{"id":22392,"date":"2018-10-14T18:10:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=22392"},"modified":"2018-10-14T20:25:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T01:25:07","slug":"nascar-sunday-talladega-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/14\/nascar-sunday-talladega-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Sunday Talladega Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Fuel shortage deprives Kurt Busch of winning chances at Talladega<\/b><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Kurt Busch<\/strong> was one corner and a straightaway from his second victory of the season and an automatic ticket into the Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy\/Haas Automation Ford, leads during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 14, 2018 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Josh Hedges\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But Busch\u2019s No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford ran out of gas in Turn 4 on the final lap of the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Busch steered to the bottom of the track and watched helplessly as teammate Aric Almirola charged past him and claimed the overtime win.<\/p>\n

Busch started from the pole led a race-high 108 of 193 laps, as Stewart-Haas dominated the event in unprecedented fashion, grabbing the top four positions in qualifying and finishing 1-2-3-4 in both stages before Almirola took the checkered flag with teammate Clint Bowyer behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very different Talladega for me,\u201d said Busch, who rolled across the finish line in 14th<\/sup> place. \u201cI really enjoyed leading the race, working with my teammates. I\u2019m really happy a Stewart-Haas car won, but the four of us, I\u2019ve never seen so much synergy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we were going to have to race when we got to Kansas (next Sunday). It would have been nice to have the win. We\u2019re here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almirola got the ticket into the Round of 8 with the victory, but Busch leaves Talladega 30 points above the cut line, a relatively comfortable margin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s good stuff,\u201d Busch said. \u201cWe had 21 (points) coming into this, and if you can bank nine and get the heck out of Talladega, that sounds good.\u201d<\/p>\n

KYLE LARSON OVERCOMES LACK OF SPEED TO FINISH 11TH<\/sup> AT TALLADEGA<\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson\u2019s balky No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet qualified 34th<\/sup> on Saturday. After unapproved adjustments to the car, Larson started last in Sunday\u2019s 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n

After that, things got worse. On lap 104 of 193, Larson blew a left rear tire and spun on the backstretch, losing a lap in the process.<\/p>\n

Timely cautions and attrition, however, came to his rescue. Larson got his lap back as the beneficiary under caution for the end of Stage 2, and after spending most of the afternoon running mid-pack, he dodged late accidents to finish 11th<\/sup>\u2014a miraculous result given the lack of strength in his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a terrible race car and were really slow all weekend,\u201d Larson said after the race. \u201cWe were able to salvage a decent finish, but the Fords are so fast here and can rack up a lot of stage points.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when they have a bad day, they still gain points on us. It is what it is. We\u2019ll just go to Kansas and try and win.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Round of 12 cutoff race at Kansas set for next Sunday, Larson faces elimination from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. He\u2019s 11th<\/sup> in the standings, 26 points behind reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr., who is currently in eighth place.<\/p>\n

Larson finished fourth at Kansas in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Kansas is a good track for us,\u201d Larson. \u201cWe\u2019ve challenged for wins there in the past, and hopefully we can go there next week and be strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong\u201d might not be good enough. Given his position in the standings, Larson may have to win to advance.<\/p>\n

MARTIN TRUEX JR. FIGHTS ILL-HANDLING CAR TO STAY ABOVE CUT LINE<\/b><\/p>\n

From a handling standpoint, the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota of defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. was pure evil on Sunday at Talladega.<\/p>\n

Truex fought the car from the outset, and no amount of tinkering by his crew on pit road could define and fix the problem. Truex had no choice but to run in the back of the field and try to stay out of trouble. <\/p>\n

The only breaks he got came late\u2014a late caution that gave him a chance to come to pit road for new tires for a two-lap overtime and his deft avoidance of serious damage in a Turn 1 wreck on the final lap.<\/p>\n

Truex salvaged a 23rd<\/sup>-place finish, ahead of Playoff contenders Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney, who had to pit for fuel before the last restart. As a result, Truex heads for next Sunday\u2019s Round of 12 elimination race at Kansas Speedway 18 points ahead of Keselowski in ninth place and 22 ahead of Blaney in 10th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t really matter what we did to the car,\u201d Truex said. \u201cIt (the problem) didn\u2019t go away. We tried a lot of stuff. It was tough to drive. It couldn\u2019t even go straight. I could run hard for two or three laps. As soon as the tires got some air pressure, I was just hanging on. The longer the runs were, the worse it got.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no chance of me just getting up there and racing. I wanted to. Luckily, we were able to get some tires there in the end. I could go for about three laps. I felt good going to the green-white checkered. They wrecked in front of us, and we barely made it through. As soon as we got through there, I was able to salvage something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  Fuel shortage deprives Kurt Busch of winning chances at Talladega TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Kurt Busch was one corner and a straightaway from his second victory of the season and an automatic ticket into the Round of 8 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. But Busch\u2019s No. 41 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":22395,"comment_status":"open","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":[16,208],"class_list":["post-22392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/358217.jpg?fit=4854%2C3236&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5Pa","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22392","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22392"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22396,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22392\/revisions\/22396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}