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In a race that sometimes resembled a breathtaking sprint and at other times a demolition derby at your local speedway, Brad Keselowski was able to avoid the mayhem over 500 miles on Sunday at Talladega SuperSpeedway to win the GEICO 500 for his fourth win at the 2.66 mile oval and second win of the 2016 season.
“This is one of the best races we’ve ever had at Talladega,” said Keselowski after his fourth win on the 2.66-mile. “It just all came together. If you can stay up front, and you’ve got a great shot of not getting wrecked.
“But this No. 2, Daytona didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We thought we were gonna be better than that, but we just didn’t show the speed in the 500 and the guys went to work and they brought me a really strong care here for Talladega. I’m so proud of everybody at Team Penske. To be back in Victory Lane with two wins this year, and we feel like we can get a lot more. We’re growing as s team. We made a lot of changes at Team Penske and this feels really good, really good.”
Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch finished second on the afternoon. However Busch was far from pleased with the racing that led to multiple huge multi car wrecks.
“I hate it. I’d much rather be at home. I’ve got a win. I don’t need to be here,” said Busch.
Austin Dillon who charged from 17th to third over the race’s final run shared much of Busch’s sentiments post race.
“We don’t like to be part of crashes. If people are cheering for crashes, man, it’s not a good thing,” says Dillon.
However Dillon did applaud NASCAR for their safety initiative post race.
“I went flying last year at Daytona, and that’s not fun,” Dillon said. “For guys that haven’t done it, it’s just not a fun thing to be a part of. I don’t know how to fix it personally. I know NASCAR will put their efforts towards fixing it. I know they will. They’ve made the car safer. That’s the reason why we’re walking away from these crashes. I think as a group, all of us want it to be where we’re not leaving the ground.
Jamie McMurray scored a fourth place finish and pole sitter Chase Elliott would continue his strong rookie campaign with a fifth place finish.
Kurt Busch would finish sixth followed by: Ty Dillon who replaced Tony Stewart early on Sunday would finish seventh, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, and Trevor Bayne would round out the top ten.
With Mother Nature an uncertainty all day on Sunday, the racing at Talladega was more intense than ever which led to some huge moments throughout the race.
Perennial Talladega favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a day he soon would like to forget on Sunday as on lap 50 Earnhardt lost control of his No.88 Chevrolet sending him to the garage for extensive repair. Earnhardt’s day would officially come to an end on lap 111 after being collected by Carl Edwards who was going for his third consecutive win. Earnhardt finished last and Edwards finished 35th.
Chris Buescher was involved in a violent incident after being punted by Michael Annett on lap 96. After leaving the infield care center Buescher’s mind was on one thing.
“I’m just ready to go home,” Buescher said.
On lap 180, the biggest incident of the day occurred as Clint Bowyer triggered a huge wreck on the backstretch which involved twelve cars most notably Danica Patrick and Matt Kenseth. Kenseth would end up flipping into the inside wall and the nose of Patrick’s car was heavily damaged. Patrick called this “one of the hardest hits in her career.” Fortunately Patrick said she was fine leaving the infield care center.
“Everything is fine. I saw my chest on the way out (of the care center)”, Patrick said. “It looks very symmetrical.”
A look at the numbers from Sunday’s GEICO 500. There was 37 lead changes among seventeen drivers and 10 cautions for forty – one laps slowed the race pace to 140.046 MPH.
