Chase Elliott continues his playoff lead with the victory at Talladega (10-2-22)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
Headline Photo Courtesy of NASCAR Twitter Page
We head to Talladega for what is sure to be an adventurous race. We got a very early caution due to Ty Dillon having his right-side window blow out. So multiple people opted to pit for fuel and tires early to not have to spend as much time later on pit road. Ross Chastain will lead us back to green. We had a third line forming and it causes a mini big wreck. Ricky Stenhouse Jr gives a bump push to Harrison Burton and he could not handle that push and triggered a significant accident. Denny Hamlin and William Bryon are working together to move towards the front even after last week’s issue. Corey Lajoie has a right front go down and he hit the wall and he brought out another caution. Denny Hamlin and William Byron continue to work together. This ends up not working out for either one of them. William Byron will go backward and Denny Hamlin will keep great momentum. There is less than two feet difference between him and Ryan Blaney when they pass the green checkered flag. Narrowly missing the win for Denny Hamlin the stage one win goes to Ryan Blaney.
Headline Photo Courtesy: NASCAR Twitter page
Stage two has started off extremely aggressive. They are three wide for the most part and a lot of drivers have bailed and gone to the back because of the aggressive driving of some of these drivers. We see multiple teams coming down the pit road. All of the Fords did not get the message that they were coming down the pit road. The Toyotas came down together and Christopher Bell locks them up and almost hits the wall. He also does not get down to pit road speed before crossing the line so gets hit with a penalty and has to change tires. Things get dicey again at the end of stage two. Teammates pushing one another again as Tyler Reddick runs out of gas. Tyler keeps it off the wall thankfully and gets to pit road. Chase Elliott will go around his teammate to get the stage two win.
We head to the final stage and drivers will be even more aggressive than in the other two stages. In stage three racing and you can feel the intensity ramp up. If there are no cautions green flag pit stops to go through due to gas mileage. They will have to be extremely careful if it comes down to green flag pitstops. How they come down will also be important as getting the word out to everyone. It looks like pit stops went well overall for everyone. Most drivers got fuel only and hoped it was enough to get to the end of the race and or one overtime. We will get a car breakdown at the end of the pit road. This will bring out the caution that may save some fuel and set us up for a green, white, and checkered. From here everyone just does what they need to do to try to go for a win. The last moment move by Chase Elliott puts him in the lead for the unofficial win at Talladega.
