Talladega 2 Race Review and Analysis


 


Sweet home Alabama!  The Nascar Cup Series visited Talladega Superspeedway for the second race of the Round of 12.  Chase Elliott takes home the checkered flag in Alabama.  This is Elliott’s 5th win of the 2022 season and 18th of his career.  Elliott will have no worries heading into the Charlotte Roval. 



Coming into today, non-playoff drivers, have been winning each of the last four races.  Elliott breaks that streak with his 2nd win at Talladega Superspeedway.  Elliott pulled off this win by managing the draft, and the hard pushes coming from behind.  Erik Jones stuck with Chase Elliott for the overtime restart.  Elliott was able to utilize Jones’ push for the lead, and eventually the checkered flag.  Heartbreak strikes for Ryan Blaney, and Michael McDowell.  Blaney was not able to block the outside lane’s momentum, which sealed his chances of a win.  McDowell in one of his circled races on the 2022 schedule just came up short in 3rd place.  Ryan Blaney is in a great position to advance to the round of 8 but settles for 2nd in Talladega. 


(Chase Elliott Post-Race)

Although today was a more tamed Talladega race, playoff controversy still stands.  Chase Elliott is locked into the next round.  Ryan Blaney is sitting just fine at the top of the standings, without a win. Ross Chastain is right behind Elliott, and Blaney.  Denny Hamlin falls in line, along with Joey Logano to round out the top five in the standings.  Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez are 6th, and 7th in the standings.  For the eighth, and final spot, Austin Cindric, and Chase Briscoe are currently in a tie.  William Byron, Christopher Bell, and Alex Bowman are in must-win situations.  Bowman, who missed today’s race due to concussion-like symptoms from a crash at Texas last weekend, has a playoff waiver granted to him by Nascar.  Although that is the case, he still must perform next week in Charlotte. 


Ty Dillon, right side window blew off on the back straightaway, Ty Dillon finished 23rd.  Austin Cindric entered pit road too fast during stage 1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. set off a wreck heading into turn 1. Noah Gragson. Harrison Burton were a few involved. Ty Gibbs also was involved. He and Harrison Burton were done for the day.  Corey LaJoie brought out one of the few cautions today for a cut tire, which led to a wreck. Lastly, which led to the overtime restart, Daniel Hemric stalled in a pit box leaving pit road with 6 laps to go. 





(Racing on a Beautiful Sunday in Alabama)


Let’s go through today’s top finishers.  Chase Elliott takes home the checkered flag in Talladega for Hendrick Motorsports.  Ryan Blaney finished 2nd for Team Penske.  Michael McDowell comes home 3rd for Front Row Motorsports.  Ross Chastain comes home 4th for Trackhouse Racing.  Denny Hamlin crosses the line 5th for Joe Gibbs Racing.  Erik Jones finished 6th for Petty GMS Motorsports.  Todd Gilliland comes home 7th for Front Row Motorsports.  Daniel Suarez followed behind in 8th for Trackhouse Racing.  Austin Cindric finished 9th for Team Penske, followed by Chase Briscoe in 10th for Stewart-Haas Racing. Honorable mentions go out to Landon Cassill in 11th for Spire Motorsports and William Byron in 12th for Hendrick Motorsports.  Along with Austin Dillon in 13th for Richard Childress Racing, and Aric Almirola in 14th for Stewart-Haas Racing.  The final three go to Justin Haley in 15th for Kaulig Racing, and Bubba Wallace in 16th for 23XI Racing.  Lastly, in substitution for Alex Bowman, Noah Gragson in 19th for Hendrick Motorsports. 



(Chase Elliott in Victory Lane)

In my opinion, today was nice.  Talladega produced once again all weekend long.  We saw photo finishes for each of the three races this weekend.  Even though this Talladega race didn’t consist of many cautions for wrecks, it was still a solid race. Thankfully, weather did not impact all of Alabama, or this weekends slate in Talladega. Our thoughts, are with all of the people impact by the hurricane earlier this week. Taking all action into consideration, I’d rate today’s event an 8.9 out of 10. 




(Chase Elliott: The People's Champion)


Leaving Talladega behind, we head to Charlotte! The Nascar Cup Series will visit Charlotte Motor Speedway. But instead of the oval, we’ll be on the Roval.  The Xfinity and Cup Series will make the short trip to Concord, North Carolina.  This will be the cutoff race in order to advance to the round of 8 for the Xfinity Series.  Also, this is the cutoff race for the Cup Series to advance to the round of 8.  The Camping World Truck Series will return to Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks.  Practice and qualifying for the Xfinity Series will be at 10:00am ET on Saturday. The Drive for the Cure 250 presented by BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina Xfinity race will be at 3:00pm ET on Saturday on NBC.  Practice and qualifying for the Cup Series will be at 12:00pm ET on Saturday.  The Cup Series Bank of America ROVAL 400 will be at 2:00pm ET, Sunday on NBC. 



(The Playoff Standings Post-Talladega)




( All images credited to https://www.foxsports.com/nascar/cup-series.)


For next week's race information please view the link down below:


https://www.charlottemotorspeedway.com/


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Homestead Miami Race Review"

Image
  Justin Glenn  3/1/21 2:11pm Homestead Miami Race Review The “ Homestead Miami Speedway” Is where the Nascar Cup Series race ended yesterday ending in good fashion. Yesterday’s race resulted in a great win for William Byron, but also showed some new faces up front. Here is Yesterday's closing laps. William Byron took the checkered flag to record his second career win and first of this 2021 season. The Nascar Cup Series and also the Truck and Xfinity Series will be back in action six days from now at the For the Pennzoil 400 at 3:30 on FOX. My personal Opinion:  I thought this was a pretty solid race, it definitely didn’t show the balance in the field as people will be looking for next week. But all in all it was a pretty good race but as already known Sunday, Las Vegas is next as week 4 of this Nascar season rolls on heading in to the west coast swing. Additional resources: https://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.com/ https://www.lvms.com/
Read more

New Hampshire Race Review and Analysis

Image
  Racing in New Hampshire!  The Nascar Cup Series visited New Hampshire Motor Speedway, located in Loudon, New Hampshire, for the Ambetter 301.  In a ground-shaking way, Christopher Bell takes home the checkered flag.  This is Christopher Bell’s 2nd career win, and first of the 2022 season.  Bell is now the 14th different winner in 20 races.  Bell jumps the playoff standings and stamps his ticket to the 2022 Nascar playoffs. (Christopher Bell Burning it down Post-Race) Entering this afternoon in New Hampshire, only three spots were left for the playoffs.  Today, Christopher Bell, at arguably his best track, takes away one of those spots.  Christopher Bell entered this weekend with an up and down stretch after leaving Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Bell’s #20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine, showed up with speed, as that paid dividends this afternoon.  The 27-year-old raced hard today, as he took the lead from Chase Elliott which was eventually for the win.  He was one of the many Toyota drivers to
Read more

Homestead-Miami Race Review and Analysis

Image
  The long-awaited return to Homestead-Miami, Florida. After a year and a half, the Nascar Cup Series made its return to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kyle Larson, in a dominant, and almost perfect afternoon, took home the checkered flag.  This is Larson's 3rd win of the 2022 season and the 19th of his career.  Larson swept both stages 1 and 2.  (Kyle Larson with the Homestead-Miami Trophy) Let’s go through today’s race, John Hunter Nemechek, after running 4th for most of stage 1, spun coming out of turn 1.  This derailed Nemechek’s promising weekend, as he finished 27th.  Chase Briscoe, who is now in a must-win situation, was done for the day by the end of stage 2. After contact with the outside wall, Briscoe’s afternoon was done. Tyler Reddick had a hard hit into the outside wall with 22 laps to go. Reddick, running the outside lane, got loose, and made heavy contact with the inside wall on the back straightaway, coming out of turn 2. Lastly, Kyle Larson spun Martin Truex Jr. on pit
Read more