Paul Menard earned the first stage win of his career after taking the lead six laps before the end of Stage 2 of the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
Menard, in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, took the lead on Lap 110 in a stage that was punctuated by a multi-car wreck on Lap 71 that took out Erik Jones, Kyle Larson and Trevor Bayne.
Joey Logano crossed the start/finish line just behind Menard in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five in Stage 2.
Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray and Aric Almirola also were involved in the wreck, but returned to the 188-lap race.
Five-time Talladega Superspeedway winner Brad Keselowski nabbed his fourth stage win of the season when he earned the green-and-white checkered flag after leading when Stage 1 concluded on Lap 55 on Sunday.
Keselowski took the lead on Lap 44 after a single-file line of leading cars went to pit road, handing the lead to the No. 2 Team Penske Ford, which had pit for fuel earlier in the stage. Keselowski led 11 laps of Stage 1.
Penske teammate Joey Logano finished second in the stage. Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Paul Menard completed the top five in the stage.
The most drama in the first stage came when the majority of the top half of the field opted to pit on Lap 14. That led to a pack of leaders that included pole-sitter Kevin Harvick dropping to the rear of the field.
Kevin Harvick won the Busch Pole Qualifying Award and will start in the top position in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway. After two practice sessions for this race, we’ve dissected the numbers and 10-lap averages to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you go to make roster decisions for the 10th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of 2018.
RJ Kraft’s revised Fantasy Live lineup following practices and the lineup being set:
1: Brad Keselowski
2: Clint Bowyer
3: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4: Paul Menard
5: Austin Dillon
Garage: Aric Almirola
Analysis: I’m using Talladega to conserve some uses, while balancing playing some drivers that have fared well there in recent years. Keselowski, Bowyer and Stenhouse all have wins at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, while Menard has been one of the most consistent drivers there in the past three years with an 11.5 average finish. Almirola’s issues in qualifying — he’ll start 40th — haven’t scared me off of him, especially since coming from the back at ‘Dega means little. However, they have made me think that starting him in the garage is the wisest course of action. In his two top-five finishes here last year, he started 22nd and 26th.
The lineup change I did make was a swap of the Dillon brothers. I originally had Ty in my lineup because he owns the best average finish (12.0) among drivers in Sunday’s field at Talladega. However, he seems snakebit this weekend getting caught up in a final practice wreck, having to go to the backup and the No. 13 Chevrolet having some issues on pit road during qualifying. Austin scored two top 10s here in 2016, and he is the winner of the most recent plate race (the Daytona 500; the only other time I’ve used him).
I considered David Ragan but I was a little concerned about having all Fords and watching those cars be on the same strategy during the race. Perhaps, that’s overthinking it. Kurt Busch was also a consideration for me, but I have used him quite a bit thus far (more than Bowyer) and expect to use him some more with how fast SHR has been. I did stack some bonus picks with him, though, based on his solid Talladega numbers in the past three years — 10.8 average finish and he starts second on Sunday.
This race is one of the biggest rolls of the dice due to the unpredictable nature of restrictor-plate racing. Make sure to keep tabs on your garage driver and be ready to make a move if the “Big One” happens before the end of Stage 2.
(Cars to the rear: 1, 13, 19, 31 for backup cars; 9 for unapproved tire change and 10 for unapproved adjustments.)
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Elliott Sadler got to treat his wife to whatever her heart desired with a $100,000 check in hand after winning last week’s Dash 4 Cash prize at Richmond Raceway.
With another giant check collected Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, Sadler, whose birthday is Monday, the veteran plans to spend a little on himself — and the rest on his kids — this time.
“It’s my birthday Monday so maybe I’ll keep a little for myself,” Sadler said Saturday. “All-in-all, thanks to Xfinity Dash 4 Cash for putting this on for us. … it’s neat to win $100,000 two weeks in a row.”
So, how does a soon-to-be 43-year-old celebrate another year in the books with a little extra cash in his pocket?
“Well, we just got back from the Bahamas so that was a celebration in itself,” he said. “My son and daughter both have all-day travel-ball tournaments tomorrow. One in Raleigh, one in Richmond, and then Monday we have a ball game at the ballpark. So that’s how we celebrate our birthday; we go watch our kids play ball … and then maybe take a mid-afternoon nap because I am 43.”
