Aarons 499 Tickets

Talladega Superspeedway, in the Heart of Dixie, is the fastest, longest track on the Nextel Cup circuit. Tickets to the Alabama track are available for the heart pounding, nail biting three-wide, 190+ mph racing that fans have come to expect from the biggest track anywhere. Buy Talladega Superspeedway tickets today and reserve your place at one of NASCAR’s most celebrated and storied tracks that is also home to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. Travel packages are available for Talladega.

Jeff Gordon won his 72nd career race, and his third of the season, holding off Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip as they tried to line up and draft past the four-time Nextel Cup Champion. The margin of victory for Gordon’s #24 Hendrick Dupont Chevrolet was just .193 of a second for the man who has dominated restrictor plate racing this season, first winning at Daytona and now at the Alabama track. Gordon’s win came on what would have been the late Randy Dorton’s 51st birthday. Dorton, the Hendrick team’s long-time engine builder, died in a plane crash last year that also claimed the lives of several members of the Hendrick family and two pilots.

Although restrictor plates have slowed the cars at Talladega, they still run three-wide, row after row at well over 190 mph, where the slightest miscalculation can set off the ‘big one’ - a chain reaction wreck that usually leaves a dozen or more mangled, smoking wrecks littering the track. This year’s Aaron’s 499 lived up to the reputation of a crash-fest as twenty-five cars were involved in a lap 132 demolition derby that included series points leader Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Ryan Newman, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and many more. The race was red-flagged for 43 minutes while track workers cleared the wreckage.

There were 33 lead changes between 16 drivers, but Gordon had the strongest car, leading 139 of the 194 laps. Another wreck on lap 186 involved Johnson, Earnhardt, Jr., Martin Truex, Greg Biffle, pole sitter Kevin Harvick and others, setting up the green/white/checker finish that had the 13 lead lap cars jockeying for position for the final two thrilling laps. Stewart and Waltrip teamed up, but Gordon’s Dupont Chevy was too much for them and he crossed the stripe for his fourth win in the last five Talladega races.

Jimmie Johnson held onto his points lead and Kurt Busch remained in second place. Gordon’s win moved him up one place to third; Greg Biffle moved down one spot to fourth and Elliott Sadler retained fifth place.

NASCAR heads back to Talladega in October for the UAW-Ford 500.