Learn more about each driver who has made the postseason field
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.
RELATED: Results | Chase Grid | NASCAR: JGR didn’t violate 100 percent rule
TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR held a Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, but somebody forgot to tell three of the four teams for Joe Gibbs Racing.
For Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, this wasn’t a race. It was an inconvenience.
The Hellmann’s 500 featured a 40-car starting field. Only 37 rolled off with hopes of a win or at least a good showing. The JGR trio had absolutely no intentions of trying to win. Or run up front.
I understand why it was done, but I don’t agree with it.
I understand they were thinking big picture, as in championship.
RELATED: O’Donnell discusses JGR and 100 percent rule
None of the three had a win, automatically earning themselves a spot in the Round of 8. Any mishap at Talladega could sink their title hopes. And past restrictor-plate races this year had produced mixed results.
All three finished in the top 15 in the Daytona 500; Busch added runner-up finishes at Talladega in the spring and Daytona in July. But Kenseth and Edwards were knocked out of contention in the other two and maybe that was enough.
But for the three JGR teams to ride around in the back of the field all day? I’d feel embarrassed to collect a paycheck for that one. Donate it to charity. Let some good come of it.
It was clear from the start that going to the back was the gameplan. Kenseth had qualified third, Edwards 13th and Busch 14th on the previous day. Why did they even bother? Before the green flag had dropped they began falling back through the field, taking up residence in the rear.
RELATED: Hamlin edges in, JGR strategy pays off
It’s not the first time teams have used such tactics. There have been many occasions in the past when teams have dropped back early in the race in an attempt to avoid getting caught in the type of multi-car crashes that are so common at the 2.66-mile track.
But on most occasions, those moves are only temporary. As the end of the race has neared, those teams would begin inching their way forward, working together in hopes of getting to the front unscathed and allowing them to battle for the win.
Sometimes it paid off; sometimes it didn’t.
How was this any different? It was different because there was no intention of going forward, just going.
Racing at Daytona and Talladega has evolved more than at any other track the series visits each year. For years, drivers could “slingshot” their way past another competitor thanks to the draft; the lead spot wasn’t the preferred position in the final laps of a race. As it became more difficult to pass without the aid of another, pack drafting was the norm, with one line of cars getting a run on another and the lineup shuffling several times each lap.
Remember tandem drafting? One car literally pushing another around the track, the front car having almost no control and the rear car no clue what was ahead?
Thankfully, those days are no more.
RELATED: NASCAR discusses JGR, 100 percent rule
There have been times in the past, both before the Chase and even after it was implemented, when drivers had enough of a points cushion that finishing in a particular position guaranteed advancement or a title. That was back in the “it was a good points day” era and I thought we had moved past that.
You can argue that what the JGR teams did was a product of the Chase. There is simply too great a risk for too little reward, particularly at a place as dangerous as Talladega.
Denny Hamlin, the one JGR driver that did actually race, sided with his teammates, saying that the three had “built their (points) cushion.
“They’ve done their jobs well the first two (races),” he said. “They had the liberty to do that. So they played it smart. It’s all about (the) championship, it’s not about coming out here and winning Talladega for those guys.”
Perhaps it would have been different if the three had been in a situation where they had little chance of winning because their cars weren’t competitive. Under such circumstances, it would have been their only choice.
But those weren’t the circumstances.
To their credit, none of the three seemed particularly pleased with having to ride around in the back all day. Kenseth said it “goes against everything you want to do as a race car driver.”
Busch called it “frustrating.” Edwards said it was “stressful.”
The upside, if you’re a JGR fan, is that all four teams now move on to the next round.
Where, hopefully, riding around in the back won’t be an option.
