Tag: Talladega

Confusion over NASCAR officiating in Cup Series’ biggest ever crash

Confusion and irritation about NASCAR officiating was rampant after the “Big One” broke out Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. There were 27 cars collected in the incident on the backstretch with five laps to go in regulation time. Among the issues …

Confusion and irritation about NASCAR officiating was rampant after the “Big One” broke out Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

There were 27 cars collected in the incident on the backstretch with five laps to go in regulation time. Among the issues raised was NASCAR towing cars back to pit road, two of those being playoff drivers Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott. Both were damaged in the incident and could not get their cars back under their own power.

 

In recent weeks, NASCAR reiterated its rule that if a driver cannot drive back to pit road after being involved in an incident, their race is over. Briscoe and Elliott were both able to finish the race after being rescued, returned to the pits and serviced by their teams.

Another issue was with the red flag. Once lifted and the field put back under yellow, the pace car did not start rolling the field. Meanwhile, those already on pit road before the red flag could have their teams begin working on their cars.

“We’ve got to get that cleaned up as a sport,” JTG Daugherty winning crew chief Mike Kelley said. “There are teams with a lot on the line that are sitting out there just waiting on wreckers to get to them. This is my 30th year doing this, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen them turn the yellow flag on and allow guys to work on cars while other cars are just sitting there [behind the pace car].

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“I’m sure they’ll think about that and talk about that because if you’re a guy who’s sixth in the championship hunt and you’re sitting there waiting on somebody to get to you, but the other guys are working – maybe I’m looking at it wrong and the DVP clock evens it all out – I was getting confused when Ricky kept coming by. There’s still four cars sitting here.

“They were put in a tough situation with that many cars involved in that wreck and [having] this many wreckers and the cars look to be damaged and in the grass. They couldn’t use the airlift system. Some guys are running it, and some guys are not, so it’s a tough situation. We’ll learn from it and get better at it, but it was a lot of new things kind of happening.”

NASCAR senior vice president of competition, Elton Sawyer, addressed the media Sunday night on those incidents and more.

“I would prefer us not to be standing here talking about this,” Sawyer said. “I want us to be talking about Ricky’s [Stenhouse Jr.] big win, talking about our playoffs, but when you’re in live sporting events and you’re in officiating that’s going to happen from time to time. We’re going to do our absolute best to clean that up and not be in it, but that’s just part of sports.”

Sawyer’s full comments:

“Days of Thunder” moment was good fortune for Reddick

Tyler Reddick went through a movie scene at Talladega Superspeedway but emerged with his NASCAR Cup Series playoff hopes intact. The regular-season champion faced being out of a transfer spot as the laps wound down Sunday afternoon. It would have …

Tyler Reddick went through a movie scene at Talladega Superspeedway but emerged with his NASCAR Cup Series playoff hopes intact.

The regular-season champion faced being out of a transfer spot as the laps wound down Sunday afternoon. It would have put him in a fight to advance going into the final race of the round, but then came the largest crash in Cup Series history with five laps to go. Reddick was involved in the crash, but his No. 45 Toyota remained on track and he finished 20th – ahead of six of his fellow championship contenders.

“I was in it, for sure,” Reddick said of the crash. “I was spinning around backward, and hit front and back. It felt like some Days of Thunder stuff. It was not fun. It was a lot of wrecked cars.”

Reddick was approximately five points below the cutline before the crash, yet left Talladega with an advantage of 14 points.

“That was [a change in fortune],” he admitted. “I didn’t know where we were when that happened at first, but to see it turn out the way it did was a good thing. If we can take a 20th place finish and gain on the cut, I think you take that every time.”

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Sunday was not Reddick’s best showing, as he earned only five stage points and averaged an 18th-place running position. But that has been the theme of the postseason for his 23XI Racing team. After finishing sixth in the opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Reddick finished 20th or worse in the last four races.

It led to him admitting to the concern in his camp before arriving at Talladega. The speed he showed late in the regular season hasn’t been there, nor has the team executed well, but he’s still above the cutline, and Reddick feels confident he’ll control his destiny at the Charlotte road course.

