Trevor Bayne basks in the glory of being ‘in the game’ again at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. – As NASCAR officials scurried between cars checking every wheel for five lug nuts, dozens of team members, reporters and driver’s family members waited on the pit wall at Talladega Superspeedway.

The delay took several moments after Sunday’s Geico 500, and it allowed for an unusual scene as the top finishers moved unencumbered between their cars to swap post-race tales of their good fortune over the course of a wild 500 miles on the 2.66-mile oval.

No one seemed to be having a better time than Trevor Bayne.

He debriefed at length about the closing laps with Ryan Blaney. He shared a laugh with Jamie McMurray and Austin Dillon. He entered a long conversation with past NASCAR champions Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte, who offered an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

After finishing 10th and leading a career-best 22 laps – seven fewer than he led over 93 starts from 2011-15 – Bayne looked like he belonged Sunday.

More importantly, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner felt as if he did, too.

“We’re in the game,” Bayne said. “We’re not just out here taking up a spot. I feel like we’re in the race. We pushed Kurt to the lead there. It’s just fun to be in the game here.”

PODCAST: Hear Trevor Bayne candidly discussing his career and the 2016 season on the NASCAR on NBC podcast.

His No. 6 Ford was in the game at Talladega until the final restart with three laps to go. Bayne was third and on the inside line, delivering a massive push that briefly shot Kurt Busch into the lead past winner Brad Keselowski.

But as the action moved up the banking, Bayne was left on the bottom without any help. Blaney, his reliable drafting partner all day, had a badly damaged rear bumper that precluded him from riding shotgun.

“I NEED HELP!” Bayne screamed with two to go on the team radio as he nearly slipped from the lead draft. He recovered to salvage 10th with nary a drafting partner – a testament to the strength of his car.

“We probably had the fastest car here,” crew chief Matt Puccia said. “We knew we did on Friday in practice. We just played it safe and were just riding there. Got shuffled out at the end but great effort by this team, they’ve done a great job all year long.
“We came up short, but that’s Talladega. You have to be in the right lane at the right time. Really proud of these guys. They’re working hard week in and week out. We got one coming.”

It’s easy to shoulder the disappointment when everything seems to be trending in the correct direction.

Bayne’s second top 10 in 10 races of 2016 – tying his season-best total in Cup – moved him up two spots to 16th in points. The Roush Fenway Racing driver won’t need a miracle win to make the NASCAR playoffs for the first time at this rate.

But he will head to the July 2 race at Daytona International Speedway with the knowledge that he will bring a proven Ford that was among the only cars to emerge unscathed in a Talladega wreckfest.

“These races are gut wrenching from Lap 1 on, so I felt like that was the most calm race I’ve ever had,” he said. “I don’t have any damage on the Adovcare Ford. We’ll take it.”

Bayne took the lead for the last time on Lap 156 – six laps before the 21-car crash that wiped out much of his competition. He wisely had heeded the advice on his team radio to restrain himself – as difficult as it was for a 25-year-old who is 102 races removed from his last win (which came in only his second start).

“The car was really strong, but this place is all about patience,” Puccia said. “Even though you have a fast car, you can’t do it by yourself. You step out of line and get yourself in trouble real fast. He did a really good job staying patient, staying in line. It just didn’t work out for us

“But people have been talking about us all year long. We’ve had speed everywhere we’ve gone. That’s what we’ve got to carry on. We’ve got to keep progressing and moving the needle. That’s what we’re doing every week, and it’s starting to show. It’s a morale booster seeing how we ran today.”

And no one’s confidence seemed higher than Bayne, who seemed one of the guys inside and outside the car.

“It is so refreshing to come to the race track and have a chance,” he said. “I feel really good about the pieces they are giving me. It is all about the race cars. I’m surely proud of this team.”

Landon Cassill calls Harvick ’emotional,’ ‘thin skinned’ after comments about last-lap crash

Landon Cassill calls Harvick ’emotional,’ ‘thin skinned’ after comments about last-lap crash

After the conclusion of the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Kevin Harvick put the blame on a seven-car crash coming to the checkered flag on Landon Cassill of Front Row Motorsports.