RELATED: Full race results | Series standings | Chase Grid
Breaking down the full field for the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway:
1. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Not even dragging his jack around for one lap could keep Logano out of Victory Lane. Logano grabbed the lead five laps after the engine of teammate Brad Keselowski‘s dominant No. 2 car expired and he didn’t let it go, leading the final 45 laps. Grade: A
2. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. In his 49th start, Scott snagged the best finish of his career — and first top 10 — with a brilliant run. It also was the best finish for RPM since Marcos Ambrose placed second at Watkins Glen more than two years ago. Grade: A+
3. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road (again) and advanced to the next round of the Chase by the slimmest of margins (about two feet). Hamlin didn’t make it easy on himself, but he’s moving on — and his No. 1 track, Martinsville, is up next. Grade: A
4. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Steady Busch flew under the radar into the Round of 8. Well, until his postrace dust-up with teammate Kevin Harvick. Grade: A
5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse’s fourth top 10 in seven starts at Talladega is also his sixth this season, a personal best. In addition, it was his fourth top five this season, one more than in his previous three full-time seasons combined. Grade: A
6. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson posted his best finish at Talladega since finishing ninth in his first race there in May 2014. Grade: A
7. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick was running behind Joey Logano on Logano’s “jack lap” and caught a huge break when the jack remained attached to Logano’s car and didn’t fly into him. Grade: A
8. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Finally! Almirola’s streak of starts without a top-10 finish ends at a career-high 32. Grade: A
9. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. How close was Dillon to advancing in the Chase? The difference was the one point Denny Hamlin earned by finishing .006 seconds ahead of Kurt Busch. Grade: A
10. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger posts back-to-back top-10 finishes for the third time this season despite having an average running position Sunday of 25.8. Grade: A-
11. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Blaney ran with the leaders all afternoon, and his 7.6 average running position was third best. He also led laps for the second time this season. Grade: A
12. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Elliott needed a win to advance in the Chase and did everything he could — his average running position of 7.3 was second to Kurt Busch‘s 6.9 — but he was hemmed in at the end and couldn’t challenge the front-runners. Grade: A
13. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard posted his best finish since his last top 10, in July at Indianapolis. Grade: B
14. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman, whose average running position of 27.3 was highest among drivers finishing in the top 20, ran one lap in the top 15 — his last. Grade: B-
15. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Biffle was strong early and led 13 laps, but his day took a negative turn when he brought out the second caution on Lap 114. A coming-together with Jeffrey Earnhardt and Casey Mears sent all three cars into the inside wall. Grade: C
16. Michael McDowell, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. Three of McDowell’s five best finishes this season have been on restrictor-plate tracks (10th and 15th at Daytona). Grade: A
17. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne was two cars behind Kasey Kahne when Kahne spun on Lap 182. Bayne was able to check up and avoid running into the back of Jamie McMurray. Grade: B-
18. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. In a season of small victories, Bowyer posted his 10th top-20 finish of the season. Grade: B-
19. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing. McMurray’s day was saved when he didn’t plow into Kasey Kahne‘s spinning car immediately in front of him on Lap 182. Grade: B-
20. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick now has finished 20th to 24th in half of this year’s races (16 of 32). Grade: C
21. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Cassill made a great save with 20 laps to go when his car went veering down the track after he tried to fill a gap in front of David Ragan and received a nudge from behind. Grade: B
22. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. That Buescher finished the race is the story here. He had DNFs for crashes in the season’s first three restrictor-plate races. Grade: B
23. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson did his best to help teammate Chase Elliott, but in the end, wherever the No. 48 finished was never an issue. Johnson’s ticket into the next round of the Chase was punched two weeks ago. Grade: S (for Smart, Safe and Satisfactory)
24. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Ragan posted his best finish at Talladega since finishing sixth in the fall race three years ago. Grade: C
25. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith posted his second-best finish in restrictor-plate races this season. He finished eighth in the Daytona 500. Grade: C
26. Ryan Reed, No. 99 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Nice Sprint Cup debut for the 23-year-old. Grade: B-
27. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 93 Toyota, BK Racing. Great effort by DiBenedetto, who raced even though he was in the throes of food poisoning. Grade: C+
28. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. If you are going to be critical of what Gibbs drivers Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch did Sunday — playing it safe by driving together in the back of the field — would you have been critical of any of the three if they had mixed it up in the peloton, crashed and failed to advance in the Chase? You can’t have it both ways. Grade: S (as in See Jimmie Johnson)
29. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Ibid. Grade: S
30. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Op cit. Grade: S
31. Bobby Labonte, No. 32 Ford, GO FAS Racing. Our TBJT (Throw Back to Junior Theme) Latin bibliography references end with Labonte, who completed his four-race, restrictor-plate run for the second consecutive year the same way he began the season – with a 31st-place finish. Grade: C-
32. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Driver Tony’s 70th superspeedway restrictor-plate race finished quietly. Can’t say the same for Owner Tony. Grade: D
33. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Annett stayed out during green-flag pit stops and led six laps, one fewer than he led in his first 101 Sprint Cup starts. Grade: C+
34. Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. Earnhardt’s Lap 114 tangle with Greg Biffle also collected Casey Mears. Despite significant damage, Earnhardt posted the first lead-lap finish of his career (20 starts). Grade: C
35. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne went for a spin on Lap 182, and his run of good finishes — six top 10s in his previous seven races — spun out, too. Grade: D
36. Alex Bowman, No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Bowman’s tweet said it all: “3rd with 5 to go and we finish 36th … damn speedway racing.” Grade: D
37. Reed Sorenson, No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Sorenson finished 13 laps off the pace in his first start at Talladega in two years. Grade: F
38. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Keselowski had the dominant car and led a race-high 90 laps, but he held the point for too long after debris blocked part of his grill. A slick, orchestrated move with Ryan Blaney removed the debris, but it was too late. Moments later, his engine started smoking and his day, and championship hopes, came to an end on Lap 145. Grade: F
39. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Racing can be so cruel. For the second time in three weeks, something bad happened to Mears for no other reason than he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time, he was two lanes below Greg Biffle and having a beautiful day when Biffle turned into Jeffrey Earnhardt and also collected Mears. The three slammed into the inside wall, but only Mears could not continue and was gone after 113 laps. Two weeks ago, Mears received a “U” grade for Unfortunate. This week? Based on his grade at Charlotte — and if you caught all four clues — you know the answer. Grade: U2
40. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. When Truex’s engine blew on Lap 42, his championship hopes ended as well. It’s a shame Truex won’t be able to contend for the championship, but we haven’t heard the last of Truex this season. Finishing with the most victories would be huge. Grade: F
NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell, appearing on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Monday, said he did not expect the sanctioning body to take action against Joe Gibbs Racing for its strategy of dropping three cars to the back of the pack during Sunday’s Chase elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway.
O’Donnell said employing that strategy did not constitute a violation of NASCAR’s 100 percent rule.
“I would say that they do not fall into that,” O’Donnell said when asked about the 100 percent rule. “The spirit of that rule is really to prevent somebody from intentionally allowing another teammate to do something that would not be really within the spirit of the rules of the race.
“In this case, we look at the strategy decision that the team made, and they executed it. … In this case, that wouldn’t be something that we look at that violated that rule.”
O’Donnell also reiterated previous comments from Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller, saying he did not anticipate action against the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota team of Martin Truex Jr. for a part (left-front jack bolt) confiscated during pre-qualifying inspection. Truex went on to win the Coors Light Pole Award, but engine problems during Sunday’s race prevented him from advancing in the Chase.
RELATED: Part confiscated in pre-qualifying inspection from No. 78 car
“It was a part that we took. We just want to take it back to the (NASCAR) R&D Center and just do a little more research where we’ve got a little more time to look at it,” O’Donnell said. “I think that Scott Miller went on and talked about it, we don’t anticipate something big around points (penalties), but we just want to make sure when we go back and take a look at that part, what we can learn and if there’s anything to react to, we will.”
Nor did O’Donnell anticipate action against the Nos. 11, 18 and 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, who were asked to go back through qualifying inspection Saturday when NASCAR noticed an issue with the right-rear quarter panels around the deck lid area. The cars were pulled out of line and the issue corrected before they passed through tech.
“I think our reaction there is the penalty that’s in place is really that five-minute clock,” O’Donnell said, referring to the time limit on fixing issues discovered in the qualifying line. “So if we find something, the car has to go back through inspection and the penalty that we’ve put in place is in-race. And we feel like that’s severe enough if a team is not able to fix that part or piece that we found and was not able to qualify, that’s the penalty that’s in place for that violation.”
All three of those JGR cars, along with teammate Carl Edwards, advanced to the Round of 8, which O’Donnell said was a top-flight field of drivers who have all won a race this season. In response to Truex and Brad Keselowski (tied for season-best four wins) not advancing past Sunday, O’Donnell said the current playoff system rewards teams that get hot much like other sports.
“You’ve got to compete at the highest level through those last 10 races and sometimes things happen in sports,” O’Donnell said. “We’re seeing a quality field of eight drivers who have all won races heading into the Chase, which I believe is a first for this round and for this amount of time. Really excited to see who’s going to get hot or continue to stay hot through the remainder of the races.”
