Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Chase Grid | Race results

 

TALLADEGA, Ala. — It was high drama for both NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers contending for a spot to advance in the series’ Chase on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. For John Hunter Nemechek, it was an abbreviated fate; for Daniel Hemric, the action went right to the wire.

 

Neither was able to race into the six-driver next phase of the title Chase, however, which will include William Byron, Christopher Bell, Timothy Peters, Matt Crafton, Ben Kennedy and Johnny Sauter.

 

The motor on Nemechek’s No. 8 Fire Alarm Services Chevrolet blew only 13 laps into Saturday’s 94-lap elimination race. And he was scored in last place in the 32-truck field.

 

Hemric, 25, was caught up in three incidents — two of them multi-truck crashes including “The Big One” with 36 laps remaining that essentially sealed his fate, leaving his No. 19 DrawTite Ford with heavy damage to the rear and left side. But still drivable.

 

He spun out again with 12 laps remaining and pitted for repairs. And despite all the drama, he still finished 11th and on the lead lap.

 

“Today was another statement of what we’ve done all year, battle to the end,” Hemric said, adding, “It was a matter of keep fighting, because you never know. We were trying to put ourselves in the best situation. I promise we made the most out of what was presented to us.”

 

In fact, with six laps remaining, Hemric’s closest competitor in the Chase, Matt Crafton, went behind the wall, his truck smoking when the crew lifted the hood. But even by that point, pulling out a victory remained Hemric’s best option to move on.

 

“Honestly, we were hoping to be in a points battle moving forward, but with knowing that situation was you still need to win races,” Hemric said. “… We’re going to go down swinging. I hate coming up short, but now we have nothing to lose to make that situation a reality.”

 

The first multi-truck crash happened with 51 laps remaining. Hemric’s teammate Tyler Reddick drove into the rear of his Ford while they both were trying to avoid an accident in front of them.

 

Hemric had to make an extended pit stop for repairs, going a lap down at the time but got back on the lead lap a handful of laps later as a result of another accident.

 

“A busy day to say the least. We didn’t qualify where we wanted to but I was around our teammates. I thought we would be OK. We knew coming here the variables of superspeedway racing. … I hate we got caught up in what we did but we did everything we could.

 

“The effort from this team was second to none. We were just a part of a lot of very unfortunate situations there that we couldn’t avoid, couldn’t miss. One, you can rebound from, two, you can probably rebound from, but the third one definitely put us in a bad situation. Hate we couldn’t win a race earlier and get locked in.”

 

The disappointment was also palpable for the 19-year-old second-generation driver Nemechek, whose family-owned team had positioned him for his first try at the series title. Nemechek qualified for the series’ first version of the Chase thanks to wins at Atlanta and again in a controversial close finish on the Bowmanville, Canada, road course.

 

But he hardly even got a shot to race into the next round after his motor let go on the Talladega high banks minutes into the race.

 

“All my temps were fine, I haven’t seen a big blow-up like that in a while,” said Nemechek. “We didn’t even really have a shot to race our way in. But that’s kind of how our last three weeks have been. I haven’t seen a motor blow up like that in a while. Bad stuff can happen at Talladega and unfortunately we got the bad side.

 

“We’ll go back and regroup. I’m very proud of all our guys and now our focus will be on just getting some wins.”

 

Nemechek has a pair of runner-up finishes (2015 and 2016) at next week’s short-track stop, Martinsville Speedway.

Posted on by Holly Cain

RELATED: Weekend schedule | Chase Grid

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Joey Logano smiled a little and didn’t waste any time with his answer.

 

“No.”

 

No, the defending race winner will not race any differently at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon despite needing an overwhelmingly positive result to advance to the next round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

 

Eight drivers will move on to challenge for the title. Logano is currently ranked eighth — owning a tiebreaker over ninth-place Austin Dillon.

 

But the eight-year veteran insisted Friday before opening practice at Talladega that his approach and demeanor this weekend would remain the same as it was last year, when he carried a two-race winning streak onto Dega’s high banks and ultimately hoisted that trophy, too.

 

“Honestly, (it’s) not much different, which is a good thing,” said Logano, driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. “I feel like our team is in a good spot. We had a great run last weekend in Kansas. We did make up some points. We’re in a great spot with having a really bad Charlotte, so our team has a lot of confidence in themselves.  

 

“We know we can do this. We’re coming into a race track that we know we’re good at. We know we can win here. Is the situation different? Obviously, it is. Last year, we were locked in. There was nothing to worry about. This year, we’re not, but we still have the same goal, so why should we approach the race any different?”

 

Logano opened this second round of the Chase with a 36th-place finish at Charlotte and rebounded with a third-place effort at Kansas Speedway last weekend.

 

Interestingly, when asked if he felt any pressure racing for his championship life at perhaps the most unpredictable venue in the Chase, the 26-year-old reminded that his approach is full throttle. Never defensive.

