The race was first stopped 63 laps later when a multi-car collision was triggered by Brian Vickers, and was restarted 17 minutes later, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading the field.

A second red-flag period was triggered after Edwards ran into teammate Greg Biffle starting a chain-reaction accident involving a further ten drivers.

The race had a total of ten cautions, and 64 lead changes among 28 different drivers, setting a new Sprint Cup Series record.

The result advanced him to seventh in the Drivers' Championship, 232 behind leader Jimmie Johnson who extended his lead to 72 points over Edwards.

Toyota extended its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, twelve points ahead of Ford in second place.

[6] Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,575 points, with Carl Edwards in second, and Greg Biffle in third.

Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five, and Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch rounded out the top twelve drivers competing in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

[9] Second-place championship driver Edwards said he expected the top three points leaders to remain together during the race, "I'll probably be glued to Jimmie, no matter where he's at.

"[10] Earnhardt said he aimed to achieve his sixth victory at Talladega Superspeedway (where he had a large amount of fan support) in an effort to move ahead in the championship standings.

[11] Gordon, who had not won so far during 2008, stated he felt that he could win the race, and employed a strategy where he would attempt to avoid being caught up in a multi-car collision.

[14] Richard Childress Racing fielded a fourth car driven by Nationwide Series driver Mike Wallace.

Kasey Kahne, Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Skinner and Ryan Newman rounded out the session's top ten drivers.

[1] Later that day, Vickers paced the final practice session (where thirty-seven drivers competed) with a time of 49.694 seconds, ahead of Kahne and Bobby Labonte.

Earnhardt's right-rear tire exploded while leading a pack of cars at the exit of turn two, nine minutes after the session started, beginning a chain-reaction accident involving cars driven by Gilliland, Stewart, David Reutimann, Hamlin, Clint Bowyer and Kahne, resulting in the session being stopped for 30 minutes.

Aric Almirola qualified third, his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. teammate Regan Smith was fourth, and Paul Menard started fifth.

Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek, Tony Raines, Vickers and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top ten qualifiers.

[15] Live television coverage of the race, began at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the United States on ABC.

Brad Arnold, the lead singer of rock band 3 Doors Down performed the national anthem,[21] and Pepsi employees Antonio Clements, John Foster, Richard Stuckey, Daniel Harris, Demetrius Blackmon, Reginald Thomas, Kenneth Goodwin, and Raymond Castleberry, who serve in the National Guard commanded the drivers to start their engines.

[21] Sadler reclaimed first position and led the field back up to speed at the lap-50 restart,[22] ahead of Mears and Kyle Busch.

A fourth caution was triggered initially because of the accident before a red-flag was shown shortly afterward to stop the race to allow officials to clear the track of debris.

[21] Kyle Busch gained the lead after the pit stops, and led the field back up to speed at the lap-87 restart,[22] followed by Earnhardt.

The leaders, including Kyle Busch, who took the lead before the caution, made pit stops for tires and fuel.

[21] A seventh caution was triggered on lap 138 when Gordon had smoke and fluid coming out of his car, ending his race.

Burton, with assistance from Richard Childress Racing teammates Bowyer, Harvick and Mike Wallace, moved back into the lead on lap 156.

[22][24] The top six drivers quickly began to pull away from the rest of the field, as Stewart ran fourth and Harvick 16th by lap 172.

On the same lap, a second multi-car accident occurred necessitating a ninth caution when Edwards made contact with teammate Biffle going into turn three, and collected, Earnhardt, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Nemechek, Sorenson, Kenseth, Kvapil, Watrip, Dave Blaney and Montoya.

[21][24] The second red-flag of the race was shown shortly afterward to allow officials to clear debris from the track.

The field formed into a single file, and remained this way until a tenth and final caution of the race was deployed because McMurray's right-rear tire failed on lap 185.

[38] Similarities were made between Smith's overtake, and Earnhardt's pass of Kenseth below the yellow line at Talladega at the 2003 Aaron's 499.

[39] Edwards admitted he was at fault for causing the crash between himself and teammate Biffle on lap 174, and apologized to the drivers caught up in the incident.