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

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

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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Logano Wins at Bristol as Cup Series Returns to Dirt

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Joey Logano won the Food City Dirt Race from the Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday afternoon.

Logano took the lead in the second stage and held on over the final stage to win the first dirt race for the Cup Series in over 50 years.

Logano said he’s put in a lot of work in the past few weeks to better prepare himself to race on dirt.

“We did a lot of work in the dirt department here the last few weeks,” Logano said.  “Just making laps and learning where I was going, and a lot of that helped.”

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Logano held off Denny Hamlin over the final stage as the two drivers fought their way through lapped traffic.  Logano pulled out ahead on the final restart when Hamlin’s car didn’t stick on the high side headed into Turn 1.

Logano said he had to change his driving style to hold Hamlin off over the final run.

“Denny and I had a heck of a race because he found grip up top,” Logano said.  “I don’t know how to do that, so I had to go up there and figure it out.  Defended the lead position and then eventually just worked the lapped cars.”

Hamlin said the track lost grip before the final restart and he couldn’t hang with Logano on the high side.

“They didn’t prep it in between cautions like they did before,” Hamlin said.  “I thought I could just…run the top in hard.  It was just marbles up there.”

“Thought I had a shot there; cut the 22 [of Logano] too many breaks there when he was cutting us off.  We’re third-best again.”

Unofficial results:

1. Joey Logano

2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

3. Denny Hamlin

4. Daniel Suarez

5. Ryan Newman

6. William Byron

7. Tyler Reddick

8. Ryan Blaney

9. Erik Jones

10. Chase Elliott

11. Brad Keselowski

12. Michael McDowell

13. Matt DiBenedetto

14. Chris Buescher

15. Kevin Harvick

16. Kurt Busch

17. Kyle Busch

18. Ryan Preece

19. Martin Truex Jr.

20. Chase Briscoe

21. Austin Dillon

22. Alex Bowman

23. Stewart Friesen

24. Cole Custer

25. Quin Houff

26. Ty Dillon

27. Bubba Wallace

28. JJ Yeley

29. Kyle Larson

30. Josh Bilicki

31. Mike Marlar

32. Cody Ware

33. Chris Windom

34. Christopher Bell

35. Ross Chastain

36. Aric Almirola

37. Shane Golobic

38. Corey LaJoie

39. Anthony Alfredo

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Blaney Wins, Larson Dominates in Atlanta

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Ryan Blaney won the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first victory of the year.

Kyle Larson had a dominant car throughout the race and won both stages while leading 269 of 325 laps.  Over the final run, Blaney was able to close in on Larson.  With eight laps remaining, Blaney got around Larson to pick up the victory.

Blaney said the long run at the end of the race worked to his car’s strengths.

“We had a great long-run car all day, and it took us a bit to get going,” Blaney said.  “A couple long runs at the end that let us get there.  It looked like Kyle was getting loose and I’m happy it worked in our favor.”

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

As Blaney was chasing Larson down, his teammate Joey Logano was fighting Larson to stay on the lead lap.  Logano disrupted enough of the air around Larson’s car to take the handling away.

Blaney said the lapped traffic played a role in his ability to get around Larson.

“[Larson] got stoved up behind some lapped traffic,” Blaney said.  “We’ve been good this year and had some bad breaks; it’s nice to close out a race like that.”

At one point in the race, Larson had a 10-second lead on the rest of the field, which allowed him to save his tires while keeping a safe distance on the rest of the field.

With Blaney closing in, Larson said he didn’t get a chance over the final run to save his tires and fight for the win.

“I think [Blaney] got a lot better that last stage and it kind of changed up my flow of the race,” Larson said.  “I could get out to such a big lead and then I could take care of my stuff.  He was fast there and I just wanted to maintain that gap; I had to run on the faster part of the racetrack and just used my stuff up.”

“Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was stupid fast there for a long time.  Hate to lead a lot of laps and lose, but a really good car that we brought to the track.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ryan Blaney

2. Kyle Larson

3. Alex Bowman

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Kyle Busch

6. Austin Dillon

7. Chris Buescher

8. William Byron

9. Martin Truex Jr.

10. Kevin Harvick

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Ryan Newman

14. Ross Chastain

15. Joey Logano

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Daniel Suarez

18. Cole Custer

19. Michael McDowell

20. Aric Almirola

21. Christopher Bell

22. Austin Cindric

23. Chase Briscoe

24. Erik Jones

25. Ryan Preece

26. Tyler Reddick

27. Anthony Alfredo

28. Brad Keselowski

29. Corey LaJoie

30. Justin Haley

31. Cody Ware

32. James Davison

33. Quin Houff

34. BJ McLeod

35. Joey Gase

36. Timmy Hill

37. Josh Bilicki

38. Chase Elliott

39. Kurt Busch

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Truex Out-Duels Logano in Phoenix

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the Instacart 500 from Phoenix Raceway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first victory of the season.