“The last time we really showed up with any kind of speed was a road course,” Reddick said. “I know at Watkins Glen it really went off the rails. The surface [at Charlotte] isn’t changing, the tires aren’t changing, and those are all knowns that we’ve raced on and had good speed on. The last time we ran on this tire that we’re taking to the Roval was Sonoma, and we ran up front for a majority of that race.

“I feel good about it. The changes to the course — typically, anytime something changes on any type of track, it helps me, I feel like. It levels the field a little bit. It should be good for us.”

‘I did what I felt like I needed to do’ Keselowski says about not blocking Stenhouse at Talladega

Brad Keselowski didn’t throw a block coming to the finish in Sunday’s Cup Series YellaWood 500 Talladega Superspeedway, and among those surprised was winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Keselowski chose to remain on the bottom and hoped his drafting help – …

Brad Keselowski didn’t throw a block coming to the finish in Sunday’s Cup Series YellaWood 500 Talladega Superspeedway, and among those surprised was winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Keselowski chose to remain on the bottom and hoped his drafting help – Kyle Larson – was enough to potentially drag race Stenhouse to the finish line. But Stenhouse had a better run on the outside lane, with help from William Byron, to make the pass and have enough to get to the finish line first.

The margin of victory was just 0.006s.

“They were going to split me, which is what I would do if I were them,” Keselowski said of his decision. “I didn’t feel like I had a shot to move up in front of the No. 47. We didn’t have enough smoke with the No. 24 pushing him; he would have just driven right around us and we’d have been swallowed.

“I did what I felt like I needed to do and got a good push from the No. 5, but it wasn’t enough.”

The field was largely in the same two-by-two formation coming to the finish as it was when the overtime attempt began. Keselowski chose the bottom while Stenhouse was on the outside. Larson lined up behind Keselowski while Byron was behind Stenhouse. Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch were in the third row, and Busch was shuffled out on the final lap when no one went with him to the third lane.

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Stenhouse led Keselowski, Byron, and Larson across the finish line. Erik Jones made it to fifth as Bell finished sixth.

“[I was] very surprised,” Stenhouse said. “I would say Kyle [Larson] and I are the best friends out there you could have, and Kyle wins a lot of races and I know that he’s probably going to help me out as much as he can, so I was really shocked. I was waiting for the block, and I was going to decide whether I was clear enough to get to his inside and get in front of the No. 5 or hang a right and take our momentum with the No. 24.

“Yeah, I was super shocked that he didn’t make that right-hand [move].”

Once again, it was another second-place finish for Keselowski at the Alabama superspeedway. In the spring race, he went for a final-lap move on leader Michael McDowell, but contact between the two allowed Tyler Reddick to drive by when a crash broke out.

“It’s a good finish for us,” Keselowski said. “We’ve been knocking on the door of these plate tracks. I hate that we didn’t bust through with a win, but I’m happy to be right there in contention.”

Stenhouse ekes out three-wide win in Talladega overtime

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held off the field in overtime to claim the victory in a dramatic NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – edging Brad Keselowski and William Byron by a mere 0.006s in a thrilling three-wide finish. …

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held off the field in overtime to claim the victory in a dramatic NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – edging Brad Keselowski and William Byron by a mere 0.006s in a thrilling three-wide finish.

That heart-stopping finish was indicative of the afternoon of competition at NASCAR’s biggest track (2.66-mile), which once again lived up to its reputation and provided a thrilling Playoff race that has major implications for the championship contenders.

 

A massive 27-car accident with five laps remaining brought out a red flag and stopped the race for nearly 10 minutes. The incident affected eight of the 12 Playoff cars in varying degrees. There is only one more race remaining in this round to settle which eight drivers advance to the next round of championship competition.

Stenhouse, the 36-year-old Mississippi native who is not Playoff-eligible, hoisted his fourth career trophy – all coming at superspeedway tracks – and first in 65 races. His No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet led 19 of the 195 laps, including the all-important last one after a side-to-battle with six-time Talladega winner Keselowski and this year’s Daytona 500 winner Byron.
This marks the third time in the five Playoff races that a non-Playoff driver has hoisted the race trophy.

