Tony Stewart has never won a Sprint Cup race at Talladega.  Until yesterday this is.  Stewart took his first checkered flag in yesterday’s running of the Amp Energy 500 and found his way to Victory Lane thanks to the most unlikely allies. 

As Stewart completed the last few laps, he was pushed to the win by a merry band of losers, the guys that never win and more often than not, finish in the back of the pack.  Instead of going for what could have been the first win of their Sprint Cup careers, these perpetual bridesmaids, including Regan Smith, Paul Menard and David Ragan, rallied behind Stewart in a stunning display of respect for one of Sprint Cup racing’s biggest stars. 

“As the laps were winding down all I could think about was how improbable it was that we were actually up there near the front competing for the win against Tony Stewart,” said Regan Smith crew member Dusty Jenkins.  “Tony Stewart!  Good lord, Regan’s never been that close to him before.  It was really amazing.”

Rather than making a move for the win, most of the drivers in that ended up in the top 5 dutifully followed Tony Stewart through the final laps allowing him to easily capture the win. 

“With Tony leaving Gibbs next season to start his own team, this could very well be Tony’s last win ever,” said Aric Almirola’s cousin’s brother and windshield tear off man Ned Almirola.  “I’m just happy that we were there to help him.  20 years from now I’ll be telling my grandkids that I was there the last time Tony won.  It’s real special.” 

At the time it seemed that Regan Smith wasn’t content with walking away without a victory yet again when he made a bold pass in the waning moments of the race but went below the yellow line to make the pass, a violation of NASCAR rules, giving Stewart the win.  However, in his post race comments, Smith revealed that the pressure simply got to him and he lost control of his car and accidently went below the yellow line.

“The pressure got to him,” said Smith’s deputy assistant Crew Chief Zandy Cosgrove.  “Hell, I was nervous and I was sitting in the garage.  Some people can handle the pressure that goes with not winning.  Good thing Regan isn’t one of those people.  He knew he was probably going to end up causing a crash there at the end so he did the right thing and simply took himself out of contention.  Not many guys would do that sort of thing.” 

While yesterday’s first losers are claiming that they made a concerted effort to help Tony win, some of the other Chase drivers are making claims that the drivers simply did not know what to do when given the chance to actually take their first Sprint Cup victory. 

“I imagine this was a case of a bunch of young guys and bad drivers finding themselves near the front and not knowing what to do with themselves,” said Richard Childress Racing engineer Jackie Birmingham.  “These guys are generally good at getting in the way and yesterday they did just that, keeping our guys out of contention.”