TALLADEGA, Ala. — Five thoughts after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway …
1. Taking Stock
Ignorance is bliss.
I wish I didn’t know modern-day superspeedway racing has turned into a track position race because the Next Gen cars no longer can slice through the field like their predecessors could, and that the four-wide pack we saw on Sunday was actually drivers collectively working together to save fuel by running half throttle.
I wish I didn’t know how superspeedway racing used to be, where the most skillful drafters could artfully go from back to the front by understanding the air better than their competitors.
I wish I didn’t know most of the race would look exactly like it did, with fuel strategy racing followed by a near-inevitable big wreck in the final laps of regulation to trigger overtime.
I wish I didn’t know cars with flat tires used to be able to drive back to the pits on their own.
I wish I didn’t know that NASCAR for months has made it clear a disabled vehicle involved in a wreck is not allowed to be towed back to the pits to continue the race, only for NASCAR to change the policy on Sunday without telling anyone.
I wish I didn’t know the disabled vehicle policy will likely have inconsistent applications again in an upcoming race and cause more murkiness and frustration among the garage and fans.
I wish I didn’t know NASCAR has never kept the pace car parked following a red flag as other cars got to work on damage repair without losing laps under yellow — until Sunday.
I wish I didn’t know some of race winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s door foam was missing following a collision, and I wish I didn’t know NASCAR has made other cars pull off the track for similar situations in the past.
I wish I didn’t know NASCAR didn’t know about the door foam until asked by reporters afterward.
I wish I didn’t know what attending Talladega races used to feel like in the mid-2000s, or what it looked like to see 150,000 people in the stands surrounded by jam-packed campgrounds.
I wish I didn’t know the full-season point standings this year would still have five drivers in contention for the title with five races to go and how using that format this season would offer a more compelling and credible championship battle than the current one.
Unfortunately, I do know all of these things. I just wish I didn’t, because not knowing would make days like Sunday a lot less aggravating and a lot more fun.
2. What If?
There are typically multiple alternate storylines in this section, but Sunday gave us one of the all-time what-ifs that deserves its own section.
With four laps to go, Denny Hamlin was running outside the top 30 and was 19 seconds behind the leaders. Due to nose damage, he had lost the draft because he couldn’t keep up with his group of cars while leaving pit road on a green-flag stop; he needed to be tucked up right behind them, and a longer pit stop for fuel meant he couldn’t.
The situation was dire, but it was also par for the course when it came to Hamlin’s playoff luck. A dismal finish was going to leave him 17 points below the cutoff line heading to the elimination race at the Charlotte Roval, and it would mean Hamlin’s hopes of finally winning a championship would likely end after Round 2.
But then it happened: Hamlin actually caught a break, for once. The Big One — a wreck that occurred over a mile ahead of him, as Hamlin noted — took out a record 28 cars all at once and flipped Hamlin’s track position. He gained 22 spots in an instant and the crash accounted for a 47-point swing in the live standings.
Instead of facing elimination, Hamlin now heads to the Roval race a relatively comfortable 30 points above the cut line. All because of an unintentional strategy that kept him out of the fray.
The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi has much more on Hamlin’s rare good luck here, but that moment is certainly one that will be cited as a key break if Hamlin advances to the championship race next month.
3. NASquirks
Few in attendance at last week’s Kansas Speedway race realized Bubba Wallace became a first-time father a couple hours before the race began. But that meant he was unable to be in attendance for the actual birth of son Becks since wife Amanda was in a hospital near the couple’s home in North Carolina.
“My wife and I had a lot of conversations about what to do,” Wallace told The Athletic. “She was the one who looked me in the eyes — and looked a lot of our executives in the eyes — and said, ‘Bubba is not missing a race. There’s too much on the line.’ That was before playoffs, but when playoffs rolled around and I didn’t make it, and she says, ‘Bubba’s not missing a race.’”
So he didn’t. The Wallaces were together at home in the Charlotte area when Amanda went into labor early last Sunday morning, and they went to the hospital around 2:30 a.m. — just 13 hours before the green flag in Kansas. Bubba stayed as long as possible until the necessary departure for Kansas, finally leaving North Carolina around 9 a.m.; FaceTime was as close as he could get to witnessing the birth.
“I tried to hang out as long as I could, and it was such a slow process,” he said. “I had already landed in Kansas (when the baby arrived), so it wasn’t like I just left the parking lot (of the hospital). I was content with it. I just hated not being there and seeing it all.”
Wallace and his No. 23 team had worked hard to turn around their performance from the spring Kansas race, and he was eager to see if he could get another victory at one of the two tracks where he’s won a Cup Series race. But it didn’t work out; he finished 17th and got out of the car “pissed off as all get out” until he realized he was about to fly home and see his son for the first time.
“That was super, super cool, and I’m going to try to hang onto that mindset,” he said. “Now having a kid and even getting married (in 2022), there’s so much more than racing. My bad races would linger for a couple days, but man, there was nothing like getting out of the car and having that moment.”
Wallace flew back to North Carolina and went straight to the hospital, where he stayed for the next couple days and got to hold his son for the first time. He has already become an expert at changing diapers, surprising himself at how quickly he picked up the skill.
“I love being a dad, and that’s really cool,” he said, catching himself before getting choked up. “I’m trying not to get emotional here, but it’s just been a fun journey. And seeing Amanda glow and enjoy it — it’s a lot for her, but she’s handling it so well. We’re crushing it right now, and that’s all that matters.”
4. Championship 4cast
In this space throughout the playoffs, we’re taking a look at the current power rankings for the Championship 4 and comparing them to our pre-playoff picks (Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney).
1. Bell (pre-playoffs: 1; last week: 1). There were some iffy moments for Bell when he lost the lead draft on Sunday, but ultimately he avoided the Big One and finished sixth — all but locking himself into Round 3.
2. Larson (pre-playoffs: 3; last week: 2). Wait a second — Larson can get good finishes on superspeedways now?! The Hendrick driver tied his career-best finish on a superspeedway (fourth) and recorded just his second top-five in 47 career drafting track races.
3. Byron (pre-playoffs: not ranked; last week: 4). Despite an uneven summer, Byron leaves Talladega as the only playoff driver locked into Round 3. He did it with back-to-back podium finishes in this round and can now go for the win at the Roval versus trying to worry about stage points.
4. Blaney (pre-playoffs: 4; last week: 3). After Blaney crashed at the end of Stage 2 and finished 39th, you’d think he would be in a worrisome situation for the cutoff race next week. Except most of his competitors ended up in the Big One later, so Blaney still heads to the Roval with a relatively comfortable 25-point cushion to the cutoff line.
Honorable mention: Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Reddick, Chase Elliott.
5. Best of the rest
• Stenhouse (first): The JTG Daugherty Racing driver now has back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in his 12-year career. Stenhouse’s four career victories have all come at superspeedways (two at Talladega, two at Daytona).
• Erik Jones (fifth): It’s been a miserable season for Legacy Motor Club, but Jones picked up the team’s first top-five finish in more than a year (Kansas, fall 2023).
• Justin Haley (seventh): He picked up his third top-10 of the season, but first since rejoining Spire Motorsports last month. Of Spire’s 23 top-10 finishes in team history, 13 have occurred this season alone.
(Top photo of four-wide racing Sunday at Talladega: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