In other words — the direct opposite of how Spencer Gallagher plans to “party like it’s 1999” after picking up his first career national series win in Saturday’s race.
Sadler did say, however, he might look into buying a new La-Z-Boy.
The JR Motorsports driver’s Dash 4 Cash hopes appeared to be just that — dashed — with 37 laps remaining in the ninth Xfinity Series race of the season when he got caught speeding on pit road. Needing to avoid hitting John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 Chevrolet, Sadler chose to hit the gas and miss making contact, incurring the penalty instead.
Pushing him far back in the pack, Sadler clawed his way back through the field over the ensuing laps, but still lined up just 17th for the NASCAR Overtime finish. Working with teammate Justin Allgaier, the current points leader maneuvered his way to a respectable top five and with it his second-consecutive $100,000 check.
Running second at the time, Austin Cindric appeared set to cruise to his first Dash 4 Cash win before a Daniel Hemric blown tire with nine scheduled laps to go put a damper on his day. The Team Penske driver wound up running out of fuel coming to the green on the ensuing restart and got saddled with a 30th-place finish. Fellow D4C competitors Christopher Bell (12th) and Matt Tifft (25th, flat right-front tire with 17 to go) didn’t fare much better in their quest for the prize.
The program wraps up next week at Dover International Speedway, where Sadler will be joined by Gallagher, race runner-up Brandon Jones and teammate Justin Allgaier (third).
Of the four, Sadler was the only driver to finish in the top 10 in that race last year, when he pulled in with a seventh-place result.
Editor’s note: NASCAR later suspended indefinitely race-winner Spencer Gallagher for violating the sanctioning body’s substance abuse policy. Ryan Sieg, not Gallagher, will compete for the Dash 4 Cash prize at Dover.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Taking advantage of an overtime restart and a fuel shortage that hampered some of the race’s strongest cars, Spencer Gallagher grabbed the lead on the final lap and held on to win Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
In claiming the first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of his career, Gallagher crossed the finish line .152 seconds ahead of runner-up Brandon Jones. Justin Allgaier recovered to finish third after running out of fuel under the Lap 105 caution that set up the overtime.
The only lap Gallagher has ever led in 49 Xfinity Series starts was the final one at Talladega on Saturday. He’s the ninth different winner in nine races in the series so far this year.
Noah Gragson came home fourth a week after running second in his Xfinity Series debut at Richmond. Elliott Sadler rebounded from a pit road speeding penalty – after he accelerated to avoid John Hunter Nemechek’s spinning car – to claim fifth place and his second straight $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus.
“The only thing that was going through my mind was ‘I hope to hell this works,'” Gallagher said after surging past Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell into the lead and blocking for all he was worth on the final lap. “Gosh, I’m so happy right now. GMS Racing (owned by Gallagher’s father, Maury Gallagher) brought such an incredible car here. To qualify this thing third and to race like we did all day, I knew we had some speed.
“Man, it didn’t seem real for a while there. For that whole last lap it was kind of a dream. You hear your spotter talking to you in the background, but all you’re really doing is looking in your mirror. It’s always wild, the last lap at Talladega, but we brought it home, baby! Got it done…”
Ryan Sieg, Nemechek, Reddick, Cole Custer and Garrett Smithley completed the top 10. Sadler expanded his series lead to 40 points over second-place Reddick, 47 over third-place Allgaier and 49 over fourth-place Bell, who was shuffled back to 12th at the finish.
Jones second-place finish was a career best, and he got it by hustling in the bottom lane after the final restart, as the race went two laps past its scheduled distance of 113 laps.
“We all backed up pretty big on the bottom lane (after the restart), and I was really trying to work my side drafts there at the end, and I was pretty weak on that all day,” Jones said. “I knew at the very end there I needed to do that as best as I could, and it was starting to pull that top lane back a little bit, so I thought that was working pretty well.
“And then some guys jumped in front of me and caused me to suck up and pull that bottom down. If I could have got to the 23 (Gallagher), I think we could have sucked him back a little bit with the side draft, but we just didn’t have the opportunity to do it there at the end.”