Cassill made contact with Cole Whitt in the No. 98, starting an incident that included Harvick, AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Martin Truex Jr.

“Landon Cassill was trying to cause a wreck for the last 40 laps and he finally got it done there at the end,” Harvick told Fox after the race in which he finished 15th.

Cassill, who finished 11th, learned of the 2014 Sprint Cup champion’s comments on Twitter as he left the track, the driver told Jeremiah Davis of The Gazette in a phone interview.

Cassill told the paper the wreck incident was the result of the field not letting up coming to the checkered flag and said he “laughed off” the comments as an “emotional” reaction from Harvick, who he doesn’t take anything “personally” from.

“Because he’s got a reputation for being fairly emotional and can’t handle himself,” Cassill said. “He’ll get over it. Two of the last few superspeedway races ended under a huge wreck because of him. I find it kind of funny he’s mad at me. His reputation is pretty thin-skinned. That’s just who he is.”

Cassill mentioned the conclusions of both last year’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the fall race at Talladega, which saw Harvick at the epicenter of two wrecks that caused mayhem in the closing laps.

“You saw the 4 car, Kevin Harvick, wreck the whole field at Daytona last year in very similar fashion,” Cassill told The Gazette. “He drove right over the 11 car (Denny Hamlin) and that was the wreck that caused the 3 car (Austin Dillon) to go up in the grandstands. How are you supposed to say that’s anybody’s fault? It’s superspeedway racing, really.”

Then in the fall Talladega race, a wreck began on a restart attempt after Harvick made contact with Trevor Bayne right before the start-finish line. The resulting accident would pave the way for the new rules on Overtime finishes.

Cassill’s 11th-place finish is his best result this season.

NASCAR investigating Talladega accidents, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s steering wheel

NASCAR is looking into what led cars to get airborne Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway and will investigate what caused Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s steering wheel to detach after his second wreck, a NASCAR executive told “The Morning Drive” on Monday.

“Some really intense racing all throughout the day, and some things we didn’t like with cars getting up in the air and we’re already fast at work at the R&D Center, looking at all the video we have,’’ Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We’ll reach out to the teams to see what we can do to immediately take some action to work towards correcting that.’’

Chris Buescher’s car tumbled down the backstretch after being hit by another car, and Matt Kenseth’s car was sent airborne after contact turned his car sideways and the air picked his vehicle up. Neither driver was injured in the separate incidents.

“You never want to see that,’’ O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about those incidents. “So (what) you immediately work on is everybody safe, did the safety equipment do its job and what we can learn from that? The immediate steps are to review all the media shots that we have of those incidents, work with the race teams and then look at what may or may not be different from when we’ve been not only at Talladega but any other race track.

“We’ve had a car get in the air at other tracks as well. We’ll look at that. We’ll study the cars as well. We’ll work with the industry. I’ve said many times, not particularly related to a car getting in the air, but in all instances where we can learn and work with the best engineers in the world that are part of our race industry, we’ll do that.

“Safety is first and foremost for all of us. We’ll start that process. It’s not something that we’ve just started. We always look at that. It’s always something in our DNA. We’ll work with the race teams and see what we can learn and then from that apply that to the race cars and the track.’’

O’Donnell said every accident is unique because of the speed, angle of the car, the position of the car and more.

“That will be all of our process in sitting down and reviewing that,’’ O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

That also will include looking at what happened to Earnhardt’s steering wheel. Earnhardt’s teammate, Jimmie Johnson, had a steering wheel come off at Phoenix, leading to his crash in qualifying there.

O’Donnell was asked if Earnhardt’s issue was isolated or something more.

“Even if it is an isolated incident, we’ll look at it,’’ O’Donnell said. “It could be something that could cause issues down the road if it was a trend. We’ll talk to (Earnhardt) and his team and make sure hopefully that was just what you said initially an isolated incident and go from there, but if there is anything we can take from that, we will certainly communicate that to all the teams. It’s not something you want to see, especially potentially at speed.’’

