{"id":16896,"date":"2018-04-29T19:44:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16896"},"modified":"2018-04-29T20:45:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T01:45:18","slug":"sunday-talladega-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/29\/sunday-talladega-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Talladega Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Hendrick teammates trigger \u201cThe Big One\u201d at Talladega<\/b><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Throughout Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500<\/strong> at Talladega Superspeedway<\/strong>, seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> champion Jimmie Johnson<\/strong> patiently worked his way forward from his 16th-place starting position, running as high as third and battling with the fastest cars in the race.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Clint Bowyer, driver of the #14 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford, William Byron, driver of the #24 Liberty University Chevrolet, Paul Menard, driver of the #21 Motorcraft\/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford, and Michael McDowell, driver of the #34 Love’s Travel Stops\/Roller Bites Ford, are involved in an on track incident during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

On Lap 166 of 188, however, Johnson\u2019s race fell apart, when he and Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron got too close together as they rolled into Turn 3. Johnson slid sideways in dirty air and collected both Byron and Paul Menard, triggering a 14-car wreck.<\/p>\n

The melee eliminated the cars of Byron, Menard, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon. The machines of Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Brendan Gaughan also sustained damage.<\/p>\n

The accident, however, didn\u2019t affect the race winner. Joey Logano led the last 42 laps \u2013 through two cautions \u2013 and took the checkered flag .127 seconds ahead of runner-up Kurt Busch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I had help somehow just the way it turned around,\u201d Johnson said of the wreck. \u201cUnfortunately, when I was sliding, the No. 12 car (Blaney) hit us and bent something in the rear end. It wasn\u2019t the same after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson managed a 12th-place finish. Byron, on the other hand, saw a solid run spoiled after leading 14 laps in his Monster Energy debut at the 2.66-mile track.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think we just got side-drafted going into (Turn) 3 and got me a little bit free and then I think I just packed some air on his left rear,\u201d Byron said of the circumstances that sparked the wreck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just unfortunate that we couldn\u2019t get to the end of the race, but we\u2019ll learn from it and come back here in the fall and hopefully have an even better run.\u201d<\/p>\n

KYLE BUSCH FALLS SHORT IN ATTEMPT TO WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT RACE<\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Busch recovered from a pit road speeding penalty at the end of the second stage of Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500, but he couldn\u2019t shake off the effects of a 14-car wreck with 22 laps left in the race.<\/p>\n

Busch came to Talladega Superspeedway seeking a fourth straight victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Instead, he fell victim to the same \u201cTalladega curse\u201d that ended the winning streaks of three NASCAR Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

Bobby Allison (1972), Dale Earnhardt (1987) and Rusty Wallace (1993) all came to Talladega with victory strings of three races or more and failed to extend their streaks at Talladega. Now you can add Kyle Busch to that list.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we got in that wreck, it was over, but we had a decent car up until then,\u201d said Busch, who finished 13th. \u201cWe got the car handling better all day long, and every adjustment we made to it was an improvement and gave us more on the race track, but we just lack speedway speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Busch and Kevin Harvick have won three consecutive races this season. Harvick\u2019s string ran out at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.<\/p>\n

ERIK JONES IGNITES WRECK THAT SENDS TREVOR BAYNE TO GARAGE<\/b><\/p>\n

A bad week for Trevor Bayne ended with additional disappointment in Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n

Four days after learning he would have to share driving duties in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with returning veteran Matt Kenseth, Bayne was the innocent victim of a wreck that began when Erik Jones washed up the track on the backstretch, turned across the nose of Jamie McMurray\u2019s Chevrolet and knocked Bayne\u2019s Ford into the outside wall.<\/p>\n

The wreck sidelined the cars of Jones, Bayne and Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I got down on the apron there a little bit, and after that it took off on me, and I got up into the 1 (McMurray), and that was kind of it from there,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI feel bad that I ruined everybody\u2019s day that was around me and also for our day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese cars are just really challenging to drive now, and I think that\u2019s why you\u2019re not seeing a ton of racing early on. Unfortunately, I just pushed it to the limit a little too much and got up in an accident that took us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

With something extra to prove at Talladega, Bayne didn\u2019t get the result he wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the top to keep my run going, and coming off the corner (Turn 2) I didn\u2019t see what happened,\u201d Bayne said. \u201cBut watching the replay, it looks like the 20 (Jones) got turned and turned up into us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stinks. You try to manage your highs and lows, though. We will move on and go to Dover next weekend. It\u2019s frustrating because Talladega is one of the ones you know you can win at, and we wanted to do that today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Hendrick teammates trigger \u201cThe Big One\u201d at Talladega TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Throughout Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson patiently worked his way forward from his 16th-place starting position, running as high as third and battling with the fastest cars in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[209,16,208],"class_list":["post-16896","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\/2018\/04\/MENCS_TSS1_BigOne_042918-e1525049934231.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4ow","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16896"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16898,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16896\/revisions\/16898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}