TALLADEGA, Alabama — Ross Chastain used the momentum in the tri-oval at Talladega Superspeedway to overtake the field with a skillful final-lap pass to earn victory in Sunday’s Geico 500 for the NASCAR Cup Series.
It was Chastain’s second win in the last five races aboard the Trackhouse Racing No. 1 Chevrolet.
Coming to the white flag, Petty GMS Racing’s Erik Jones was in command while Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet chased his Camaro’s rear bumper with Chastain in tow.
The riders began to pile up on the backstretch, with Jones still in the lead. It wasn’t until Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon gave Chastain a shot in the tri-oval, sending the No. 1 Chevrolet in the back of Larson. Larson responded by making a move for the lead.
Chastain (1) used the momentum to propel him to victory in the tri-oval. (HHP/Andrew Copley Photo)
Jones went up to block Larson, but GMS/Petty #43 lost all momentum and Chastain used a push from Dillon to win the race to the checkered flag.
“Holy cow,” Chastain said in disbelief. “I’m always the one who goes to the top too early and makes the mistake. It ended up being about 8 and I was like, ‘I’m not going back up there’, I did that a few times today. I thought, ‘I’ll just ride below, I’m not going to lose the race for us, I’ll just let them.’
“Dunno, they just kept going up,” Chastian continued. “They just kept getting out of the way.”
In a heartbreaking run, Jones finished sixth at the finish.
“It’s typical here, we’ve been close so many times in this race and the fall race,” said Jones. “(The) US Air Force Chevy had good speed and just felt good to be up front. When we got there on the last lap we were in single file, I felt pretty good about it, but they kind of tightened up behind us and the top lane got some momentum. Looking back I wish I had stayed down and let the 1 push me, I didn’t know they were coming at that speed.”
Chastain clinched Trackhouse Racing’s maiden win at the Circuit of The Americas four weeks ago and put the Justin Marks-owned team back on track to victory on Sunday.
“Justin Marks and what he had planned for us was ambitious, and I had no idea what to expect other than knowing I had my group from last year,” Chastain said. “We have partners. they believe in us We started the year with a lot of open races, we’re almost full now and that’s because of Justin Marks’ vision.”
stage one
Stage one went warning-free until Daniel Hemric broke free at turn three with four laps to go, the track coming back and catching Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher.
Briscoe felt the difficulty in building momentum was different than what the riders felt at Daytona in February.
After the accident in stage one, Daniel Hemric would end the day behind the wall in 36th. (HHP/Chris Owens photo)
“Yeah, it would be fun, I thought,” Briscoe said. “I felt the cars were a lot more stable than Daytona so you could be a lot more aggressive. It was weird, you couldn’t build barrels. I always hit the rev limiter when I was driving at all. It was going to be really difficult to build a big run.”
Bubba Wallace, who won the October race at Talladega, won the stage for 23XI Racing.
stage two
The second stage saw the accumulation of precautions, underscored by a launch at a restart that saw the retirement of Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez, among others.
“I felt a lot of things that didn’t feel good, I can tell you that much,” Logano said. “The car sustained quite a bit of damage there. We got shoved back and forth and I was the one who got shoved to the right and hit the wall and got back in front of the field. This is superspeedway racing.”
A flat tire by BJ McLeod and a spin by Cody Ware sent yellow flags on stage.
William Byron piloted his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to victory on stage two ahead of teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.
stage three
Strategy became a factor in the closing stages, with the final round of pit stops allowing teams to try and gain an advantage. The Fords of Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney led a group of cars first with 30 laps to go.
Then polesitter Christopher Bell collided out of pit lane with Kyle Busch, sending the No. 20 for a harmless spin down the stretch front apron. No warning would come out during the incident.
With the pit cycle over, Denny Hamlin put the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the lead. This would be short-lived, however, as Kyle Larson took over with 18 laps to go.
Miraculously, the final stage remained warning-free as the drivers jockeyed for positions on the final laps.
Kyle Busch, who finished third after the Christopher Bell incident, offered his take on a difficult day for many riders.
“It was just difficult to last all day,” Busch said. “Really at the end when two lanes were formed and they were pushing, it wasn’t really enough for a third lane to form to get any speed. It was just a bit of a line, if you will, on the first few lanes, but overall the Interstate Batteries Camry did our best. We stood there in front and were thrown out of line. Every time we came forward, we were thrown out of line. That was frustrating. Luckily we were able to save and bring back some of the guys who got a little squirter at the end and get a P3 so let’s take it and move on.”
Busch’s teammate Martin Truex Jr., who finished fifth for his second top five finish of the season, also weighed in on the overtaking difficulty.
“It got a bit hairy there at the end. The guys were just doing bonsai moves coming from all over the place but we were able to put our Bass Pro Shops Camry in a pretty good place there. We walked in front all day. We’re just outnumbered. We’ll be outnumbered. You get up there and run with 10 Chevys and you’re the only Toyota, you can’t do anything. you are stuck You just have to ride in line. It was a tough day from that point of view, but overall it was a good day. Top five in both stages I think and in the race. We had a tough couple of weeks so we needed that, but you always want to win.”
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