NASCAR: Kyle Busch wins at Talladega after Bubba Wallace crashes while blocking Ryan Blaney
Blaney #Blaney
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Racing these days at Talladega is much like partying in the infield. You’ve got to take it slow to start if you want to be around at the finish … but that’s when the real action happens.
Kyle Busch took the win on the final lap after Bubba Wallace got turned around while blocking Ryan Blaney in Turns 1 and 2. Wallace was leading the race and wanted to prevent Blaney from making a pass. He blocked just a little too much and went spinning around while collecting a bunch of cars behind him.
It was the second big wreck in the final laps as the race went to two overtime attempts. The first overtime attempt made it less than a quarter lap after Ross Chastain tried an extremely aggressive three-wide move for the lead right after the restart.
The race officially ended eight laps after its scheduled 188-lap distance because of the wrecks. It first went to overtime when Joey Logano got bumped by Corey LaJoie to trigger a crash with five laps to go.
The extra laps meant drivers were having to save fuel as much as possible. Some were able to do that more than others. Busch said his car might have run out of gas when he went to do a celebratory burnout and frontrunners like Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin had to pit after the first overtime attempt to make sure they could make it to the end of the race.
Blaney finished second, Chris Buescher was third, Chase Briscoe came from two laps down to somehow unofficially finish fourth and Brad Keselowski was fifth.
After the race, a dejected Wallace threw his HANS device to the ground after he climbed from his car. Wallace’s first win came at Talladega in 2021 and he ran up front for much of the day. He just might have made one block too many. Otherwise he could have another win at the 2.66-mile track. There was still plenty of time for Wallace to get back around Blaney if Blaney would have executed the pass.
Outside of some pit road shenanigans, probably the most interesting element of the first two stages of the Geico 500 came courtesy of Logano. The two-time champion, well off the lead thanks to a penalty for speeding on pit road, made the unusual – to put it politely – move to place his car in the center lane as the pack approached behind him, rather than moving down to the apron.
The move forced the pack to split around him, and gave Logano time to get up to speed within the pack – speed he wouldn’t have been able to achieve outside of the draft.
Fresh off being named to the list of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers of all time, Hamlin snared the pole at Talladega. But he could only hold the lead for a few laps, losing it when the race went to caution for Michael McDowell’s blown right rear tire.
Bubba Wallace took the lead on lap 8, drawing the interest of his team owner in the 23XI pit box, a guy who competed under the No. 23 a little bit himself. As a presidential motorcade-level GMC Denali waited a dozen steps away, Michael Jordan watched as Wallace was among the 19 drivers to hold the lead for at least a lap on Sunday afternoon.
With about 50 laps remaining, the strategy kicked up another level. Harrison Burton saw his hopes for his first career Cup win vanish off the front bumper of Noah Gragson, who turned Burton into the infield grass in Turn 3. In the ensuing pit stops under caution, some drivers opted for two tires, others for fuel only, anticipating chaos to come.
After spending all day in two lanes, drivers worked together to form up and run three-wide, giving driver after driver a turn at the front of the pack.