Congrats to Blake Koch on his first Xfinity series pole. He was last on the track and fastest on the track – a one car team pushing past the JR Motorsports entry.
The sun is shining in Talladega today. Yesterday practices and the ARCA race were cut short and postponed due to rain. The cold front has finally moved away enough to leave blue skies.
113 laps of racing. Stages are broken into 25 laps – 25 laps – 63 laps.
The MRN guys were saying Blake Koch started out in motocross and drove a Cup driver’s bus for a while just to stay near the sport and around the track.
Elliott Sadler bounced off the wall from the second row in the top but everybody managed to keep it together and continue on.
Ray Black Jr has taken his car into the garage in a puff of smoke on lap 7 of 113 bringing out the caution.
Caution on lap 20 of 113 for a crash including William Byron, Brandon Jones, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Hemrick, Scott Lagasse Jr, Brennan Poole. all involved.
The race has been red flagged.
After a quick shower I return to the race with the field under caution on lap 29 of 113. Wonder why.
The leaders stayed on the racetrack instead of coming in during caution. I hope they’ll explain the reason for the caution.
It’s the third caution, so something happened while I was gone.
There were 42 entries for the race, but only one car went home. I find it disheartening that there are rarely many cars entered or going home any more. I miss the days of seeing 45 cars show up for 35 spots and watching go-or-go-home qualifying. Days gone by…good days, but days gone by.
Looks like we’ll be restarting on lap 33 of 113.
William Byron is out of his first Talladega Xfinity series race with too much damage to his car. Bummer for him.
They hung Squinty Douchey out with three to go in stage 2.
Caution is out for a wreck due to Ryan Reed – I believe – driving over his head with one lap to go in stage two.
Yep, Ryan Reed. Blake Koch, Brendan Gaughan, Martin Roy, Scott Lagasse Jr got some, along with Cole Custer, Chris Cockrum were involved in the incident.
The yellow and green checkered flags are being displayed. Justin ‘Dewy Alligator’ Allgaier wins the race. Looks like the 98 might have gotten into the back of Reed though he was all over the place and I was waiting for something to happen.
The race is red flagged again.
Uncle Brenny – Brendan Gaughan is out of the race due to that incident.
Blake Koch’s crew chief doesn’t sound very hopeful as to whether they can repair all of the damage Blake got in that incident.
Caution is now out after a 12 minute red flag.
Looks like Happy Harvick is n the booth on tv. I didn’t realize. I went to the radio broadcast before the race – as soon as I heard Mikey babbling. Bummer, I like to hear Happy in the booth.
Ryan Reed says it was a careless push. Looks like he’s out. While I agree Afterburner pushed him the problem was actually with Ryan driving way too far over his head to hold on to his car. That boy needs to look between his steering wheel and the back of his seat for the source of the series of problems he’s been seeing.
Apparently Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola took blame for the push, but geez Ryan Reed is saying Afterburner just didn’t care and that ‘that’s one of the problems with them racing with us’. Wow! I guess he has no idea how totally out of control he was. I was watching him – waiting for something to happen – because he was all over the place and not eve a little bit in control, nor making the right moves.
Looks like Blake Koch is out since he’s doing a tv interview.
Congrats to Ben Kennedy on leading some laps in the first stage.
Harrison Burton is leading the K&N point series as they race tonight at South Boston Speedway. Sounds like Harrison has made a lot of progress since I last saw him race.
The race has gone single file. Green flag pit stops with 43 laps to go.
Dewy got into Kasey’s back end as he went into his pit. Kasey got a little bit of damage in the teammate tap.
Dewy was in the outside lane and his pit box was ahead of Kasey’s so he turned across the front of Kasey.
Jeff Green stayed out and has led 11 laps so far.
Ty Dillon has a flat front right and will make an unscheduled pit stop with 35 laps to go.
Squinty-Douchey has lost the draft. Jeff Green continues to lead for 17 laps so far. 24 laps to go.
