NASCAR Cup Series

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Brad Keselowski outlasted three straight red flag-inducing wrecks, passed Ryan Newman on the final lap and held off teammate Joey Logano to win the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Trevor Bayne overcame two separate incidents in the final stage that badly damaged the nose of his Liberty National Ford Fusion in Sunday afternoon’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) event at Talladega Superspeedway to earn a third-place finish. Bayne, who took the final restart from the eighth position, charged toward the front on the final lap and utilized a three-wide move to score the top-three finish. The result is Bayne’s best finish of the 2017 season and his best finish at the famed Alabama superspeedway.

Ryan Newman scored a second-place finish Sunday in the Alabama 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race to lead Team Chevy’s efforts at Talladega Superspeedway. Newman’s No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS was one of 14 cars running at the end of the wild 188-lap, 500-mile race.

Despite being involved in a late-race crash that took Ryan Blaney and the Quick Lane Ford Fusion out of the top 10 in the Alabama 500 to an 18th-place finish, they were strong all day here at Talladega Superspeedway and leap-frogged from 11th to seventh in the NASCAR Playoff standings going into the Round 2 cutoff race next weekend at Kansas Speedway where only the top eight advance.

Martin Truex Jr.’s victory last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway loomed even larger after the Furniture Row Racing driver was involved in a race-ending accident Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. He was credited with a 23rd-place finish.

Denny Hamlin was the top-finishing Toyota with a sixth-place result in Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Talladega Superspeedway. Camry driver Gray Gaulding also earned a top-10 finish with an eighth-place result at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Finished 2nd - ON THE RACE. "I don't know that it was a good kind of crazy, but that's the problem we are in. Proud of the guys on this Caterpillar Chevrolet with RCR and ECR to do what we did. We tried to play it smart and in the end we were close, but not close enough. I got double-teamed with the No. 2 and the No. 22 (Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano). That was the difference."

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. will lead the field to the green flag tomorrow afternoon after winning the pole for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Joey Logano led the way for the Ford Performance and Team Penske contingent in qualifying with the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion for Sunday afternoon’s Alabama 500, turning the third fastest lap time.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW CHEVROLET SS – Pole Winner - WHAT’S IT LIKE TO GET A POLE ON YOUR FINAL ATTEMPT AT TALLADEGA? “We got a pole earlier this year at Daytona. We’ve been fighting our teammate, Chase (Elliott) and his group for poles at these tracks for a long time and it’s been a lot of fun to be honest with you, how these two teams have pushed and elevated each other."