“Felt really good. We had our Chevy teammates behind us and I was hoping Kyle [Busch] wouldn’t push the No. 6 [Keselowski] that hard, I knew the No. 24 was going to try to get to the line,’’ said Stenhouse, who scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega in 2017.

“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in and obviously we haven’t won since the Daytona 500 in ’23. It’s been an up and down season, a lot of hard work this season trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get it.’’

The finish was set-up after the vast incident that took out several front-running cars and affected all but four Playoff drivers. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric – who essentially needed a victory to earn an automatic berth in the next Playoff round – was leading the race, having exchanged the top spot multiple time with Stenhouse in the closing 20 laps.

With five laps remaining, Cindric’s leading No. 2 Ford was hit from behind on the backstretch by Keselowski’s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford which triggered an accordion-style accident from three rows behind the leader. Harrison Burton’s No. 21 Ford struck Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford that then pushed Keselowski’s car forward and into Cindric.

The aftermath collected 28 cars in all, completely sidelining Cindric, who was credited with a 32nd place finish, his Penske teammate Logano (33rd), and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (30th).

“Obviously incredibly frustrated,’’ Cindric said. “Just really proud of my team and the full execution of the day. We got that stage win (second stage) and put ourselves at the front of that green flag pit cycle and had another shot [to win].

“I don’t feel like complaining right now; I’m too [angry] and it won’t do anything. But proud of the team. We’ve brought really fast race cars to every single race of the Playoffs and we’re going to have to bring another one next week and I need to go out and do my job.’’

His Penske teammate Logano, who was similarly frustrated, said there was nothing he could have done to avoid the accident.

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“I don’t think we could have done anything much different,’’ the two-time series champion said. “We had the bottom working fairly well and by the time we got off [Turn 2], the push from the No. 21 (Burton) that transferred to the No. 6 (Keselowski) that transferred to the 2 (Cindric) just at a bad angle. And off he went.’’

Other Playoff drivers affected in the accident included perennial Talladega race favorite Chase Elliott, who finished 29th after pitting for repairs following the accident.

Regular season champion Tyler Reddick was also in the accident and rallied to finish 20th. Alex Bowman, who was involved in two accidents on the day, finished 16th,

Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney ran among the leaders and scored points in both stages but was eliminated from competition mid-race in the day’s first multiple car accident, leaving him 39th of the 40 starters.
On the up-side, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson finished fourth, tying his best ever Talladega finish — only his second top five at the track in 20 races.

Non-Playoff driver Erik Jones was fifth.

Another Playoff competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, was sixth, followed by Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Bell’s fellow Playoff driver and JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in 10th,

With Byron’s finish, he becomes the first and only Playoff driver to secure a position in the next eight-race round. Bell is next in the standings, holding a 57-point advantage on the Playoff cutoff line, followed by Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, Blaney, Reddick and Elliott.

Elliott is 13 points ahead of Logano going into next week’s road course race at the Charlotte ROVAL – the final race of this Playoff round which will set the next eight-driver round. Daniel Suarez, who rallied to a 26th place finish despite spending most of the race recovering from a pre-race penalty for equipment violations, is now 20 points behind Elliott for that final transfer position.

Cindric and Briscoe are 29 and 32 points back, respectively, essentially needing a victory at Charlotte.

The final race of this Playoff round is next Sunday, the Bank of America ROVAL400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A.J. Allmendinger is the defending race winner.

RESULTS

Talladega now site of largest crash in NASCAR Cup Series history

The largest crash in NASCAR Cup Series history happened Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and collected seven championship contenders in the process. Austin Cindric was leading the YellaWood 500 off Turn 2 when an accordion effect down the …

The largest crash in NASCAR Cup Series history happened Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and collected seven championship contenders in the process.

Austin Cindric was leading the YellaWood 500 off Turn 2 when an accordion effect down the backstretch ended with his bumper being tagged by Brad Keselowski. Cindric, the leader of the inside lane, bounced off Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was leading the outside lane, from the initial contact and then spun in front of the field.

NASCAR listed a total of 27 cars involved in the crash, which is the most all-time in the Cup Series. It resulted in a red flag of nearly nine minutes.

