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RELATED: Race results | Stage results

 

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s pass for the win in the final lap at Talladega Superspeedway was met with cheers from the packed grandstands and from his celebrating No. 17 team after the GEICO 500 checkered flag.

But what was sweet victory for Stenhouse was sour defeat for Kyle Busch, whom Stenhouse passed for the lead during overtime. Busch’s No. 18 Toyota engaged Stenhouse’s No. 17 Ford in a thrilling battle for the lead, until Stenhouse pulled a car-length ahead on the white-flag lap.

“I don’t really know where it all happened or transpired or how many to go it was,” Busch said afterward. “(The) 17 got a run from behind off Turn 2, and I don’t know what his help was or anything like that but he actually ran into the back of me, and then you’d think that that momentum would propel me forward some, and he just turned left and went right by.

“That was pretty impressive, I guess — or I was just that slow and in his way.”

Busch led three times for a race-high 48 laps during Sunday’s superspeedway thriller, taking the first spot for the final time at Lap 152 — until Stenhouse swiped the lead on Lap 191. Busch’s restarts throughout the day were impressive (“Maybe it was everybody sleeping,” he joked), and at one point, the top drivers were all Toyotas. Pit strategy allowed Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin to lead 43 laps, while Matt Kenseth led four.

But when the green flag waved for the final restart, Busch was the lone Toyota in the top pack and ended up being the only Toyota to finish in the top 10.

“Everybody was all kind of mixed up — there was a Ford, there was a Chevy — so it was just all over the place,” Busch said. “Certainly, myself and the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) and the 11 (Hamlin), we all worked really well together today and it was fun to have camaraderie today with teammates, but they weren’t there for us at the end.”

 

With the exception of his injury-shortened 2015 season that concluded with his championship title, this year marks Busch’s first season since 2006 that he hasn’t captured a victory in the first 10 races of NASCAR’s premier series. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammates — Kenseth, Hamlin and Daniel Suarez — also haven’t visited Victory Lane in 2017.

 

In contrast, the powerhouse team had five wins at this point in the season last year.

Nonetheless, Busch equates Sunday’s loss at Talladega to being the victim of circumstance — or the very nature of superspeedway racing.

“We did all we could here today and it’s all circumstantial on how you win these things, Busch said. “Unfortunately our circumstances didn’t quite go our way, but we go to a real race track (Kansas) next week and we’ll try to win there.”

 

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TALLADEGA, Ala. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. lined up third for a restart on Lap 174 of Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, after a massive 18-car wreck on the backstretch thinned the field.

 

The anticipation in the air was palpable, as Earnhardt rolled through the tri-oval toward the start/finish line, but what happened next had fans in the front grandstands ripping the radio headphones off their heads and throwing them to the ground.

 

As the field came up to speed, Earnhardt pulled out of line and moved to the top of the track, coming perilously close to the outside wall. As the pack sped away, Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet slowed and rolled gingerly to pit road.

 

“Oh, I had a wheel come off,” Earnhardt said after the race. “The guys said it was real similar to the issue we had at Atlanta, but it was pretty bad. We were about to wreck. And we were lucky to get to pit road and get it changed. The left-rear tire come loose. We didn’t change it on the last stop but the glue build-up on the stud didn’t allow them to get the tire tight, and it just kind of worked its way loose.

 

“We only had one nut tight when we come down pit road. It was real close to coming off. I hated it, because we were right there in good position to get a great finish — if not win the race — and I had to bail out. That was a hard decision to make. But, knowing what I know now when we come down pit road and they saw the tire, I’m glad I did, because it wouldn’t have made it another lap or two.”

 

Earnhardt lost a lap because of the unscheduled stop but got it back as the highest-scored lapped car when NASCAR called the seventh caution on Lap 179. But over the final few circuits, which included a two-lap overtime, Earnhardt couldn’t make progress and finished 22nd.

