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Nationwide
NNS: Talladega Thriller
Joey Logano passes Kyle Busch at the last moment to win Aaron’s 312…
Joey Logano pushed Kyle Busch into position to win the Aaron’s 312 Nationwide race at Talladega Superspeedway Saturday afternoon but then won the race himself.
Logano broke away from a two-car draft with Busch at virtually the last instant then edged Busch by about half a car length to win the race, a dangerous event marred by a late-race crash that sent driver Eric McClure to a Birmingham hospital.
The race finished with the second of two green-white-checkereds. The verdict came down to Logano, Busch, Cole Whitt and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Busch and Logano drafting together and Whitt and Stenhouse locked together.
They ran in a line toward the finish. Rolling into the trioval, Logano shot to the outside to move alongside Busch, then outran him to the finish.
“He knows I’m going to make the move to make something happen here,” Logano said. “I just got him right at the line. It’s super exciting to win that way because you don’t know you got him until the line.
“You have to do it at the right time.”
Busch finished second and was followed by Stenhouse Jr., Whitt and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Busch said he was a sitting duck.
“When you’re in the tandem like that, there’s not much the front car can do,” he said. “I probably could have blocked Joey a little up the track, but the rear car has so much more momentum ready to go. If there was anything I could do, I would have done it.”
The wild finish was set up with nine laps to go when Mike Bliss spun out after being tapped by Elliott Sadler, prompting the fifth caution.
The green flew with four to go and Kyle Busch and Earnhardt Jr. riding in front. That lap wasn’t completed under green as Mike Wallace and Danny Efland crashed in turn four to bring out another caution.
That resulted in the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, with Kyle Busch again at the point.
The field roared into the third turn in a huge pack, and contact near the front sparked a multi-car melee that resulted in a red flag. Among the drivers involved were Michael Annett, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, McClure, Robert Richardson, Danica Patrick and Jeffrey Earnhardt.
McClure got the worst of the crash. He lost control and slammed head-on into the SAFER barrier in front of the turn’s inside wall. The race was stopped as the track’s safety team peeled the roof from McClure’s car and removed him from the cockpit of the vehicle.
NASCAR said McClure was talking to rescue personnel as they removed him from the car. He was airlifted to UAB Medical Center in Birmingham for evaluation and was reported to be “awake and alert” by NASCAR officials.
The crash set up the second green-white-checkered finish.
Contact between Sam Hornish and Patrick sent Patrick sliding into the wall on the last lap of the race. Patrick retaliated by bumping Hornish after the checkered flag.
Neither driver was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race, although similar incidents in the past have resulted in penalties.
Stenhouse Jr. moved past Sadler into the point lead.
With typical Talladega pack drafting mixed in with some two-by-two tandem drafting during the afternoon, the lead was swapped among a large group of drivers.
Logano’s victory was Toyota’s 200th in NASCAR’s three major series.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Logano broke away from a two-car draft with Busch at virtually the last instant then edged Busch by about half a car length to win the race, a dangerous event marred by a late-race crash that sent driver Eric McClure to a Birmingham hospital.
The race finished with the second of two green-white-checkereds. The verdict came down to Logano, Busch, Cole Whitt and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., with Busch and Logano drafting together and Whitt and Stenhouse locked together.
They ran in a line toward the finish. Rolling into the trioval, Logano shot to the outside to move alongside Busch, then outran him to the finish.
“He knows I’m going to make the move to make something happen here,” Logano said. “I just got him right at the line. It’s super exciting to win that way because you don’t know you got him until the line.
“You have to do it at the right time.”
Busch finished second and was followed by Stenhouse Jr., Whitt and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Busch said he was a sitting duck.
“When you’re in the tandem like that, there’s not much the front car can do,” he said. “I probably could have blocked Joey a little up the track, but the rear car has so much more momentum ready to go. If there was anything I could do, I would have done it.”
The wild finish was set up with nine laps to go when Mike Bliss spun out after being tapped by Elliott Sadler, prompting the fifth caution.
The green flew with four to go and Kyle Busch and Earnhardt Jr. riding in front. That lap wasn’t completed under green as Mike Wallace and Danny Efland crashed in turn four to bring out another caution.
That resulted in the first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish, with Kyle Busch again at the point.
The field roared into the third turn in a huge pack, and contact near the front sparked a multi-car melee that resulted in a red flag. Among the drivers involved were Michael Annett, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, McClure, Robert Richardson, Danica Patrick and Jeffrey Earnhardt.
McClure got the worst of the crash. He lost control and slammed head-on into the SAFER barrier in front of the turn’s inside wall. The race was stopped as the track’s safety team peeled the roof from McClure’s car and removed him from the cockpit of the vehicle.
NASCAR said McClure was talking to rescue personnel as they removed him from the car. He was airlifted to UAB Medical Center in Birmingham for evaluation and was reported to be “awake and alert” by NASCAR officials.
The crash set up the second green-white-checkered finish.
Contact between Sam Hornish and Patrick sent Patrick sliding into the wall on the last lap of the race. Patrick retaliated by bumping Hornish after the checkered flag.
Neither driver was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race, although similar incidents in the past have resulted in penalties.
Stenhouse Jr. moved past Sadler into the point lead.
With typical Talladega pack drafting mixed in with some two-by-two tandem drafting during the afternoon, the lead was swapped among a large group of drivers.
Logano’s victory was Toyota’s 200th in NASCAR’s three major series.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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