“When we had to pass the [No.] 38 car in (Turns) 1 and 2, it stretched the whole bottom lane out,” Keselowski said of how the wreck started. “The bottom had to move to the middle, the middle had to move to the top, and it just broke everybody up. It was a giant rubber band and the rubber band snapped back.”

The playoff drivers involved in the wreck were Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez. Cindric and Logano failed to finish the race.

“I just got turned at the front of the field,” Cindric said. “Unfortunately that’s how Daytona ended for us and I think what that says is we’ve got really fast race cars and great execution. As the leader, I was trying to be as predictable as possible as far as taking pushes and it’s just a real shame. I don’t really feel like doing a whole lot of complaining about what happened or whose fault it is; it doesn’t really matter.

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“It puts us in a must-win situation for the Charlotte road course. We’ve brought some exceptionally fast race cars every single race of the playoffs, and I cannot understate how proud I am of my race team and we’ll have to bring another one next week.”

Cindric is 29 points out of a transfer spot into the next round of the playoffs going into the final elimination race of the round. He entered the weekend in the same position.

Logano was pushed out of a transfer spot because of the wreck. The two-time series champion is now 13 points below the cutline.

“Everyone just gets more aggressive at the end of the races,” Logano said. “The [No.] 2 got out there a little bit more than what he had been and the [No.] 21 gave me a shove and transferred that to the [No.] 6. You can’t see what’s in front of you from there, and he got to the [No.] 2 with a fair amount of steam there.

“It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not Brad’s fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the product of the racing that we’ve got. Everyone is getting more and more aggressive as the laps wind down and it happens. It happens a lot.”

Cindric finished 32nd and Logano finished 33rd.

Bowman was the highest-finishing playoff driver of those involved in the wreck in 16th place. Reddick finished 20th, Suarez was 26th, Elliott was 29th and Briscoe finished 30th.

The four drivers below the cutline going to Charlotte are Logano, Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe. Logano was the only driver who fell below the cutline who was in a transfer spot at the start of Sunday afternoon.

Smith clinches spot in Xfinity’s Round of 8 with Talladega win

A last lap pass for the win is a recurring theme at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and that’s exactly what landed JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith in Victory Lane on Saturday. It was the only lap he led all day but it was good enough to win …

A last lap pass for the win is a recurring theme at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and that’s exactly what landed JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith in Victory Lane on Saturday. It was the only lap he led all day but it was good enough to win Saturday’s United Rentals 250 overtime thriller and earn Smith an automatic berth into the next round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.

It was a huge turn of fortune for the 20-year old Iowa native, who came into the race ranked last among the 12 Playoff drivers and winless on the season. He started his No. 8 JRM Chevrolet 27th in Saturday’s 38-car field, but moved forward rapidly from the fall of the green flag, running near the front most of the day, avoiding multiple multi-car accidents and making the move to the checkered flag when it counted most.

 

“It’s been a really tough year,’’ said Smith. “It’s been a while and it’s been a struggle, but I’m very happy to be here and looking forward to getting better on these ovals and road courses.”

It was high-stakes performance for the young talent, whose only other victory came last April at the Phoenix Raceway one-miler. Just this week with Playoff elimination a possibility, he piqued his team owner’s brain for tips on racing on the Talladega 2.66-mile high banks — his team owner being Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won six NASCAR Cup Series races at Talladega including an unprecedented four in a row.

“We sat down Wednesday,’’ Smith said. “It wasn’t a whole lot, but asking him what he would do in certain situations [on the big track]. Feels really good to win again.”

Smith beat RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg to the line by a slight 0.177s with a three-wide battle on track right behind featuring Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Sheldon Creed and Chandler Smith who rounded out the top five.

Herbst was leading with a lap remaining only to get passed in a massive push forward that included a run by Chandler Smith – ultimately both losing out to Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg. Frustrated, after the race Herbst immediately walked over to Chandler Smith’s car and had words with the young driver.

“I was just telling him, he had his teammate behind him and was in the best spot you want to be in and I told him he made a right move but in the wrong place,’’ Herbst said. “He would have won the race and all he did was kill his run, my run and his teammate’s run and let the No. 8 [Sammy Smith] get away.”

