Race Report.(Motorsports)

Byline: AL PEARCE

Poor ol' Mikey Waltrip. He beats Dale Earnhardt Jr. in another Talladega thriller, then some yahoo reminds the world that he has never won anything but restrictor-plate races: Daytona Beach, 3; Talladega, 1; Everywhere Else, 0. He is four-for-563 altogether, but seems comfortable with that.

"You won't see me too worried if I get hung up on Daytona and Talladega the next four or five years,'' he said after the EA Sports 500. "[Crew chief] Slugger Labbe knows I can win anywhere, the drivers know I can win anywhere, I know I can win anywhere. I once was told that I didn't know how to do anything. Now, at least, I do restrictor-plate races right.''

And how. He won the '01 and '03 Daytona 500s, the '02 Pepsi 400 in Daytona Beach and now Talladega. All told, Dale Earnhardt Inc. is nine-of-12 in recent plate races, including five straight at Talladega. DEI was 1-2 this time, Waltrip and Junior barely ahead of Tony Stewart. Waltrip started 18th, floated between third and 30th for the first half, then charged from 21st to first in 27 laps near the end. He led lap 177, then from 180 to the finish at 188, surviving a brief red flag/restart and simultaneous last-lap challenges from Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. He blocked Gordon high off Turn Four before swinging low to block Junior heading for the checkers.

"Gordon would have passed high if I'd stayed on the bottom,'' Waltrip said. "I had to stop his momentum and still keep Dale Jr. behind me. The simplest thing would have been to ...