Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
NASCAR announced this past January the field size would be cut down to 40 from 43. In addition, NASCAR would bring in charters, which guarantees spots in the race each week for 36 teams who have attempted every race since 2013.
The 36 charters leave four open spots for non-charter cars in each race. With fewer resources than some of the bigger teams, fighting for those four spots is a race in itself.
For teams like Premium Motorsports, Wood Brothers Racing and Front Row Motorsports, not having a charter makes race weekend even more challenging, but when they all can finish inside the top-20 and on the lead lap, it makes it that much more rewarding, which happened for the first time on Sunday.
Ryan Blaney’s been the most competitive of the open cars all season. Notably, Blaney’s Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford gets resources from Team Penske through a technical alliance. Blaney finished ninth at Talladega, and it was his third top-10 of the season, so finishing up front is no surprise for the young rookie.
“It was a good day,” said Blaney. “We felt like earlier in the race I couldn’t pick a lane that was worth a dang. We kept going backwards. Hopefully this turns around for us. There was one run before we got in that wreck where we got up through there into the top-10. I think we got to fifth actually again and then lost spots on the last pit stop. We got in that wreck too. They did a good job fixing it. It ran fine after that. I didn’t want to see that last caution. I thought we were set up good to go to the end there and I wanted to keep digging. Everyone bailed to the top and I didn’t have a lot of help on the bottom. That was unfortunate but overall a decent day for us.”
Michael Waltrip finished 12th in his second start of the season. Waltrip drove for BK Racing in the Daytona 500 where he finished 30th, but moved to Premium Motorsports’ second car for Talladega. It was only the fifth time Jay Robinson’s team took the No. 55 to the track this year, but despite having to survive qualifying, it proved to be a good outing for Waltrip.
Waltrip took to Twitter after the race to talk about how important the finish was for a small team like Premium.
A 12th place finish for a small team like @premiummotrspts can help their @ToyotaRacing #Camry be better next race. Glad to be part of today
— Michael Waltrip (@MW55) May 1, 2016
Finishing 17th was David Gilliland in the third Front Row Motorsports Ford. Gilliland was a victim of the new charter system when he failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 in February, but he turned that around at Talladega when he was running in third with just two laps to go. Unfortunately for Gilliland, he was shuffled to the back of the top-20, but it was still an impressive performance in a one-off race.
An 18th-place finish at Talladega was a nice piece of redemption for Cole Whitt after being sent home early last weekend when the rain hit Richmond International Raceway. Whitt’s No. 98 Premium Motorsports Toyota was the only car who failed to qualify last weekend, so an 18th is a big showing for the small team.
Although Brad Keselowski won the GEICO 500, staying out of trouble in a 500-mile race full of carnage and finishing inside the top-20 is like a win for small teams like Premium Motorsports, Front Row Motorsports and Wood Brothers Racing.
