TALLADEGA, Ala.– As the field wrecked behind, Brad Keselowski was up front when it mattered and scored the victory at the Alabama roulette wheel.
The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford led 46 laps, the most of anyone, and survived a host of wrecks on his way to winning the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
“I didn’t have a great frame to see what happened to everyone else,” Keselowski said. “The guys at Team Penske gave me a great Miller Lite Ford and this Fusion was hauling it. One of the best tickets to stay out of the wrecks at Talladega is if you can stay up front, and you’ve got a great shot of not getting wrecked. But this No. 2. Daytona didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We thought we were gonna be better than that, but we just didn’t show the speed in the 500 and the guys went to work and they brought me a really strong car here for Talladega. I’m so proud of everybody at Team Penske. To be back in Victory Lane with two wins this year, and we feel like we can get a lot more. We’re growing as a team. We made a lot of changes at Team Penske and this feels really good, really good.”
The victory was the 19th of his Sprint Cup Series career, second of 2016 and fourth at Talladega.
Kyle Busch led 12 laps on his way home second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He described what others were doing at the end of the race as “some moves that you made that were just lucky and just trying to get through some of the holes that were there and that were forming and guys bumping and banging each other, pushing all around and everything and trying to get the most out of what we had with our Skittles Camry,” Busch said. “You know, second’s not bad. I think the quota of three cars on their lids today is a little high, but it’s racing.”
Austin Dillon rounded out the podium in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
“My car was actually probably dragging; the No. 1 (Jamie McMurray) could stick to my back bumper and he gave me a heck of a push all the way through (Turns) 3 and 4 and when he did that, I knew we were going to have a shot at it,” Dillon said. “But as soon as I pulled out, it was kind of a parachute but I had to make a shot at it. I wanted to have a shot at the win. If I would have pushed the No. 18 (Kyle Busch), he might have beaten the No. 2, I don’t know. But hat’s off to these guys. They fought so hard. We pitted 15 times, they said. That’s amazing. The car was killed, and to come home with a third place finish we’ve got to thank the good Lord above.”
Jamie McMurray finished fourth in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
“I was really fortunate,” McMurray said. “I was only caught up in one of the wrecks. And I don’t know exactly what happened in the other two. Honestly, I don’t even know what happened in mine. I was so lucky that I got hit in the back and I spun to the bottom, but it didn’t tear-up the front-end. It didn’t tear the splitter up. And I don’t know that my car was faster afterwards, but it didn’t seem to hurt it any.”
Chase Elliott led 27 laps and was the highest finishing rookie as he rounded out the top-five in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. When asked about what stood out to him in his Cup debut at Talladega, he said, “trying to finish. You can’t have a good day unless you finish. Just trying to focus in on that. Obviously, it got a little wild. For us, we just tried to keep that in mind and make it to the end.”
Ty Dillon, subbing for Tony Stewart, finished sixth in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Clint Bowyer earned his second top-10 of the season with a seventh-place finish in his No. 15 HScott Motorsports Chevrolet. Kurt Busch was leading with two laps to go before getting shuffled back and finishing eighth in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney finished ninth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. Trevor Bayne led 22 laps on his way to rounding out the top-10 in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.
The race lasted three hours, 34 minutes and 15 seconds at an average speed of 140.046 mph. There were 37 lead changes among 17 different drivers and 10 cautions for 41 laps.
Kevin Harvick leaves Talladega with a nine-point lead over Kyle Busch in the points standings.
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