RELATED: Full race results | Standings | Chase Grid
SHOP: Chase gear
Denny Hamlin got the nose of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out just in front of Kurt Busch‘s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for a third-place finish in Sunday’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Round of 12 finale — by a mere 0.006 seconds.
Had he finished behind Busch, Hamlin would’ve been eliminated from the Chase — and his day would’ve been much, much worse.
“It was tough all day,” Hamlin said after the race. “Really the first true, good Chase fortune I’ve had in 11 years. … I felt this was the best-case scenario for us.”
How close was @dennyhamlin to not advancing in #TheChase?
0.006 at the stripe! https://t.co/gaKsWBxPaH
— NASCAR (@NASCAR)
October 23, 2016
Anybody else got a case of deja vu right now?
Hamlin opened the season with a very similar finish — for the win, too — when he edged out Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line of the Daytona 500 by 0.010 seconds.
RELATED: Hamlin wins thrilling Daytona 500
Talladega and Daytona: two similar finishes, two afternoons that could’ve been drastically different for Hamlin had the game of inches not fallen in his favor.
RELATED: Full race results | Standings | Chase Grid
SHOP: Chase gear
TALLADEGA, Ala. — This one hurt more.
This one had the ring of finality to it. An expiration date: 10/23/16.
For the second week in a row, Brad Keselowski found himself and his No. 2 Team Penske team in the garage much sooner than expected.
Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 was still underway, but for Keselowski, his day was done. Worse yet, his shot at advancing to the third round of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup had ended. Title hopes were silenced.
The outcome was a shame, but fast cars aren’t always winning cars.
Few could outrun the No. 2 Ford on the track; Keselowski appeared to be the only driver able to work his way effortlessly through the field, although, to be precise, he spent very little time having to do so. For 88 of the first 141 laps, the 2012 series champion and winner of two of the last four Sprint Cup races here at Talladega Superspeedway was the driver to beat.
But a double dose of trash on the grill of his Ford proved to be fatal. Smoke began trailing the white and blue entry on Lap 144 of the 192-lap race. Engine temperatures rose as title hopes sank.
He finished 38th for the second week in a row and ended the day 12th in points. Only the top eight advance to continue to battle for the championship.
Climbing from his car and making his way into the shade of a nearby garage stall, Keselowski was quickly surrounded by reporters. The autopsy on his car was still on-going. Thus, he said, he didn’t know the source of the problem.
“I’m not an engine guy, but the car was really strong and we definitely kept finding debris,” he said.
“I thought I got it cooled off and only got it slightly over (heated), but I don’t know.”
Keselowski may not have been a Chase favorite coming into the 10-race playoff, but his team had been solid throughout the first round (three top-five finishes), and opened this latest segment with a seventh at Charlotte. But Kansas, where a crash ended his day, combined with Sunday’s setback proved to be too much.
If misery does indeed love company, Keselowski had his share. Martin Truex Jr., one of the early Chase favorites, was also knocked out early due to engine issues. The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota lasted only 41 laps before his day, and his Chase, were done.
MORE: Truex Jr.’s Chase hopes dashed
Austin Dillon? The Richard Childress Racing driver needed help to advance, and in the end he didn’t get it. A furious finish by Denny Hamlin left the two tied in points for the final spot and Hamlin got the nod based on a tiebreaker.
“It just wasn’t our day today,” a disheartened Dillon said after finishing ninth.
But it was that kind of day at Talladega. The threat of a big, grinding multicar crash kept Chasers such as the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards running in the back of the pack all afternoon in an effort to stay out of the eye of the storm.
But the storm really never made landfall. It was good racing, close racing, and relatively clean racing, slowed for the most part by a pair of three-car incidents that seemed tame in comparison to the mayhem that usually unfolds here.
That may not be a bad thing, but that probably doesn’t make Keselowski, Truex or Dillon feel any better.
Out is out and done is done. The Chase moves on without them.
RELATED: Race results | Chase Grid
TALLADEGA, Ala. — A misunderstanding between Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch ended with a confrontation on Talladega Superspeedway pit road following Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500.
Busch finished fourth and Harvick finished seventh. After they parked their cars on pit road, Harvick walked over to Busch, who was still sitting in his race car, leaned inside and had words with his teammate after delivering a jab inside the window.