O’Donnell also discussed NASCAR’s review of the finish of Saturday’s Xfinity race. Series officials needed about five minutes to review various video angles to determine who won. Elliott Sadler was declared the winner even though Brennan Poole crossed the line first. NASCAR ruled that Sadler was in the lead when the caution waved for Joey Logano’s accident after he had contact with Sadler racing for the win.

“We can always learn as we go,’’ O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “It was so intense there wanting to get the decision made as quickly as possible. In our recap of what happened Saturday, we could have done a better job, particularly with the television partners, MRN, and the PA announcer for the track explaining what was happening.

“Moving forward I think that’s on us to communicate that a little better in terms of what we are doing and what the process is to determine a winner if that were to occur again.’’

Upon Further Review: Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Is it time to recognize Brad Keselowski as one of the best restrictor-plate drivers in recent years?

Sunday’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway was Keselowski’s fourth restrictor-plate win since his last-lap victory against Carl Edwards in the track’s spring 2009 race.

No driver has won as many Sprint Cup restrictor-plate races since. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has three wins during that time. So does Jimmie Johnson. And Matt Kenseth. And Jamie McMurray. With two wins each during that time are Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Joey Logano and Tony Stewart.

Of course, some of those drivers have more overall restrictor-plate wins than Keselowski because they’ve been competing longer, but Keselowski is becoming a driver one can’t ignore when discussing favorites at plate races.

“I’d rather be the guy that nobody talks about who has won here 10 times than the guy that everybody talks about who won here twice,’’ Keselowski said after his 19th career Sprint Cup victory, which tied him with Buddy Baker, Davey Allison, Fonty Flock and Greg Biffle in career series victories.

“I never got into racing just to have somebody say my name real loud or the billboards or lights or anything like that. I got into it because I love it, I love the challenge. I love the reward of success, the reward internally.

“Look, I’m not out here trying to toot my own horn or showcase my own press clippings. I just want to win. Winning four times means a lot here. It doesn’t mean as much as winning another championship would be. That’s my main goal at the end of the day.’’

Keselowski was in contention after avoiding the numerous incidents Sunday. He led a race-high 46 laps and stayed near the front much of the race with strong moves.

“We had good enough speed where we could make those moves,’’ Keselowski said. “Today was a day where my spotter and I worked together very well and we were able to do just that.’’

— Thirty-five of the 40 cars in Sunday’s race were involved in accidents, according to NASCAR.

That isn’t even the most number of Cup cars in accidents in restrictor-plate races since 2014.

Six times in the last 10 plate races there have been at least 20 cars involved in accidents, according to NASCAR statistics.

The most during that time came in the rain-shortened Daytona race in July 2014 when 37 of the 43 cars were listed as in accidents.

Sunday’s race was run under the threat of the rain but went the full distance. While that contributed to the race’s intensity it wasn’t the only factor in the accidents.

“I think guys get a little bit aggressive when you get toward the end,’’ said Jamie McMurray, who finished fourth and was listed as being a part of two incidents. “It’s like slamming like we used to do. With the little amount of downforce that we have, it’s so easy for the car to get up on you.

“When we got down to the end there, I was like death-gripping the wheel and trying to hold it straight because every time you get hit, it gets turned a little bit in a different direction and you have to be a little bit lucky there. It’s not all ability.’’

Said Kyle Busch: “It’s just Talladega. These cars, you try to get a little bit aggressive, start bumping people and pushing people, they’re real easy to get out of control.’’

Of the 35 cars involved in accidents Sunday, 16 were listed as being part of one or both accidents within the last 10 laps.

“We all kind of raced to halfway, then all raced to the rain that was coming and all raced to the end,’’ said Danica Patrick, who was eliminated in a crash that included Matt Kenseth’s car getting airborne.

“The whole race we were racing like we were racing to the end. There were no moments to relax. I’m sure that expanded peoples’ comfort zone at the end of the race because we were used to running close. Then some people just took it to the edge.”

