Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to win Sunday at Talladega in order to move forward to the Eliminator Round of the Chase. For a few brief moments, it looked as though he had done that just that. However, an untimely caution flag flew and it was determined that Joey Logano was actually leading the race when the caution was called, leaving Earnhardt out in the cold.
The championship playoff known as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has had more turns that a West Virginia mountain, but Sunday’s campingworld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway took the cake.
Let’s be honest. Trying to predict which eight drivers will make it through the characteristic chaos of Talladega Superspeedway to advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase is next to impossible. With only 25 points separating the top eight contenders and the looming likelihood of the almost inevitable “big one,” the only thing certain is that no one is safe - except Joey Logano.
Brad Keselowski's pole-winning run on Friday at Kansas Speedway was an early Christmas present to second-place qualifier, Carl Edwards. Keselowski saved his best lap for the third and final round of knockout qualifying at the 1.5-mile track, touring the distance in 27.621 seconds (195.503 mph) to edge Edwards (195.454 mph) for the top starting spot by .007 seconds.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the XFINITY Series travel to Kansas Speedway this weekend while the Camping World Truck Series is off. All of the on-track action will be broadcast on NBC Sports Live Extra. Please see the full schedule below.
Tuesday morning, Atlanta Motor Speedway announced that the NASCAR traveling circus of the Camping World Truck, XFINITY and Sprint Cup Series will return on the weekend of Feb. 26-28, 2016 following the 58th Daytona 500.
Logano led 227 of 334 laps and held off Kevin Harvick down the stretch to claim the Bank Of America 500. With the win, Logano advanced to the next round of the Chase For The Cup.