 

“Yeah, it was very disappointing,” Earnhardt said. “But the wheel was coming off, and I felt something in the caution. I thought I had a flat tire. But, (Jamie) McMurray said the tires were fine. Something just wasn’t right. And, I’m glad I got out of there when I did because we only had one lug left on it and it was going to come off in the race.

 

“It wouldn’t have made it to the end, and that would have been pretty catastrophic. So it was a good choice to come down (to pit road). I was hoping we were going to be able to rebound and gain a couple of spots, but we just didn’t get in the right lane, and our car wasn’t very good in the pack.”

 

Having announced his retirement from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing at the end of the year, Earnhardt will have one more shot at a seventh Talladega victory when the series returns during the playoffs on Oct. 15.

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RELATED: Vote now!

 

The polls are open! The Monster Energy All-Star Race Fan Vote is now available on NASCAR.com for fans to chime in on which driver they would like to see make the Monster Energy All-Star Race (May 20, 8 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

 

Drivers listed in the Fan Vote have not yet qualified for the All-Star Race; those who have qualified for the race are not represented. They already are in the race, so no need to vote for them.

 

The following drivers have not yet qualified for the All-Star Race and are in the Fan Vote: AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Trevor Bayne, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chase Elliott, Timmy Hill, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie, Michael McDowell, Paul Menard, Danica Patrick, David Ragan, Reed Sorenson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez and Cole Whitt.

 

Fans can vote once per day, and votes shared on Facebook or Twitter count double. To join the conversation on social media, use the hashtags #AllStarRace and #FanVote. Make sure to vote early — polls close on Friday, May 19 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

 

MORE: Cast your Monster Energy All-Star Fan Vote now

 

Those eligible for the Monster Energy All-Star Race include drivers who won a points event in either 2016 or 2017; drivers who have won a Monster Energy Series All-Star Race and compete full time; and drivers who won a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship and compete full time.

 

Drivers who have already clinched an All-Star spot are: Chris Buescher, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Martin Truex Jr.

 

The Monster Energy Open event, which precedes the All-Star Race, has a field comprised of drivers not yet qualified for the main event. The three-stage race of 20 laps, 20 laps, 10 laps will send three drivers into the All-Star Race — the winners of each of the three stages. The winner of the Fan Vote will then complete the field.

 

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Kyle Larson is enjoying himself — and with good reason.

With a victory from the pole at Auto Club Speedway and four second-place finishes in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season, the driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet has posted an average finish of 6.4 through nine races.

Larson tops the series standings by 40 points over second-place Martin Truex Jr. And for good measure, he’s added two victories in five NASCAR XFINITY Series starts, with an average finish of 2.8. It’s almost too good to be true.


MORE: In-depth Larson stats
“Yeah it’s been cool,” Larson said. “I expected to … well, I wanted to start the season off good. I didn’t know I would start the season off being the point leader and carrying it through like we have been. It’s just been a lot of fun to show up to the race track knowing we’ve got a fast car and capable of winning almost every race.

“Just got to keep, myself, got to keep working hard. Everybody at the race shop needs to keep working hard to build on what we currently have and make it even better. Just enjoying my time right now and having fun each and every week.”

The race track isn’t the only place Larson is having fun.

On Friday night at Talladega, he was out on the midway with former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, and Larson tweeted a picture of himself wearing a sombrero.

After all, it was Cinco de Mayo.

After all, it is Talladega.

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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.”

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RELATED: Full schedule for Talladega | Can Larson sustain the run he’s on?

At a Glance 

What: GEICO 500

Where: Talladega Superspeedway, a 2.66-mile super speedway track in Talladega, Alabama

When: Sunday, May 7

Green flag: 2:19 p.m. ET

TV/Radio: FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio 

Forecast: Sunny skies with a high around 75 degrees. North winds at 5 mph.

