Talladega is always a crap shoot, even when the racing is relatively tame for most of the race. Then, for some reason, drivers who were managing the race so well lose their minds with just a few laps to go.
(Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
Case in point, Michael McDowell led the most laps (36) and had the field under control until the very end of the race. You knew that Brad Keselowski was going to make a charge for the win. Everyone knew that. With many drivers not racing at full throttle it was obvious that things were going to ramp up at the end. After pushing McDowell around the track lap after lap, Keselowski set McDowell up for being passed in a master class move of What To Do At The End Of A Race At Talladega. Keselowski pushed him out to a lead, dragged his brake to create more space for himself and then took it to McDowell. Keselowski went high, McDowell Blocked. Even as McDowell was finishing his blocking move, Keselowski was already on his way back down the track to lead the low line headed by Noah Gragson.
McDowell was toast.
Even as he reacted to the crossover move by Keselowski it was too late. The Master had set up the Student perfectly. Yet after a day of staying clean and keeping the field at bay so well, McDowell thought he could slide back down in front of Keselowski and make it stick.
Are you kidding me? What brain fart from hell created that idea?
Of course, that move was not only ill-conceived it was ill-times and sent McDowell sliding into irrelevance instead of a Top 5 finish. And of course, a wreck at the front of the field creates a disaster for everyone else that is on the throttle with the finish line in sight.
The beneficiary from this stupid move was none other than Tyler Reddick, one of the few remaining Toyotas, sneaking past Keselowski as the mayhem unfolded around them. Reddick stole the win and Keselowski finished an unrewarding second.
As one might imaging, the wrecking finish allowed several drivers to grab top finishes that otherwise were not going to happen.
But the finish was not the only stupid track antics of the day. Oh no. The weirdest wreck of the day went to Team Toyota with a pit strategy to force the teams that were all saving fuel to rethink their strategy. And it was a great call, the Toyota teams figured out the perfect time to pit that would potentially set them up to lead the field to the checkers at the end.
For some reason as the drivers lined up to draft their way to the front, the bumps in the track that they had been driving over all day suddenly upset the apple cart on lap 157. With Reddick leading, the car of Erik Jones got a little loose on said bumps which created an accordion effect that saw John Hunter Nemecheck getting into Bubba Wallace who got into the loose Jones and sent Toyotas twirling willy nilly. Exiting the race were Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, and Erik Jones. Nemecheck was junk but finished the race “running” P33.
But that wreck is what allowed the remaining Toyotas of Reddick and Martin Truex, Jr. and Ty Gibbs to get back to the front without their wrecked teammates.
OK, OK, I get it. McDowell was going for the win, right? It’s a move most any driver would take to grab that win.
Yeah. Sadly. But there was no chance that move that late was gonna stick no matter who was driving. Keselowski had a head of steam from his almost perfectly executed move and 10 times out of 10 that last block is a wreck. Had it been a perfectly executed move, Keselowski would have the trophy and not Reddick.
It was a good points day for a lot of teams that otherwise would have been Top 20 finishers and not Top 10. Stenhouse, Bowman, Alfredo, Gilliland, Hemric, Burton.
Corey Lajoie was listed as “running” at the end even though he was on his side up against the wall as he crossed the finish line. He did wind up back on his wheels so maybe that is what NASCAR calls “running.”
But such is racing at Talladega.
Sanity returns this week with a trip to Dover. There are only three races left before the All-Star Race on May 19 and then it is the exhausting Coca-Cola 600.
Keep the shiny side up.
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