By: Cathy Brown
Twitter: @TheCathyBrown@PitOutsideBox
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TALLADEGA, Ala. – After yesterday’s thrilling finish in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Ag-Pro 300, seeing Jeffrey Earnhardt in Richard Childress Racing’s black No. 3 Chevy finishing second after starting on pole, the NASCAR Cup Series boys now had their turn to take a crack at one of NASCAR’s biggest tracks.
It was a 50/50 split in the top-10 starting positions with Christopher Bell’s Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on pole, the Toyota balance had second, sixth, seventh and ninth starting spots and the other half were Chevy’s in third, fourth, fifth and 10th. The highest starting Ford was that of Joey Logano who would be taking the green flag from the 13th starting spot.
The good thing at Talladega is, it’s the great equalizer – you can start in the rear and through the benefit of the draft you can find yourself at the front of the field in a dozen or so laps.
The one glaring fact is the continued “defect” at Stewart-Haas Racing, yes – Chase Briscoe has won a race this year and last weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway went for his second on the last lap. Unfortunately, his miscalculated attempt to pas race leader Tyler Reddick (who was going for his first NCS win) took out the both of them. Kyle Busch (as you know) scooted past both of them and as Busch would say “backed into the win.”
Briscoe had the highest starting spot in the SHR stable, 14th. With the rest of the SHR corral starting 23rd, 24th and 29th. Exactly what may be going on at SHR remains a mystery, Kevin Harvick the veteran driver has gone an entire season, plus all of this season yet to find Victory Lane – even the diehard Harvick fans find themselves wondering what is happening to this once dominant driver and this powerhouse team.
The GEICO 500 started off relatively clean, until a late in Stage No. 1 caution brought out by Briscoe and Chris Buescher getting together. This brought out the yellow and it took NASCAR a few minutes to determine who won the first segment, when it was all sorted out – it was Bubba Wallace.
Kyle Larson would win the race off pit road for the end of stage caution and lead the field to the green flag for the start of Stage No. 2.
Erik Jones threw his hat into the ring, passing Larson for the lead just as Greg Biffle stalled on the track – bringing out the caution.
This brought all of the leaders to pit road and when the race was back green on lap 86, it was William Byron on point.
The “big one” happened when Joey Logano appeared to bounce of the wall, collecting himself, Harrison Burton, Austin Cindric, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Suarez.
Martin Truex Jr would take his turn as the leader briefly until Byron moved back on point – he (Byron) would hold onto the lead and win Stage No. 2.
Jones would lead them to the green flag for the start of the final stage until Ryan Blaney passed him. After Blaney’s pass the cars, all went into “single file” mode – riding around nose-to-tail.
Blaney would lose the lead when Wallace passed him with 37 laps to go, Wallace would find himself swapping the lead with Jones as green flag pit stops approached.
The Ford’s were the first in, with Toyotas and Chevys coming in a lap later. This would shake up the running order as Denny Hamlin took the lead.
With 18 laps to go, Larson was able to get back on point – but Jones wanted to make his presence known. The both of them battled side-by-side, swapping the lead numerous times.
With Jones still leading, Ross Chastain (who had gone a lap down early in the race) was back on the lead lap and tucked in behind Larson (running second) as they headed to the white flag. With the finish line in site, Jones pulled a block on Larson who was trying to make a pass – this forced the both of then up high, losing precious momentum – high enough for Chastain who stayed low to scoot past both of them, taking the checkered flag.
At the Victory Lane interview, Chastain would say “Holy cow. I’m always the one going to the top too early, making the mistake. There at the end it was like eight to go, I was like, I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple times today. I was like, I’ll just ride on the bottom. If it works, I’m not going to lose the race for us, I’ll just let them.
This Moose fraternity, almost a million Moose members across the world, in the country – I know there’s some out here at Talladega. To win with the Moose onboard – they’ve been with me for a few years now, supported me everywhere I went.
I have no idea. They kept going up, kept moving out of the way.”
This makes Trackhouse Racing a two-time winner in the NCS and Chastain’s co-owner international music artist Pitbull and two-time NCS team owner too.
In their second season as a team, Team Trackhouse is definitely Cinderella at the ball right now and I don’t see the clock ever striking midnight – they are a powerhouse team and they’re here to stay.
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