Round 15 of the Birmingham 500 @ Talladega

Non Charter Race: L. Vernio claims the win at Talladega.
2. 76
3. 72
4. 99
5. 52
6. 51
7. 88
8. 98
9. 82
10. 48
11. 41
12. 32
13. 23
14. 0
15. 37
16. 91
17. 59
18. 33

Charter Race: In wacky pit strategy finish, L. Vernio sweeps the Talladega weekend, claims first Cup win.
1. 14
2. 27
3. 76
4. 96
5. 60
6. 06
7. 43
8. 58
9, 02
10. 05
11. 1
12. 49
13. 69
14. 90
15. 11
16. 57
17. 80
18. 30
19. 50
20. 79
21. 46
22. 45
23. 52
24. 20
25. 78
26. 34
27. 47
28. 65
29. 99
30. 10
31. 29
32. 07
33. 24
34. 38
35. 51
36. 2
37. 70
38. 77
39, 40
40. 53
41. 72
42. 3
Notes:
Two crashes involving 3 cars:
Lap 71: A. Wise and A. Shepherd get into contact. Wise is very slow after exiting pit road, NO CAUTION.
Lap 179: N. Hood and A. Shepherd get into contact, Hood spins collecting Dumindu. CAUTION #1.
Attrition at Talladega: Only one driver fell out of the race, the 3 of H. Stucolé fell out after losing a valve from 6th around the halfway point.
Teams with good days:
Mack Johnson: Qualified 25th and moved up to first after 28 laps. Pit stop issues forced him as far back as 36th, but a late fuel strategy call got him into the lead when Hood spun. He would have to pit under green with 4 laps to go and finish 24th.

T. Vernio: This guy did not even lead a lap in the race until lap 185, but he was consistently a top 15 to 20 driver all race. He was the beneficiary of drivers such as D. Bruneil and Carl Dawson running out of fuel under caution, as he was the first car that could make the finish. When Mack had to pit, Vernio took over the lead and had over a second gap back to teammate L. Vernio but the pack caught up quickly and relegated T. Vernio to seventh.

Jarvi Lethinen and Benoit Lothaire-Irvine: The dominant cars of the race shouldn't go without mention. These two combined to lead a third of the race but were forced to restart on the outside due to the pit stop shuffle under the lap 179 caution. As they were faster than the guys in front of them on the start they moved to the outside line, both of them cleared the inside line after Mack's pit stop and finished fourth and sixth.

L. Vernio: The result of all the restart commotion at the end was an unexpected win by L. Vernio. While he started in the mid-30's and did not ever gain significant track position, he continued to fight, moving his way into eighth by lap 150. Vernio was the fourth highest of the people who had pitted under green, putting him in position to take advantage when his teammate T. Vernio was swallowed up by the pack and take the Talladega win. As we always see, the guys that run up front in these races nearly never win (remember Daytona last year when a similar pit strategy caution occurred and Scott Roush claimed the win from eighth?)