Nothing compares to racing at Talladega

I know we should be looking ahead to Saturday night and NASCAR's Lowe's Motor Speedway's race, but it's hard to get the thoughts of Talladega last weekend out of mind even though they're out of sight.Here are a few mind-clearing points from yet another strange weekend in Alabama.DENNY HAMLIN'S HEALTHThe best news of the weekend was Denny Hamlin recovering and racing Saturday night after the hard crash he suffered when a tire blew on his Toyota. It was just another in a long list of Talladega beat-downs.In 1996, I attended the July race and watched Dale Earnhardt get injured in a bad crash on the front stretch. The next day in the Birmingham airport, my friends and I saw the seven-time champ, who was dazed, medicated and completely out of it due to a broken sternum. We wished him well and boarded our flight, but the image of a battered Intimidator is a racing moment I'll never forget.That's 'Dega, though. Bobby Isaac claimed he heard voices in his head, pulled over and retired in the middle of a 1973 race there while challenging for the lead. Rising star Larry Smith died in what appeared to be a minor crash that same year. Tiny Lund was killed there two years later.Randy Owens, Richard Petty's brother-in-law, died in the pits in a freak accident after a pressurized water tank exploded. Driver David Sisco's mother was killed in the infield after being struck by a truck in 1977. ARCA president Bob Loga died in a passenger-car accident outside the track following a race.The track's most notable non-racing death of a driver happened when Davey Allison perished after a 1993 helicopter crash. And Ricky Craven miraculously survived a harrowing wreck in 1995, albeit with a fractured neck vertebra, and these incidents are just a partial list.Hamlin, now added to that list, should consider himself lucky.TONY STEWART'S DRIVEThere are those out there who have questioned the 2-time champ's will to win after he brokered a sweet deal to return to Chevrolet in 2009 with teammate Ryan Newman. Many thought he didn't care about winning anymore and was just riding out the time in The Chase, which makes no sense because that's a title chance.What we learned last Sunday -- and so did Regan Smith -- is that Stewart never just logs laps and is just as determined as ever to win. After running second so many times at 'Dega, he put it all together, held the lead by blocking Smith and was victorious on a day when few leaders could hold the lead very easily.CARL EDWARDS'S MOVEThe Roush-Fenway Racing driver gained new fans after roughing up Kyle Busch on the way to a win at Bristol, but many drivers get the chance to be the villain at 'Dega, and Sunday was simply Carl's turn. In short, he blew it, taking out a number of Chase contenders, including himself, in the process and putting Jimmie Johnson firmly out in front.Edwards (minus 72 points) lost 62 points to Johnson in the wreck he caused and made his task much more difficult. If he loses the 2008 title to Johnson by, say, less than 50 points after everything winds down at Homestead, he'll only have himself -- directly -- to blame. That wreck was nothing more than a sign of how to lose a championship in a single aggressive move and a sign that he has no one to blame but himself.Carl, here's your sign.(Bill Whitehead covers NASCAR for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. E-mail wwhitehe@ircc.net.)