NASCAR at Talladega 2016: Winners and Losers from the Hellmann's 500
Joey Logano won the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway doing what he does best: restarts.
He won the overtime restart and carried that all the way to Victory Lane in a crucial elimination race, breathing a big sigh of relief knowing that this track is behind him and the other 39 drivers.
Carl Edwards summed up the perilous nature of racing at Talladega for the Hellmann’s 500. It also being an elimination race for the Round of 12 added an extra level of discomfort at a track known for its unpredictability. He told USA Today:
"Because I have wrecked racing up front, I’ve wrecked in the back and I’ve wrecked in the middle, and I can tell you it just feels better to be up front. You can’t make a plan that is foolproof here and I know that every one of us is built to race. We build these race cars (to be) as fast as we can and we definitely don’t want to get wrecked riding around in the back, so we just want to stay up front all day.
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Edwards was part of a cohort of three drivers lagging behind the field in an odd bit of strategy that paid off. There was no “big one” at Talladega, but two big drivers lost engines and their chance at a Sprint Cup.
Read on for this week’s winners and losers.
Loser: 'A Tough Way to Go Out.'
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Entering the Round of 12, Martin Truex Jr. was the favorite to win the Sprint Cup.
His dominant driving in the opening round, as well as his capacity to crush the intermediate tracks, pushed him to the top of just about everyone’s list to win the championship.
He even won the pole for the Hellmann’s 500, and a good trip would insure safe passage to the Round of 8.
Then the engine blew. Truex told NBCSN:
"It just developed a vibration and started to lose a little bit of power. Originally, I thought it might have been a tire because it was shaking. Once I slowed down and hit pit road and felt the vibration still there in the engine, I knew we were in trouble. It’s a tough way to go out. Tough way to go out, but I’m proud of the effort, proud of all the guys.
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The timing of that failure could not have been worse.
His disposition after the incident was surprisingly sunny. He said he’d go out and try to win the next four races. Say he does—which he can—how impossibly frustrating will it be to be so good only to have the format ring your chances dry?
Only Truex, crew chief Cole Pearn and the entire No. 78 team can answer that.
But we all likely know the answer.
Winner: The Joe Gibbs Racing Talladega Playbook
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The Joe Gibbs Racing Talladega Playbook could have gone horribly wrong, but it advanced Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch into the Round of 8 nonetheless.
What was that playbook? The call was to have the three of them clump together, “race” at the back of the pack and stay out of trouble. It was the most conservative, most passive racing we’ve ever seen in the Chase as we know it.
“Stressful, stressful, stressful,” Edwards told NBCSN. “We don’t like to race like that. That’s the hand you’re dealt. You don’t want to give it up and we played it right.”
“It’s frustrating,” Busch said, “to have a dull day today. That makes for exciting days down the road. Today was one of those having-to-ride-around days. The reward is getting to race on. We feel good about the next round.”
“It goes against everything we are as race car drivers,” Kenseth said. “It’s an unfortunate consequence of a Chase race in the an elimination race. I don’t think any of us had any fun or enjoyed it.”
Nobody watching the race enjoyed what they were doing. Each one of those drivers echoed in so many words that they needed to drive for the greater good.
Sure, JGR fans and fans of those drivers had to eat that Talladega race. The silver lining, of course, is all four JGR cars—and specifically the three musketeers—advance to the Round of 8 in this Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Loser: Austin Dillon's Game of Inches
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NBCSN’s Jeff Burton said during the broadcast: “We always talk about this being a game of inches, and people don’t believe us.”
After the finish of the Hellmann’s 500, no sentence was truer.
Denny Hamlin nosed Kurt Busch by two feet to gain a position—and thus a point—and tied Austin Dillon in points. The high finish edged Dillon’s best (sixth at Kansas), and that became the tiebreaker.
“We did everything we could,” Dillon told NBCSN. “We’ll be back strong next year. It’s disappointing when you tie. The tiebreaker went to [Hamlin].”
Even back to Dillon’s position on the track, he finished a few feet behind Aric Almirola in ninth place. Had Dillon edged the No. 43 car, Dillon would have advanced.
“We’re fighters,” Dillon said. “We didn’t get enough…that one spot at the end.”
Dillon had a tremendous Chase and was resilient throughout the playoffs. He failed to advance, but there’s a lot this No. 3 team has to look forward to.
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Winner: Denny Hamlin
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Did Hamlin know how close his chances were of advancing to the Round of 8?
“I knew,” Hamlin told NBCSN. “[They] let me know with 10 to go. If we were to tie, I needed to finish fifth or better. That played no role in the final lap. We had to get every position we could. My best opportunity was to push [Brian Scott].”
Then Hamlin paused. He watched the replay of his finish and realized how close his passage into the next round hinged on his ability to carry more momentum past the No. 41.
“Coming into Turn 4, I was indecisive to block the bottom or the top,” he said. “I was lucky when I came down there that the No. 4 cut me a break and I could surge past the No. 41. Come to find we needed that spot.”
Hamlin was hung out to dry on this day. His other teammates held a frat party in the back of the pack, making the No. 11 the odd man out and the one left fending for himself.
But Hamlin hung on and joined his other teammates, giving JGR 50 percent of the Round of 8.
Loser: 90 Laps Led for Nothin'
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Brad Keselowski led 90 laps at Talladega as he tried to win his third straight plate race. For much of the Hellmann’s 500, Kez put on a masterclass in plate racing. He was the car to beat from the green flag until—like Truex before him—his engine blew.
“I’m not an engine guy, but the car was really strong and we definitely kept finding debris,” Kez told NBCSN. “I thought I got it cooled off and only got it slightly over, but I don’t know.”
The few times Kez ran into said debris, it drove his engine temps out of the comfort zone.
“He overheated and blew the engine,” NBCSN’s Steve Letarte said during the broadcast. “These engines have degrees to run at that edge. There’s a window of opportunity. This was by far the most dominant car. Now it’s in the garage.”
Like Truex before him, Kez was measured, gracious and pleasant after the incident. It cost Kez a chance at a championship. It’s almost as if getting knocked out of this Chase format is a relief.
“We want to finish the season with the most wins,” Kez said. “We got our whining out of the way. Now it’s on to next week.”
Winner: Joey Logano and the Ill-Fated Jack
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Joey Logano headlined the strangest four laps of the entire race.
Starting at Lap 38, Hamlin got caught for speeding on pit road (surprise, surprise), Truex’s engine blew up (actual surprise) and Logano dragged a jack a full 2.5 miles around the track (freaky surprise).
“It was early enough in the day that that mistake happened and no one got worked up,” said Logano. “It feels good to win in a clutch moment like that. This team excels under pressure like that.”
So Logano wins this Talladega race for the second straight year. He didn’t need it in 2015 as he completed a sweep. He didn’t necessarily need it this year, but he’ll take it to the Round of 8.
“What a great day!” Logano said. “You never know you have it to the end!”
Logano wavered about what line to choose for the final overtime restart. He was thinking top, while crew chief Todd Gordon thought bottom. Logano opted for the bottom and benefited from a nice push by Kevin Harvick.
Logano now reaches his third straight Round of 8 and is a formidable driver to reach his second Homestead in three years.
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