Ryan Blaney made a late race maneuver to lead the final two laps en route to a thrilling victory in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway to land a spot in the Round of 8. It was a thrilling race that featured 70 lead changes among 24 different drivers in a surprising exhilarating race on a superspeedway.
No one was injured. We didn’t see any cars needing to be taken back to the R&D Center to figure out what went wrong. From this track in this spring that saw Ryan Preece t-bone Kyle Larson in a late race crash in Turn 2, to Preece’s violent end-over-end flip in the regular season finale at Daytona, I was wondering what Sunday would look like.
It ended up being great.
The 70 lead changes was just the 7th race to feature 70 or more lead changes. 6 of which came on this same 2.66-mile track. A .012-second margin of victory.
We have a lot to celebrate from what Talladega was.
In saying that, the superspeedway package is still a work in progress. Track position is very much still a thing. Making a third lane work is still difficult to do. But, in the end, moves could still be made and it feels like NASCAR is finding some steam in going in the right direction with this package now.
Blaney Loves To Win The Close Ones, Best Speedway Racer Right Now
Ryan Blaney’s first career in back in 2017 at Pocono was by .139-seconds. Little did we know it then, but all but 1 of his race wins so far would end up being by less than a second.
“I won it by more than I had the last couple years,’’ Blaney conceded with a laugh. “You just don’t know. You have to drag race to the line and hope you get help. William [Byron] gave me a pretty good shove on the bottom.’’
“This is such a special place to win at so I cannot wait to go to Victory Lane,’’ he said.
“We do a good job here at these plate tracks and of trying to position ourselves towards the front of these things to where you have a shot at it at the end, and that’s really all you can ask for.
“Sometimes they go your way; sometime they don’t. Sometimes you lose them by five feet, and sometimes you win them by three or four feet. You know, we lost the 500 one year by a handful of feet, and we happened to win a couple of these things by a combined amount of maybe eight feet.
“So it’s just one of those things that’s tough, and you just have to try to put yourself in the best spot, and whether it happens for you or not, you kind of accept it.”
Sunday was his third win at Talladega. They’ve been by a combined .026-seconds. All were photo finishes. Both the 2019 Fall race win and 2020 spring race were each a margin of .007-seconds. Sunday’s was .012-seconds.
His other races wins under a second was .077-second margin of victory in the 2021 race at Michigan. He won this past May’s Coca-Cola 600 by .663-seconds.
His largest margin was the 2021 Atlanta spring race by 2.083-seconds. His 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400 win was under caution.
The Team Penske driver has become arguably the best superspeedway racer in the game right now. He has an astounding three Talladega wins and a win at Daytona too. He has five Top-2 finishes in his last nine tries at Talladega at that. On superspeedway’s this season, he’s finished eight, seventh, second, ninth and 36th, first.
“Just a neat day, fun day. It’s always fun to win these things, and you have to appreciate them because they’re so hard to do,” Blaney quipped.
The only thing missing is a Daytona 500 triumph. It’s not like he’s not been close either. He’s finished 2nd, 7th, 31st, 2nd, 30th, 4th, 8th in it.
“Yeah, I love this place,” Blaney said of Talladega. “I accepted this place early on in my Cup career, as I feel like people have two opinions on speedways: either they love them or they hate them with a passion.
“I kind of made the decision I’m going to love these places, and I’m going to accept if something bad happens to me here.
“If you get in a wreck that’s not your fault, you’re going to accept it and not stress out about that. Once you kind of put that in your head of you’re just accepting that these things can happen here, now you can focus on trying to run well and win, right? You’re not worried about all this stuff for coming here, disliking the track, like, oh, I can’t stand being here, the speedway races are dumb.
“It’s not really the right mindset to have. I just kind of did that early on, and it’s benefited us mindset-wise coming to these places.
“It means a lot to win here. I grew up watching Dad race here a long time. I love the area. The fans here are spectacular. Being able to meet a bunch of people has been fun. Getting to know a lot of people from the speedway also has been amazing. Just really fortunate to have good friends and friends here that treat me like family.
