Well that certainly wasn’t the finish I think we all thought we were going to get.
Kyle Larson was dominant the early going after starting on the pole and leading the first 77 laps. It sure looked like a race he was going to win going away.
But NASCAR has a funny way of evening things out. During an early caution, Larson thought he had a flat when he actually had a rear wheel about to fall off. And it did. And he got held for a two-lap penalty that had him scratching his way back for thee rest of the race.
Then the race turned into was a free for all.
With Larson out of the way, Tyler Reddick sped off to a lead only to have a setback on pit road that left him fighting just to get back into the Top 10.
Then Christopher Bell spun out which turned out to be a bit prophetic as the track wore on tires and one driver after another spun out occasionally taking another driver or two with him. Stage breaks aside, there were 11 cautions in the final stages of the race setting the field up for a double overtime race to the finish.
By this time, Chase Elliott had assumed the lead and had to hold of Denny Hamlin (who then spun while taking it to Elliott on the outside) and Brad Keselowski, Ross Chastain and William Byron.
Chase Elliott was not to be denied and ran his restarts perfectly forcing the other guy to make the mistake. The win not only broke a long winless streak it was the fifth win out of eight races for Hendrick Motorsports. Ford has yet to win this season but that may change at Talladega. Brad Keselowski appears to be feeling good about his race car and he is a six-time winner at Talladega.
And speaking of Talladega, this has to be one of the most anticipated races of the year. The new car package has not been run on this high banked track and it will be interesting to see if anyone can break the dominance of Chevy so far.
If anyone can do it, it might be Keselowski or Ryan Blaney. Along with Chase Elliott, they are the last three drivers to win at Talladega. Blaney is the best average finishing driver with two recent wins and Ross Chastain and Bubba Wallace also have wins in the last six races there.
A few other drivers managed stand out days with all the turmoil the track caused. Tyler Reddick managed a P4 finish, Daniel Suarez had a highlight for his season at P5, Chase Briscoe was P6, Bubba Wallace continues to run well at P7, Austin Dillon squeaked into P8, Kyle Busch made it two in the Top 10 for RCR at P9 and Carson Hocevar rounded things out inP10. Kyle Larson made his two-lap penalty up and finished P21.
The biggest disappointments of the day went to Denny Hamlin (P30, 37 laps led) and Ross Chastain (P32, 33 laps led) as both spun out in the overtime laps.
Now onto Talladega! Hold onto your hats, boys and girls. Should be a wild one.
(Photo by Harold Hinson/HHP for Chevy Racing)
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