 

“I don’t really think about how people are trying to knock me out, I think about how I’m gonna knock other people out,” Logano said. “That’s my attitude. If I’m on defense, we’re not gonna win. We better stay on offense. That’s what this 22 team does. We’re gonna go out there and race hard because that’s what we know how to do when we come to speedways.

 

“Some guys can do it good the other way but, for us, we’re gonna go out there and race hard and try to stay up front, try to keep making our car better for the end of the race and to be there at the end.”

 

There is reason to believe Logano could solidify a Chase position. He has had solid, if inconsistent, results here outside his victory. And Logano’s Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski won at Talladega this spring and at Daytona this summer.

 

RELATED: Keselowski unfazed by Talladega pressure

 

When asked what matters more, skill and preparation or just plain luck — as many have suggested — Logano didn’t hesitate.

 

“I think it’s all skill and preparation — 100 percent in my opinion,” Logano said. “You create your own luck. That’s what I think. There might be a chance you run over something or something happens, but some things are just meant to be and some things aren’t. But if you can work and do everything you can do and prepare yourself to go out there and be the best, then that’s all you can do. I feel like that makes it, in my opinion, a lot about preparation.”

 

As for Logano, he seemed completely optimistic, perhaps even confident about his chances Sunday afternoon.

 

“Speedway racing isn’t as much of a crapshoot as a lot of people like to believe it is,” Logano said. “It sounds like it’s just an excuse to me. I think there is a lot of strategy and a lot of knowledge that has to go into playing this game.

 

“We’ve had a good, solid speedway program at Team Penske the last couple years and when you come to Talladega you get excited about it. It’s not quite like that for everybody, but for us, we get excited about speedway racing and the opportunity that presents itself this weekend, so we’re ready to get on the race track and see what we’ve got.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Race results | Updated Truck Series Chase Grid


A severe multi-truck crash thinned the field in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway.
 
The melee was triggered in the 59th of 94 laps, when Ben Rhodes‘ ThorSport Racing No. 41 Toyota was shuffled out of line after a push from Timothy Peters heading into the 2.66-mile track’s first turn. After bouncing off the outside retaining wall, Rhodes’ truck veered back into traffic, touching the No. 86 of Brandon Brown and congesting the high banks.


“It’s just a shame that it ended that way,” said Rhodes, who was running third at the time of the crash. “I just felt a huge shove from the rear and I had no way of controlling it.”
 
With the track blocked, several other drivers piled in. Among those involved: pole-starter Cole Custer, Chase competitors Daniel Hemric, Peters and William Byron as well as Korbin Forrister, John Wes Townley, Tyler Reddick, Chris Fontaine, Dylan Lupton, Austin Cindric, Rico Abreu and Cody Ware.


Although several trucks absorbed hard hits — with Brown’s among the hardest — all drivers were evaluated and released from the track’s infield care center.
 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Qualifying results | See every car in the field


TALLADEGA, Ala. – Just 13 points to the good entering Sunday’s Round of 12 cutoff race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Martin Truex Jr. gave himself as much of a cushion as possible, winning the pole for the Hellman’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway during Saturday’s knockout qualifying session.

Seventh in the Chase standings, and 13 points ahead of Joey Logano and Austin Dillon, Truex covered the 2.66-mile distance in 49.508 seconds (193.423 mph) to claim the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday’s race (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) that will trim the Chase field from 12 drivers to eight.

“It’s definitely cool,” said Truex, who has never won a restrictor-plate race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. “You come here, and you don’t really have a whole lot to say as a driver when it comes to qualifying, so obviously proud of the team and proud of everybody in Denver (Colorado) and proud of everybody at the race track for their efforts.

“Built a brand new car to come here, and it’s awesome to be the fastest guy in town. Excited about that, and obviously everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) who builds the engines has done a great job too – it takes a lot to get a restrictor plate pole, so excited for all those guys and really neat to lead Toyota to their 1,000th start (in NASCAR’s top three series combined). Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the victory when the day is over.”

Truex didn’t allow a pre-qualifying inspection issue to derail his effort. Before his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota rolled out onto the grid, NASCAR confiscated a non-conforming jack screw from the car and required the team to replace it with a legal part.

RELATED: NASCAR confiscates part from 78 team

The pole was Truex’s first at Talladega, his fourth of the season and the 11th of his career. Truex was .015 seconds faster than four-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski (193.365 mph), who will start on the outside of the front row.

Keselowski is 11th in the standings, seven points behind Logano and Dillon.

“It’s good to qualify up front,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s a good confidence boost. I feel like when we have cars that qualify well here, we race well. The Miller Lite Ford was really fast here in qualifying, and hopefully it will stay the same for Sunday.

