RELATED: Race results | ‘Big One’ shakes up Playoffs | Updated Playoffs standings
TALLADEGA, Ala. – There were 11 cautions, three red flags and at the end of the day only 14 cars running at the finish.
At times it seemed as if there were more safety vehicles under power.
This race was moved from its position in the cutoff spot to the second of three in the Round of 12 this year. It was an attempt to provide somewhat of a cushion to those chasing the championship in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
Playoff contenders might have seemed somewhat less annoyed after getting knocked around and booted from Sunday’s Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but it was hard to tell. The line was a long one leading out of the infield care center.
Of the 12 playoff teams, only four finished the 188-lap race under power. Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) won, Denny Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) finished sixth, Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing) limped home 13th and Matt Kenseth (JGR) wobbled across the line a lap down and 14th on the scorecard.
Those were the lucky ones.
It was a race that shook up the championship picture, all right, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the first race of the round, the middle race or the one on the end. Talladega’s 2.66-mile layout does not discriminate.
Kyle Busch (JGR) was sixth in the standings before Sunday’s race; he left in ninth, one spot out of the playoff picture.
Incredibly, in spite of all the poor finishes of others, Kenseth somehow dropped a spot from ninth to 10th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Roush Fenway Racing) improved one spot, but is still on the outside in 11th while Jamie McMurray (Ganassi), knocked out of the race early, is 12th.
Thankfully, while the garage resembled a junkyard, none of the drivers involved in accidents were injured.
RELATED: Keselowski tames wreck-filled ‘Dega race
And for those in the playoffs, there’s one more race – next week’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway – to try and recoup lost points and put themselves back in contention.
Which is one of the reasons drivers sought to have the Talladega race moved to the middle of the round in the first place.
“If you have guys with (points) buffers they’re not going to run in the middle of the pack. They’ll just run in the back and the race won’t be nearly as exciting,” Hamlin said on pit road afterward.
The race might have seemed crazy and out of control but as he noted, “This race always becomes a wreck-fest eventually. I’ve watched races back where you’ve got 15 healthy cars running at the end. At this time of the season you’ve got 30 cars that really don’t give a damn what happens.
“It’s good that they moved it at least to the middle race; nobody knew where they were, now you’ve got to go to Kansas and perform.”
Kansas promises to be a bit tamer, perhaps, but with the postseason field getting trimmed by four there’s plenty of room for action on the 1.5-mile track.
In the meantime, Talladega will continue to be Talladega no matter where it falls on the calendar.
“I feel fortunate to be even walking after that,” Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing) said. “It’s crazy out there. I don’t know how many people actually want to be a part of it.”
That from the driver who finished second. Similar sentiments have been uttered here before.
It’s Talladega and it’s done and there are no more restrictor-plate races from here until season’s end.
And that’s just fine with points leader Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing), who finished 23rd. A winner last weekend at Charlotte, Truex has already secured one of the eight positions in the next round.
“We came here knowing that we were in good shape,” he said, “and we were just going to race hard, try to put ourselves in position to hopefully get another win and unfortunately we couldn’t. We could never even get to the lead all day.”
His Toyota was one of 16 cars involved in a crash 17 laps from the finish.
It was a day when there were “some really strong cars,” Truex said, “and we weren’t one of them.”
For the points leader, and a lot of other folks, Kansas has never looked so good.