Harvick's dash caps 'perfect race'

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Ladies and gentlemen, let's go ahead and call it right now: The Aaron's 499 on Sunday at Talladega was a perfect race.

No, that doesn't mean it was NASCAR's best race. The 1979 Daytona 500 still holds that title. But let's consider all the ways in which Sunday's Talladega run was racing perfection:

• More than two-thirds of the drivers in the field – 29 of 43 – led at least one lap. That's a Cup Series record.

• Anybody who had the lead didn't hold it for long, with nobody leading for more than seven laps in a row in the 200-lap race. The race had an astonishing 88 lead changes. That total demolished the old Cup record of 75, also set at Talladega in 1984.

• The last driver to hold the lead did so for maybe 100 feet. Kevin Harvick pulled off a masterful old-school NASCAR timing move to bump and edge past Jamie McMurray, winning by a mere .012 seconds – the eighth-closest race in NASCAR history.

• The final laps of the race were as tense as any this year, as half the lead pack was in serious need of fuel. Three green-white-checker attempts had drivers white-knuckling the wheel and crew chiefs praying that their fuel would hold out just one more turn … then another … and then another after that.

• Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a force throughout the afternoon. His 13th-place finish was far worse than his performance throughout the day; he was in a good position to win right up until he couldn't find a dance partner to push him the final two laps.

• The vocal contingent tired of seeing Jimmie Johnson win got the visceral pleasure of seeing the 48 car towed off the track after Johnson hit the wall with six laps remaining in the race.

• For those who enjoy the soap-opera side of the sport, Talladega marked the second chapter in what's blossoming into a full-on feud between Johnson and Jeff Gordon. After Johnson appeared to check up on the 24 car, setting off a vintage-Talladega spiral of destruction, Gordon was furious.

"The 48 is testing my patience, I can tell you that," he told Fox after the race. "It takes a lot to make me mad, and I am pissed right now."

• And for those who like to see a little automotive carnage, well, Talladega delivered that as well. Kyle Busch knocked Johnny Sauter into sentimental favorite Michael Waltrip on lap 84, and on lap 88, Joey Logano turned Ryan Newman and set off a wreck that took out five cars.

• Oh, and the Biblical-wrath weather of the last few days gave way to an absolutely perfect Alabama afternoon – blue sky, light clouds, and the sun glinting off the foothills surrounding the track.

So, yes, this was the very model of a perfect race. This one could have converted new fans and brought back lapsed ones. And its highlight was the Harvick victory pass, one that harkened to legendary bump-and-run NASCAR drivers like Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough.

For most of the final two laps, the third and final attempt at a green-white-checker finish, Harvick stayed snug on McMurray's bumper. But with the finish line in sight, Harvick tapped McMurray's back bumper just enough to loosen his momentum so that Harvick could pull up alongside him. Harvick had determined in practice that the air off the nose of a passing car would press against the new spoiler of the leader. The end result was that the leader had to push against more air than the passing car.

As McMurray put it, "When there's someone directly behind you and they pull their car out of line really fast, it's like you pull a parachute in your car. It literally feels like you lose three or five miles an hour immediately, and when that happens, the car that's doing the passing just has the momentum."

The pass took the timing, touch and guts of a jewel thief; too early or too late, and McMurray would have won. It also took a touch of luck; had a caution come out before Harvick completed his pass, the win would have gone to McMurray.

The victory was sweet validation for Harvick, who earlier this week learned that his primary sponsor Shell/Pennzoil would be jumping to the No. 22 Penske Dodge to be driven by Kurt Busch, thus throwing Harvick's 2011 plans into serious disarray. Sunday also marked Harvick's first win in a Sprint Cup points race since his dramatic win at the 2007 Daytona 500. That race was nearly as close as Sunday's, with Harvick defeating Mark Martin by only two-hundredths of a second.

"The timing worked out exactly how we wanted it to work out," Harvick said. "We knew coming into the tri-oval we needed to be second, and he moved to the right and I moved to the left, and that was it."

Harvick didn't have time for much introspection, though, as he, McMurray and eight other Sprint Cup drivers had to gear up for another 300 miles of racing. Saturday's storms postponed the Nationwide race to Sunday afternoon, and the lack of lights at Talladega meant that the Nationwide drivers didn't have a moment to spare to beat the sunset.

McMurray and Harvick hustled through postrace interviews, and engines already had fired by the time they reached the second cars of their day. And, sure enough, within just a few laps McMurray and Harvick were right back at the front of the Nationwide pack together.

And that was one more highlight of Sunday: the Nationwide race's quick start meant that if you enjoyed the Aaron's 499 (turned 532) – and, really, who wouldn't? – you didn't have to wait a week to see more.