Sunday Talladega Notebook

Sunday Talladega Notebook

 

Notebook Items:

·         Keselowski and Kenseth: What a difference a week makes

·         Promising Chase turns sour for Kyle Busch

·         Gordon slips into Eliminator Round

 

Keselowski and Kenseth: What a difference a week makes

 

Oct. 19, 2014

 

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

 

TALLADEGA, Ala.—As luck would have it, the driver who had Brad Keselowski in a headlock on Oct. 11 helped push Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford to victory in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

 

With drafting help on the final restart from Matt Kenseth, with whom Keselowski had tangled on and off the track at Charlotte a week earlier, Keselowski got the win he desperately needed to advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

 

“If he (Kenseth) could have flipped him to win the race, he probably would have,” quipped third-place finisher Clint Bowyer. “That’s just competition. Matt needed to push the 2 to get his best position and get himself in an overall shot to win the race. 

 

“It doesn't matter if it's your worst enemy out there or your best friend, your closest friend, as far as racers go, you've got to use ‘em. He was using the 2 car as much as the 2 car was using him at that point.”

 

Kenseth saw the final laps in essentially the same way. He had planned to go with Kevin Harvick but circumstances dictated another course of action as Kenseth tried to finish as high as he could to earn a spot in the Eliminator Round of the Chase.

 

“You have to do what's best for your best finish,” Kenseth explained. “Kevin had a really good run. I pushed Kevin really hard. I didn't feel I had a ton of speed. When Kevin went up to go three wide, and Brad went to chase him, I couldn't really follow Kevin, get stuck out three wide. I figured three or four guys would get by me. Not knowing the exact points, knowing we had to finish in front of the 5 (Kasey Kahne), especially if the 2 won, I knew my path to the best finish was going to be at the bottom there.

 

“Got a good push off of Turn 2. If it would have been a little farther down the straightaway, I think I would have had enough speed to get under Brad and might have had a shot for the win. But he went all the way across the track and just had enough room to get down in front of me.

 

“Like I said, that's where I felt I had to put my car for my best chance at the best finish. All those guys were pretty quick up there. Got a good restart, got a good run. It's just how it turned out.”

 

PROMISING CHASE TURNS SOUR FOR KYLE BUSCH

 

If Talladega had an innocent victim, it was Kyle Busch. Caught up in a wreck not of his making on Lap 103, Busch finished 40th and failed to advance to the next round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by seven points—after entering Sunday’s race at Talladega second in the standings.

 

Busch’s race took a harsh turn for the worse after Aric Almirola tapped the rear bumper of JJ Yeley’s Toyota and started a chain-reaction crash on the backstretch. Busch slowed his Toyota behind the wreck, but Austin Dillon’s Chevrolet knocked Busch’s car into the inside wall, severely damaging the Camry.

 

Busch drove the crippled car to the garage, where his crew did yeoman work to get it back on the track. But by then, Busch was too far down the running order to recover.

 

Crew chief Dave Rogers was philosophical about the disappointing result, which thwarted the team’s strategy of running in the back, supposedly out of harm’s way (Busch was 28th when the accident occurred).

 

"It's a shame--everyone has been working really hard,” Rogers said. “I felt like we got off to a slow start early in the season, and we were advancing through the playoffs pretty well with hard work and good decisions and good teamwork. The team was performing really well and working extremely hard. I thought we were in a decent spot coming into the race and rode around in the back. 

 

“Kyle got checked up for the wreck and had everything saved up, but he got run over from behind. There is no safe place in here. Everyone, every time we come to a speedway everyone will strategize—we're going to ride in the back, we're going to ride in the front, we're going to do this. The truth is that, if you're out there on the race track at Talladega or Daytona, you have a pretty good chance that you're going to get in a wreck and today was our day.”

 

GORDON SLIPS INTO ELIMINATOR ROUND

 

Over the last few laps of the GEICO 500, Jeff Gordon’s campaign for a possible fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship hung by a thread as drivers at Talladega swapped positions.

 

Ultimately, Gordon finished 26th, good enough to keep him in the Chase by three points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne, who finished 12th.

 

“We were in, we were out,” Gordon said. “We were in good position and bad position. Those last couple of laps were the most nerve-wracking laps of my life, so I’m glad they’re over…

 

“If I never have to come back to Talladega, I’ll be fine with that. I’m just excited about our chances to get to Homestead, and those chances come in these next few races—Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix. Those are great tracks for us.”

 

Gordon was the only one of four Hendrick drivers to advance to the Eliminator Round. Teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kahne were eliminated after the Talladega cutoff race.

 

“We knew that Jimmie and Junior were in tough positions, but if anybody could win this race, either one of those guys could,” Gordon said. “I knew Kasey was going to race hard all day and he was in and out, in and out. I really thought he was going to make it, but I guess (race runner-up Matt) Kenseth getting that late charge may have been the game changer there.

 

“It’s very difficult. These are three guys that could be major factors in this championship. They are great teams, great drivers and friends of mine. I hate to see them not in there. But we’re going to try to make Hendrick proud and go out there and get ourselves to Homestead.”