National anthem: 313th United States Army Band

Grand Marshal: Frank Pickering, Assistant VP of Southeast Claims for GEICO

Race distance: 188 laps, 500 miles

Pit road speed: 70 mph 

Caution car speed: 55 mph
Stage lengths: Stage 1 ends on Lap 55. Stage 2 ends on Lap 110. Final stage is scheduled to end on Lap 188

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RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Detailed breakdown

Aric Almirola emerged from a late-race scramble Saturday to score a NASCAR XFINITY Series win at Talladega Superspeedway.

Almirola led three times for 13 of the 113 laps in the Biagi-DenBeste No. 98 Ford to win the Sparks Energy 300. His first victory of the season was the third win of his XFINITY career and his first on the 2.66-mile Alabama track.

“They let me run this thing seven or eight times a year and I have so much fun, especially at the speedway races,” said Almirola, making just his fourth XFINITY start of the season. “Doug Yates brings some awesome horsepower and our Ford Mustang was super-fast.  I knew it right from the beginning of practice.

Series points leader Elliott Sadler finished second, just .142 seconds behind at the finish. Joey Logano, Ben Kennedy and Erik Jones completed the top five.

The race was slowed by a pair of multi-car crashes that caused a red flag in each of the opening stages. The first snared nine cars, triggered by contact involving Tyler Reddick, Brennan Poole and Daniel Suarez on the end of the backstraight on Lap 20.

Eight more cars wound up damaged by the second big stack-up, which eliminated several contenders, including Daytona XFINITY winner Ryan Reed and first-time pole starter Blake Koch. Almirola, the Stage 1 winner, accepted the blame for the crash after nudging Reed sideways on Lap 49, the final lap before the Stage 2 break.

“I have a lot of respect for him as a driver and as a person, but that just wasn’t cool,” Reed said of Almirola. “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.”

Said Almirola: “I feel really bad about the 16 (Reed). I got in the back of the 16 and tore up a lot of cars there, but I got a good push and I got in the back of him. I was trying to help him, trying to make the Fords work together and I hooked him, so I feel sorry about that.”

The XFINITY Series’ next race is scheduled for May 27 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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RELATED: Race results

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ben Kennedy said he needed to “knock the rust off” his restrictor-plate prowess during Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.

For the 25-year-old driver, that meant posting a career-best fourth-place result in only the second XFINITY Series start of his career.

“Really happy with the finish,” Kennedy said post-race. “Got to Joey (Logano) there at the end — you’re really only as good as whoever’s behind us and how close they are behind us when they’re all single file there for a while. We even lost the pack, just running wide open. So, it was a lot of fun and got a lot of out of it.”

Kennedy has a nearly-full plate this season, splitting 21 races between driving Richard Childress Racing’s No. 2 Chevrolet (nine races) and with GMS Racing (12 races). His next turn behind the wheel comes up quickly at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 27 with GMS Racing.

“I’m just looking to be competitive,” Kennedy said. “My goal was, laying out the options over the offseason, to go be in something that we could go win races in, no matter what series.”

While Kennedy has three full-time Camping World Truck Series seasons (2014-2016) on his resume, Saturday’s Talladega race was his first start in one of NASCAR’s three major series this season.

Waiting for his turn has been “long,” he joked.

“It kills you sitting on the sidelines watching Truck and XFINITY races,” Kennedy said. “But at the same time in the back of my head, I knew good things were to come, with RCR cars and running GMS as well. I’m really looking forward to the season. It was tough — I still stayed busy with some Legends stuff — but it’s good to be back at the race track for a reason.”

With the 300-miler at Talladega marking only the second XFINITY Series race of his career (his series debut was at Iowa in 2016), Kennedy does believe he’ll experience some growing pains as he continues throughout his season.

“Honestly, just trying to get back in the car and get used to things again,” Kennedy said. “This XFINITY car drives so different from what I’m used to. That’s going to be a whole new learning curve.”

That being said, a fourth-place at always-menacing Talladega doesn’t hurt a driver’s self-confidence behind the wheel moving forward.

