|
The Aaron's 312 is a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Talladega Superspeedway. The race's sponsor, Aaron's, is a lease-to-own retailer. The twelve extra miles are tacked on to what would normally be a race for targeted advertising purposes. From it inception in 1992 through 1996, the race was held in the summer, as a support race to the Talladega DieHard 500. When the DieHard 500 moved to the fall, this race moved to the spring, as a support race to the spring Cup event. At its inception, the event debuted as a event, the longest race on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. Automobile races in the United States measured in kilometers, especially those in NASCAR, are few. Through their history, ARCA races held at the track carried the more attractive "500" distance, even if it meant "500 kilometers" instead of miles (a custom also used at Riverside and Phoenix). The Nationwide Series race mimicked that precedent. In 1998, fans complained about the use of kilometers, which was seen as a European custom. They argued that kilometers are rarely used in the United States, noting that the track measurement itself was still advertised in miles. Management changed the race to a event from 1998-2001. The change shortened the race distance by four laps. In 2002, Aaron's assumed title sponsorship and returned the race to a event. The race distance is only coincidental to that of 1992-1997. The distance, advertised unequivocally in miles this time, was set to reflect the sponsor's slogan ("3 ways to buy, 12 reasons to shop at Aaron's"). Large wrecks involving 20 or more cars have occurred a number of times in the history of the event, most notably in 2002. 30 cars were involved in an accident on the backstretch on lap 14, with 19 knocked out of the race at that point. The remainder of the race, following a long red-flag period, had little resemblance to typical restrictor plate racing as only two cars were within short distance at the checkered flag and only three finished on the lead lap. Past winners - 2005, 2007, & 2009: Race extended due to a Green-white-checker finish.
- 2010: Race postponed from Saturday to Sunday due to rain and extended due to a Green-white-checker finish.
- 2011: Race extended due to a Green-white-checker finish (2 attempts). This was the first time a NASCAR Nationwide Series race used the Green-white-checker format 2 times to finish a race.
- 2012: Race extended due to a Green-white-checker finish (2 attempts).
Notable races - 1995: Ward Burton and Randy LaJoie both went for wild rides in separate accidents. LaJoie's crash came when he was driving in relief of Tommy Houston; with eight laps to go Jeff Fuller spun out of fourth and LaJoie slid sideways then got launched into a tumble; behind them Robbie Reiser hit the wall, plowed through another car's nose and his throttle stuck open, sending him into a savage crash into the pit wall.
- 1996: In the final laps, amid a 20-car battle behind leader Greg Sacks, Todd Bodine was tagged, flew into the air, landed on his wheels, and pounded the inside wall. Sacks held on for the win, his first in NASCAR since 1985.
- 1999: Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek got into a last-lap drag race and crossed the finish line nose to nose. It took nearly three minutes of examining the photo-finish video before NASCAR declared that Labonte had edged Nemecheck by inches at the stripe.
- 2001: Mike McLaughlin scores a surprising victory in the unsponsored #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac. McLaughlin won the race controversially, however, as he swerved his car below the yellow line to block other cars. The move drew the ire of veteran Jimmy Spencer, and NASCAR subsequently barred drivers from passing below the apron on superspeedways.
- 2002: In what is so far the largest "Big One" in the Modern Era of NASCAR, Johnny Sauter flips halfway down the backstretch and causes a thirty car wreck on lap 14 including Greg Biffle, Shane Hmiel, Michael Waltrip, Randy LaJoie, Joe Nemechek, Mike McLaughlin, Jay Sauter, Scott Riggs and others. Jason Keller, Stacy Compton, and Kenny Wallace and a few drivers behind the wreck did not get damage. On lap 46, Stacy Compton's decal ripped of his hood and got stuck at the base of the windshield, leaving a blank hood. With 8 laps to go, Kenny Wallace blew an engine and finished 9th, leaving three cars on the lead lap and two in contention to win. Jason Keller won the race, Stacy Compton came in second, and supposedly start and park Tim Fedewa came in 3rd, half a lap down.
- 2005: It started to rain at 3:30 AM Central Time in Talladega, Alabama. The race was originally going to be moved to Sunday after the Nextel Cup Series Race but the rain cleared up. The race started at 4:30 PM and the first "big one" occurred on lap 17 and it involved: Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Michael Waltrip, Kenny Wallace, J. J. Yeley, Shane Hmiel and others. About 17 cars were left after the wreck. The second big one occurred with 30 laps to go. Casey Mears flipped and slid down the track, he was uninjured. Denny Hamlin, Joe Nemechek, Paul Menard, and others. Clint Bowyer was involved in 5 different accidents. Martin Truex Jr. won his second Aaron's 312 in a row. The race ended at 8:20 PM. The first time a Busch Series race ended in primetime. The race was almost shortened by darkness.
- 2011: In the most frantic race in the history of the class in its various incarnations from Late Model Sportsman division to Busch Grand National to Nationwide Series, points leader Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. hit the wall and caused a red flag, then on Lap 88 Michael Waltrip got turned into the backstretch wall by Jamie McMurray, who was attempting to draft pole sitter Elliott Sadler. The wreck ended up taking out sixteen cars and bringing out another red flag. Kyle Busch and Joey Logano finished 1-2 while Mike Wallace got blasted by Sadler and flipped on his roof once, crossing the finish line in 17th. The race also broke the record of the most lead changes in Nationwide Series history with 56.
References
|
Encyclopedia
top
