The 2008 Aaron's 312 was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, on April 26, 2008. The race was the 17th iteration of the event. Tony Stewart dominated the race. Stewart won the pole, led the most laps, and won the race, his first career victory at Talladega.[2] But the race was mostly remembered by two crashes. One being a crash by Dario Franchitti that left him with a fractured ankle. And the second one being the most infamous one when Kevin Lepage pulled up right in front of the field going about 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) slower after coming off pit road and causing the big one while he did not take responsibility for his mistake.
Talladega Superspeedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races; the others are Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Michigan International Speedway.[3] The standard track layout is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.66 miles (4.28 km) long.[4] 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.[4] Talladega Superspeedway can seat up to 143,231 people.[5]
Tony Stewart won the pole with a time of 51.676 and a speed of 185.308 mph.[6]
* - Johnny Sauter and Mike Harmon both had to start at the rear of the field due to missing the drivers meeting.
Pole sitter Tony Stewart led the first lap of the race. On lap 7, Brad Keselowski took the lead from Stewart. On lap 10, Stephen Leicht took the lead from Keselowski for a moment before Keselowski immeadietly took it back. On lap 11, the first caution flew for a hard four car crash in turn 3. Dario Franchitti was running in the midst of the top 10 when his right rear tire went flat going into turn 3. Franchitti spun in turn 3 while Clint Bowyer hit the outside wall trying to avoid Franchitti but ended up making contact with David Ragan sending Bowyer into the outside wall and Johnny Sauter spun trying to avoid Franchitti. Franchitti's car backed into the outside wall and spun back down across the track where he was t-boned in the driver's side at over 100 mph by Larry Gunselman. Franchitti climbed out and had to be helped over to a stretcher near an ambulance. Both Franchitti and Gunselman were taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation. Gunselman was fine but Franchitti had suffered a minor fracture in his left ankle. Franchitti was scheduled to drive in the Cup Series race the following day but was unable to and was replaced by David Stremme. Franchitti would be able to return to racing about a month later in the Nationwide Series race at Dover.[7] Brad Keselowski led the field to the restart on lap 17. On lap 18, Jason Leffler took the lead. On lap 19, Keselowski tried to take the lead from Leffler and led that lap before the second caution flew on lap 20 when Scott Wimmer blew a right front tire in turn 1 and hit the outside wall. Leffler was in the lead when the caution flew and he led the field to the restart on lap 25. On lap 26, Tony Stewart took the lead from Leffler. On lap 40, Brad Coleman took the lead from Stewart with a push from Denny Hamlin. But on the next lap, Stewart would take the lead back. On lap 43, the third caution flew when Eric McClure spun on the frontstretch off of turn 4. Tony Stewart won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart on lap 47. On lap 50, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead with a push from Reed Sorenson. On lap 63, the fourth caution flew when David Ragan spun on the backstretch after contact with Reed Sorenson.
Tony Stewart won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 51 laps to go. With 47 to go, the big one struck in turn 1 in one of the most unusual ways and in one of the dumbest moves in NASCAR history. Kevin Lepage had recently made a pit stop and had just gotten off of pit road. Lepage came off as soon as the pack was at full speed through the tri-oval. Instead of staying below the yellow line until he was at a good enough speed to merge onto the track like on the backstretch, Lepage thought it would be a good idea to merge right onto the track heading into turn 1, right in front of the whole pack of over 20 cars that were going at speeds of nearly 190 miles per hour. Lepage's spotter warned him constantly about the oncoming pack but Lepage never listened and it was unfortunately too late. Cars began to swerve to miss Lepage but almost no one missed Lepage. Mike Wallace swerved up at almost the last second to avoid Lepage and ended up turning David Reutimann while the car that was behind Wallace with that being Carl Edwards ran into the rear of Lepage's car head on causing the front of Edwards' car to bounce off the ground and destroying the whole rear of Lepage's car and ultimately triggered the big one. The wreck took out many good cars who were running in the top 5 or 10 and ended their days. The wreck collected a total of 16 cars. The wreck even baffled commentators Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, and Dale Jarrett. The wreck collected Mike Wallace, Patrick Carpentier, Jason Keller, Kyle Busch, Stephen Leicht, Reed Sorenson, Kenny Wallace, Cale Gale, Kyle Krisiloff, Kelly Bires, Marcos Ambrose, Carl Edwards, Kevin Lepage, Steve Wallace, Brad Keselowski, and David Reutimann. The red flag was displayed that lasted for about 25 minutes. Instead of admitting to his mistake, Lepage instead blamed the spotters on the cars involved saying they should've seen him coming onto the race track and said "if they couldn't see me coming out of the pits with this red and yellow race car, then maybe they need to get new spotters." Eventually, two days after the incident, Lepage apologized and took full responsibility for causing the big one.[8]
Tony Stewart won the race off of pit road and he led the field to the restart with 43 laps to go. With 29 to go, the 6th caution flew for a three car crash in turn 1. It started when D. J. Kennington got loose and spun and collected Brett Rowe and Brad Coleman. Stewart led the field to the restart with 24 to go. With 19 to go, the 7th caution flew for debris. The race restarted with 15 laps to go. With 13 to go, Mike Wallace attempted to take the lead from Stewart but was unable to make it stick. Stewart held off the pack but the 8th and final caution would fly with just 5 laps to go for debris. The wreck would set up a two lap shootout. On the final lap, Stewart got far ahead of the pack but the pack would quickly catch him and Dale Earnhardt Jr. would get to Stewart's outside on the backstretch. But Junior couldn't make it stick and Tony Stewart would hold off the pack and win the race. The win would be Stewart's first at Talladega in his career. David Stremme, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Jason Leffler, and Mark Green would round out the top 5 while Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mike Bliss, Patrick Carpentier, Scott Wimmer, and Mike Wallace rounded out the top 10.[9]