“Yeah, I think you appreciate these things more because it’s so hard to win at these places. It’s just such an up-in-the-air thing. You never know if it’s going to work out for you or not.
“You have to really appreciate whenever you can win here, and it’s really, really fortunate we’ve been lucky enough to win here three times. You know, it’s pretty neat that we’ve — same as Yarborough and Davey, that’s pretty special. That’s pretty cool.”
Harvick’s 1st Win Could Have Been A DQ
Kevin Harvick was .012-seconds away from his first win of the 2023 season. It would have been a monumental one at that. It’s no secret, Harvick is no fan of superspeedway racing. However, how ironic would it have been that he won his final start on one?
“You know, that would have been great. Talladega has been so up-and-down through the years. We’ve had some great moments, some bad moments. Last superspeedway race and went out with everything rolling, so that’s a good thing.”
Harvick admits that the fans would have love to celebrate his No. 4 Ford winning in Talladega too.
“Yeah, they might have torn it down,” Harvick said of the fan reaction if he would have won Sunday.
Then, a few hours later, came a DQ. NASCAR said that the windshield was the area of emphasis. Rodney Childers took to social media to explain that while he’s done stuff in the past to merit the penalties, this wasn’t one of them. The turbulent air caused the support to come out which is why his window was unsecured.
Still, you can’t appeal that and Harvick’s second place finish turns into a last placed one. Imagine if he would have won. Imagine the outrage that it would have been taken away.
Harvick came back this season for one reason and one reason only – to win for his fans. He was at peace to walk away a year ago but he didn’t want to let his fans down to do so without a swan song. Unfortunately, he’s mired with a 43-race drought heading into the Charlotte ROVAL. This isn’t one of his stronger tracks.
He has 5 races left to score a win but if you look at Phoenix, a place he’s at his best at, he won’t be in the Championship 4 and all 9 final races under this format have been won by a championship driver.
That leaves then Charlotte, Vegas, Homestead and Martinsville.
For Vegas, Harvick has had three Top-4 finishes in a five-race span before being eighth, 10th, 20th, ninth, 12th, ninth in his last five. At Kansas though, a like track, Harvick was only 15th and 36th respectively a season ago too and 11th in both races this season. He is a great fantasy play (9th, 11th, 2nd, 11th, 10th, 19th, 11th, sixth) on intermediate tracks this season, but, not an outright winner.
In Homestead, he was only 26th in 2020 but rebounded to score a fifth-place run in 2021 and eighth last year. Harvick also has 14 Top-10 finishes in his last 15 Homestead starts including 18 of his last 20 when going back two decades ago. He was runner-up in the spring Darlington race and if not for bad luck with a caution while running second on pit road, he had a Top-2 going again in the Southern 500.
For Martinsville, Harvick has had just two Top-5s in his last 22 Martinsville starts including 15th and 17th in 2020, ninth and 12th last year and 14th and 16th last year and 20th this spring.
It may be down to Homestead.
Sunday A Win For Hamlin
Denny Hamlin didn’t celebrate in victory lane on Sunday but he was joyous on pit road after. While he crossed the finish line fourth (later moved up to third after Harvick’s DQ), he now sits +50 in the standings heading to the Round of 12 elimination race on the Charlotte ROVAL.
Hamlin’s top 5 effort was especially impressive considering he was issued a pit road penalty mid-race and had to recover from being a lap down.
“Not how we drew it up, but a dub 
is a dub and that was a dub in our book,’’ Hamlin said. “As close as it gets to it. Made a statement bringing me a car fast enough for us to win. And obviously when I had to go there, I could, and just made the right moves at the right time and a Top-5 is a long way from where we were with about 15 laps to go.’’
He now has 7 Top-7 finishes in his last 11 Talladega tries including 8 straight top seven’s in the Fall race too.
