2009 Aaron's 312

The 2009 Aaron's 312 was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama on April 25, 2009. The race was the 18th iteration of the event and the 8th race of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series. Ryan Newman won the pole while Kyle Busch led the most laps. But it would be David Ragan who made a last lap pass against Newman and beat him by .030 seconds to score his first career Nationwide Series victory. But the race was most notable when Matt Kenseth flipped during the race.

Background
The track, Talladega Superspeedway, is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Michigan International Speedway. The standard track at the speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.66 mi long. The track's turns are banked at thirty-three degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 16.5 degrees. The back stretch has a two-degree banking. Talladega Superspeedway can seat up to 143,231 people.

Entry List

 * (R) denotes rookie driver

Qualifying
Ryan Newman won the pole for the race with a time of 51.518 and a speed of 185.877. The biggest surprise from qualifying was when ARCA series legend Bobby Gerhardt qualified in 5th driving for Bob Schacht.

* - Made the field via owners points.

** - Made the field via past champions provisional.

Race
Outside pole sitter Brian Vickers took the lead from pole sitter Ryan Newman and Vickers led the first lap. On lap 2, rookie Scott Lagasse Jr. took the lead from Vickers. On lap 4, Dale Earnhardt Jr. attempted to take the lead from Lagasse and led that lap but could not get in front of him. On lap 7, Carl Edwards took the lead from Lagasse. On lap 17, another rookie in Justin Allgaier took the lead but was immeadietly passed by Michael Waltrip and Waltrip took the lead. On lap 18, Carl Edwards retook the lead from Waltrip. On lap 24, Joey Logano took the lead from Edwards. On lap 25, Ryan Newman took the lead from Logano. On lap 29, Carl Edwards took the lead back. Soon by lap 32, it began to be a lead changing frenzy for the next 5 laps. Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead on lap 32, Ryan Newman took the lead on lap 33, Kyle Busch took the lead on lap 34, Carl Edwards took the lead on lap 35, and Brian Vickers took the lead on lap 36 but was passed by Michael Waltrip on the same lap and Waltrip led lap 36 before he was passed by both Steve Wallace and Michael McDowell and both Wallace and McDowell battled for the lead on lap 37. But McDowell left the inside open for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Junior passed McDowell and Junior would pass Wallace and take the lead. On lap 39, green flag pitstops began. On the next lap, Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to pit handing the lead to Brad Keselowski. Unfortunately, for Junior, he missed his pit box and had to come back the next lap to pit. Keselowski pitted on lap 41 giving the lead to Morgan Shepherd. Shepherd pitted on lap 43 giving the lead to David Ragan. Ragan did not lead a lap and went to pit which gave the lead to Matt Kenseth after everything had cycled through. On lap 47, Kyle Busch took the lead. On lap 48, Clint Bowyer took the lead from Busch. Busch would take it back on lap 50. On lap 51, Brian Vickers took the lead from Busch. On lap 52, Kyle Busch took the lead back from Vickers. On lap 54, the first caution would fly for a three car accident down the backstretch. It started when Joey Logano was pushing the lapped car of Michael Waltrip when Logano hit Waltrip at the wrong angle turning Waltrip around. Waltrip spun down and collected Clint Bowyer and the two hit the inside wall on the backstretch.

Final laps
Kyle Busch won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 59. With 43 laps to go on lap 75, Brad Keselowski took the lead with help from his car owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. With 31 laps to go, the 2nd caution would fly for debris. At the same time, Danny O'Quinn Jr's engine blew. Brad Keselowski won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 25 laps to go. With 24 to go, Kyle Busch took the lead from Keselowski. With 23 to go, the third caution would fly when Brandon Whitt crashed in turn 2. The race restarted with 19 laps to go. With 18 to go, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead from Busch. With 17 to go, Jason Leffler and Brian Vickers attempted to take the lead from Junior but failed. With 15 to go, Matt Kenseth took the lead. With 14 to go, Ryan Newman took the lead from Kenseth. With 13 to go, the 4th caution would fly for it being the biggest crash of the day. It started when David Ragan bumped Matt Kenseth too hard down the backstretch and it caused Kenseth's car to go right and into Kyle Busch. Kenseth overcorrected back to the left and cranked it back to the right so hard it spun at an over 100-degree angle and ended up tipping over and started tumbling down the backstretch into turn 3. The car tumbled 3 times before the car landed on its roof on the inside of turn 3 and started scraping on its roof down the banking before it hit the infield grass which brought his car back onto all four wheels on fire. Kenseth was able to climb out of car unharmed in a matter of seconds after the accident. The race would restart with 9 laps to go with Newman leading. With 8 to go, the 5th caution would fly when Steve Wallace blew a right front tire and hit the outside wall in turn 2. The race would restart with 5 laps to go with Newman continuing to lead. Newman was looking for his first Nationwide Series win since 2005 and his first at Talladega win in his first start at Talladega in the Nationwide Series. But with 3 laps to go, the 6th and final caution would fly for a 3 car crash down the backstretch. It started when Kyle Busch bumped Justin Allgaier at the wrong angle and turned Allgaier down into Bobby Gerhart and both Allgaier and Gerhart crashed into the inside wall. The wreck would set up three attempts of a green-white-checkered. On the restart, Newman stayed in front with Dale Earnhardt Jr. pushing him. On the last lap, Brad Keselowski tried to get something going with the outside line but fell back. Out of turn 4, Junior attempted to pass Newman on the outside but Newman came up into Junior and both cars made contact which opened the bottom lane for Tony Raines and Raines tried to take the lead. Newman blocked Raines and David Ragan came up to the outside of Newman with a push from Joey Logano. The two dragged race to the finish line through the tri-oval. Ragan beat Newman to the line by .030 seconds to take home the win and Newman would finish in 2nd. The win would be Ragan's first win of his Nationwide Series career. Joey Logano, Tony Raines, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top 5 while Jason Leffler, Jason Keller, Scott Lagasse Jr., Brad Keselowski, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 10.