Looks like he’s come in leading JJ Yeley and Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace and David Starr among others. It was nice having those guys up front.
Caution is out with fifteen laps to go for debris. Drat!!! Things were rolling along so nicely.
Squinty-Douchey is coming into the pits. Kasey Kahne is in. Ben Kennedy and Daniel Suarez came in also, along with Jeff Green.
Cup Qualifying will start after this race. ARCA is scheduled for 6pm, so I’m guessing it will start when Cup qualifying concludes.
Lights are off on the pace car so they will restart with 12 to go. Lights are back on on the pace car as it nears pit road. Lights are off again on the pace car. So they will restart with eleven to go.
Afterburner is lined up behind Squinty-Douchey around 10th and 12th.
Dewy Alligator is outside pole on the restart. Kasey Kahne was held on the pit lane on the restart and roared out as the field reached pit out. He was held for adjustments made outside the pit box.
S-D faked out Dewy Alligator and Afterburner pushed him on past Dewy.
Dakoda Armstrong is scraping the wall with seven to go. The field continues under green.
They are seriously slicing and dicing up front at the end of this race.
Somebody hits the inside wall hard on the final lap. field stays green.
Afterburner wins
That was Bubba who hit the wall,
Congrats to Elliott Sadler on his second place finish. Ben Kennedy finished 4th. Justin Allgaier finished eighth. Daniel Suarez finished 9th. Jeff Green finished 10th. JJ Yeley finished 11th.
Robin Pemberton, competition department??? That’s what Postman said before interviewing Elliott. So my Robin is with JRM now???
Looks like Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace is credited with a thirteenth place finish.
I wonder what was the adjustment outside the pit box that cost Kasey a lap on that final pit stop? He was actually shaking and baking up in the lead pack at the end of the race though he was one lap down.
That was an exciting race at the end. I don’t believe that final debris caution had anything to do with that though. The field was racing hard most of the race and before the caution the anticipation was rising as it seemed clear the field was going to hit it hard in the final three laps. The debris caution in that case felt like it was being gimmicked for Squinty-Douchey’s benefit which is very disappointing.
Gosh what a relief to see Mike Joy in the booth. Yesterday we were subjected to Adam Alexander in the booth. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Boy do I wish someone would explain – in a way he can understand – to AJ Allmendinger that he isn’t remotely funny and should keep his sad attempts at humor in his head.
Stinkhouse has the pole! Ricky Stenhouse Jr is fastest. Dale Earnhardt Jr is second fastest. Congrats to both!
NASCAR News:
- Almirola Gets Talladega XFINITY Win.
- Is Kyle Larson really the ‘last true racer’ in NASCAR? Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. to address notion that Kyle Larson is ‘last true racer’ in NASCAR.
- Kyle Larson: ‘I’m the last true racer left’ in NASCAR.
- NASCAR at Talladega: Rain cuts Friday’s practice session short.
- Race fans stay warm during cold May day in Talladega.
- Elliott Just Doing His Job.
- Logano Moving Forward.
- Bill Elliott Remembers Record Run.
- Team Penske Statement On Penalty.
- No. 22 Team Penalized after Richmond Win.
- NASCAR Fines Wheeler.
- Opinion: Questions and Answers.
- Notebook: NASCAR Addresses Richmond Controversies.
- Talladega Names Pre-Race Dignitaries.
- Commitment Line Penalties Impact Some.
- Stockman Jr. Suspended.
- XFINITY, Truck Teams Test at Charlotte.
- Bell to Drive for JGR in XFINITY Series.
- XFINITY, Truck Teams Test at Charlotte.
- Pastrana Returns to NASCAR.
- NASCAR chairman Brian France calls on young drivers to be less humble.
- Former IndyCar, NASCAR driver John Andretti fighting colon cancer.
- Bellator MMA to hold 4-fight card prior to All-Star race at Charlotte.
- By appearance alone, NASCAR is in bigger trouble than other sports.
- Here’s why NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. rarely carries a wallet.