Earnhardt holds off Waltrip, wins crash-filled Talladega race

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was relaxed and confident as he raced toward a dominating victory Sunday in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

It was when NASCAR waved the red flag, pausing the action six laps from the end, that the fretting began.

"Sitting on the back straightaway, I was real nervous because I've led a lot of races like that and not won," Earnhardt said. "I knew it wasn't over. It gets really crazy out there at the end because everybody does anything and everything to win."

No problem.

Earnhardt, who managed to avoid a 24-car wreck earlier in the race, easily kept his lead on the restart and held off teammate Michael Waltrip over the last five laps for his second straight victory on the 2.66-mile oval.

Earnhardt, like his late father, has become a master of the superspeedways, racing off to his third victory in the last four restrictor-plate races and leading 133 of 188 laps Sunday.

Still, there is always the specter of a multicar crash in the races on NASCAR's big tracks.

"I knew I didn't want to be any farther back than fifth because I knew it was going to happen," Little E said, referring to crash that came on lap 164.

"With the rules package, we're gouging and getting into the sides of each other just because it's so hard to pass, and I didn't want any part of it."

Mark Martin, involved in the big wreck, brought out the third and final caution flag of the day when his battered car stalled in the grass on the back straightaway eight laps from the finish.

With oil dumped on parts of the track, NASCAR -- just as it did in the season-opening Daytona 500 -- brought out the red flag and stopped the cars on the backstretch on lap 183 to give the safety crews time to clean the track and allow the race to finish under green.

The cars were restarted after a delay of 15 minutes, 29 seconds and, after the green waved with four laps to go, the 27-year-old Earnhardt, whose father won 10 times on this track, fought off the challenge from his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate.

"Junior wound up being a little stronger than me all day," Waltrip said. "I was having fun running second and I just wanted to see how long I could protect him."

Kurt Busch, one of four Roush Racing drivers in Sunday's 43-car field, wound up third.

IRL: Scott Sharp won a battle of strategies when polesitter Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the final lap of the Firestone 225, the inaugural IRL race at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway.

De Ferran had stopped on the 95th of 225 laps and was trying to nurse his car to the end. Sharp last stopped on lap 127, and thought he might not win because de Ferran was aided by several cautions that permitted him to save fuel.

De Ferran, who won at Nazareth two years ago, slowed coming off the second turn. Sharp raced by to take the lead, then held off Felipe Giaffone by less than a half-second. De Ferran coasted in third.

-- From wire reports