl Edwards in second, and Greg Biffle in third. Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five, and Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch rounded out the top twelve drivers competing in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Toyota was leading with 172 points, seven points ahead of their nearest rival Ford in second. Chevrolet was third with 159 points, with Dodge a further 39 points behind in fourth. Gordon was the race's defending champion.
Second-place championship driver Edwards said he expected the top three points leaders to remain together during the race, "I'll probably be glued to Jimmie, no matter where he's at. If him and Greg and I can just stay together, and make sure we either all avoid or either all get in the same wrecks, then we'll probably be all right." Earnhardt said he aimed to achieve his sixth victory at Talladega Superspeedway (where he had a large amount of fan support) in an effort to move ahead in the championship standings. Gordon, who had not won so far during 2008, stated he felt that he could win the race, and employed a strategy where he would attempt to avoid being caught up in a multi-car collision. Johnson felt the AMP Energy 500 would be "interesting" and "a turning point in the chase".
There were two changes of driver before the race. Red Bull Racing Team announced regular driver A. J. Allmendinger would be replaced by Mike Skinner who would drive at Talladega, and by former Scuderia Toro Rosso, Formula One driver Scott Speed who would drive in the seven remaining races of the season. Red Bull Racing vice president and general manager Jay Frye said the change would allow the Red Bull Racing Team to continue its development for the future. Kenny Wallace took over from Michael McDowell in the No. 00 Michael Waltrip Racing car at Talladega, because the team decided to regroup after he failed to qualify the previous race weekend at Kansas Speedway. Richard Childress Racing fielded a fourth car driven by Nationwide Series driver Mike Wallace.
Practice and qualifying
Two practice sessions were held before the Sunday race, both on Friday. The first practice session ran for 75 minutes, the second lasted 45 minutes. Burton was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 48.887 seconds; Elliott Sadler was second, and Brian Vickers third. Robby Gordon was fourth, and Harvick placed fifth. Kasey Kahne, Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Skinner and Ryan Newman rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Earnhardt's engine failed, and his team installed a new one. David Ragan did the same between the two practice sessions. Later that day, Vickers paced the final practice session (where thirty-seven drivers competed) with a time of 49.694 seconds, ahead of Kahne and Bobby Labonte. Casey Mears was fourth-fastest, ahead of Harvick, Scott Riggs and David Gilliland. Earnhardt, a Chase for the Sprint Cup driver, was eighth, with Skinner and Stewart ninth and tenth. Earnhardt's right-rear tire exploded while leading a pack of cars at the exit of turn two, nine minutes after the session started, beginning a chain-reaction accident involving cars driven by Gilliland, Stewart, David Reutimann, Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Kahne, resulting in the session being stopped for 30 minutes. No drivers were injured, but Earnhardt and Gilliland were checked at the infield medical center and later released. Earnhardt, Bowyer, Kahne, Gilliland and Reutimann switched to back-up cars.
Forty-five cars were entered in the qualifier on Saturday afternoon, according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Travis Kvapil took the first pole position of his career with a time of 51.109 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Mears in his best qualifying performance of the season. Aric Almirola qualified third, his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. teammate Regan Smith was fourth, and Paul Menard started fifth. Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek, Tony Raines, Vickers and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Of the other drivers in the Chase, Edwards was twelfth, Burton 17th and Johnson 20th. The two drivers that failed to qualify were Sam Hornish Jr. and Patrick Carpentier. After the qualifier Kvapil said, "Definitely qualifying doesn't really mean much as far as your chances to win the race after 500 miles, but we got a good pit selection and we'll have less chance to get caught up in a wreck early on in the race. It doesn't take long to get shuffled to the back and I'm sure I'll be shuffled in and out throughout the field. But the first few laps we'll be up front and hopefully keeping it clean." He also stated the pole was "special", and it was the first time Ford had occupied that position at Talladega Superspeedway since 1997.
Qualifying results Grid Driver Team Manufacturer 1 28 Travis Kvapil Yates Racing Ford 51.109 187.364 2 5 Casey Mears Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51.128 187.295 3 8 Aric Almirola Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 51.136 187.265 4 01 Regan Smith Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 51.159 187.181 5 15 Paul Menard Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 51.170 187.141 6 33 Mike Wallace Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 51.213 186.984 7 78 Joe Nemechek Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 51.217 186.969 8 70 Tony Raines Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 51.280 186.740 9 83 Brian Vickers Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 51.289 186.707 10 1 Martin Truex Jr. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Chevrolet 51.298 186.674 11 66 Scott Riggs Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet 51.306 186.645 12 99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 51.344 186.507 13 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 51.365 186.430 14 00 Kenny Wallace Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 51.365 186.430 15 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51.367 186.423 16 6 David Ragan Roush Fenway Racing Ford 51.387 186.351 17 31 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 51.396 186.318 18 09 Sterling Marlin Phoenix Racing Chevrolet 51.410 186.267 19 44 David Reutimann Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 51.420 186.231 20 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51.422 186.224 21 84 Mike Skinner Red Bull Racing Team Toyota 51.466 186.065 22 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Chevrolet 51.467 186.061 23 45 Terry Labonte Petty Enterprises Dodge 51.468 186.057 2412 Ryan Newman Penske Racing South Dodge 51.499 185.945 25 55 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 51.538 185.805 26 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51.544 185.783 27 21 Jon Wood Wood Brothers Racing Ford 51.544 185.783 28 26 Jamie McMurray Roush Fenway Racing Ford 51.547 185.772 29 22 Dave Blaney Bill Davis Racing Toyota 51.556 185.740 30 41 Reed Sorenson Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 51.561 185.722 31 17 Matt Kenseth Roush Fenway Racing Ford 51.570 185.689 32 43 Bobby Labonte Petty Enterprises Dodge 51.583 185.643 33 2 Kurt Busch Penske Racing South Dodge 51.613 185.535 34 20 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 51.628 158.481 35 07 Clint Bowyer Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 51.644 185.423 36 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 51.658 185.373 37 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 51.705 185.204 38 9 Kasey Kahne Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 51.758 185.015 39 29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 51.760 185.008 40 19 Elliott Sadler Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 51.775 184.954 41 38 David Gilliland Yates Racing Ford 51.775 184.954 42 7 Robby Gordon Robby Gordon Motorsports Dodge 51.938 184.374 43 96 Ken Schrader Hall of Fame Racing Toyota 51.557 185.736 44 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Penske Racing South Dodge 51.690 185.258 45 10 Patrick Carpentier Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge 51.702 185.215
Race Live television coverage of the race, began at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the United States on ABC. At the start of the race, weather conditions were sunny. Fred Cook of Alabama Raceway Ministries began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Brad Arnold, the lead singer of rock band 3 Doors Down performed the national anthem, and Pepsi employees Antonio Clements, John Foster, Richard Stuckey, Daniel Harris, Demetrius Blackmon, Reginald Thomas, Kenneth Goodwin, and Raymond Castleberry, who serve in the National Guard commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, Earnhardt and Ragan moved to the rear of the field because they had changed their engines; Johnson did the same because his team adjusted his engine outside of the impound.