“It’s been a good track for us, but past success is no guarantee. You have to go out and put the work in, and I think we’re ready to do just that.”

Chase drivers Matt Kenseth (193.189 mph) and Chase Elliott (193.166 mph) will start third and fourth, respectively. Elliott is 12th in the Chase standings, likely needing a victory in Sunday’s race to advance to the Round of 8.

“As we all know, qualifying here is all about the guys back in the shop preparing these cars,” Elliott said. “The Hendrick Engine shop gave me great speed, and the guys gave me an excellent car for tomorrow.

“Qualifying here at Talladega isn’t a make-or-break-you deal. I think it’s good. I think our car has decent speed, and hopefully that will show up on Sunday.”

Roush Fenway racing drivers Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., both non-Chasers, will start from the third row after qualifying fifth and sixth, respectively.

Other Chase drivers qualified as follows: Kurt Busch (seventh), Denny Hamlin (eighth), Dillon (ninth), Carl Edwards (13th), Kyle Busch (14th), Joey Logano (16th), Jimmie Johnson (17th) and Kevin Harvick (22nd). Johnson and Harvick already have earned spots in the Round of 8 by virtue of their respective victories at Charlotte and Kansas, leaving six berths available to the remaining 10 drivers.

Reed Sorenson, who was required to make the field on the basis of qualifying time, posted an eyebrow-raising lap of 194.145 mph to lead the first round, a sizable .326 seconds faster than the next-fastest driver, Truex. Sorenson’s Premium Motorsports No. 55 Toyota faded considerably in the final round and will start 12th. David Gilliland failed to qualify for the 40-car field.

NASCAR will meet and discuss the non-conforming jack screw on Truex’s car during its weekly competition meeting, but Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, characterized the imposition of a points penalty that would affect the Chase standings as “unlikely.”

“I would say it would be unlikely, but it has to go through our process,” Miller said. “We don’t typically do that on a weekend, and because this is the playoffs, everybody has a heightened sense of everything.

“But this is really no different than things that we’ve done all year. We’ll treat this one like just like we’ve done all year long.”

Three Joe Gibbs Racing cars — those of Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Kenseth — were pulled from the qualifying line just before their speed attempts. NASCAR officials said that they were investigating a potential issue with the rear deck lid and quarter panel area. With those issues remedied behind the wall, all three were allowed to qualify.

RELATED: JGR cars brought back through pre-qualifying inspection

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Race results | Updated Truck Series Chase Grid

TALLADEGA, Ala. – In the race that decided the lineup for the Round of 6 in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase, Alabama native Grant Enfinger stole the thunder from the playoff drivers in Saturday’s fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway.

 

With a strong push from GMS Racing teammate and Chase driver Ben Kennedy after a restart on Lap 93 of 94, Enfinger surged to the front and stayed there in the face of a last-lap challenger from another teammate, Spencer Gallagher, who came home second, .108 seconds behind the winner.

 

The victory was Enfinger’s first in 13 career starts in the series.

 

“It’s unbelievable,” said Enfinger, who led the first-ever 1-2 finish for GMS. “It’s my home track. It’s just so special.”


RELATED: ‘Big One’ shakes up Trucks Chase

The race reduced the NCWTS Chase field from eight drivers to six. Third-place finisher Timothy Peters was the highest finisher among those who advanced, followed by Kennedy in fifth place, as GMS drivers claimed four of the top seven positions.

 

“I got behind Grant Enfinger and tried to push him as much as I could,” said Kennedy, who shoved his teammate’s No. 24 Chevrolet to the front in the outside lane. “I knew the outside line had a little bit of something. I pushed him as much as I could, and once he got out to the lead, that truck was so fast out there.

 

“I thought about trying to make it three-wide, but I didn’t really have the momentum to carry it around him.”

 

Also moving on to the Round of 6 were sixth-place finisher Christopher Bell, GMS driver Johnny Sauter (seventh on Saturday), 10th-place finisher William Byron (who already had clinched a spot with a victory in the opening Chase race at New Hampshire) and Matt Crafton (who came home 22nd after his blown engine caused the seventh and final caution on Lap 89).


WATCH: Nemechek out after his engine expires

John Hunter Nemechek was eliminated from the Chase early in the race. The engine in his No. 8 Chevrolet expired on Lap 13, and Nemechek retired in 32nd place. Daniel Hemric, who entered the race below the Chase cut line, remained there thanks to three separate incidents on Saturday, the most costly a 14-car wreck on Lap 59 that severely damaged his No. 19 Ford.

 

Hemric finished 11th, but fell 13 points short of Crafton, whose engine problems occurred too late to be of help to Hemric, given that 10 other trucks already were in the garage when Crafton’s motor blew.

 

“Today was completely full of trials and trying to overcome things,” Hemric said. “All we can do now is try to win races. It wasn’t for lack of effort. We got involved in three or four different situations there and never had the opportunity to get back to the front.”

