Two ‘Big Ones’ take out XFINITY favorites at Talladega

RELATED: Full race results | Series standings | Detailed breakdown TALLADEGA, Ala. -- "It's normal Talladega," driver Justin Allgaier said with a sigh and that summed it up about as well as could be here Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. Normal on the biggest track hosting NASCAR events means an afternoon of pack racing with competitors three, four and occasionally five-wide, searching for the narrowest opening and the slightest opportunity. Allgaier won the second stage of the Sparks Energy 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series event, finished eighth at the end of the day and his JR Motorsports Chevrolet was dinged but relatively undamaged sitting on pit road. Others weren't as fortunate. Minor skirmishes are the exception at Talladega and Saturday's race drove home that point. Two of the race's five cautions involved multiple cars and left officials little choice but to red flag the race to restore some semblance of order. The race was only 21 laps old when contact between Brennan Poole and Daniel Suarez ignited a nine-car incident on the backstretch that gobbled up such series regulars as Darrell Wallace Jr., William Byron and Daniel Hemric. "Everybody is not using their heads early in the race," Hemric, driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, said. "… (It was) just too aggressive. I thought we were able to miss it until the 18 (Suarez) or whoever hit me in the right rear." Hemric, who finished 38th, is now two-for-two in superspeedway misfortunes this season -- he was involved in a wreck in the season-opening race at Daytona as well and finished 31st. "Just people were racing crazy pretty early in the race and we got damage and it was hard to overcome that," Suarez noted after battling back to wind up ninth. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver called it "a solid top 10 … and overall we were able to overcome all the issues from the first segment." The second 25-lap stage was nearly in the books when eventual race winner Aric Almirola got into the back of Ryan Reed, sending the Roush Fenway Racing driver into the wall. Cole Custer (Stewart-Haas Racing), pole winner Blake Koch (Kaulig Racing) and Brendan Gaughan (RCR) were among the eight swept up in the melee.   "Aric got careless there and he took the blame for it, but I think it being a Saturday and him not racing here (in the XFINITY Series) that often, he was a little more careless," a frustrated Reed said.   "I'm not frustrated that he's in the series because I support (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) guys racing against us. We learn from them and there are a lot of great things, and I actually think a lot of Aric. I have a lot of respect for him as a driver and as a person, but that just wasn't cool.   "All he had to do was back off a little bit. He just got so aggressive with that push and then didn't hit us square. He hit us off to the right side and when that happened the car was out from underneath me before I knew it."   Reed, winner of the season-opener at Daytona, finished 29th.   Allgaier, who now trails teammate Elliott Sadler by 29 points, said staying competitive and out of trouble throughout the race "comes down to spotter-driver communication, making sure you make the right moves at the right time. Knowing what the other competitors are going to do. …   "It just didn't work out at the end," he said. "There were too many cars that were fast with too many lines formed up too well to really be able to block like we needed to.   "I just didn't do a good enough job at the end and that's ultimately why we finished eighth and not first."