Race Report.(Motorsports)

At this point, the rest of the Winston Cup garage have to be wondering just what they have to do to beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the restrictor- plate tracks. Especially at Talladega-Jr. has now won the last four races there, a track record. Usually the kid just blows everyone away, but this time he was thrown every imaginable obstacle, and still came out on top.

The first setback came before the green fell, when his DEI crew found water in the oil filter and had to change engines on race morning, which under NASCAR rules forced Earnhardt Jr. to start at the back of the field. No Talladega Winston Cup race had ever been won from 43rd place. Until now. The next came when he was collected up in the ``Big One,'' the stupendous multi-car crash that inevitably occurs on the plate tracks. This one came on lap four in Turn Two and involved 27 cars, making it the biggest Big One yet. Ryan Newman cut down a left rear tire to set off the chain reaction, nearly getting upside-down in the process. Earnhardt Jr.'s over-the-wall team, directed by Tony Eury Sr., then used a succession of pit stops under caution to reconstruct his car's shredded nose assembly back to aerodynamic trim. With the jury-rigged but obviously effective nose, Junior made his way to the front, and using tactics every bit as aggressive as his old man's, including some heavy bump-drafting on Matt ...