Aaron's 499

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Aaron's 499

Venue	Talladega Superspeedway
Corporate sponsor	Aaron's, Inc.
First race	1970
Distance	500.1 miles
Number of laps	188
Previous names	Alabama 500 (1970) Winston 500 (1971-1993, 1997) Winston Select 500 (1994-1996) DieHard 500 (1998-2000) Talladega 500 (2001)

The Aaron's 499 is a NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car race held at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. The race has always been held in late April or early May. The Aaron's 499 is also one of four races currently run with restrictor plates, the others being the AMP Energy 500, the Coke Zero 400, and the Daytona 500. The 1997 event, won by Mark Martin, stands as the fastest NASCAR race to date ever run, at an average speed of 188.354 mph (303.126 km/h). It was the first race at Talladega run without a caution flag.

The race, from 1970 until the demise of the Grand Slam as a result of the Ferko lawsuit, was known as the second leg of the sport's Grand Slam. It was also previously part of the Winston Million.

The name is derived from a sponsorship agreement with the Aaron's chain of lease-to-own stores. The "499" advertised distance is designed to mimic the chain's tendencies to offer rentals "For $99" per month. Despite the name, the race is slightly over 500 miles in length.

Past winners

Aaron's 499

• 2009 Brad Keselowski
• 2008 Kyle Busch
• 2007 Jeff Gordon (4) (192 laps / 510.72 miles due to green-white-checker finish)
• 2006 Jimmie Johnson (race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain)
• 2005 Jeff Gordon (3) (194 laps / 516.04 miles due to green-white-checker finish)
• 2004 Jeff Gordon (2)
• 2003 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (2)
• 2002 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Talladega 500

• 2001 Bobby Hamilton
  • The first restrictor plate race following the Death of Dale Earnhardt was run without a caution, the second such 500-mile race in Talladega history.

DieHard 500

• 2000 Jeff Gordon
• 1999 Dale Earnhardt (3)
• 1998 Bobby Labonte

Winston 500

• 1997 Mark Martin (2)
  • The race was postponed two weeks due to rain. Qualifying was held as scheduled, but rain on Sunday and Monday prompted officials to reschedule the race for the next open weekend (the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend). It became the first 500-mile race at Talladega to be completed without a caution flag.

Winston Select 500

• 1996 Sterling Marlin
• 1995 Mark Martin
• 1994 Dale Earnhardt (2)

Winston 500

• 1993 Ernie Irvan
• 1992 Davey Allison (3)
• 1991 Harry Gant (race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain)
• 1990 Dale Earnhardt
• 1989 Davey Allison (2)
• 1988 Phil Parsons
• 1987 Davey Allison - (178 laps / 473.48 miles, darkness- caused by long delay caused by repairs to repair damaged catchfencing in a Lap 22 crash)
• 1986 Bobby Allison (3)
• 1985 Bill Elliott
• 1984 Cale Yarborough
• 1983 Richard Petty
• 1982 Darrell Waltrip (2)
• 1981 Bobby Allison (2)
• 1980 Buddy Baker (3)
• 1979 Bobby Allison
• 1978 Cale Yarborough
• 1977 Darrell Waltrip
• 1976 Buddy Baker (2)
• 1975 Buddy Baker
• 1974 David Pearson (3) (170 laps / 452.2 miles due to energy crisis)
• 1973 David Pearson (2)
• 1972 David Pearson
• 1971 Donnie Allison

