NASCAR Cup Series

Talladega Superspeedway boasts the record on close finishes

Published Apr. 29, 2016 11:33 a.m. ET

foxsports

The closest finish in NASCAR history came at Talladega Superspeedway in 2011 and it was a strange, strange one at that.

In those days, the NASCAR restrictor-plate aero package resulted in two-car tandem runs, where one car would literally push another nose-to-tail so together they both ran faster together than they could alone.

And in the spring Talladega race in 2011, Jimmie Johnson used a last-lap push by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to cross the start-finish line just 0.002 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer.

At the finish line, there was not one, not two, not three, but four pairs of tandem draft partners racing to the checkered flag. The top eight finishers were separated by a mere 0.02 seconds.

That Talladega race was the closest finish in NASCAR history since the advent of electronic timing and scoring in 1993. That margin-of-victory record was tied earlier this year by Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in the Daytona 500.

While the 2011 Talladega finish was exciting, the majority of NASCAR fans hated the tandem drafting, and NASCAR subsequently changed the rules package to do away with it.