— Let’s review Hendrick Motorsports’ restrictor-plate performance this season:

At the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr., crashed and finished 36th. Chase Elliott spun and damaged his car when it dug into the grass. He finished 37th. Jimmie Johnson placed 16th and Kasey Kahne was 13th.

Sunday, Earnhardt was involved in two accidents and finished last in the 40-car field. Kahne was collected by Earnhardt and then spun in another incident before placing 39th. Johnson was involved in a wreck after contact from behind from Kurt Busch and finished 22nd. Elliott was fifth.

That’s one top-10 finish and four finishes of 35th or worse in two restrictor-plate races this season.

Last year, Hendrick Motorsports placed two cars in the top five in each plate race with Earnhardt winning the spring Talladega race and the July Daytona race and Johnson second both times.

— Only three drivers have finished in the top 10 in both restrictor-plate races this season.

Kyle Busch was third in the Daytona 500 and second at Talladega. Austin Dillon was ninth in the Daytona 500 and third at Talladega. Kurt Busch was 10th in the Daytona 500 and eighth at Talladega.

— The 37 lead changes in Sunday’s race were the most in a restrictor-plate race since there were 38 at Talladega in Oct. 2014.

— After NASCAR met with the Sprint Cup Drivers Council on Friday, series officials are scheduled to meet with team owners/representatives Wednesday in their quarterly meeting.

— Brennan Poole parked his car at the start/finish line and waited. He waited to see if he had won his first NASCAR Xfinity race. The 25-year-old who had never finished better than ninth in a series race waited to see if his dreams would come true.

After waiting about five minutes, Poole was told that Elliott Sadler was declared the winner by NASCAR and that Poole had finished third.

It would have been easy to have argued about NASCAR’s decision, confront officials or something else. As a series regular, had Poole won, he would have all but qualified for playoffs.

Instead, he handled the disappointment with a grace and class not all athletes show in such situations.

“I’m happy that NASCAR was able to get it right,’’ Poole said, standing by his car on pit road.

“I really wanted to take a picture this afternoon in victory lane at Talladega. What an awesome track. So much history. A lot of my heroes have been to victory lane there.’’

Poole admits a win would have been “really awesome for my career, but we were just short. We’ll get one. We’ve been in the hunt the last two weeks.’’

Tony Stewart, Ty Dillon switch ends up well for No. 14 team

Yellow rookie stripes hadn’t appeared on a Sprint Cup car driven by Tony Stewart since the 1999 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

But Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, 17 seasons and 558 starts later, Stewart started his second race of the 2016 with the bright signifier of inexperience on his rear bumper.

Stewart hasn’t forgotten how to drive a racecar, but he’s probably forgotten more about it than Ty Dillon has learned through his 152 starts in NASCAR’s top three series.

Dillon was the reason the rookie stripes were on Stewart’s car. While Stewart started the GEICO 500, the three-time series champion stepped out of the car during the race’s first caution at Lap 52 to hand it over to Dillon. The last time rookie stripes appeared on the No. 14 was when Austin Dillon substituted for Stewart in two races in 2013, with one coming at Talladega.

After missing the first eight races of the season recovering from a back injury, Sunday’s move at a track known for violent wrecks was the last precautionary measure for Stewart before he returns full-time next week at Kansas Speedway.

“It sucks to be honest,” Stewart told Fox of relinquishing his car to someone else. “I know why we got to do it, but it sucks. It still sucks that you have to do it, but if I hadn’t broke my back at the end of January; we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

While Dillon qualified the car, Stewart started the race from the rear. A speeding penalty on Lap 38 put Stewart in position to be lapped right before the first caution of the race on Lap 51. He received the free pass on that caution and was back on the lead lap. That caution also set up the driver switch on pit road.

“I really appreciate Ty (Dillon),” Stewart said. “He’s been a rock star through this whole thing and especially this weekend. He’s done all the heavy lifting, and I just got in to ride around for 50 laps and turn it over to him. Fortunately we got the Lucky Dog and kept him on the lead lap. The change went pretty smooth – no drama there.”

