Keselowski Wins at Talladega

Brad Keselowski won the Geico 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first victory of 2021.

Keselowski ran up front for most of the day, but he didn’t get to the lead until the very final lap.  Matt DiBenedetto attempted to block a run from the high line, which opened up the bottom for Keselowski to come through.

Keselowski held off William Byron and Daytona 500 champion Michael McDowell at the line, and Keselowski said he knew a strong run was coming when the field came off of Turn 4.

“I saw it coming,” Keselowski said.  “Everybody’s just racing hard and pushing hard.  That’s Talladega.”

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The victory was Keselowski’s sixth at Talladega, which tied him with NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Keselowski said he never expected to tie two legends of the sport at one of the hardest racetracks on the schedule.

“We’ve been so close here, it just didn’t seem to want to come together the past couple years,” Keselowski said.  “I’ve been on kind of a four-year drought.  I’d have never believed I’d tie Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.; those guys are really legends.”

Keselowski was involved in an accident at the end of Stage 1 that saw his teammate Joey Logano go airborne.  Keselowski said his team was able to repair the damage to keep him in the race.

“We had an accident there early, and they recovered and got it fixed up to where I could keep running,” Keselowski said.  “Really proud of my team.”

“What an awesome day.  The whole race we had a couple chances to take the lead, but I just kept thinking to keep the car in one piece for the end.”

Unofficial results:

1. Brad Keselowski

2. William Byron

3. Michael McDowell

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Matt DiBenedetto

6. Kaz Grala

7. Tyler Reddick

8. Austin Dillon

9. Ryan Blaney

10. Cole Custer

11. Chase Briscoe

12. Anthony Alfredo

13. Ryan Newman

14. Ryan Preece

15. Aric Almirola

16. Ross Chastain

17. Christopher Bell

18. Kyle Busch

19. Bubba Wallace

20. Harrison Burton

21. Chris Buescher

22. Corey LaJoie

23. Daniel Suarez

24. Chase Elliott

25. BJ McLeod

26. JJ Yeley

27. Erik Jones

28. Cody Ware

29. Timmy Hill

30. Justin Haley

31. Martin Truex Jr.

32. Denny Hamlin

33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

34. Joey Gase

35. Kurt Busch

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Quin Houff

38. Alex Bowman

39. Joey Logano

40. Kyle Larson

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Bowman Passes Hamlin Late, Wins at Richmond

Alex Bowman won the Toyota Owners 400 from Richmond Raceway on Sunday afternoon.

Bowman had a fast car throughout the race, but he didn’t take the lead until a late restart with ten laps remaining.  After restarting third, Bowman got around Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin to pick up his first win of the season.

Bowman said he was able to get by Hamlin due to his crew chief’s slight adjustment on the final pit stop.

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“Getting to race a guy like Denny at a place like this is really cool,” Bowman said.  “We were terrible on short runs.  I don’t know if Greg Ives pumped the pressures way up or what he did, but that’s more grip than I’ve ever had in a racecar at Richmond.”

Bowman said the victory was emotional following the death of a crew member in the offseason.

“Means the world to be able to win for Ally,” Bowman said.  “Obviously emotional with how hard the offseason was on us.  Appreciative for the opportunity, and we’ve got a lot more races to win this year.”

Hamlin didn’t have enough time to chase down Bowman in the closing laps and had to settle for second.  With the dominant car on Sunday, Hamlin led a race-high 207 laps and swept both stages.

Hamlin said his team continues to roll even though they’ve been kept out of Victory Lane.

“We just didn’t take off quite as good there at the end,” Hamlin said.  “He had more grip there for a couple laps and I couldn’t hold the bottom.  Once he got position, we just got shoved out there.”

“Great job by this FedEx Ground team.  We’ll keep digging; we’re dominating, just got to finish it.”

Unofficial results:

1. Alex Bowman

2. Denny Hamlin

3. Joey Logano

4. Christopher Bell

5. Martin Truex Jr.

6. Aric Almirola

7. William Byron

8. Kyle Busch

9. Matt DiBenedetto

10. Austin Dillon

11. Ryan Blaney

12. Chase Elliott

13. Kurt Busch

14. Brad Keselowski

15. Ross Chastain

16. Daniel Suarez

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Kyle Larson

19. Erik Jones

20. Tyler Reddick

21. Corey LaJoie

22. Chase Briscoe

23. Cole Custer

24. Kevin Harvick

25. Chris Buescher

26. Bubba Wallace

27. Michael McDowell

28. Austin Cindric

29. Ryan Preece

30. Ryan Newman

31. Anthony Alfredo

32. BJ McLeod

33. James Davison

34. Quin Houff

35. Garrett Smithley

36. Cody Ware

37. Josh Bilicki

38. Justin Haley

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Truex Wins at Martinsville

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Blue Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday to pick up his second win of the season.

Truex ran towards the front for most of the day, but his car began to come alive when the sun set.  Truex got around Denny Hamlin late in the race and was able to pull away to pick up the win.

Truex said the teammates had diverging setups at the end of the race.

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“I was loose coming off the corners and his car got tight,” Truex said.  “We kind of had opposite things going on and it made it difficult to pass.”

Truex said he struggled with his handling until the lights came on towards the end of the race.

“[Crew chief] James Small and the guys really hung with me all day,” Truex said.  “We never could quite get it the way we wanted.  It started getting dark and it came to life.”

Hamlin was dominant throughout the race, and led a race-high 276 laps before settling for a third-place finish.

After a rash of cautions throughout the third stage, Hamlin said his car didn’t have the speed over the final green flag run.

“We had a good short-run car, just did not have a good long-run car,” Hamlin said.  “We had a really fast car for 20 laps or so, and then it would just kind of go away.”

“We had a great day and stayed up front all day.  Gave ourselves a shot at it, just wasn’t quite good enough.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Chase Elliott

3. Denny Hamlin

4. William Byron

5. Kyle Larson

6. Joey Logano

7. Christopher Bell

8. Tyler Reddick

9. Kevin Harvick

10. Kyle Busch

11. Ryan Blaney

12. Matt DiBenedetto

13. Chris Buescher

14. Austin Dillon

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Ross Chastain

18. Cole Custer

19. Ryan Newman

20. Aric Almirola

21. Kurt Busch

22. James Davison

23. Josh Bilicki

24. Quin Houff

25. JJ Yeley

26. Anthony Alfredo

27. Chase Briscoe

28. Cody Ware

29. BJ McLeod

30. Erik Jones

31. Michael McDowell

32. Daniel Suarez

33. Brad Keselowski

34. Alex Bowman

35. Justin Haley

36. Ryan Preece

37. Corey LaJoie

 

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