A lot went on away from the fight for the win at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday.
Briscoe Rebounds For Top-5 Finish
Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick both spun as they entered pit road early in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but Briscoe was the only one to rebound for a top-5 finish.
Brisco spun on lap 43 as he entered pit road and was unable to move his car, resulting in the second caution period. He shredded a rear tire trying to drive to his pit and found himself two laps down. Throughout the high-speed chess game at the 2.66-mile track, Brisco avoided four multi-car crashes in the race’s final Stage to maneuver his Ford into a fourth-place finish.
“It was a battle all day long, similar to how we kind of were at the end of last year, just continuing to fight and keep doing everything we could to maximize our day,” Briscoe said.
Unlike Briscoe who didn’t hit anything when he spun, Reddick’s Toyota hit his car’s nose on the inside wall. He eventually finished 13th on the lead lap.
Blaine Perkins’ Car to NASCAR R&D Center
Blaine Perkins car is being taken to NASCAR’s R&D Center.
James GilbertGetty Images
After Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR announced the remains of Blaine Perkins’ Chevrolet would go to the sanctioning body’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C., for further examination.
Perkins’ Chevrolet became airborne on lap 46 after Jade Buford’s Chevrolet slammed into it and launched it. Perkins then flipped and barrel rolled nine times down the track’s backstretch. He exited the car but was taken to a local hospital for observation and remained hospitalized Sunday.
Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Brings Home Two Top-5 Finishes
Keselowski pitted before pit road was open Sunday. A penalty moved him to the back of the field.
Icon SportswireGetty Images
Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher have always excelled at superspeedway racing and Sunday’s double overtime GEICO 500 won by Kyle Busch was no exception.
Buescher ran in the top 10 early in the race but was penalized on lap 62 of the scheduled 188-lap event for running over equipment during a pit stop. That left him in the back of the field. Three laps later Keselowski pitted before pit road was open. That moved him to the tail end of the pack as well. Two more times during the race Buescher pitted before pit road was open, but Keselowski was guilty of it only once more.
Keselowski ran in the back most of the event until the final Stage when he hooked up with his teammate and they moved toward the front.
When the race restated for the second overtime on lap 195. Keselowski was seventh and Buescher was just outside the top 10.
Buescher slipped by a multi-car crash on the last lap, but Keselowski was caught in the fray. When NASCAR reviewed the rundown Buescher was credited with a third-place finish while Keselowski salvaged fifth.
“The race itself wasn’t as much fun as I was hoping for, for us,” Buescher said. “Just really hard to make any moves. Lanes just stalled out. Handling didn’t seem to come into play. I don’t know if it was temperatures or what. Just not as much movement as we hoped.”
Keselowski noted he could never get track position during the event.
“Felt like we had a car that could win the race if we could get to the front, but we could never get to the front with all the pit cycles and everything,” Keselowski said. “It just kept cycling us back, and it was really frustrating.”
Late Fuel Stop Foils Harvick’s 800th Race
Kevin Harvick became the 10th driver to compete in 800 NASCAR Cup races Sunday.
James GilbertGetty Images
With Kevin Harvick’s start in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the California native became the 10th driver to compete in 800 NASCAR Cup races.
However, of that group Richard Petty remains the only one to win his 800thrace.
Harvick’s victory bid was foiled when he had to pit for fuel during overtime. Prior to that untimely stop, Harvick had spent the majority of the race’s second half in the top 10. In fact, he led twice for 11 laps in the race that had 56 lead changes among 21 drivers.
Harvick finished 21st.
Blaney and Wallace Set The Pace … But
Ryan Blaney led a race high 47 laps Sunday, Bubba Wallace led the second most 35.
James GilbertGetty Images
Ryan Blaney was the top lap leader in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, setting the pace nine times for 47 laps. Close behind was Bubba Wallace who led six times for 35 laps. However, when it came to the final lap in the double overtime finish, it was the block Wallace threw on Blaney that caused a multi-car crash and gave the victory to Kyle Busch under the yellow flag.
Blaney finished second, but Wallace had to settle for 28th.
“This is a completely separate race than anywhere else, so you take it for what it’s worth (and) get ready for the next speedway,” Blaney said.
Hamlin: Can’t Be Selfish With Current Car
After starting from pole and finished 15th Sunday.
Icon SportswireGetty Images
Prior to the advent of NASCAR’s current Cup car, Denny Hamlin said it was beneficial to be selfish in superspeedway racing.
“My independence and not wanting to work with teammates, not because I didn’t want to, but they made moves I didn’t necessarily agree with so I just would go rogue and go on my own,” said Hamlin, who finished 17th Sunday at Talladega.
However, Hamlin said that’s not possible anymore with the current car. The air in two-by-two racing won’t allow one person to pull out and pass on his own. He must now rely on teammates.
“We’ve converted our style and I’ve had to change my style,” Hamlin said.
“I wish I could go back in time to when you would see three and four wide. All I needed was air disturbed, any kind of air disturbed, I could find any little pocket of air to make my car go. This, you really have to just continue to push whoever is in front and make sure someone’s in line behind you.”
Hamlin says when a driver has to change his driving style it means starting over.
“I’m having to do it on road courses now,” he continued. “At (age) 42, I just have to relearn and figure out the best way to do things. Just can’t stop learning, that’s the biggest key.”
Stenhouse Loses Daytona 500 Winning Pit Crew
Stenhouse arrived at Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s GEICO 500 with a different pit crew.
Icon SportswireGetty Images
When a race team leases a pit crew from another organization there’s always the possibility a change might occur and that’s what happened to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He arrived at Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s GEICO 500 with a different pit crew than the one the JTG Daugherty team had for its Daytona 500 victory.
“I hate it for my guys,” Stenhouse said. “We had most of them all last year and just felt like we really had that good chemistry of a solid team together, and now that’s kind of all mixed up and gone away.”
Stenhouse said he knows a few of the guys coming to his team from Chris Buescher’s car as does his crew chief Mike Kelley because they worked with them previously at Roush Fenway Racing.
Stenhouse said his team signed a two-year deal with RFK Racing that specified they didn’t want their pit crew taken.
“We would commit for two years if we could keep our guys together,” Stenhouse said. “When it came down towards the end of the season, we were really happy with all of the guys we had last year. We felt like our fuel guy was a little bit slower than where we needed to be at the end of last year, and so we had kind of requested a change there. But (we) wanted to keep all of our guys in-tact for this season because I feel like that chemistry is really important when you’re kind of choregraphing those pit stops. We were really happy with all of our guys.
“At the end of last year, they let us know they were changing one of our guys. We weren’t really thrilled about that, but they kind of guaranteed us that the guy they were going to replace him with was going to make our pit stops a lot faster. We started the season off and we actually were struggling on pit road quite a bit. We kind of asked. ‘Hey, I thought this new change was going to be good.’ And they said, ‘Well, we actually put him on the No. 6 car, so we didn’t actually get the one that they were going to replace one of our guys with last year. So that was a little bit of a bummer. We did get a new guy last week going into Martinsville and our pit stops were great. And then Monday morning, they took the whole team.
“I think the expectation going into it was that would not happen to us. I don’t really know what all the contracts and stuff look like, but that was kind of the mindset going in. I guess that’s what you get when you have the people over there running that place.”
Stenhouse, who finished 15th Sunday at Talladega, said his crew members that were no longer with him would get their Daytona 500 rings when they arrived.
Keyword: What We Learned In A Wild Day at Talladega