{"id":25454,"date":"2019-04-28T19:13:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T00:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=25454"},"modified":"2019-04-28T19:13:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T00:13:39","slug":"nascar-sunday-talladega-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/28\/nascar-sunday-talladega-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Sunday Talladega Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chevrolets gang up to foil Joey Logano\u2019s winning chances<\/b><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Joey Logano had the lead in Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 for the final restart on Lap 185 of 188, but the front of the field proved a tough place to be, given what was happening behind him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 MoneyLion Ford, and Daniel Suarez, driver of the #41 Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla Ford, lead the field during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

First, Kurt Busch got a promising run, and Logano felt obligated to block the No. 1 Chevrolet. But that gave eventual race winner Chase Elliott a chance to surge into the lead at Talladega Superspeedway with an assist from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman.<\/p>\n

Elliott\u2019s victory broke a seven-race Talladega winning streak for Ford drivers, with Logano having accounted for three of those victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end, the 1 (Busch) had a big run, and I felt like I had to block that,\u201d Logano said. \u201cWhen I blocked that I can\u2019t block both and the 9 (Elliott) got underneath me. If I chose the bottom and block the 9, I had the 88 (Bowman) there, and they were going to go by me as soon as they formed a run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not in a very good spot. Once I got on the outside, I thought that would be a better spot to be than the bottom, but the (Chevrolet) teammates there didn\u2019t race each other to the end, which is good on their part, because it made sure one of their cars won. If they had gotten side-by-side, I think I could have made something happen, but they were selfless toward each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Mountain Dew\/Little Caesar’s Chevrolet, leads the field during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 28, 2019 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

A caution on the final lap preempted what might have been a different finish\u2014though Logano didn\u2019t think the outcome would have changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think, even if it was green all the way to the end, it would have looked exactly the same,\u201d Logano said. \u201cThere were no runs building and no momentum going. It\u2019s a tough spot to be in.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think you are in a good spot, and anytime you can take the front row on a final restart you will take it, especially here at Talladega. But it\u2019s tough when the numbers are stacked against you a little bit. The team did a good job, though, and our Mustang was really fast, and that\u2019s what we have to be proud of.\u201d  <\/p>\n

ROOKIE RYAN PREECE GETS CAREER-BEST FINISH IN WILD RACE<\/b><\/p>\n

Ryan Preece did what a rookie is supposed to do at Talladega. He stayed out of trouble and finished the race.<\/p>\n

And when caution flew on the final lap of the GEICO 500, Preece was running third behind race winner Chase Elliott and runner-up Alex Bowman.<\/p>\n

Driving the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet, Preece, a star of the first magnitude in the modified ranks, had his best career finish in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Preece said. \u201cI was only here one other time, and that was in an Xfinity car in 2016, and I was running third with three to go and went for the hole and got flushed. So, I wasn\u2019t going to do that today.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, it was a perfect situation for Chevy there on that restart, being able to line up and push each other and really not give the other manufacturers an opportunity to get by us. So a great day for (sponsor) Kroger and for JTG, and hopefully we can use this momentum moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

GEICO 500 ENDS IN A WILD RIDE FOR KYLE LARSON<\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson is used to flipping in a race car. That occurrence is almost commonplace in the midgets he drives on dirt when he\u2019s not competing in a stock car.<\/p>\n

But Sunday\u2019s barrel-roll down the Talladega backstretch was a different matter. On the final lap of the GEICO 500, Larson was poised for a much-needed strong finish when David Ragan\u2019s Ford clipped William Byron\u2019s Chevrolet and sent Byron\u2019s car spinning into Larson\u2019s Chevy.<\/p>\n

Larson slid toward the inside SAFER barrier with the Toyota of Jeffrey Earnhardt out of control beside him. Larson\u2019s car launched and rolled over and over toward Turn 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, I thought I was going to hit the inside wall pretty hard,\u201d Larson said. \u201cAnd then right before I got to it, I felt it lift and was just hoping it would set down; and then it just started tumbling. That was probably the longest flip I\u2019ve ever had. I haven\u2019t seen a replay of it. I didn\u2019t know if it would ever stop. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I was flipping and was just hoping that I wasn\u2019t going to get any closer to the catch fence, so it was a little bit scary, but, thankfully, I\u2019m all right. Thanks to the fab shop and Chip Ganassi Racing for building safe race cars. Like I said, that was scary. So, I\u2019m just thankful that I\u2019m OK.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026I thought I would have a shot to win there, but it just didn\u2019t work out. As soon as we left the restart zone (with four laps left), we were kind of just in a bad spot. When you\u2019re like that and everybody is four or five-wide, you know something crazy is going to happen. But I had a good time today. I just wish we would have been on the right end of it for once this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Chevrolets gang up to foil Joey Logano\u2019s winning chances TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Joey Logano had the lead in Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 for the final restart on Lap 185 of 188, but the front of the field proved a tough place to be, given what was happening behind him. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":25430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[209,16,208],"class_list":["post-25454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-geico-500","tag-nascar","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/TSS1_MENCS_ElliottLeadsPack_042819.jpg?fit=2083%2C1389","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6Cy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25455,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25454\/revisions\/25455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}