“He [Busch] cleaned the side of our car out after the checkered flag,” Harvick said afterward. “I don’t understand that.”
Harvick said his car “didn’t have a scratch on it” until the cool-down lap contact with Busch. Asked if Busch gave Harvick an explanation for the incident, Harvick said only, “Not really.”
Busch was also asked his view of the situation during a pit-road interview with NBCSN later.
“He has a misunderstanding of the call at the end of the race,” Busch said. “He’ll understand it and I’m sure he’ll clear it up in his interview. For us, we’re great teammates, we’re doing good together and we have to work together to beat all these other teams out there. And he knows that.”
RELATED: Full race results | Standings | Chase Grid
SHOP: Chase gear
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Denny Hamlin stood by his No. 11 FedEx Toyota on Talladega Superspeedway pit road Sunday afternoon looking as relieved as he did happy with his third-place finish.
It was among the most important third-place finishes this year’s Daytona 500 winner has ever secured – and a mere .006 seconds ahead of fourth-place Kurt Busch.
It was the difference in Hamlin advancing to the next round of the Chase — and he secured the playoff pass by virtue of winning a tiebreaker with Richard Childress Racing‘s Austin Dillon.
“We had something go our way,” Hamlin said smiling. “One time something went our way and we battled at the line with the 41 (Kurt Busch). I’m just so happy. I just never really had good Chase fortune to be honest with you. I’ve been doing this 11 years and very, very few times has the dice fallen well for us. Today was one of those times.
“Today, we didn’t back in with a 15th-place finish. We had to root and gouge against guys absolutely committed to each other. That’s what I’m most proud of — getting a good finish when the odds were really stacked against us.”
Although Hamlin ran among the front half of the field for much of the race, his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch, spent the vast majority of the race in a three-car nose-to-tail draft at the back of the 40-car field. In fact, they finished 28th (Kenseth), 29th (Edwards) and 30th (Busch).
Hamlin was left very much a man on his own mission.
“There’s a certain level of strategy and being smart that goes with any race,” Edwards said. “And this is not the most fun way to race. But our mission is simple here. If it required that we go up to the front and try to win the race, we would do that. You have to balance everything. This is not my first time here. I’m really proud of my group.
“This is the format and we have to do what it takes to get there. … It would have been a lot more fun to have won that race in Kansas and then go up there and push Denny to the win all day. That would have been a lot of fun. But this is a really tough format. And don’t mistake what we did today as being simple or easy. That’s really tough to do and actually, at the end we were at a very high risk.”
Team owner Joe Gibbs said following the race that there was some confusion after the checkered flag and he briefly — albeit mistakenly — thought that Dillon had advanced instead of Hamlin.
“It was nerve-wracking for us, and at the end, it flipped the other way on our board and I thought we came in ninth,” Gibbs said. “I about panicked until I knew what the tiebreaker was. We lost two of our cars in this round last year. The farther you go in this format, everybody’s geared up. You’ve got to try to win a race.”
And, Gibbs reiterated, he was fully committed to the team’s strategy Sunday.
“Everybody talked it over, crew chiefs and everything,” Gibbs said. “I think it was just a strategy we needed to start off with and really depended on how it would go.
“Denny is a great restrictor-plate racer and he got everything he could out of it today.”
Hamlin certainly proved that in his dramatic Daytona 500 victory to start the season. After sub-par showings at Charlotte (30th place) and Kansas (15th place) in this elimination round of NASCAR’s playoffs, he came to Talladega absolutely needing a top-shelf finish.
For much of the day, the points difference between Hamlin and Dillon was negligible. And after all the tough and tight racing, it still was decided on a tiebreaker.
“You know, it’s heartbreaking obviously,” said Dillon, who finished ninth. “You need a spot, and it comes down to three one‑thousandths I think between (us) and the (eighth place) 43-car (Aric Almirola).
“I’m just proud of this team. We made it a full ‘nother round. Thought we were going to make it another one, but it didn’t work out for us. … I don’t think we had it today to really mix it up up front. Might have waited a little too long. We tried to get track position one time, but it didn’t work out. I put my car in the places I thought it would work the best in that last lap and a half. My teammates stuck with me. I’m proud and thankful for them. Just missed it by a spot.”
Hamlin, meanwhile, heads to next week’s race in Martinsville feeling like a very real contender to hoist the season trophy.