Emblematic of the hazards of restrictor-plate racing was the misfortune of Ryan Truex, who sped on pit road under caution for the end of Stage 1, restarted from the rear of the field and had his No. 11 Chevrolet collected in a seven-car accident on Lap 32.
The melee started when Shane Lee turned the No. 28 Ford of Dylan Lupton to trigger the wreck. That contact also turned the No. 60 Ford of Ty Majeski into the outside wall and into the path of Truex, who T-boned Majeski’s car.
“On that restart (on Lap 32), the outside line got going really well, and we were moving forward, and I think the 3 car (Lee) was behind us and was pushing me a little bit through that high side,” Lupton said.
“And then once we started losing banking on the straightaway, he pushed a little too much and pinched me sideways, and at that point I was just a pinball holding on. It’s a disappointment being out so early, but we get to go racing again next week, and we’ll try to rebound from this.”
After learning about the passing of James Hylton and his son, James Hylton Jr., members of the NASCAR community took to social media to send condolences and remember the former premier series driver.
Thoughts and prayers out to Hylton family and friends. James was a legend. He enjoyed his time in stock car racing and saw the sport evolve and grow over the many decades that he was involved. https://t.co/qnDQxfc31J
Incredibly saddened to hear the news about James Hylton and his son, Tweety. James was a friend, a true gentleman and a racer who shaped the sport with character, class and an unwavering lifetime commitment. pic.twitter.com/UENKcepnyx
My heart hurts this afternoon, James Harvey Hylton one of my early hero’s and his son were killed today in a car crash, James was #48, that was my number in the late model sportsman series, tried to get him to change his number, he wouldn’t, we became great friends after that !
The race may be over, but James Hylton is on our minds. We're fabricating a cross which we'll place at the crash site on the way home and pay our respects to an amazing man and his son. #NASCAR#GodspeedJamespic.twitter.com/wvOdnRokSJ
"The older I get, the more that chaplain keeps following me around, told him I ain't ready to go yet" -James Hylton to me, Iowa Speedway ARCA garage, 2009. #RIP
We’re all thinking about the Hylton family. James has been a staple of the racing community for, well, ever I guess, and it’s such a tragedy to have lost him.
James Hylton was a racing legend, but most importantly, he and his son, James, were our friends. Always willing to lend a hand, even if they received nothing in return. They will be greatly missed. Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/Y2YkYqEeb9
I want to thank @JimmieJohnson for being the fastest in cup practice at the time I took this picture of my friend James yesterday. That scoring pylon is for you friend 👍🏻 I’m gonna miss you https://t.co/cS99vW8H3N
TALLADEGA, Ala. — James Hylton, a two-time winner in NASCAR’s premier series and a competitor known for his longevity, has died. He was 83.
Franklin County (Ga.) Deputy Coroner Clayton Bryant confirmed to NASCAR.com that Hylton and his son, James “Tweety” Hylton Jr., were killed in a traffic accident on Interstate 85. The two were returning from Friday’s ARCA Series event at Talladega Superspeedway, when according to Bryant, their GMC truck and enclosed trailer left the road and made impact with a creek bank in the median.
Bryant said the call came from emergency dispatchers shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday. Bryant, who was among the responders, said that both Hyltons were pronounced dead at the scene. NASCAR officials also confirmed the Hyltons’ passing. The driver, whose name was not provided, survived the crash and was transported to a hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. The Hylton team was also involved in a highway incident last July, the father and son emerging uninjured when their truck and racing hauler crashed after a race at Iowa Speedway.
NASCAR and ARCA released the following statement on the passing of Hylton and his son: “Racing competitively in parts of six decades, James Hylton’s dedication, passion and longevity in motorsports is virtually unmatched. Hylton won the rookie of the year at NASCAR’s highest level, the 1972 race at Talladega Superspeedway and regularly contended for championships during the early years of his career. His racing influence continued into the ARCA series, where he competed as a driver and, most recently, a car owner. We have lost a truly special member of the racing family and a beloved figure among generations of competitors and race fans alike. We extend our deepest condolences to the Hylton family on the tragic loss of James Hylton and his son James Jr.”
Hylton scored his first big-league victory at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway in 1970, ending a hard-luck run of 12 runner-up finishes before notching his breakthrough win. His biggest triumph came two years later in the 1972 Talladega 500. He led 106 of the 188 laps at the 2.66-mile Alabama track.