Polesitter, rookie Jesse Love led a race best 28 of the 98 laps in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet finishing sixth in a race marked with six cautions, a brief red flag, 11 race leaders and 28 lead changes.

Although relatively calm through the early goings – Chandler Smith won the opening stage and RCR’s Austin Hill won the second stage – the final laps lived up to Talladega expectation. Only three of the 12 Playoff drivers managed to avoid being caught up – to varying degrees – in accidents on the afternoon.

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Two perennial championship favorites and current Playoff drivers, Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger and JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier were among those that led laps – as expected – but were also collected in multi-car accidents.

Allmendinger still rallied to an 11th place showing after his No. 16 Chevy suffered minor damage in a 12-car accident with three laps remaining that triggered a nearly 10-minute red flag stoppage and forced overtime. Allgaier’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet suffered more damage in the crash and he finished 26th.

Reigning series champion, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer was also caught up in the accident and finished 27th. Fellow Playoff competitor, Kaulig Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen – a three-race winner this season — was a part of a multi-car accident earlier, with 18 laps remaining, and finished 36th.

Jeb Burton finished seventh with David Starr, Brennan Poole and Kyle Sieg rounding out the top 10.

Next week’s race at the Charlotte ROVAL will decide which eight drivers advance in the Playoffs. With Smith’s win today, three positions will be decided next weekend. Chandler Smith now holds a strong 57-point edge on the cutoff points position with Hill, Custer, Creed, Love, Herbst and Sam Mayer rounding out the top eight.

Mayer holds a slim 10-point advantage in the final transfer position over Allmendinger and he’s 18 points up on his JRM teammate Allgaier.

Van Gisbergen, who has won three road course races already this year, goes into the Charlotte road course-oval hybrid 21 points back. Parker Kligerman, who finished 12th Saturday despite being collected in multiple wrecks, is 26 points off Mayer for that final transfer position.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to competition next week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 Presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (4 p.m. ET, CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Mayer is the defending the race winner.

RESULTS

Bowman good, but ‘probably not good enough’ in Cup playoffs

The NASCAR Cup Series postseason has been good for Alex Bowman, but not good enough. He and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team have three top-10 finishes in four races, which is good enough for a 9.5 average finish. It’s the second-best average of …

The NASCAR Cup Series postseason has been good for Alex Bowman, but not good enough.

He and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team have three top-10 finishes in four races, which is good enough for a 9.5 average finish. It’s the second-best average of all playoff drivers, and Bowman is one of four who has three top 10s, but he’s the one at the top of the field in stage points earned (53).

“It’s been a good four weeks for us,” Bowman said Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “We have a long way to go, though, so we have to keep executing at a high level. I certainly know that we’re capable of it and I’m capable of it, but we just have a long way to go and need to keep it up.”

Of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, Bowman and Elliott are the only two who have earned four top-10 finishes in three races. They both have the same average finish, but William Byron and Kyle Larson sit above Bowman on the playoff grid having put together a much better regular season, giving them the insurance (playoff) points to help their cause.

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Bowman had just one win in the regular season. The five playoff points from that were the only bonus points he carried into the postseason.

The turnaround in performance has come at the right time. On the topic of consistency, Bowman said after last weekend at Kansas Speedway his team has “been OK” with better pace in the race car, and that they were headed in the right direction.

It was not a tongue-in-cheek comment about their — perhaps unexpected — rise in the championship hunt.

“That’s how I feel,” Bowman said. “We haven’t won in the playoffs and we’re running OK; we’re not running amazing. I think last week we had a really fast race car and the last restart didn’t work out. We’re doing well, but we’re eight above the cutline, so probably not good enough at the moment.”

Another superspeedway, another pole for McDowell at Talladega

Michael McDowell claimed yet another NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway pole Saturday at Talladega. The Front Row Motorsports driver ran a 183.063mph (52.310s) lap in the final round of qualifying. It is his series-leading sixth pole of the season (and …

Michael McDowell claimed yet another NASCAR Cup Series superspeedway pole Saturday at Talladega.

