NASCAR at Talladega 2015: Winners and Losers from the GEICO 500
Get your Dale call out, because Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the GEICO 500 at Talladega by leading a race-high 67 laps, despite his water gauge redlining.
“I talked to Dale Jr. this morning; he said, ‘I don’t think there’s going to be 16 winners [in 2015]. Points are going to be important but I’ve got to get a win now,’” Fox analyst Michael Waltrip said during the broadcast.
Eight drivers are in the Chase now with 16 races to go.
Read on for Talladega’s winners and losers.
Loser: Michael Waltrip
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Owners of a certain age should no longer race these cars. Michael Waltrip, the gonzo Fox Sports NASCAR analyst and race car owner, suited up for the No. 55. He adds flair, color and some entertainment to the Fox broadcast, but as a driver he offers little value.
He was once a great driver, but now he's just burning fuel.
Brian Scott’s car lost control, and Waltrip had nowhere to go. The wreck ended his day early in the GEICO 500. Why, for no other reason than his own entertainment, was Waltrip in a fire suit instead of a suit and tie?
Any time Waltrip races, which, to be fair, isn’t often, there's one less spot that could be used to train a young, up-and-coming driver who can be in that car for years.
Sure, Waltrip provides insider access to what happens on the track, but it’s a missed opportunity for MWR to develop new talent.
Winner: The Rookie
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Big props to rookie Ryan Blaney for running up near the front in the GEICO 500.
Blaney races for the part-time Wood Brothers team, a satellite operation of Team Penske. Blaney, who started third on the day, stayed within striking distance all afternoon.
He told Don Coble of Jacksonville.com before the race:
"You know you’re going to get shuffled to the back at least once or twice during the race, and you’ve just got to find a way to work your way back up through there. It definitely doesn’t hurt to start up front and get a good pit stall and everything like that. It’s not bad, but we’re just going to focus on running all the laps. We’ve got good speed. That’s cool. We’ve got pretty good speed in our Ford, and it’s just nice to be back with this Wood Brothers team.
"
Last year Kyle Larson was the rookie du jour, and now Blaney inherits that mantle. His result in the GEICO 500 earns him a hotter spotlight as the season progresses.
Loser: Lap 47
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Paul Menard saw fit to push the issue on the outside lane. He made a strong run up on Trevor Bayne’s right rear quarter panel, and the change in air pressure unspooled Bayne and took out 15 cars in the wreck.
Kevin Harvick, David Ragan and Kyle Larson were a few drivers caught among the “big one.”
“I didn’t see a whole lot,” Larson said during the Fox broadcast. “I thought I was in the clear and the No. 40 came up the track and I clipped him. We haven’t had many good finishes this year. We’re not getting many points.”
Bayne’s No. 6 was the lead domino that took out much of the field.
“It pulls you around,” said Bayne during the broadcast. “Kurt [Busch] was near the rear and that’s double trouble. I’m super sad for our team.”
Ragan, the driver who will take over Waltrip’s No. 55 (thankfully), said, “Man, I probably slowed down 60 to 70 miles per hour. I was just in the middle of the mess.”
This was the early big one, and the drivers were undoubtedly awaiting the late big one.
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Winner: Chevy Engines
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“You put one of those motors in those cars, they’re going to run up front,” Fox analyst Darrell Waltrip said during the broadcast..
Wasn’t that the case?
The top three finishers—Junior, Jimmie Johnson and Paul Menard—all drove Chevy engines. Three other Chevy cars—Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex—also finished inside the top 10.
Fortunately for Toyota, Denny Hamlin snuck into the top 10; if it weren’t for him, Toyota would have to look back to J.J. Yeley in 14th place and Matt DiBenedetto in 18th.
It's no secret that the Chevy engines, and Rick Hendrick's in particular, are the class of the circuit.
Loser: ECR Engines
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ECR engines cost two drivers any shot at competing at Talladega.
Early in the race Brian Scott bit the dust, and Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car went up in flames. Dillon quickly pulled down his window netting and got the heck out of his car.
“I just went all at once; it was a big boom,” Dillon said on the Fox broadcast. “It’s a bummer. We had a good car. We’ve got to get our motors better. We’ve blown a couple this year already.”
Now that they’re 10 races into the season, ECR drivers are quickly running out of time to tweak the engines enough to be competitive. Dillon has zero top fives and just one top 10 all year, with an average finish of 22.4 from an average start of 18.9.
Some drivers improve over the season and others slip. Dillon has been skidding in 2015 and hasn’t shown he’s capable (yet) of running with the big dogs.
Winner: Paul Menard
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Paul Menard led a contingent of rather obscure drivers in the top 10 of Sunday’s GEICO 500.
Along with Menard were Blaney, Sam Hornish Jr. and Josh Wise. That’s what plate racing can do.
Menard, to his credit, has been running well this year. He has two top fives with an average finish of 16.1. His 41st-place finish at Texas really hurt him, as that was the only time he has placed out of the top 25.
Looking at the others, Wise earned his first top 10 of the season, as did Hornish.
It was a good day for them and their sponsors, but will they be able to contend at the other mile-and-a-half speedways? Probably not, but sometimes these races fall apart. And there’s still Daytona in July, when the plates go back on and anything can happen.
Loser: Jeff Gordon's Pit Road Penalty
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Ten races down, and Jeff Gordon still hasn’t won. He earned his 80th career pole and even led 47 laps before finishing a disappointing 32nd.
What killed him again was a pit road penalty. He failed to slow down enough while entering the pits from the front of the field. It turned what could have been a top-five finish into an off-the-board calamity.
“You got to get to pit road without locking the tires up and not speed,” Gordon told Fox’s Jamie Little after the race. “I thought I was plenty conservative, but the tires were too worn out and carried too much speed to pit road. I locked the tires up. I couldn’t get the car slowed down.”
It sent him to the back of the draft, and a late wreck swallowed up the No. 24 car.
“After that issue on my part we were in the back trying to get to the front,” he said on the broadcast. “We did good making some spots up then they started wrecking. We avoided one of them but we couldn’t avoid the second.”
He ranks 14th in points, but this team needs a win to prove it can contend in the Chase. Right now, Gordon’s farewell season has been all ceremony with few results.
Winner: Junior
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Dale Earnhardt Sr. would have turned 64 earlier in the week. At a track where Senior won 10 times, Junior won for the sixth time and secured himself a coveted spot in the Chase.
Junior was overcome at the end of the race, thanking his teammates, his crew chief and his former crew chief and counting his lucky stars for all he’s got.
He said during the Fox broadcast:
"It’s just real emotional. I haven’t won here in a long time. It was my daddy’s birthday a couple days ago. Just real emotional, man. Everything’s so good for me right now. My personal life, my racing, the team I’m with. I don’t know why; I don’t feel like I deserve it. I feel overcome.
"
His teammate Jimmie Johnson stayed glued to his bumper but didn’t do anything rash. Johnson already has two wins and a spot in the Chase. He remained civilized and let Junior shine at ’Dega.
“I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve,” Earnhardt said. “Maybe they got busy behind him, and they couldn’t make a run. We had a real strong car. I didn’t know if the motor was going to last. I had faith that it would.”
Junior added, “Another thing that was bugging me was we weren’t winning races and now we’re locked in that Chase.”
That monkey is off their backs for now. Greg Ives, Junior’s crew chief, earned his first win. Now we’ll see where they take this momentum.
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