“It has been a long time coming, and I think I got a message across to a few people, at least to my own satisfaction,” Hylton said after his 1972 win.
Hylton made 602 starts in what is now the Monster Energy Series, a career that spanned from 1964 to 2007. He was the series’ Rookie of the Year in 1966 and finished second three times (1966, ’67, ’71) in the overall standings.
Hylton made his start in NASCAR’s Sportsman ranks, and he parlayed his automotive know-how into mechanic jobs with a pair of NASCAR Hall of Famers. He first worked with driver Rex White and eventually earned a spot on Ned Jarrett’s crew during his championship years in the 1960s.
Hylton branched into the driving side of the garage in 1966, pooling his savings to purchase a 1965 Dodge from legendary car builder Cotton Owens, a fellow South Carolinian. He quickly became the series’ top rookie as an independent driver-owner with 20 top-five finishes in 41 starts that year.
Hylton said he was close to ending his career before he finally broke through to Victory Lane at Richmond in 1970. “This may open some doors for me,” he told reporters after the win. “Last year, if I didn’t make money in a race, I didn’t go to the next one. But now I’m in the running for the championship. It’s been an uphill battle all the way. If I didn’t win a Grand National (race) this year, I would have hung up my helmet.”
Instead, Hylton pressed on to become one of stock-car racing’s most enduring independent drivers. Hylton’s participation in NASCAR was occasional in his later years, and he made headlines with an attempt to qualify for the 2007 Daytona 500 at age 72.
Getty Images
“I am doing this for seniors to show that at 70 years old you don’t have to go hunting for an old folks home,” Hylton told the Associated Press before finishing 23rd in his qualifying race. “You can go race for a little bit. A lot of the old drivers want to come out here and hang out in the pits and see if I can do it.”
His racing days continued after that final Daytona attempt. Hylton competed in his final full season of ARCA competition in 2013, wrapping up his career at age 79. “I’m retiring at the end of the day, but my heart is wanting to keep going,” he told the AP before his last race, at Kansas Speedway.
Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson also paid tribute to Hylton at his retirement. Hylton most frequently competed using No. 48, a car number that Johnson has used for the entirety of his Monster Energy Series career.
“Every time I see him out there in that 48, it brings a smile to my face,” Johnson told the AP. “He got that number off to a good start. He’s truly passionate and loves our sport, and it’s nice to see him out there one last time.”
Hylton continued as a team owner in the ARCA Series, with Brad Smith driving James Hylton Motorsports’ No. 48 Ford. The team did not start Friday’s ARCA race at Talladega because of an oil pressure issue.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Busch’s streak of success is venturing into treacherous territory. His three-race win string in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series carries this weekend into Talladega Superspeedway, a venue known for its unpredictable nature.
The Alabama high banks have thwarted winning skeins of three or more on three occasions since the track opened for business in 1969. Those snapped streaks belonged to three NASCAR Hall of Famers — Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace — a fact that has Busch’s attention.
“I’ve kind of heard some of the rumblings through the week about some of the guys that have been on streaks of three in a row or four in a row, whatever they’ve been on, they’ve never gone through a plate race to the best of my knowledge,” Busch said Friday at the 2.66-mile track. “It makes for a more challenging time to be able to get that fourth in a row, but also we’ll know how much more rewarding it is when we do get it.”
Busch, who has won at every track on the Monster Energy Series schedule save for Charlotte Motor Speedway, has prevailed just once at Talladega. That 2008 victory came in his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing.
The speedway’s tendency toward upset winners and unpredictable endings presents the biggest threat to a No. 18 team that’s been remarkably consistent this year. Busch has finished in the top 10 in every race this season except for the Daytona 500 opener, which — like Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) — will be run with engine horsepower restrictions.
The event will mark the second superspeedway race this year, with a rules package that eliminates ride heights. Though Busch has plenty of experience on his side, he says there are few measures that drivers can take in preparation for Talladega.
“I think that you just have to be ready for anything,” Busch said. “I don’t know that there’s much that you can kind of work on or study toward or try to figure out that I’m exactly going to do this and it’s going to reward me with something, I think it’s just so much of an unknown.”