But there was a little drama. The team was called for too many team members in the pit box during the change, which the team had gotten down to one minute while practicing in the garage.

“It’s a little amped up when you have a bunch of TV cameras and all the fans are watching you, and you’re doing it live on pit road,” Dillon said after finishing sixth. “Just made sure I took my time and was safe in the car. That was the first thing that was important to me. They did a good job of letting me know where the pace car was coming. So it worked out well, and I’m glad I did because we got a good finish for these guys.

Dillon, driving in his 13th Cup race though Stewart would be credited with the result, brought the No. 14 steadily through the field, narrowly avoiding multiple-car wrecks.

The result was the best for the No. 14 since Stewart finished sixth in the spring Bristol race last season.

“For my first (Cup race at Talladega), that was about as crazy as I wanted it to be,” Dillon said. “I had to dodge a couple of close calls, but we brought our Bass Pro Chevy home up front in a good position. To do this for Tony, he’s giving me such an opportunity for my career and Bass Pro Shops for letting me drive this race car. I hope I showed a lot of people what I can do in these things and I’m only going to get better and keep driving hard.”

Dillon’s performance helped move Stewart up two spots in the points to 38th. He must have a win and be 30th in the points to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup. But barring an unfortunate turn, the rest of the season is solely in Stewart’s hands, finally.

“Good news is this is last time we have to do it,” Stewart said.

Matt Tifft takes pole, JGR grabs 3 of top 5 spots for today’s Xfinity race at Talladega

Joe Gibbs Racing once again dominated NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying Saturday morning at Talladega Superspeedway.

But instead of the likes of Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones or Kyle Busch atop the speed chart, it was Matt Tifft (181.168 mph) who took the pole for this afternoon’s Sparks Energy 300.

It was Tifft’s first pole in his six-race Xfinity Series career.

But have no fear, JGR fans, your other favorites (with the exception of Busch, who is sitting this race out) all performed well: Suarez (180.846 mph) qualified second, while Jones (180.366) was fourth.

In-between were Austin Dillon (180.506), who qualified third, and younger brother Ty Dillon (180.217), who will start today’s race from the fifth position.

Sixth through 10th qualifiers were Brendan Gaughan (179.763), Ryan Reed (179.061), Joey Logano (178.817), Elliott Sadler (178.660) and JJ Yeley (178.394).

Three drivers failed to qualify: Josh Reaume, Derrike Cope and Mike Harmon.

Here’s the results of qualifying. The race will start this afternoon at 3 pm ET.

Drivers appreciate Brian France’s appearance at meeting

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski both praised NASCAR Chairman Brian France for attending Friday night’s meeting with the Sprint Cup Drivers Council at Talladega Superspeedway.

France met with the nine-member drivers group for about an hour before leaving for a prior commitment. The meeting went an additional two hours with drivers talking with other NASCAR senior executives including Steve O’Donnell, executive vice president and chief racing development officer.

“There’s a tremendous amount of good faith that is earned when Brian comes to a meeting,’’ Keselowski said Saturday.

France previously had said he felt it would be best not to be at the meetings to avoid stifling any of the discussion. Tony Stewart suggested in January that France should be more visible in part by attending the meetings.

“It was great that Brian came,’’ Earnhardt said.

Keselowski called the meeting “productive” without revealing details of what was discussed.

“I think there were a lot of takeaways to make the sport better, so that was a really positive step in the right direction,’’ Keselowski said.

“I think three or four years ago, someone asked me, ‘How is this sport going to move forward?’ I pointed to the NFL model of councils and committees. That’s how you can collaborate key stakeholders to get them to the same agenda. That’s exactly where we are going. I think that’s an extremely positive step for everyone.’’

Earnhardt said “nothing groundbreaking” came from the meeting. “It was just a good, positive meeting. A lot of good things moving in a good direction.’’