Joey Logano earns critical victory for Team Penske
JOEY LOGANO ›› JIMMIE JOHNSON KEVIN HARVICK›› MATT KENSETH CARL EDWARDS ›› DENNY HAMLIN KURT BUSCH ›› KYLE BUSCH
Hamlin sneaks into next round after wild OT finish at Talladega
TALLADEGA, Ala. — When an engine failure knocked title favorite Martin Truex Jr. from NASCAR’s postseason, the rest of the top contenders got a little bit of breathing room.
Then Brad Keselowski suffered the same cruel elimination when his engine failed Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
There was suddenly a wide-open competition to earn the final transfer spots into the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, and Denny Hamlin and Austin Dillon raced a tense final two laps in overtime to fill the bracket. With each pushing for every last point, it was Hamlin who advanced into the round of eight on a tiebreaker over Dillon.
Joey Logano won the race, and Hamlin edged Kurt Busch by .006 seconds for third place and the one point he needed to tie Dillon in the standings. Dillon was ninth but lost the right to move into the next round based on average finish over the past three races.
Hamlin had told his Joe Gibbs Racing team not to give him points updates, and that lack of knowledge forced him to scramble through the final turn as he was undecided on how aggressive he needed to be.
“I wasn’t sure whether I needed to finish third,” he said. “I told them I didn’t want points updates. But that’s almost when I probably should have got one to figure out what I was going to do. (Dillon) is in the middle of the pack. He’s fighting and getting positions. He could change two positions in the last hundred yards.
“So you can’t really predict it. I knew I just had to try to finish as good as I could.”
With Truex — who won two of three races in the first round — and Keselowski out of the Chase before the checkered flag dropped Sunday, the suspense came down to final finishing order. Logano was not in a must-win situation, but the victory sure didn’t hurt.
“Feels good to win on a clutch moment like that with the pressure on,” Logano said. “I think we ran like a champ.”
Kasey Kahne spun with six laps remaining to bring out the caution for the heart-pounding final restart. Dillon, on a frantic dash during two
overtime laps to gain as many spots as possible, called the outcome “heartbreaking.”
“It sure stinks to lose it on a tiebreaker,” he said.
Also eliminated Sunday was rookie Chase Elliott, who needed a win to assure his title pursuit continued.
Advancing are Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Logano and Hamlin.
There are four Toyotas remaining in the field, all from Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart-Haas Racing has Kurt Busch and Harvick — who had a heated exchange with one another after the race over alleged contact on the last lap — and Hendrick Motorsports has Johnson for three Chevrolets in the field. Logano is the only Ford driver.
The race was starkly different from the spring stop at the track, when 35 cars were involved in at least one accident and two went airborne. And last year, it appeared Harvick intentionally caused an accident on an overtime restart to help his championship chances.
But for mile after mile Sunday, the drivers behaved.
The only glitches came in a harried sequence early in the race in which three championship contenders had uncharacteristic gaffes within minutes of each other. First Logano left pit road with a jack wedged under his Ford, and he had to return to have it removed. Then Hamlin was flagged for speeding. Finally, Truex lost an engine.
Keselowski’s engine went with 43 laps remaining. He was dominant for much of the race despite battling climbing temperatures for his car because of debris on the front grille.
“It is unfortunate for Brad,” Logano said. “It happens as a leader, picking some (debris up). We picked it up, just not as much.”
The opening race of the third round is next Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Logano swept the second round last year and seemed headed to the win at Martinsville until he was intentionally wrecked as payback by Kenseth. The feud between the two ultimately cost Logano a spot in the championship race.