In a Sprint Cup race full of crashes, Brad Keselowski prevails at Talladega.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Two cars went airborne, 35 were involved in an accident of some kind, and Danica Patrick had the wind knocked out of her in a vicious crash into the wall. Just another demolition derby at Talladega Superspeedway.
Brad Keselowski won the crash-fest Sunday that was dominated by multiple wrecks that caused millions of dollars in damage to race teams. It was Keselowski’s fourth career win at Talladega and second victory of the season, and ended Joe Gibbs Racing’s streak of four consecutive victories.
“Crazy day. Somehow we managed to stay ahead of or out of all the chaos,” Keselowski said. “That’s how Talladega goes. Sometimes we run here and everybody kind of lines up against the wall, and sometimes we come here and it’s crazy side by side, wreck ’em up, flip ’em. I think that’s kind of the allure to coming here because you don’t know what you’re going to get.”
That’s not entirely true about Talladega, which more times than not turns into a mess of wrecked race cars.
Chris Buescher’s car flipped three times in an early crash, and Matt Kenseth was turned upside down in the waning laps. In Kenseth’s accident, Patrick hit hard into an energy-absorbing wall that appeared to buckle upon impact. She appeared shaken after the hit and hustled out of her burning car.
“I have a pretty decent bruise on my arm and my foot, and my head feels like I hit a wall at 200,” she said. “My chest hurts when I breathe.
“I would say that’s probably the most scared (I’ve been), trying to hop out of a car with the fire on the inside. I haven’t had fire on the inside before. I’ve seen it on the outside. Honestly, I was thinking about my hair. I’ve got a lot of hair, and I don’t want to lose it.”
There were 21- and 12car accidents in the final 28 laps. And, as Keselowski crossed the finish line, another wreck in the back of the pack punctuated the sloppy day.
Rosberg makes it four F1 victories
Nico Rosberg cruised to victory in the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi as his title rival and teammate Lewis Hamilton battled through the pack to finish second.
Rosberg has won all four of this season’s Formula One races and has a hefty 43-point lead over Hamilton in the title race.
Pole position and the unbeatable pace of the Mercedes meant Rosberg faced little opposition as he won by 25 seconds from Hamilton, who had to fight through the field after starting 10th due to a car failure in qualifying.