TALLADEGA RACE REVIEW
This is Elliott Country!
Date: 10-2-2022.
Name of the race: Yellawood 500.
Track: Talladega Superspeedway.
Laps: 188.
Pole winner: Christopher Bell.
Outside pole: Kyle Larson.
Stage 1 winner: Ryan Blaney.
Stage 2 winner: Chase Elliott.
Stage 3 winner (won the race): Chase Elliott.
Top 5: Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain, and Denny Hamlin.
FYI: Talladega! Undoubtedly NASCAR’s most controversial track in its 74 year long history, it is always known to put on a show, for better or for worse. Some argue that Talladega’s checkered past started as far back as the mid 1800s, when the Native American Talatigi tribes that inhabited the land were forced to abandon their homes during the trail of tears, cursing it as they left, never to return. NASCAR’s troubled past with the track began in 1969, at the very first race ever held at Talladega Superspeedway, when an ongoing tire war between Goodyear and Firestone led to unsafe and unstable tires when the drivers first hit the track, dragging out up until the day of show, when a driver boycott and walkout over safety concerns led to all but three of the Grand National (now cup) Division’s drivers leaving in fear of a horrific crash with the outside wall of the track, forcing Bill France Sr. to raid the preliminary races’ field of their drivers to fill to now mostly empty garage. Years have past and Talladega has become a fan favorite, whether it be for its wild infield parties, massive “big one” wrecks collecting half of the field, or the advent of pack racing and drafting, leading to hour long games of automotive chess at speeds excess of 190 MPH. Now more than ever in recent history fans, teams, crews and drivers alike where all worries about the upcoming Talladega playoff race, especially after the horror show of a race that last week’s was at Texas Motor Speedway, with green flag runs lasting about 35 laps, blown tires and bad and painful wrecks for everyone. One wreck even led to driver of the Ally 48 Chevy Camaro, Alex Bowman, getting a concussion (the second of the season after Kurt Busch back in July), resulting in him missing the race at ‘Dega all together. With safety being such a massive topic of discussion in the garage and all of the drivers wanting a change to be made in order to protect themselves from a career ending injury, the week leading up to Talladega was rife with tension among everyone, and with ‘Dega being known for its big and scary looking wrecks, it wasn’t a matter of when it would be, but how many times it would happen. It was truly to be a game of survival going into the race, with prayers being sent up by everyone for safety for everyone involved. Christopher Bell sat on the pole for Sunday's race with Kyle Larson starting on the outside in the second. The race began and everyone was on the edge of their seats. Midway through the first stage on lap 24, Ricky Stenhouse Jr would turn the 21 of rookie driver Harrison Burton, resulting in thankfully the only major wreck of the race, and collecting drivers such as Noah Gragson who was filling in for Alex Bowman in the iconic 48 car, Austin Cindric and his teammate Joey Logano, Corey Lajoie who would go on to be one of the only cars of the whole day to DNF, and many others involved. The race wasn’t halted for very long however, and on lap 60 to end stage 1, past Talladega winner Ryan Blaney would come to the line in first and claim the green checkers. Going into stage 2, many of the drivers would start to play it safe and run single file, with Chevrolet dominating the stage and Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott winning stage 2, battling back after a bad wreck the week previous, taking him out of the points lead. All day long the lead would shuffle between many different teams, but none more so than Elliott and Blaney, two friends off the track who share a mutual respect. The two past ‘Dega winners would continue to do battle with the laps winding down, when all of a sudden with seven to go, Daniel Hemric driving for Kaulig Racing, would drop a cylinder and would be forced to retire, stalling out on the pits and bringing out the caution. Now with two to go coming to the line on the restart, all eyes were on Blaney and Elliott. Going down the backstretch, Elliott who restarted in 5th, would drop out of the inside line and take the outside as a hole opened up for him, with Chevrolet teammate Erik Jones giving him a shove on the outside lane and giving him and the rest of the outside lane to charge forward coming across the start/finish line going into the last lap and into turns 1 and 2. Elliott would take the lead for the final time through 3 and 4, giving him enough momentum to keep the lead, pass Blaney entirely and claim his 5th victory of the season and second at Talladega! Blaney would say after the fact that he would be “replaying the last lap in his head” over and over for weeks, as Elliott saluted the fans with a polish victory lap. All in all, it was a relatively tame race at Talladega, and thankfully, with little wrecks throughout the day, nobody got hurt. Now onto the Charlotte Roval, the last road course of the year and the final race of the Round of 12. Will Chase Elliott reclaim his road course crown and go 2 in a row? Or will we see somebody else punch their ticket to the round of 8? We shall see.
Next race: Charlotte Roval for the third race of the second round of the playoffs on Sunday afternoon, also it is the second elimination race of the playoffs too.