Jimmie Johnson leads the most laps and finishes 13th, but that was good enough to regain the points lead from Matt Kenseth. While others tried fading to the back, Johnson tried to stay as close to the front as possible.
Though, Johnson’s stats at Talladega are great compared to many drivers, they are mediocre compared to most other tracks for Johnson. He has two wins, six top-5’s, and ten top-10’s. For this weekend, however, mediocre was good enough.
Kenseth ran strong all day, but a severely loose race car just past the halfway point put him into a situation where he could not battle for position. The car was fast, but he had trouble when getting around other cars. He did manage to lead 32 laps, but only managed a 20th place finish.
Other Chase notables:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led 38 laps en route to a second place finish, the fourth of the year and 22nd of his career. The strong run permitted him to gain three spots in the standings to sixth, 52 points out of the lead. Earnhardt commented about his run, “We had such a good car, since I been working with Steve, we just haven’t really had a good combination here and maybe I’ve torn up some really good cars and never got to see how good they were in races in the past, but I knew in practice car was strong, just wondered of everybody was showing everything they had.”
Kyle Busch, who has been trying to work his way back toward the front after a disastrous Kansas race, overcame an early pit road penalty to score another top-5 finish, his 16th of the season. Kyle gained two spots in the points and now sits in third, 26 back from the leader.
Kevin Harvick slipped from third to fourth in the standings. He was never really a factor in today’s race, but managed a respectable 12th place finish. He now sits 26 points back behind Johnson.
Jeff Gordon has been very strong since the start of the Chase. At Talladega, however, Gordon left a little on the table. Gordon led three laps and finished 14th, falling from fourth to fifth in the standings, 34 out of the lead.
Greg Biffle led five laps and looked strong early, but the No. 16 Scotch Blue Ford faded and finished 11th. Biffle lost one spot on the standings and now sits seventh, 53 points out of the lead.
All-in-all, Talladega was pretty kind to the Chase contenders. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the biggest gain, with Johnson regaining the lead. The race was pretty calm, with only three yellows. One yellow for fluid on the track, a second on lap 80 for a tow car incident on the frontstretch that ended the day for Juan Pablo-Montoya. The final caution flew on the last lap, when Austin Dillon, driving the No. 14 Stewart-Hass Racing Chevrolet for Tony Stewart, got upside down on the backstretch. Since the white flag had been thrown, the race ended with the yellow, freezing the field, and sending Jamie McMurray to victory lane.
The series now heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Goody’s 500 on Sunday Oct 27th.