 

Sunoco Rookie Rico Abreu finished fourth, his second top-five of the season and his best result in the series on pavement.

 

Byron is the top seed in the Round of 6, followed by Bell, Peters, Crafton, Kennedy and Sauter. All six drivers start the Round of 6 with points reset to 3,000.

Posted on by Nascar

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Put into a position with nothing to lose and everything to gain, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers Daniel Hemric and John Hunter Nemechek have a simple plan for this weekend.

Swing for the fences, they both said.

Saturday’s fred’s 250 Powered by Coca-Cola at Talladega Superspeedway is the final race of the opening round of the inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase. Only one Chase participant, William Byron, scored a win in the previous two races, thus earning an automatic berth in the Round of 6 that begins next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

Hemric, driver of the No. 19 Ford for Brad Keselowski Racing, is seventh in points, 15 points outside Johnny Sauter in sixth.

Nemechek, driver of the No. 8 Nemco Motorsports Chevrolet, is eighth, tied with Hemric for points and also 15 points outside the cutoff.

“Everything here is kind of out of your hands,” Nemechek, twice a winner this season, said Friday. “Being at Talladega in the spot that we’re in … being 15 points out, I think it’s way better for me to be able to come here … where anything can happen.

“If we finish top five and someone else got caught up in somebody else’s wreck and we didn’t, we’d have a shot to make it compared to a mile-and-a-half track or short track where they can ride around all day and kind of salvage a finish where they make sure they make it.

“I haven’t quite called in any favors or anything like that. If we were able to qualify up front and run up front all day, as long as we put ourselves in a position to be top four in, where you can make a move coming to the start/finish line, I think you’ll be all right. But who knows?”

Christopher Bell, two-time series champion Matt Crafton, Ben Kennedy and Timothy Peters are second through fifth in points. All have won at least once this year, except for Peters. But he’s won here at Talladega the last two times the series visited the 2.66-mile track.

“In order to win now, we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing and not change anything at this point,” Hemric said.

“All we can do here is control what we can control, go into it approaching every situation that way, whether it’s practice, qualifying or the race. If we execute on all ends, I see no reason why we shouldn’t have a shot at it.

“At the end of the day … I think I would rather be on the end we’re on. Obviously if you’ve won, that’s even better. But the situation where we can go down swinging and not playing defense all day, I think, is going to be a good thing for (Nemechek) and I, both.”

Posted on by Nascar

TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Casey Mears says he and the Germain Racing No. 13 team are concentrating their efforts only on the remaining five races of 2016 and can’t speak about next year.

“Not at the moment,” Mears said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. “Right now we’re just focused on what we talked about at the beginning of the season. Focus on the remainder of this year first and foremost.”

Mears, 38, has one victory in 483 career starts at NASCAR’s top level, capturing the 2007 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He has a best points finish of 14th in 2006.

Rumors have Germain opting to replace Mears next season, possibly with NASCAR XFINITY Series driver Ty Dillon. Dillon’s Richard Childress Racing organization has a technical alliance with Germain.

Geico, the No. 13 team’s primary sponsor, is signed through 2018. In many cases, sponsor and driver contracts run concurrently.

“As I know more, we can talk about it,” Mears said. “But right now we’re just focused on getting through this weekend.”

Mears enters Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 28th in points. He has five top-10 finishes in 26 careers starts at the 2.66-mile track.

Posted on by Holly Cain

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Carl Edwards joked earlier this week about the possibility of finally, at long last, joining the popular social media site, Twitter.


And the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship runner-up was asked again about it Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, where Edwards again promised he would join the social media site if he wins the 2016 season championship.

 

“Yeah, it’s going to happen,’” Edwards said, shaking his head and smiling.

Among NASCAR’s most famous “Twitter-less” drivers, Edwards told reporters he didn’t know how popular the social media site would be by the time he finally acquiesced.

 

“By the time I join Twitter, Twitter will be like out of fashion probably,” he said. “But that’s my plan … to tweet from Victory Lane at Homestead. That would be good.”

 

There’s one small hitch: Edwards was admittedly unsure of the details.

 

“I don’t know what my Twitter handle would be,” he said.

 

Earlier in the week, reporters attending a NASCAR test at Homestead-Miami Speedway had reminded Edwards of his pledge to join Twitter if he clinched the 2016 Cup title. And he surprised the media group by telling them he had considered posting something from that test session on Twitter via his public relations representative’s account.

 

Other high-profile drivers such as Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick and Brad Keselowski have been active on the site. Dale Earnhardt Jr. famously started using his Twitter account after winning his second Daytona 500 in 2014, and now has 1.76 million followers.

Only one thing is stopping Edwards from joining right now.

 

“I committed if we won the championship I will join,” Edwards said.