Mikey Power

Aaron's 312 - 4/25/09

Michael Waltrip was battling for the free pass when his #99 Aaron's Dream Machine was wrecked out of the Aaron's 312, this afternoon's Nationwide race at Talladega Superspeedway. He fell out of the race on lap 54 and finished 40th.

When pit reporter Jamie Little asked what had happened between Mikey and the #29 of Clint Bowyer - the #20 had wrecked Mikey into Bowyer - Mikey replied, "Somebody hit me. I don't know. Was it the 29? I didn't see it. I don't know what happened. I just want to say what a great job by Jerry Baxter and the guys on the Nap... on the Aaron's Camry. Last week at Phoenix, they had a fast car, and again today, we have nothing to show for it. But if they keep giving me cars like that, it's going to be a good year for us. I'm watching on your screen back there. Whoever is in that one car hit me in the butt and spun me out. So, it's a black car. You look a lot better in your uniform than I do in mine."

Ryan Newman led the field to the green flag at 3:22pm ET. Along the backstretch, the outside line gained momentum, but Newman held off Scott Lagasse Jr to lead the first lap. Mikey crossed the stripe 11th.

Lagasse took the lead going into Lap 3. Cars were going four wide in Turn 2, and they stayed that way. Mikey was 9th one lap later.

Lap 5 saw Dale Earnhardt Jr battle Lagasse for the top spot, but Lagasse held him off along the bottom side. Brian Vickers was pushing him. One lap later, Mikey was 8th.

Mikey pushed Carl Edwards into the lead on lap 7 with Lagasse's #11 trying to push him out of the draft. Mikey was 3rd and stuck in the middle groove with Brendan Gaughan pushing. He was 6th on lap 9 when Gaughan's #62 tried to pass along the outside. The #62 dropped back.

The front runners were lined up single file by lap 11. Mikey was 10th, then 12th on the next lap. By lap 15, Matt Kenseth in the #16 was leading the field.

Mikey pushed Justin Allgaier into the lead on lap 17, but before the stripe, Edwards pushed Mikey into the lead and then passed. Edwards' #60 now held the top spot. Mikey was 3rd on lap 18. Two laps later, Kenny Hendrick suffered a flat and went to the garage. He was soon out of the race.

On lap 23, Mikey took to the top line and started dropping back. Soon, he was stuck in the middle.

By lap 26, Newman was in the lead. Mikey was 3rd, pushing Earnhardt Jr in 2nd. Three laps later, Earnhardt Jr jockied around, attempting to go for the lead, and cars shuffled. Edwards went to the lead while Mikey was dropped back. Earnhardt Jr reclaimed the lead, but Edwards took it back before the stripe. Mikey was back to 5th as the front runners fell into a single file formation. Brian Vickers led on lap 36 with Mikey in 5th.

Mikey took the lead from Vickers on lap 36 but got shuffled out the next lap. Earnhardt Jr led lap 38, and Mikey was back to 5th. The #87 of Joe Nemechek, meanwhile, pit early. Mikey was 3rd on lap 39, pushing the two JR Motorsports cars of Brad Keselowski and Earnhardt Jr.

Many cars hit pit road together on lap 40. Mikey led another group to the pits at the end of the lap, and Keselowski claimed the top spot. Mikey took on four tires while some chose to take on two, and his car struggle to refire after the stop. Earnhardt Jr missed his pit box and lost ground.

Morgan Shepherd took over the lead during the exchange. Meanwhile, Mikey was penalised for being too fast entering pit road. The commentators speculated he was out of fuel and therefore couldn't use his gauges. Gaughan took the lead when Shepherd made his stop, but he was also black flagged for speeding coming into the pits. David Ragan led but also had to make another stop due to speeding.

Matt Kenseth took over the top spot on lap 45. Mikey was 35th, one lap down. Mike Bliss' #1 was pushed to the garage.

Kyle Busch was leading by lap 51; he took the spot from Clint Bowyer. Mikey was 33rd, one lap down but running with the front pack. At one point, Busch was pushing his #99, and Mikey was at the tail end of the lead lap. Busch got around him again.

The first caution came on lap 54. Joey Logano had bumpdrafted the #99 coming out of the corner, wrecking Mikey into Bowyer. The #99 hit the inside wall hard.

"Whoa," spotter Ty Norris said over the #99 team frequency. "He pushed you."

"Imagine that," Bowyer said inside his wrecked #29 as he left the scene of the accident. "He's still go this hand out the window. Wha... what happened? What happened? Every damn time, same guy. How, how'd I wreck?"

"The 20 just pushed him," the spotter responded, attempting to clear up Bowyer's assumption that Mikey had caused the wreck. "I mean, the 20 just trashed him. The 20 just spun the 99 across our nose."

When Jamie Little mentioned Bowyer's comments to Mikey after the wreck, Mikey said, "Well, you know, if he would watch the video, he would see that there was a man that drove over the top of me and spun me out. So um, you know, Clint made a butt of himself at Bristol with stupid remarks, and if he wants to continue to be an idiot, then we can play that game. I don't mind. I just prefer to be nice to people."

Coverage of the Sprint Cup's Aaron's 499 starts tomorrow at 1:00pm ET on FOX.