Busch’s streak has spanned Texas, Bristol and Richmond in an especially fast-paced spring stretch, but his strength has been a season-long effort. Aside from Daytona, Busch has led multiple laps in every event and has been among the top three finishers in the last seven races.
That level of production has given Busch a spring in his step, but the 32-year-old driver says the pendulum of emotions can easily swing the opposite direction.
“Certainly you can be a believer in momentum and you can also be a believer in confidence in yourself and your team and when you’re on a roll sometimes, it feels like you can do no wrong and then some things kind of start going bad or vice versa, you can be on a roll where you feel you can do no right so I’ve certainly been on those as well, too,” Busch said. “You never know when your next win is going to be so you cherish them all. Fortunately for us, we’ve had them the last three weeks in a row.
“It’s been a great start to the season and we’re having some fun and we just want to keep that going. We know this is a place that can derail things so you try not to let that mess up your mindset for the rest of the year or even next week going to Dover and after that.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. – When Austin Dillon drove his No. 3 Richard Children Racing Chevrolet to victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, he broke a string of three Ford wins at the Birthplace of Speed.
At Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Ford drivers have won five straight races. That’s another streak Dillon would like to end.
But he knows he’ll have plenty of competition, in part because teams have made progress with the no-ride-height rules package for restrictor-plate tracks.
“Yeah, I think people have gotten better since Daytona,” Dillon said. “I feel like people have figured out the package probably more than they have since Daytona.”
In Friday’s practice, however, Dillon couldn’t get a solid gauge on the performance of his car because drafting partners were sparse.
“The runs, the packs never got big enough today to really feel the runs,” Dillon said. “I had one run (with) the No. 31 (Ryan Newman) and No. 43 (Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace, Jr.) down the backstretch and it seemed to push me pretty far out in front of the group. So I think there will be some big runs come Sunday.
“I think it will be another one of those races where what do you decide to do? Do you decide to be aggressive and race, or do you make it to the end? Strategy will play a big part of it, but I think there will be quite a few cars that will swap for the lead.
“It seems like there’s a wide variety of fast cars. I saw the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) – they looked pretty good. The No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) looked fast. There are a lot of different guys that seem to have speed. The No. 43 had some speed, too. There will be some guys there come Sunday swapping for it for sure.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Kevin Harvick hadn’t won a pole at a restrictor-plate track since 2005.
Kurt Busch had never topped qualifying for a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at a superspeedway
But those two Stewart-Haas Racing Ford drivers were the class of the field during time trials on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, where Harvick outdueled Busch to secure his first Busch Pole Award of the season.
In the decisive second round, Harvick covered the 2.66-mile distance in 49.247 seconds (194.448 mph) to earn his second Talladega pole and the 22nd of his career. Busch was close behind with a 49.340-second lap (194.082 mph) in the money round.
The two Fords will start on the front row in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), ahead of Toyota drivers Martin Truex Jr. (193.525 mph) and Denny Hamlin (192.936 mph), who qualified third and fourth, respectively.
“We had no clue as to how fast the car would actually run,” said Harvick, who scored his lone victory at Talladega in 2010. “We knew we had a fast car, but we didn’t do any qualifying runs (in practice) or anything like that.”
In fact, Harvick’s run in the first round was halted when teammate Aric Almirola’s Ford spun out of control with a tire down, and Harvick ran through the debris from the No. 10 Ford.
“The first indicator was the first time on the race track, and that was even a little bit of a question, because of the fact that we had to change the tires and cool the engine down,” Harvick said. “We didn’t know what the pickup in the car was going to be – or not be.
“It’s always a little bit of a surprise.”
Harvick’s pole-winning run in the No. 4 Ford denied Busch a milestone he coveted.
“I’ve never been on the pole for a plate race and wanted to check it off,” Busch said. “It was a bucket-list item. I really wanted the pole today.
“But two Stewart-Haas Fords on the front row – we’d have loved to have gotten the pole, but we’re outside pole, and I’m proud of our Monster Energy Ford.”
Chase Elliott qualified fifth in the fastest Chevrolet (192.754 mph), followed by Erik Jones and defending race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.. Series leader Kyle Busch, who is seeking a fourth straight victory, failed to advance to the second round and will start 19th.
Five-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski will start 10th, to the outside of Team Penske teammate Joey Logano.
