Auto Racing

TALLADEGA — With respect to Talladega Superspeedway, Tony Stewart had always been a bridesmaid.

In 20 career Sprint Cup starts here, he'd logged six second-place finishes.

Sunday Stewart became the bride. And just in time for his impending divorce.

Stewart was awarded the Amp Energy 500 win in his last appearance at Talladega with the Joe Gibbs Racing team. Stewart made the decision to go on his own and start his own race team.

"People don't understand what that means to win here," Stewart said. "It's just an awesome feeling to finally win here."

While Stewart got the win, he was not the first man to cross the start-finish line. That went to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. rookie Regan Smith.

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Slideshow: AMP Energy 500 View photos from the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Smith went below the yellow line and passed Stewart for the lead. He held on at the checkered flag, drawing a short-lived celebration from his pit crew. NASCAR quickly ruled the pass illegal, awarding Stewart the win and sending Smith to the rear of the lead lap, 18th place.

"In our judgment, he improved his position," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Communications. "Since it was the last lap, that would be a pass through penalty which would put him at the end of the longest line."

With Smith stripped of second place, that went to Paul Menard. David Ragan, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer rounded out the Top 5. Jimmie Johnson slipped inside the Top 10 to increase his lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup from 10 points to 72.

Smith not only contended that he was blocked below the yellow line, but that, too, there was a rule which stated on the last lap, if you could see the flag stand, it was anything goes.

When asked where he should be placed in the field, Smith responded, "Doing burnouts out there right now."

Hunter declined to comment on the unspoken ruling, saying he had not heard what individuals had said and the context of which they said it.

"Any time we get into a situation like this, there are going to be two sides to every story," he said. "I respect Regan's opinion, but our decision is final."

Smith wasn't the only person that had heard of the ruling, which started after Saturday's Mountain Dew 250 Craftsman Truck Series race. Johnson had, too. He said drivers kept it a secret, so as not to give any advantage to anyone who had not heard the rumor that started burning its way through the garage on Sunday morning.

"Evidently Regan Smith knew what the deal was and went for it," Johnson said. "He saw the truck race."

The victory, in whatever fashion it was awarded, was the end to a crazy week for Stewart, much like his last trip to Talladega. Back in the spring, the news broke that Stewart was leaving Joe Gibbs Racing to form his own race team.

While it wasn't news like that this time around, Stewart was involved in a wreck during NASCAR's Happy Hour, the final practice for Amp Energy 500. Trusting crew chief Greg Zipadelli's judgment, Stewart went with the controversial decision of not going to a backup car, but fixed the damage to the right front fender and in the back.

"It was basically a twin of the car we had here in the spring, led all those laps," Zipadelli said. "The tune-up, the gearbox on these cars are so finicky … I felt like that was our best shot. We had our best motor in it. We put all our effort into that car."

The finish by Stewart catapults him from next-to-last in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, up to the seventh spot. With six races remaining, Stewart — still 203 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson — hasn't lost faith. Not that he had lost it last week.

"Anything can happen still," he said. "The thing I've learned with this is until they say mathematically you're out, you still got a shot."