0.007 seconds, that’s how close the finish was to
Monday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Ryan Blaney edged Ryan
Newman for the win and locked himself into the Round of 8.
The rain-delayed thriller was filled with competitive
racing throughout both days and plenty of carnage. Blaney experienced some of
that adversity on Sunday when he spun onto pit road during Stage 1.
Blaney’s example demonstrated how Talladega can play
out. Avoiding big wrecks and being at the right place at the right time led the
Team Penske driver to capture the third victory of his career. Also, support at
the end from Ford Performance teammate Aric Almirola helped him clinch his spot
into the next round of the playoffs.
“Yeah, it was an amazing effort the last two days, to
be honest with you,” said Blaney. “We spun out early yesterday and missed some
big ones today. We were able to weave our way through. I can’t thank Aric
Almirola enough for helping me out there at the end.”
Newman took the lead from Blaney on the final lap. Heading
into the front straightaway, Blaney was able to dive under Newman’s car and
side draft him to grab the win. The Roush Fenway Racing driver was a blink of
an eye away from capturing his first win since 2017.
“We just came up that little bit short,” Newman said.
“I don’t know what else to say. I could have pinched him some more. I probably
could have taken the air. You can go back and bench-race that three weeks from
now. It was good racing to the end.”
The biggest takeaway from this race was the playoff
implications most drivers faced. All 12 drivers had an in-race incident at some
point in the race and some left Talladega facing a must-win scenario at Kansas
Speedway next weekend.
The biggest losers after the 1000Bulbs.com 500 were the
Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets. Although it seemed like the Chevy’s were going
to have a plan after the end of Stage 1 when they had an unscheduled meeting
with the manufacturer, all of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers had some sort of
an issue.
Chase Elliott was able to overcome a multi-car accident
at the end of Stage 2 and finish the eight. He was the highest placing playoff
Chevy to finish but still sees himself beneath the cutline heading into Kansas.
Bowman attempted a block on Joey Logano and caused one
of the “Big Ones” that included playoff drivers Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr, Kevin
Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Brad Keselowski.
“I threw a block that I shouldn’t have blocked,”
Bowman said. “I knew the 22 was coming and just tried to move down just a
little bit. As soon as he touched me it just turned us sideways and it went
from there. He had a bigger run than I realized.”
Logano would be involved in another incident later on
in the race but was able to bring his No. 22 Ford Mustang home in the 11th position. The Connecticut native is only 18 points above the cutoff line.
Clint Bowyer sits at the bottom of the table after
blowing a tire and getting stuck in the apron. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver
now faces a must-win situation heading into his home track of Kansas.
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
schedule is the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday, Oct. 20 at Kansas Speedway in
Kansas City. The race begins at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by
NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Here are the
standings going into Dover:
