Ross Chastain wins at Talladega, with a crazy finish (4-24-22)

By: Becca Cottingham Quimby

Headline Photo Courtesy: NASCAR Twitter Page

We head to the superspeedway of Talladega. In the opening laps, we already have an almost crash due to a line that did not form what was expected to form. Before too long we were four-wide until things calmed down to three-wide. We get back to two wide racing while multiple cars decided to fall to the back. Tyler Reddick came down right at the halfway point of stage one. This triggered the rest of the teams for green-flag pit stops. Two penalties for speeding on pit road for Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain. Cody Ware also almost took several cars as he came onto pit road. Both Ross Chastain and Brad Keselowski both had to serve pass-through penalties and this caused them to go a lap down. Ross Chastain did make a bold move to try to keep his lap that did not work but did probably make multiple drivers angry. Daniel Hemric lost his timing belt and collected two other drivers when he lost control. The first stage will end under caution with Bubba Wallace winning that stage.
Erik Jones will bring us back to green after he only took two tires during the stage break. He now is spending his time blocking both the bottom lane and the top lane. He will do this until the first caution comes out for another car having a timing belt break. We get another caution for BJ Mcloud spinning out and losing a wheel. This will lead to multiple restarts and cautions. With several mini-“big ones”. We get another caution as Cody Ware spins and gets stuck Cole Cluster had an engine let’s go on the apron of the track. They get back to racing and the Hendrick team is upfront and does not seem to be leaving the front. William Byron with everyone charging forward will win stage two.
Erik Jones’s team gets him out front for stage three. He stays upfront for a good portion but does get shuffled backward so that will change the order. If there are no cautions before midway drivers will need to come down and get fuel and not make mistakes. This will be a pitstop where drivers or crews can afford to make mistakes. It could be the last pit stop drivers can truly depend on. Brad Keselowski got hit with another penalty for speeding. He will have another pass-through penalty that he has to serve. Drivers settle down to conserve gas to ensure they have enough gas to get through. With about twelve laps to go the drivers will get the all-clear to do whatever they want and that is when things will truly heat up on the track. Things do heat up with less than twelve to go and multiple almost accidents happen but everyone keeps it in check. That is until the last lap when they are wrecking at the last moment when where Erik Jones and Kyle Larson give up the lead and Ross Chastain becomes the unofficial winner.