NASCAR agreed with him, and Stewart made his first trip to Talladega's Victory Lane in 20 career starts. But Smith was adamant he'd done nothing wrong, arguing that the two-time series champion forced him below the line in a desperate blocking attempt.

"You're darn right I did. I've lost Daytona 500s, I've lost races here at Talladega because somebody blocked," Stewart said. "That's the name of the game. There's always been people blocking. The nice thing is I was actually on the right end of it this time.

"Trust me, I've got no regrets about what I did. I did exactly what I needed to do to win the race, and it worked out."

Smith was in second and trailed Stewart for the final three laps, and the rookie made one attempt to grab his first career victory by ducking inside of Stewart to attempt a pass.

Stewart wouldn't relent, moving with Smith down the track until Smith dove below the yellow line to make the pass. He moved back onto the racing surface in front of Stewart and cruised to the finish line.

NASCAR reviewed the move - a driver is allowed to make the pass if officials believe he was forced under the line - and declared it illegal. Smith went with Dale Earnhardt Inc. president Max Siegel to argue the decision, but was rebuffed and dropped to 18th in the final finishing order.

"We just watched the tape. They can argue about it for five years, they're not going to change the decision. That's not how NASCAR works," Smith said. "I totally disagree with them 110 percent. I clearly moved to the outside, moved back to the inside. Tony made a move to the high side and made a move to the bottom side.

"My nose was in there. The only other option I had was to wreck him."

The ruling helped Stewart snap a 43-race winless streak dating to Watkins Glen last year and allowed him to cross Talladega off his list of tracks where he'd failed to earn a win. Talladega has taunted him for 10 years, as Stewart finished second a maddening six times.

It looked as if he'd again come up short in his final race here with Joe Gibbs Racing, especially after he was caught in a Friday accident when Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew a tire. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli decided to fix the damaged car instead of moving to the backup, and the No. 20 crew worked late Friday night making the repairs.

Then a poor qualifying effort on Saturday - Stewart started 34th - made some wonder if the team had made the right decision in sticking with the damaged car.

Stewart proved everyone wrong on Sunday with flawless strategy that helped him avoid a late 12-car accident and execute a perfect restart when Smith and two of his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates were lurking behind him on the final sprint to the finish.

"I knew with three DEI cars behind me, it was going to be tough to hold on," Stewart said.

Stewart got the jump, but smartly made sure he didn't pull too far out and give the DEI contingent the opportunity to gang up and blow past him. Then he blocked Smith the rest of the way, only letting up when Smith went below the yellow line.

There was concern in his voice as he questioned whether Smith would be awarded the win, but he quickly started the celebration when his spotter gave the "20 is the winner" declaration.

"Man, it's one thing to get back to Victory Lane - but to do it at Talladega - this is one of four places I haven't won a Cup race, and talk about one to win," Stewart said. "I wanted to win here for so long."

Paul Menard, who said earlier this week he'll leave DEI at the end of the season, was a career-high second and was followed by rookie David Ragan and Chase drivers Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.

Bobby Labonte was sixth, followed by Scott Riggs, Robby Gordon, points leader Jimmie Johnson and Elliott Sadler.

A NASCAR-record 28 drivers led and there were 31 lead changes. The race also featured several tire failures and lived up to its reputation as the "wild card" of the 10 Chase events. Because of its white-knuckle racing conditions, Talladega is the one Chase race every driver fears will ruin his title hopes.

It most certainly did for Denny Hamlin, who was taken to a Birmingham hospital after his tire exploded while he was leading and his car slammed into the outside wall. He finished 39th and dropped to last in the Chase field.

And it may very well have sunk the Roush Fenway Racing trio of Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, who were at the front of a 12-car accident with 16 laps to go. It started when Edwards tried to give Biffle a shove to the front, but the bump caused Biffle to spin into Kenseth as all three Roush Fenway Racing cars crashed.

The carnage spread to Chase drivers Earnhardt, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch, but Johnson deftly maneuvered through the wreckage and pushed his lead in the standings to 72 points over Edwards. Biffle is in third, 77, out and Stewart jumped four spots with the victory to seventh.

"Hopefully this will give us a little momentum over the last few races and get us into the top five where we belong," Zipadelli said.

Edwards immediately accepted responsibility for the accident that sunk several Chase drivers.

"I was just pushing Greg as hard as I could. This is my fault, I apologize to everyone caught up in the wreck," Edwards said. "It's my fault. I feel bad I took my teammates out. I know Matt's mad, and I'm sure Greg is mad. I always worry about the idiots when I come here and today it was me."

