The sun was out with bright blue skies, no dark clouds in sight as the NASCAR Cup Series closed out the weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. This is the Cup Series tenth race of the season.
Denny Hamlin was the defending winner of this race. He won the pole by a metric qualifying system, with Joey Logano starting second. Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, Bubba Wallace, Harrison Burton, and BJ McLeod had to start the race in the back for unapproved adjustments. Cody Ware also had to start in the back for a rear inspection failure.
Kyle Larson’s car was overheating two laps into the race, and he went to pit road. He would head back onto the track for five laps before losing an engine due to a piece of metal left in the front of the radiator that was not taken out before the race. Larson was the first driver out of the race.
Kevin Harvick was the leader when the competition caution came out on lap 18. The leaders went to pit road with Hamlin beating Kyle Busch off pit road after taking two tires. Hamlin was the new leader when the race resumed on lap 31. Eight laps later, Joey Gase had a tire go down and spun at turn four to bring out the race’s second caution.
Some drivers went to pit road during the caution, including Kevin Harvick, Michael McDowell, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, and three others. Hamlin was still the leader when the race resumed on lap 44. Ryan Blaney, Ryan Preece, and Matt DiBenedetto all led some laps. In the closing laps of stage one, drivers were too aggressive when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hit Denny Hamlin. Then Hamlin hit Joey Logano, sending Logano airborne, landing on Bubba Wallace’s car, flipping several times before coming to a stop to bring out the race’s third caution. Stage one ended with Matt DiBenedetto leading.
Eight cars stayed out while everyone else went to pit road during the caution. The eight cars that stayed out would pit a lap, later leaving Chase Elliott as the new leader. The race resumed on lap 67 to start stage two. Hamlin and DiBenedetto would alternate back and forth for the lead the first couple of laps before Hamlin firmly held it on lap 72.
Six laps later, drivers headed to pit road for their scheduled stops. All Chevy drivers went on lap 84, followed by Ford’s on lap 92, and then Toyota’s on lap 93. Hamlin would get caught speeding for the second time and had to serve a drive-through penalty. At the front, William Byron and Ross Chastain were battling for the lead when Kurt Busch’s car went up in smoke, leaving fluid on the track that brought out the fourth caution.
Some drivers went to pit road during the caution, including Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, and Ryan Blaney. Harvick was penalized for too many men over the wall. Byron was still the leader as the race resumed on lap 110.
Bubba Wallace had taken the lead two laps later and was blocking cars that challenged him. Late in stage two, Brad Keselowski applied the block when Hamlin went to the outside. However, Martin Truex Jr. would hit Hamlin’s bumper, sending him to the wall while others cars scrambled to stay out of the wreck, which brought out the race’s fifth caution. The other drivers involved were Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, and William Byron. The caution ended stage two that went to Bubba Wallace.
Everyone went to pit road during the caution, with Ryan Blaney beating Aric Almirola off pit road. The final stage got underway on lap 127. Blaney caught a piece of debris on his grill just as the race resumed. Almirola took the lead on lap 132, and Blaney quickly got behind him to get the debris off. Sixteen laps later, Ross Chastain took the lead from Almirola. Next, Harvick would then get the lead for two laps before Chastain took it back.
On lap 155, drivers began their next scheduled pit stops. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun entering pit road and hit the wall, but the race stayed green. Once the pit cycles ended, Christopher Bell was the new leader. He would lose the lead on lap 162 to Chastain.
On lap 170, Erik Jones passed Chastain for the lead. Quin Houff blew a right-front tire and stopped on the backstretch to bring out the race’s sixth caution. Some drivers went to pit road while Erik Jones, Matt DiBenedetto, Ross Chastain, and Martin Truex Jr. stayed out. The race resumed with twelve laps to go.
On lap 181, Truex suffered a right rear flat and went to pit road. Three laps later, he lost another tire, and parts of the tire made their way onto the track to bring out the seventh caution. The caution would send the race to overtime.
In overtime, DiBenedetto fought Blaney for the lead. On the last lap, Brad Keselowski got a push from Michael McDowell, sending him into the lead. William Byron was behind them, and Byron went around McDowell, but Keselowski held off Byron to win the race. It was Keselowski’s 35th career win in the Cup Series.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Michael McDowell third, Kevin Harvick fourth, Matt DiBenedetto fifth, Kaz Grala sixth, Tyler Reddick seventh, Austin Dillon eighth, Ryan Blaney ninth, and Cole Custer tenth. Denny Hamlin led 44 laps, the most in the race. There were 35 lead changes and seven cautions for 34 laps.
The Cup Series now heads to Kansas Speedway next Sunday, May 2nd, at 3 pm on FS1.
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