On the season, he’s finished 25th, 2nd, 1st, 5th, 3rd in the playoffs. He’s led 385 laps this postseason but 382 of them were in the opening round.
Larson, Truex Escape, Keselowski /Chastain In Trouble
I felt like Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. were in trouble heading to Talladega. Larson was only +2 and Truex while double digits up, was struggling and has struggled on superspeedway’s over the course of his career.
Even with result of 15th (Larson) and 18th (Truex Jr.), they’re now in a great position to advance to the Round of 8. Truex is +17 and Larson +15 heading to the elimination race at the Charlotte ROVAL.
Both aren’t necessarily strong on the ROVAL lately nor on road courses in general, but all they have to now do is just get by.
Larson was only 26th in this race a year ago and 14th, eighth, fourth, eighth and 26th on road races this season too. He has also led no laps and has the 10th most points scored in 2023 on these tracks.
He’s had fast race cars during the postseason though. He’s’ led 274 laps this playoffs so far including 55 in his Southern 500 win, 99 in a fourth-place results in Kansas, 20 in a runner-up at Bristol, 99 in a late race crash at Texas while battling for the win and one in Talladega.
He’s only 1-for-41 for top 5’s on superspeedway’s though and knowing that and gaining double digit points on Sunday on a track like that has to also feel like a win for him.
Same for Truex. He’s had just three top five finishes at Talladega since 2007. His last 13 finishes there are 40th, 35th, 23rd, 26th, 23rd, 20th, 24th, 23rd, 31st, 12th fifth, 26th, 27th, 18th respectively. On top of that, out of 105 drafting track starts between Daytona, Talladega and the four races at Atlanta with the new configuration, Truex has no wins.
He came out unscathed. Now, it’s to the ROVAL.
The good? 135 points scored on these tracks in 2023. That ranks third. He’s also led the third most laps (51). He’s finished 17th, first, 32nd, seventh, sixth on them this season. The bad? The 51 laps led were all in one race (Sonoma). Plus, last year, he finished 7th, 26th, 13th, 21st, 23rd and 17th on them. Truex should have won the inaugural race here, was 7th in the two races after that but 29th and 17th gives me concern too.
In the playoffs, he’s finished 18th, 36th, 19th, 17th, 18th. He’s led no laps. In fact, if you go back to the regular season finale at Daytona, he’s finished 18th or worse in all six races.
Still, he and Larson just need to get by. Which is why the regular season matters.
It’s also why Brad Keselowski (winless this season) and Ross Chastain (1 win this season) are in trouble.
Chastain is tied in points with 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, a former Talladega race winner who finished a frustrating 24th on Sunday. His team co-owner, NBA superstar Michael Jordan met up with Wallace on pit road after the race offering a handshake, pat on the back and some encouraging words.
Two-time series champion Kyle Busch still finds himself in a catch-up role, essentially needing a walk-off victory next week at the ROVAL road course through Charlotte Motor Speedway. He finished 26th and now sits 26 points behind eighth place Keselowski.
Keselowski’s position in the standings – thanks in part to his sixth stage win (stage 2) of the season – is remarkable considering his tough luck day at Talladega. He was among the eight cars collected in Talladega’s “Big One” with 25 laps remaining that brought out a nearly 10-minute red flag for clean-up.
Chastain was the first NASCAR Cup Series Playoff driver to suffer a major Talladega woe – caught up in an incident involving Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 59 racing toward the Lap 60 Stage 1 break. Busch made contact with Stenhouse’s Chevy, which was slowing on track after running out of gas. As Busch swerved to avoid crashing, his No. 8 Chevy caught the corner of Chastain’s No. 1 Chevy. It sent Chastain hard into the wall and then directly to the garage, his first DNF of the Playoffs.
“It’s just the way it goes, nothing personal with it, I don’t take any of this personally here,’’ said Chastain, who finished runner-up in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship. “Could have stayed bottom a few laps earlier probably, just had a couple cars laying in my lap and I went for the gap. Will study it and be better next time.