Truex passed Joey Logano on a late restart to take the lead, and he was able to hold off the field to pick up the win.

Following early contact with the wall, Truex’s team was able to get his car dialed-in.  After his team was able to get him track position up front, Truex had one of the fastest cars on the track.

After winning only once in 2020, Truex said he was excited to get back to victory lane early in the season.

“We had a tough year last year; we were a little bit rocky,” Truex said.  “That was a hell of an effort by everybody.  Just so thankful for everyone at JGR and everybody that makes this possible.”

Phoenix will host the season finale in November, and Truex said he hopes he will be fighting for a championship the next time the Cup Series takes to the track.

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

“Phoenix has been a tough one for us,” Truex said.  “I wish it was November, but hopefully we can come back here in November and have a shot at being in the final four.”

Logano led a race-high 143 laps, but he had to settle for second after Truex took the lead on the final restart.  Logano took the inside lane coming back to green, but Truex was able to hang on the outside to take control.

Logano said he thought the bottom was going to allow him to pull ahead of Truex on the final restart.

“I was surprised [Truex] was able to hang with me on that start,” Logano said.  “When you’re in the corner door-to-door, the outside car has control of you.”

“Overall a solid day.  It’s not a win; second hurts, but we’ll move on and go to Atlanta.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Joey Logano

3. Denny Hamlin

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Chase Elliott

6. Kevin Harvick

7. Kyle Larson

8. William Byron

9. Christopher Bell

10. Ryan Blaney

11. Aric Almirola

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

13. Alex Bowman

14. Matt DiBenedetto

15. Kurt Busch

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Austin Dillon

18. Chris Buescher

19. Ross Chastain

20. Erik Jones

21. Daniel Suarez

22. Chase Briscoe

23. Michael McDowell

24. Justin Haley

25. Kyle Busch

26. Ryan Preece

27. Corey LaJoie

28. Ryan Newman

29. Tyler Reddick

30. BJ McLeod

31. Cole Custer

32. Quin Houff

33. James Davison

34. Garrett Smithley

35. Josh Bilicki

36. Cody Ware

37. Anthony Alfredo

38. Timmy Hill

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Larson Returns to Victory Lane in Las Vegas

 Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kyle Larson won the Pennzoil 400 from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to pick up his first victory with Hendrick Motorsports.

Larson was dominant on Sunday and, along with his other Hendrick teammates Chase Elliott and William Byron, ran up front for most of the race.  Larson led a race-high 103 laps.

After winning in just his fourth start with Hendrick Motorsports, Larson said the victory was special.

“It was such an awesome race car,” Larson said.  “I could go wherever I wanted to; I knew we had a pretty good car once we got single-filed out.  Thank you so much Mr. Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for the amazing opportunity I’ve been gifted.”

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Larson returned to the Cup Series in 2021 after being suspended for most of the 2020 season for uttering a racial slur during an iRacing event amidst the COVID shutdown.

Larson said he was thankful to get a win for Rick Hendrick while driving a paint scheme in honor of the team owner’s late son.

“I know this is Rick’s most special paint scheme, for obvious reason, and it’s just an honor for me to be able to drive it,” Larson said.  “Our first time out with this color scheme…this is definitely special.”

Brad Keselowski finished second on Sunday, but he wasn’t able to catch Larson over the final stage.  After closing in following a miscue by Larson before the final pit stop, Keselowski was unable to make the winning pass and saw Larson pull away over the final 30 laps.

Keselowski said Larson’s ability to put the car wherever it needed to go was the difference in the race.

“He was really fast,” Keselowski said.  “He had a lot of speed in all the lanes, which was really impressive.  Usually you have to make a compromise, but they were really good.”

“If Kyle Larson wasn’t here, it would have been a dominant day.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Larson

2. Brad Keselowski

3. Kyle Busch

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Martin Truex Jr.

7. Christopher Bell

8. William Byron

9. Joey Logano

10. Erik Jones

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

12. Austin Dillon

13. Chase Elliott

14. Chris Buescher

15. Ryan Preece

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Michael McDowell

18. Ryan Newman

19. Kurt Busch

20. Kevin Harvick

21. Chase Briscoe

22. Tyler Reddick

23. Ross Chastain

24. Anthony Alfredo

25. Cole Custer

26. Daniel Suarez

27. Alex Bowman

28. Bubba Wallace

29. Justin Haley

30. BJ McLeod

31. Garrett Smithley

32. Cody Ware

33. Quin Houff

34. Joey Gase

35. Josh Bilicki

36. Timmy Hill

37. Corey LaJoie

38. Aric Almirola

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images