Checkered Countdown: Top-Five Talladega Finishes

No. 1 Harvick beats Jamie McMurray with a perfectly-timed slingshot pass (2010).

The year before Johnson’s win The Closer had beaten McMurray after passing him at the last possible moment. In the final part of the race the field had split in the usual tandems. Harvick was pushing the leader McMurray and the two built a comfortable lead over the rest. Comfortable enough for the Childress driver to try to pass the leader without surrendering the win to another tandem. He moved to the inside while exiting the trioval getting McMurray loose to slow him down. It was just enough to edge in front of him at the stripe after a perfectly-timed pass. That victory ended a three-year winless streak that had started after he had become Daytona 500 champion in 2007.