The Front Row Motorsports driver ran a 183.063mph (52.310s) lap in the final round of qualifying. It is his series-leading sixth pole of the season (and of his career) and fifth consecutive at a superspeedway. The only superspeedway McDowell did not win the pole at was the season-opening Daytona 500, where he started second.

Austin Cindric (P) qualified second at 182.424mph; Todd Gilliland, third at 182.258mph; Kyle Busch, fourth at 181.863mph and Ryan Blaney (P), fifth at 181.784mph.

Blaney is the defending race winner.

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Joey Logano (P) ran sixth at 181.687mph; Austin Dillon, seventh at 181.567mph; and Denny Hamlin (P), eighth at 181.453mph; Harrison Burton, ninth at 181.038mph and Daniel Hemric, 10th at 180.980 mph.

Chase Elliot (P) and Kyle Larson (P) will start 11th and 12th (181.007mph and 181.292mph respectively). Tyler Reddick (P) only mustered 14th (181.223mph). Behind him, fellow playoff contenders William Byron and Christopher Bell qualified 16th  and 21st (181.007mph and 180.655mph respectively). Alex Bowman qualified just 23rd at 180.638mph, and Daniel Suarez was mired in 31st at 179.787mph. The lowest qualifying playoff driver was Chase Briscoe in 36th with a lap of 178.997mph.

There are 40 drivers entered in the event. Sunday is the second race in the Round of 12 for the Cup Series playoffs.

Saturday’s qualifying session was the only on-track time for Cup Series teams.

NEXT: YellaWood 500 at 2 p.m. ET Sunday (NBC).

P denotes Cup Series playoff driver.

RESULTS

Lawsuit not distracting Hamlin or his team as they chase Cup title

Denny Hamlin believes it’s simple in how he goes about trying to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship despite his organization suing the league. “[You] just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday,” Hamlin said at …

Denny Hamlin believes it’s simple in how he goes about trying to win the NASCAR Cup Series championship despite his organization suing the league.

“[You] just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday,” Hamlin said at Talladega Superspeedway. “It’s more of a question for my team and I would ask them, ‘Has your driver [ever] not been prepared?’ … Never.”

A joint antitrust lawsuit from 23XI Racing, the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, was filed Wednesday morning in North Carolina. Not only does it take aim at the 2025 Charter Agreement, but alleges NASCAR and the France family have used anti-competitive practices, operate without transparency, have stifled the competition, and control the sport in an unfair way to others.

Hamlin is back behind the wheel of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at Talladega trying to advance in the Cup Series playoffs. He is 11 points above the cutline.

“I certainly talked about it probably a year or so ago when it came down to this, and I became more comfortable with what the result was – no matter what, whether I win a championship or not, I’m going to make sure I can sleep at night knowing that I gave it my all for my team,” Hamlin continued. “Certainly, there’s been some circumstances over time that I haven’t been able to control, but [I can’t] let those situations affect me. This situation I can control and I give the team the proper preparation and make sure that when I get in the race car on Sunday, they know through my actions on the track that I’m 100 percent in it and focused.”

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Hamlin believes that was shown again this week. Although he already makes sure that any request about the car he drives will supersede everything else, he was walking the Charlotte Roval layout this week “hours before” the moment that’s since dominated the news cycle.

The reactions Hamlin’s heard about the lawsuit have been positive, he said. Jordan Fish, his fiancĂ©e, sent him a clip from the movie Moneyball where John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, said, “The first guy through the wall, he always gets bloody.” It’s because there is a threat to the status quo and someone’s livelihood, but that’s a reaction Hamlin doesn’t want to see because the lawsuit should be viewed as an opportunity to promote change in the sport that’s positive for all involved.

Regardless, Hamlin again finds himself at the center of the news cycle, having to operate in chaos, which he’s previously said he does well in. He didn’t deny this is a similar situation to some of those personal and professional incidents in the past.

“I’ve always been one of those that doesn’t want to be consumed with this 24 hours a day — the driving aspect,” Hamlin said. “I would be burnt out if I raced as much as Kyle Larson or Kyle Busch. That’s just not my style of coming out here and competing.

