{"id":16914,"date":"2018-05-01T20:43:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T01:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=16914"},"modified":"2018-05-01T20:43:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T01:43:17","slug":"ford-leads-the-way-at-talladega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/01\/ford-leads-the-way-at-talladega\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford leads the way at Talladega"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 In the waning laps of Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500<\/strong> at Talladega Superspeedway<\/strong> it became evident the only question of the finish was which Ford<\/strong> driver would hoist the big trophy.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Beer Flannel Ford, and Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy\/Haas Automation Ford, lead the field during the pace laps prior to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

As it had for much of the race, the Ford entries appeared like a high-speed train with alternate conductors. Thirteen times and for 127 of the race\u2019s 188 laps, seven Ford drivers led the pack on the Talladega high banks.<\/p>\n

Penske Racing\u2019s Joey Logano collected his third Talladega win holding off fellow Ford Fusion drivers. Six of the top-seven finishers drove a Ford with Chevrolet\u2019s Chase Elliott (third place) feeling very much the lone outsider in a Chevrolet.<\/p>\n

Kurt Busch\u2019s runner-up finish was his best of the season. His Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick was fourth, followed by last year\u2019s race winner, Roush Fenway racing\u2019s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in fifth. David Ragan and Aric Almirola finished sixth and seventh \u2013 Ragan scoring his best effort of the year for himself and his Front Row Motorsports team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere at the end you work together as much as you can,\u2019\u2019 Logano acknowledged. \u201cYou just want to make sure a Ford wins, and you hope it’s you, but you try to do the right thing as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some Stewart\u2011Haas cars behind me which aren’t necessarily teammates, but with the Ford performance relationship, it’s the closest thing that I’m ever going to have to it.  I was thankful to have them behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s own Penske Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney had also been part of the Ford train for most of the day, but were caught up in the Talladega \u201cBig One\u201d with 23 laps remaining. Keselowski \u2013 who led four times for 21 laps \u2013 tied a season low finish of 33rd<\/sup>. Blaney was 18th<\/sup> – his No. 12 Ford was not as damaged as his teammate\u2019s and he was able to finish the race. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that I do know is that the Fords were all really fast, all of us were really fast,\u2019\u2019 SHR\u2019s Aric Almirola said.<\/p>\n

Ford has now won the last six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races at Talladega, seven of the last eight and nine of the last 12. More so than any other type of racing in the Cup series, restrictor plate tracks involve some form of teamwork. Sometimes that\u2019s a matter of opportunity and convenience, no matter what engine is powering the car. But on Sunday, it looked very much like a coordinated effort.<\/p>\n

Elliott would vouch for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen its five to go, no one cares the shape of your hood or whose got what manufacturer,\u2019\u2019 Elliott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast few laps [I] was really trying to make a run and do something there at the end.  Those guys [the Ford drivers] were being awfully patient with one another.  I was very surprised.  I mean, it was more than obvious that they were not going to help me move forward.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The result was not only a good Sunday afternoon for Ford, but a strong reinforcement in the season\u2019s points standings.<\/p>\n

Six of the top-10 and five of the top-six drivers in the championship standings drive Fords. Logano remains in second place but made up some definite ground on points leader Kyle Busch. The victory helped cut the deficit from 56 to 30 points heading into Dover International Speedway next week.<\/p>\n

Three-time winner Harvick moved into third place, but is still 81 points behind Busch. His SHR teammate Bowyer dropped a spot to fourth place. The day\u2019s biggest mover was Kurt Busch, who vaulted four positions in the standings to fifth thanks to his runner-up finish. Brad Keselowski dropped a spot to sixth<\/p>\n

Ford has won five of the season\u2019s 10 races compared to Toyota (four) and Chevrolet (one).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try to find those guys that have common interests and I would say our relationship with Stewart\u2011Haas and with Roush Fenway, we have a common goal:  we want Ford to be in Victory Lane,\u2019\u2019 Logano\u2019s crew chief Todd Gordon said. \u201cWe want our own Ford to be in Victory Lane, but we all want Ford to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look to work with the guys that you know have similar stuff to you and have similar interests.  That’s a relationship that, as Ford brought Stewart\u2011Haas into the mix, they continue to push us to make our stuff better.  We see that.  When Kevin outruns us, there’s no excuses.  Same motor, same body spec.  We have work to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a great relationship where we can push each other to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on Sunday, to be the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 In the waning laps of Sunday\u2019s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway it became evident the only question of the finish was which Ford driver would hoist the big trophy. As it had for much of the race, the Ford entries appeared like a high-speed train with alternate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16882,"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":[546,16,208],"class_list":["post-16914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-ford","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_action_042918.jpg?fit=1925%2C1283&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4oO","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914","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=16914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16915,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions\/16915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}