He’s won five times on the Martinsville short track, including last spring. He was third in the 2015 Chase race there. He has a pair of wins at Texas, sweeping the 2010 season there. And Hamlin has a win (2012) and two pole-position starts at Phoenix, with a third place effort there this spring.
Should he be among the four drivers deciding the Sprint Cup in the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale, he also goes there with an enviable record. He was the polesitter there last November and is a two-time winner (2009 and 2013). He has finished among the top 10 in four of the last five races.
“We all know that Martinsville is where I’ve made my career for the most part,” Hamlin said, sizing up his championship chances. “I feel very confident we can go there and do great things. My teammates are all going to be strong there. They were in the spring.
“So, it’s new life for us. We’re on house money at this point. Honestly, the cards were stacked against us before we entered the day, but now we’re moving on and we have a clean slate.”
RELATED: Race results | Chase Grid
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Martin Truex Jr.’s Sprint Cup Series championship hopes ended abruptly only 41 laps into Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. His pole-winning No. 78 Bass Pro Shops Toyota suddenly lost power while running on the high banks, leaving the title hopeful to slowly create a smoke trail through the track garage, where his Furniture Row Racing team awaited to start analyzing the problem.
It was the team’s first engine failure in two years.
As the team surveyed the car, one crew member picked up Truex’s helmet and slowly walked it back to the team trailer, essentially spelling the end of his day and his 2016 title hopes.
“It’s definitely disappointing; what else can you say?” Truex said. “We had a team capable of competing for the championship. And unfortunately we aren’t going to be able to show that. I guess there’s still a chance of a miracle, but I don’t see it happening. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out today.”
RELATED: No. 78 team works on car, more Talladega photos
Truex, who is in the midst of a career-best, four-win season — including two victories in the opening round of Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — will instead now be watching others vie for the title many figured Truex might well hoist.
As his Denver-based team hurried around the Talladega garage area examining his car, he looked over his shoulder, obviously feeling badly for them as well.
“I’m sure they’re devastated,” Truex said. “They’ve worked so hard this year to put us in a position to challenge for a championship. You know, we felt like we could do it. But this sport is tough.
“We didn’t perform at Kansas and Charlotte the way we are capable of and had some issues that bit us and put us in the hole. We could have gone there and done better and gotten a win and we wouldn’t be talking about this right now.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t get the job done. But we’ve got a great team. We’ve got four more races to try and win and I know we could win all four of them.”
RELATED: How Furniture Row was built in Colorado
For all the disappointment Truex felt and displayed, he still spoke to reporters, demonstrating great perspective and promising a solid end to the year. Just not the end he and his team had hoped.
“It’s part of life, it’s part of racing,” Truex said. “You take it one week at a time. Enjoy the good days and try to get past the bad ones, that’s what you do no matter where you’re at.
“Just, damn. It just hurts to go out like that. We could have raced all day and gotten in a big wreck and still not made it, so there’s no telling. But it sure would have been nice to have at least found out, played the whole game so to speak and see what happened instead of barely making it to the first pit stop. That stings. But all in all, we can’t hang our heads. We’ve got a lot to be proud of,” said Truex.
“This will make us stronger.”
RELATED: Full race results | Standings | Chase Grid
SHOP: Chase gear
The Round of 8 field of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is set after the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Engine issues ended championship hopes for Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski as they were two of four drivers eliminated from the postseason. Here’s a look at who advanced to the next three-race segment consisting of races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix — and who was eliminated. The points for the eight advancing drivers reset to 4,000.
WHO ADVANCED:
1. Joey Logano (No. 22 Ford, Team Penske–won at Talladega to lock in Round of 8 spot)
2. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports–won at Charlotte to lock in Round of 8 spot)
3. Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing–won at Kansas to lock in Round of 8 spot)
4. Matt Kenseth (No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing)
5. Carl Edwards (No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing)
6. Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing)
7. Kurt Busch (No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing)
8. Kyle Busch (No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing)
Of note, Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon tied for the final transfer spot. Hamlin will advance due to winning the tiebreaker, which is the best finish in the Round of 12. Hamlin finished third at Talladega; Dillon’s best finish of the round was sixth at Kansas.
WHO WAS ELIMINATED:
Austin Dillon (No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing)
Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing)
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Ford, Team Penske)
Chase Elliott (No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports)