Playoff bubble changes as Truex, Keselowski struggle at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Martin Truex Jr. called his No. 78 car “evil” after Sunday’s event at Talladega Superspeedway. Evil enough that he went from a comfortable 36 points above the playoff cutline heading into Talladega to dipping dangerously below the bubble in the waning laps. Truex knew where he was in the point standings as he ran -- but couldn’t do much about it with his handling struggles. RELATED: Playoffs pulse after Talladega | SHR teammates run out of gas, Almirola wins “I rode around all day broke, hanging on, miserable,” he said after the race. “I couldn’t even race my car was so screwed up. I feel like the rear end house was falling out of it.” The late caution triggered by Alex Bowman was a break for the No. 78 team, who ended the race with the final spot above the cutline in the playoff standings with one race to go before the field dwindles from 12 to eight Oct. 21 at Kansas Speedway. “Just to deal with that all day long and catch a little bit of a break at the end with that caution and being able to get tires. Because I could run hard for three laps. That was it,” he said. “Tires would give me enough grip that I could just hold it wide open for three laps and then I was hanging on after that. We almost had a good run going there when they crashed in front of me. ... So, we definitely lost some spots there from where I think we were going to end up. “But overall it was a positive finish and we went from what was going to be a real bad day to not such a terrible day.” Sunday’s overtime event in the Yellowhammer State shook up the playoff standings with Aric Almirola -- a driver who entered Talladega below the cutline -- breaking through for the win. Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer’s runner-up result and valuable stage points also moved him from the dangerous side of the bubble to 21 points to the good. Others weren’t as fortunate, with several NASCAR Playoffs drivers running out of gas when the race extended into overtime; Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney’s unexpected trips down pit road put both Team Penske vehicles 18 and 22 points outside the top eight, respectively, heading into elimination next week. MORE: Complete Talladega results “Ol' Bowyer passed me, huh?” said Keselowski, whose race-favorite No. 2 sputtered out of fuel to end the day 27^th after leading 21 laps. “The 88 was in there and he was kind of banzai, win at all costs and just kept making moves that just killed everybody else and didn't help himself,” he continued. “Without that, we were kind of shot. I kept trying to get my teammates with me and every time we about got 'em lined up, somebody would banzai them and we just couldn't do anything.” The nature of Talladega is famously fickle, the chaos so anticipated that it almost becomes the expectation. Sunday’s show was different, as Stewart-Haas Racing limited the chaos by dominating the majority of the race and controlling the top pack single file. But the shakeup in the playoff standings was an outcome all too familiar with the superspeedway. It’s in instances like that where sometimes a little luck goes a long way. “It’s just Talladega, it’s a crapshoot,” Truex said. “We went from three points out in half a lap to being 18 to the good. I tried not to get too stressed out. (Crew chief) Cole (Pearn) was getting pretty stressed out toward the end of the race once he realized, ‘Oh, man this isn’t getting better.’ We thought there’d be some big pileups earlier and there wasn’t. We were looking pretty stupid there at the end of the race having rode around all day… “But we’re lucky to finish and we’re lucky to be in a decent spot leaving here.”