Chastain Picks Up Win in Wild Talladega Finish

 Ross Chastain won the Geico 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his second victory of the season.

Chastain ran up front over the final run, and was third coming out of the final corner. The lead cars of Erik Jones and Kyle Larson made contact entering the trioval, and Chastain was able to get clear of everyone else as the field began wrecking behind him.

Chastain won for the second time in the past five weeks, and said he was excited to get off to such a good start with his new team Trackhouse Racing.

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“Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious,” Chastain said. “I had no idea what to expect other than that I had my group from last year. I’ve wrecked myself so many times.”

Chastain said he was committed to run the bottom on the final laps and didn’t want to take himself out of contention.

“I’m always the one going to the top too early and making the mistake,” Chastain said. “There at the end…I’m not going up there again, I did that a couple times today. They just kept moving out of the way.”

Jones finished sixth on Sunday after making contact with Larson on the final lap while defending the lead.

Jones said he didn’t realize the bottom lane had so much momentum coming to the checkered flag.

“They kind of doubled up behind us, and that top lane was getting some momentum,” Jones said.  “Looking back, I wish I would have stayed on the bottom and let [Chastain] push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed.”

“You can only see so much going on from the seat; you’re trying to make the best decision you can in the last 1500 feet.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ross Chastain

2. Austin Dillon

3. Kyle Busch

4. Kyle Larson

5. Martin Truex Jr.

6. Erik Jones

7. Chase Elliott

8. Michael McDowell

9. Alex Bowman

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Ryan Blaney

12. Justin Haley

13. Aric Almirola

14. Corey LaJoie

15. William Byron

16. Kurt Busch

17. Bubba Wallace

18. Denny Hamlin

19. Landon Cassill

20. Noah Gragson

21. Austin Cindric

22. Christopher Bell

23. Brad Keselowski

24. David Ragan

25. JJ Yeley

26. BJ McLeod

27. Todd Gilliland

28. Cody Ware

29. Cole Custer

30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Joey Logano

33. Ty Dillon

34. Harrison Burton

35. Greg Biffle

36. Daniel Hemric

37. Chase Briscoe

38. Chris Buescher

39. Tyler Reddick

 

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Byron Holds Off Logano and Dillon to Win at Martinsville

William Byron won the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 from Martinsville Speedway on Saturday night.

Byron had a strong car throughout the race, but followed his teammate Chase Elliott through the first two stages. Byron finally took the lead on the pit stop at the second stage break, and the only time he gave it up over the final 200 laps was during green-flag pit stops.

Byron had to hold off Joey Logano and Austin Dillon on the final overtime restart after a late caution bunched up the field on his way to his second win of the season.

Byron said he knew he would need to be perfect over the final two laps with strong cars behind him.

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“I knew when that last caution came out...I thought everybody behind us would pit and luckily we…were aggressive,” Byron said.  “I chattered the tires in 3 and 4, and kind of left the bottom open. I was able to kind of block my exits and get a good drive off.”

Byron won Thursday night’s Camping World Truck Series race, and said he had always wanted to win one of most famous trophies on the circuit, a grandfather clock.

“Always wanted to win at Martinsville,” Byron said.  “Got two clocks this weekend, so I enjoy that.”

Logano said Byron did a good job defending the lead over the final two laps.

“William kind of messed up off of four and let me get to him,” Logano said.  “He did a really good job of brake-checking. I couldn’t accelerate off the corner and be as close as I needed to be down into 3 to execute the old bump-and-run.”

Dillon started 23rd on Saturday, and a strong long-run car allowed him to get to the front on a rare Martinsville race that went caution-free for most of the night. Dillon restarted third on the final restart, but he was forced to defend after he spun the tires heading to the green flag.

Dillon said he was disappointed he couldn’t capitalize on a car with such speed throughout the day.

“I like to pride myself on when we get in those situations as being clutch, and that was anything but on that last restart,” Dillon said.  “Once I got back in line there, I had some grip and I feel like we had good forward drive all night long. I just felt like if we got through the gears, we’d have a shot at him.”

“We’ve been working our tails off. We’ve been working really hard to make this car as good as possible. Want to get RCR a win and that’s what we’re here racing for.”

Unofficial results:

1. William Byron

2. Joey Logano

3. Austin Dillon

4. Ryan Blaney

5. Ross Chastain

6. Kurt Busch

7. Kyle Busch

8. Aric Almirola

9. Chase Briscoe

10. Chase Elliott

11. Austin Cindric

12. Alex Bowman

13. Erik Jones

14. Kevin Harvick

15. Chris Buescher

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Brad Keselowski

18. Tyler Reddick

19. Kyle Larson

20. Christopher Bell

21. Cole Custer

22. Martin Truex Jr.

23. Ty Dillon

24. AJ Allmendinger

25. Michael McDowell

26. Harrison Burton

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

28. Denny Hamlin

29. Daniel Suarez

30. Todd Gilliland

31. Justin Haley

32. Corey LaJoie

33. Cody Ware

34. JJ Yeley

35. Josh Bilicki

36. BJ McLeod

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Hamlin Wins at Richmond Amid Differing Strategies

Denny Hamlin won the Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond Raceway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first win of the season.

With the race winding down, the leaders utilized different pit strategies. William Byron led and tried to stay ahead of Martin Truex Jr. as they navigated lapped traffic, while the duo of Hamlin and Kevin Harvick quickly made their way to the front.

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With Byron and Truex on older tires, Hamlin took the lead with four laps to go and was able to hold off Harvick over the final laps.

Hamlin said his team had the perfect strategy on the final pit stop.

“So proud of this FedEx team, just never giving up,” Hamlin said.  “Great strategy there; drove as hard as I could. They got the car right there towards the end.”

Hamlin has had a slow start to the season, and didn’t have a Top 10 in the first six races of the season.

Hamlin said he had hoped to have a solid run to find out where their cars stacked up.

“Before the race, we needed a data point,” Hamlin said.  “A good run to balance ourselves on other tracks, and obviously I think we got it here.”

Harvick followed Hamlin past Truex and Byron, but couldn’t get close enough to make a move for the win.

Harvick said he was happy to have a strong result after they’ve brought fast cars to the track every week.

“It’s really the first clean day we’ve had all year,” Harvick said.  “Cars have been fast…just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for staying in there.”

“I wanted to be close enough at the white to take a swipe at him, but the lapped cars there kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. Hopefully a little momentum in a positive direction.”

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Kevin Harvick

3. William Byron

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Kyle Larson

6. Christopher Bell

7. Ryan Blaney

8. Alex Bowman

9. Kyle Busch

10. Austin Dillon

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Tyler Reddick

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Chase Elliott

15. Chris Buescher

16. Daniel Suarez

17. Joey Logano

18. Harrison Burton

19. Ross Chastain

20. Austin Cindric

21. Aric Almirola

22. Cole Custer

23. Erik Jones

24. Ty Dillon

25. Todd Gilliland

26. Bubba Wallace

27. AJ Allmendinger

28. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

29. Justin Haley

30. Michael McDowell

31. Corey LaJoie

32. Landon Cassill

33. JJ Yeley

34. BJ McLeod

35. Kurt Busch

36. Cody Ware

37. Greg Biffle

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images