“This (finish) gives you a lot of confidence and momentum and it’s just one of the first times I’ve had some good fortune here at Talladega,” Kennedy said. “So, it’s rare, but I’ll take it.”

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RELATED: Qualifying results | Buy tickets: Talladega

 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. scooted to the Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday, topping the rest of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series field at Talladega Superspeedway.

Stenhouse navigated the 2.66-mile track with a pole-winning lap of 191.547 mph in the Roush Fenway Racing No. 17 Ford. His first pole of the season was his first at Talladega and the second of his Monster Energy Series career. Stenhouse’s other pole in the series came Labor Day weekend in 2013 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“We plan to keep getting better and continue to bring better race cars to the track and go out there and lay it all on the line like we do every week,” Stenhouse said of his team’s modest uptick in performance. “It’s been really fun to drive, real special.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., a six-time Talladega winner, qualified second and his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet will share the front row with Stenhouse for the start of Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Earnhardt’s final-round lap clocked in at 190.780 mph, a solid .201 seconds behind Stenhouse’s pole lap.

“We always kind of come down here and find ourselves with an opportunity for the pole,” said Earnhardt, who announced April 25 that this season would be his last full-time campaign. “Hopefully, we will get one before the year is out at one of these plate tracks. I know the guys have been so close at Daytona and Talladega for so many years, so it would be great to do it this last season together. Just came up a little short today, but the car is fast and it will be good for Sunday.”

Brad Keselowski, a four-time winner at Talladega, qualified third in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford. Matt Kenseth, in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) and Trevor Bayne, in the No. 6 RFR Ford, completed the top five.

Stenhouse was also fastest in the first of two rounds of qualifying. Denny Hamlin was the last driver to make the 12-car cut for the final round, edging Martin Truex Jr. for that spot by .011 seconds.

D.J. Kennington, attempting to make his second Monster Energy Cup start of the season for Gaunt Brothers Racing, was the only driver who failed to qualify for the 40-car field.

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RELATED: Full race lineup | Race-day schedule

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t scheduled to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, but hold that thought.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver nearly won his first Coors Light Pole Award in four years Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, and said afterward that a No. 1 qualifying spot, which would make him eligible for next year’s “The Clash” at Daytona International Speedway, might put him back behind the wheel.

“I got a ‘Get-in-the-Clash free’ card from this year; I got a credit,” the 42-year-old Earnhardt Jr. said after speeding to the No. 2 starting spot with his lap of 190.780 mph. “If I get a pole, I’ll talk to (team owner) Rick (Hendrick) and see if I can’t line something up.”

“The Clash,” a non-points event, is contested at Daytona. Among the criteria for entry is winning a pole the previous season.

“‘The Clash’ isn’t really an official race,” Earnhardt said. “It’d be fun to talk about it.”

MORE JUNIOR: Through the years | All-time wins

Earnhardt announced earlier this season that he will no longer compete full time in the Monster Energy Series following the 2017 season.

His No. 88 Chevrolet was the next-to-last car on the track during the final round of qualifying for Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and quickly sped to the top of the scoreboard.

But Roush Fenway Racing driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., fastest in the opening round, knocked Earnhardt off the top spot and to second in the lineup with his lap of 191.547 mph.

Earnhardt, the sport’s 14-time Most Popular Driver, has 13 career poles but hasn’t qualified No. 1 since the fall race at Dover in 2013.

“Really impressive run by Stenhouse and his guys,” he said. “We came close. We seem to come close at Daytona and Talladega quite a bit, second or whatever, but can’t seem to get the pole. Hopefully we can get one before the season’s out. That would be nice to get one my last year knowing that I don’t really qualify all that well … especially since we went to this two, three rounds. I don’t think I’ve gotten a pole since. So it would be nice to get one before the end of the season.”

The current qualifying format consists of multiple rounds with the field trimmed after each round.

Sunday’s front-row starting spot will be his first at Talladega, a track where he has six career victories — making him the winningest active driver here.