Logano Advances, Season Over For Keselowski And Truex
The Round of 8 elimination race was kind to Team Penske driver Joey Logano, but a little mean to his teammate Brad Keselowski and the 78 of Martin Truex Jr. Both cars suffered catastrophic engine failures, sending both drivers behind the wall and ending their seasons. You can't blame it on "The Big One" - that never really happened. Yes, there were a few cautions, but not in the traditional Talladega racing style.
The 78 of Martin Truex had his engine expire on lap 42, knocking him out early. Keselowski's engine gave way late in the race with 44 laps to go. Prior to that Keselowski picked up debris from running the top line near the wall, and was able to clear the debris but apparently not in time. Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle also had issues with debris running the same top lines as Keselowski, but were able to clear their problems out sooner.
During the 1st round of pit stops, the 22 of Logano left his pit box with a jack stuck under the left side of his car. He tried everything to wiggle the obstruction out but had to come all the way around the track, serve his penalty for removing equipment and have his crew remove the jack from under the car. They also had to fix the side skirt that was bent out a little before the team sent him back out onto the track.
On lap 115 a three car wreck including Biffle, Mears and Jefferey Earnhardt Jr brought out the second caution when Biffle and Earnhardt were both searching for the same piece of real estate. Biffle tuned down the track as the 83 came up. The 13 of Mears just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time
In the last 10 laps, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Khane spins out on his own going three wide; there was no contact, and it appeared as if he had cut a tire down. Alex Bowman, subbing in the 88 for Dale Earnhardt Jr, slid into the infield grass bringing out another caution and setting up NASCAR's Overtime.
Denny Hamlin just beat Kurt Busch to the start-finish line by inches, and was able to advance to the round of 8 on a tiebreaker with Austin Dillon. Denny had a 3rd place finish at Talladega which was better than Dillon's best of 6th.
Footage from NASCAR.COM shows Denny Hamlin crossing the line ahead of Kurt Busch which scored him in 3rd place.
The 8 drivers that advanced to the next round are Jimmie Johnson (1 win), Joey Logano (1 win), Kevin Harvick (1 win), Kurt Busch (+21), Matt Kenseth (+10), Kyle Busch (+6), Carl Edwards (+4), and Denny Hamlin with his tiebreaker.
Missing out on this years chase are Austin Dillon, Martin Truex (engine), Chase Elliott (-28) and Brad Keselowski (engine). The next elimination round from 8 drivers to the final 4 going to Homestead starts at Martinsville, then goes to Texas and back to the west coast in Phoenix, before wrapping up in the southeast at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, FL.
