2009 Aaron's 499
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 9 of 36 in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | |||
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| Date | April 26, 2009 | ||
| Official name | Aaron's 499 | ||
| Location | Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Alabama | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.66 mi (4.28 km) |
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| Distance | 188 laps, 500.08 mi (804.8 km) | ||
| Weather | Sunny with temperatures reaching up to 82.4 °F (28.0 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Earnhardt Ganassi Racing | ||
| Time | 50.890 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | |
| Laps | 42 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 09 | Brad Keselowski | Phoenix Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Fox Broadcasting Company | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds | ||
The 2009 Aaron's 499 was the ninth race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. With a distance of 500.8 miles (806.0 km), it was held on April 26, 2009 at the 2.66 miles (4.28 km) Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. Fox Sports broadcast the race starting at 1 PM EDT, with MRN and Sirius XM Radio carrying the radio broadcast over the air and on satellite respectively. The race had nine cautions, 25 different leaders, and 57 lead changes, the most lead changes of the season up until that point.
Brad Keselowski, driving for Phoenix Racing, won the race in his fifth career start (third start in 2009) and led his first career Sprint Cup lap, Lap 188 (in fact the only lap he led the entire race), while Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished second and Ryan Newman finished third. This was the first time since Casey Mears's win at the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte that a driver had won his first career win in a major, and the first win in the Aaron's 499 by a first-time driver since Phil Parsons in 1988. It was also the first time a driver's first ever lap led was to win the race. Keselowski dedicated his win to the late Neil Bonnett.
Talladega Superspeedway is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races; the others are Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Michigan International Speedway. The standard track at the speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.66 miles (4.28 km) long. The track's turns are banked at thirty-three degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 16.5 degrees. The back stretch has a two-degree banking. Talladega Superspeedway can seat up to 143,231 people.
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