“Make no mistakes, the competitor in me, you don’t think I don’t want to come out here and win this weekend more than any? That’s what I fuel myself on 
 So, certainly, anyone who knows me personally will tell you that these moments you’ll typically get more out of Denny because I hate to lose and will not justify any excuses to losing
. But this isn’t a responsibility I’m taking all myself. We have a team that handles this now and they’re now speaking upon it and acting upon it. The work’s been done on my standpoint; you just let them do their work and things will work themselves out.”

Enfinger roars into final round with Truck Series win at Talladega

The home crowd favorite, Grant Enfinger claimed the victory in Friday afternoon’s Love’s RV Stop 225 Playoff race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – the Alabama native’s second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at the big track and the most …

The home crowd favorite, Grant Enfinger claimed the victory in Friday afternoon’s Love’s RV Stop 225 Playoff race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – the Alabama native’s second NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win at the big track and the most important, as the victory delivers an automatic entry into the season championship finale next month.

Enfinger’s No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet led a race best 34 of the 85 laps, won Stage 2 and held the point on the final lap when a caution came out ending the race.

“We knew stuff was going to get dicey,’’ the 39-year old Enfinger said of having to hold the field off following a restart with nine laps remaining to claim his first victory of the season — first ever for the team — and 11th of Enfinger’s career.

“We didn’t make all the perfect decisions today, but we had a Champion Power Equipment Chevy that was fast enough to get it done today, so even though we chose the outside [lane for a restart] once or twice and maybe we shouldn’t have. … It’s just Talladega right there and hopefully all the fans enjoyed it.

“There’s nothing like winning at your home track. Got my family here and first win with my daughter and my son here. On top of that we get to race for a championship in Phoenix.’’

 

It was a typically wild event on the sport’s biggest track (2.66-mile) with the race once again decided in a final frantic push for the checkered flag – with Enfinger leading fellow playoff driver, Tricon Garage’s Taylor Gray across the finish line under caution.

Daniel Dye and Tyler Ankrum made contact while running fifth and sixth – causing a multi-car accident spinning about 200 yards before the finish line, bringing out the yellow and checkered flag to officially end the event. The McAnally-Hilgemann driver Dye slid across the line in third, Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth, also a playoff driver, finished fourth. Reaume Brothers Racing’s Lawless Alan scored a career best fifth place finish.

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McAnally-Hilgemann’s Christian Eckes, the regular season champion, finished sixth, followed by Ryan Reed, Stefan Parsons, Bret Holmes and Spencer Boyd.

Playoff drivers, Tricon Garage’s Corey Heim and ThorSport’s Ty Majeski finished 11th and 12th. McAnally-Hilgemann’s Tyler Ankrum was 14th.

“We had a fast truck and made a bad decision,” a frustrated Majeski said. “I hopped out of line and cost ourselves some Stage 2 points, so I don’t know where that puts us in the points, but I guess it could have been worse if we finished 12th. We’ll move on to Homestead.”

Rev Racing’s Nick Sanchez, who led 10 laps, finished 22nd after an eventful day. He was involved in multiple incidents and ultimately called to pit road by NASCAR on that final restart with nine laps remaining for an equipment check.

Enfinger’s win marks the first time in nine Talladega playoff races that a playoff driver won the race. He was not playoff-eligible when he won at the track in 2016. This win lands him one of four positions in the championship race at Phoenix on Nov. 8 – the third time the popular Alabama driver has competed for the championship trophy.

“Obviously we can start focusing on Phoenix right away and that’s a huge advantage, I think,’’ Enfinger said. “The way I look at it, we don’t have to worry about points for the next two races. 
 Very very proud of what this win means but realistically, we still have a lot to do to prepare for the championship.”

With two races remaining in this Round of 8 to decide which three drivers join Enfinger in the Championship race, Heim leads Eckes by a single point. Majeski is 25 points back but only five points ahead of Caruth.

Gray is 13 points behind Majeski, Sanchez 20 points back and Ankrum, 23 points back. A win by any of these seven is the automatic ticket for a shot at the title.

The series has a three-week break before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff Race at Homestead-Miami on Oct. 26 at South Florida’s 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway (noon ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Carson Hocevar is the defending race winner.

RESULTS