Alabama 500

• 1970 Pete Hamilton

Notable races

• 1987: On the 22nd lap, Bobby Allison cut a tire and his car went airborne into the catchfencing in front of the main grandstand. Several feet of the fence were sheared off and Allison's car rebounded back to the track where it was t-boned by another spinning car. The race was stopped, and track crews spent a couple hours repairing the safety fence. Despite the wreckage, no drivers or spectators were seriously injured. As a direct result, the next superspeedway race (the 1987 Pepsi 400), saw the cars using smaller carburetors in an effort to curtail speeds. Starting in 1988, all superspeedway races saw mandated carburetor restrictor plates, which are still used today.
• 1993 saw Rusty Wallace spun out on the front straight, getting airborne and flipping violently across the finish line, similar to his Daytona crash in the same year.
• In 1994, race winner Dale Earnhardt dedicated his race win to Ayrton Senna, who died earlier that day in a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.
• In the 2003 race (which was marred by a crash on lap 4 that damaged 27 cars, including Earnhardt), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won his fourth consecutive race at the track, but not without controversy. After the 2001 spring race (thanks in part to protestations from Jimmy Spencer over Mike McLaughlin's blocking in the Busch race en route to a win), NASCAR ruled that the yellow lines on the bottom of the track at both Talladega and Daytona were to serve as an out-of-bounds line (with any car that drops below to gain a position to be immediately black-flagged unless they gave the position back or were forced below it). As the cars reached the backstretch, leader Matt Kenseth made a lane change, going to the outside to block Jimmie Johnson. Earnhardt Jr. was on the inside and was drafting with Elliott Sadler when Kenseth started making a move low to attempt a block of Earnhardt; Earnhardt stormed well below the line entering the apron of turn three as he passed leader Matt Kenseth to avoid contact with Kenseth's car and get the win. NASCAR ruled that Earnhardt was forced below the line as the nose of his car had already passed the nose of Kenseth's car by the time Kenseth made the block, making it a clean pass, this even though Earnhardt was nowhere close to clearing Kenseth when he hit the apron of Three - what the rule was intended to prevent.
• Jeff Gordon's 2004 win was marked by a spinout by Brian Vickers with 4⅓ laps to go. In the wake of a dangerous incident between Casey Mears and Dale Jarrett the previous September at New Hampshire, the beneficiary rule was adopted, prohibiting racing back to the start-finish line. One ruling of the beneficiary rule was that if a race went past a specified point (Lap 183 in this case; five laps remaining) and had a caution, they would not throw out the red flag and stop the cars to ensure a green flag finish. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was side-by-side with Gordon and attempted a pass of Gordon for the lead at the time of caution. Television replays (which override previous scoring loops when less than five laps remain) declared Gordon was still ahead. The race finished under yellow and while Gordon did his victory burnout, enraged fans littered the track with garbage to protest the finish (it was believed that Vickers' crash and the subsequent cleanup would not have taken very long to clean up). This reaction, following a similar fan bombardment of the track at Daytona International Speedway after the 2002 Pepsi 400 ended under yellow, would result in the green-white-checkered rule being instituted in the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series less than two months later.
• Following Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s 2003 win, Hendrick Motorsports won four straight – three by Jeff Gordon and one by Jimmie Johnson.
• The race has exceeded 40 official lead changes 16 times, including a motorsports record 75 lead changes in 1984.
• The 1975 running featured the first win for Buddy Baker since 1973 and the first Winston Cup Grand National win for team owner Bud Moore since 1971. Tragedy struck on Lap 149 when race leader Richard Petty pitted with a burning wheel bearing; his brother-in-law Randy Owens was killed when he fitted a hose to a pressurized water tank and the tank exploded.
• In 2009, a final battle to the finish between Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards ended with Keselowski unintentionally bumping the 99 car of Edwards and turning him sideways. At this point the car lifted off the ground, was hit by Ryan Newman and was sent flipping into the catch fence, scattering debris which would injure 8 spectators, all non-life threatening. Edwards walked away unharmed after jogging past the finish line, as an homage to the 2006 racing comedy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Keselowski went on to win the race in only his fifth Sprint Cup start, undoubtedly one of the biggest upsets of the decade. During the race, there were 2 big crashes, one on lap 7 involving 18 cars, and the other on lap 180 involving 11 cars. The lead changed 56 times among 25 drivers.