Although most everyone agreed Edwards was at fault, the drivers seemed resigned to the Talladega conditions playing a role.

"Same old Talladega," said Biffle, winner of the first two Chase races. "This will hurt us in the points, but we've got six more. We knew this one was the wild card ... you just can't expect anything out of Talladega."

Harvick concurred.

"He made a mistake and tore up most of the field," Harvick said. "It's Talladega, you have a 50-50 opportunity to come here and miss the wreck and today we got in it." - ap

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TALLADEGA, Ala. – Tony Stewart finally won a race, and a lot of other people lost one.

In a wild Amp Energy 500 that had more twists and turns than might be expected even at unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway, Joe Gibbs Racing's Stewart picked up his first victory of the Sprint Cup season on Sunday in a green-white-checkered standoff with Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s Regan Smith.

Smith, running second to Stewart, tried to pass for the lead on the inside as the lead pack roared through the trioval for the last time.

Stewart blocked Smith, and the momentum carried Smith below the inside yellow line, a violation. Smith outran Stewart to the finish line, but NASCAR disallowed the pass because of the yellow-line violation, giving the win to Stewart.

"I thought he was going to be able to stay on the bumper and if he was able to stay there then I knew there wasn’t anybody that was going to be able to get to us," Stewart said. "He got away from us there and got a gap and he got a good run - I just had to try to protect it to the end.”

After the race, Smith said Stewart forced him below the line and that the victory should be given to the driver who crossed the finish line first.

“We came off of [Turn] 4 and I was right where I wanted to be on the race track," Smith said. "[I] shot to the outside, he went up to block, went to the inside and he forced me down to the inside. They always tell us in the driver’s meeting if you get forced to the inside then you can go for it, especially on the last lap."

Smith felt like he won the race.

"I think it’s a bad call," he said. "I think as the week goes on everybody that’s asked will probably say that it’s a bad call. You take what they dish out and go to the next race. They’re saying that I could have checked up or I wasn’t forced down there and I don’t know how else to say it. The only alternative I had was to wreck Tony. This ain’t about him. Congratulations to those guys for winning the race. He ran a great race and did an awesome job but I don’t think this is right.”

Smith and DEI President Max Siegel met with NASCAR officials in the NASCAR hauler after the race to discuss the controversial call.

"We were aggressive in trying to argue our case," Siegel said. "He did a tremendous job today. It’s just very disappointing. I don’t think it takes away from our company. ...

"[NASCAR] posted the race, we pleaded our case and we’ll see where we go from here. What happened in the trailer as far as what we talked about stays there. But I can’t take away from his performance today."

Added Siegel: "We feel like we won the race today. I’m very happy for him. It was the biggest race of his career and certainly one of the biggest ones for our company this year. So we would have liked to see it come out differently."

It was a day riskier than most at Talladega, and that’s saying a lot. Tire endurance appeared to be a problem. Four drivers experienced tire blowouts with the rest of the lead pack in the neighborhood, adding to the boatload of tension normally associated with racing at NASCAR’s biggest track.

Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann, Red Bull Racing's Brian Vickers, Richard Childress Racing's Mike Wallace and JGR's Denny Hamlin experienced tire explosions at full speed. Goodyear engineers were investigating the problems as the race continued and expected to have answers to the problem after tests at the company’s headquarters in Akron, Ohio.

One of the tire problems – on Vickers’ car – led to the first of two major accidents. Vickers’ Toyota swerved and hit DEI's Martin Truex Jr., and Truex sailed across the track and slammed hard into the inside wall. Others involved in the wreck were Red Bull's Mike Skinner, Gillett Evernham Motorsports' Kasey Kahne, Roush Fenway Racing's Jamie McMurray, Petty Enterprises' Terry Labonte, Yates Racing's David Gilliland and Haas CNC Racing's Tony Raines.

Several of the victory contenders were eliminated in the second "Big Wreck," a continuing Talladega tradition. The accident started when Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards, trying to bump-draft teammate Greg Biffle in the third turn, hit Biffle too hard and sent the No. 16 into a spin.

That sparked a 12-car crash that damaged the cars of Michael Waltrip Racing's Michael Waltrip, Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chip Ganassi Racing's Juan Pablo Montoya, JGR's Kyle Busch, Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick and Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth, among others.

Debris from the wreck caused a 12-minute red flag, and the accident shuffled the field for the finish. - scenedaily.com