“Lefts and rights and living my dream,’’ he said of the crucial ROVAL race next weekend, “so whatever our team brings next week we’ll put our best foot forward as long as I’m getting to drive these rocket ships that Trackhouse [Racing] brings me, I’m living my dream and we’ll keep fighting.’’
Among the four cars below the cutline, Busch could easily win this race and Tyler Reddick points his way in, but Keselowski could be among those bumped out.
Busch was third a year ago on the ROVAL, fourth the year prior and had three Top-5 finishes in as many races to start the road racing season off with including a pair of runner-ups. He was 36th at Indy but was in the top five before an issue. Watkins Glen they were just 14th. This car was runner-up in 2021. Busch has the sixth most points tabulated on road courses this season at 123 and needs a win.
Reddick’s last two ROVAL finishes were second and eighth respectively. A year ago on road courses, he had a pair of wins (Road America, Indy) to go along with being fifth (COTA) and seventh (Watkins Glen). This year, he’s finished first (COTA), 33rd (Sonoma), 28th (Chicago), fourth (Indy) and eighth (Watkins Glen) to accumulate the fourth most points (133). He’s only led at COTA though (1x for 41 laps).
Wallace though finished 37th, 17th, 31st, 18th, 12th on road courses this season but was seventh here last year. A year ago, he was 38th, 36th, 35th, 5th, 35th, seventh on them. Wallace has 70 points on road courses this year which ranks him 21st.
Chastain was 37th last year and fourth, 10th, 22nd, 17th, 18th on road course this year. He’s led just one single lap on road courses all season and sits 11th in points (113) on them.
Which is why Busch and Reddick are in good shape. If so, Keselowski is worrisome.
These have become his worst tracks. He’s finished 35th, 16th, 24th, 20th and 15th on them this season. Last year, he was 14th, 10th, 33rd, 20th, 19th and 14th respectively. Even in 2021 he went fifth, 19th, 15th, 13th, 35th, 24th and 20th respectively.
He’s finished 13th or worse in 18 of his last 20 starts on these tracks. Which is why being 22nd in points scored (69) this season on them is no surprise.
Elliott Quietly Getting By
Many people forget that Chase Elliott is still a playoff driver. He’s in the owners race. This is arguably the more important championship in the industry because this is where the money is made. The drivers standings are where names are made.
Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet is fourth in the owners race +20 above the cutline. Below the cutline is Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford (-13), Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota (-15), Ross Chastain No. 1 Chevrolet (-23) and Kyle Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet (-39).
He’s in a good spot to march onto the Round of 8. Similar in nature to Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet last year who went all the way to the Championship 4 in the owners race but was out in the Round of 12 in the drivers battle.
Elliott has put together a strong last few months. Since the Indy road course in mid August, he’s finished in the top 11 7 times in an 8 race span including results of 2nd, 4th, 8th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 7th.
Next up is the ROVAL. He’s won two of the last four ROVAL races, was sixth in the prior one and 12th in 2021 despite a run-in with Kevin Harvick and 20th last year. A year ago, Elliott also was fourth in COTA, eighth in Sonoma, second in Road America, 16th at Indy but lined on the front row for the second to last restart and fourth in Watkins Glen after leading the final restart. This year, he’s finished fifth (Sonoma), third (Chicago), second (Indianapolis) and 32nd (Watkins Glen).
A Round of 8 berth is absolutely in play and makes you wonder what would have happened if he never missed those races for injury earlier this season as well as his one-race suspension too.
Top Quote
“Dale Inman pulled me swap aside one day, and he said, Hey, you don’t see the winner of the Kentucky Derby get off his horse and start beating the shit out of it,” Blaney said on why he didn’t do a burnout on Sunday.
“So that’s why I don’t do burnouts. I didn’t do a burnout after one race, and he was like, I like how you don’t do burnouts, and then he told me that story. He might be mad at me for doing one and breaking our rule, but yeah, Inman quote, yeah.”
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