Facing Elimination, Keselowski Comes Through at Talladega

Photo Credit Getty Images for NASCAR

TALLADEGA, AL – RIS – After last week’s fiasco at Charlotte Motor Speedway, no one gave Brad Keselowski any chance of making the Chase.  He had a bad finish because of a blown tire at Kansas and been caught up in the scramble to win at Charlotte and faced elimination.  Then, he took on what seemed to be the entire field when the checkers flew at the Bank of America 500 and was hunted down by his fellow drivers, resulting in Matt Kenseth catching him and putting him in a headlock.  Later he was fined $50,000 and put on probation for the rest of the season.  How could that team and driver recover?  Very well, thank you.

With elimination staring him in the face, Keselowski drove his heart out on Sunday.  Starting from the back of the field because his team changed alternators after qualifying, he drove to the front in short order and led a couple of laps.  Most of the time he was battling with Jimmie Johnson or Kasey Kahne for the lead, but a late caution found him in first place with a second green-white-checker finish the only thing standing between him and elimination from NASCAR’s playoff system to determine a champion. What would he do?

Keselowski drove a near perfect last two laps.  Holding off the likes of Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, and others, Keselowski won his series leading sixth race at Talladega Superspeedway, and advanced onto the field of eight who will once again face the dreaded chopping block that this year’s Chase has in store for those unfortunate enough to not win or place high in the races leading up to the final race of a segment.  The usual brash Keselowski was humble in victory.

"I know there's probably some people out there that aren't really happy I won," Keselowski said. "I can understand that. But I'm a man like anyone else and not real proud of last week. But I'm real proud of today."

With his professionalism under attack throughout the garage (Kenseth said his behavior was unlike a champion after getting him in the headlock) and his season slipping away, Keselowski managed to come to Talladega focused on the difficult task at hand. He was in a three-way race to Victory Lane with six-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., all three needing to win to stave off elimination.

It was Keselowski who grabbed the checkered flag.

"I'll take the 50 grand and the win this week, wouldn't you?" said Keselowski team owner Roger Penske, who strongly defended his controversial driver. "These guys are jealous of the job he's done this year. He's won six races. He's made poles. He's been up front. Nobody likes to see a guy win like that.

"I want him to get mad. I don't want him to take it. We talked about it (last week). I said, `Brad, put it in the rearview mirror."

Joey Logano and Harvick, the winners of the first two races in the second round, also advanced to the third three-race round along with Newman, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Kenseth. The field will be cut to four after the ninth race. Points are reset after each round and the title will be decided by finishing order in the Nov. 16 finale at Homestead.

After the race, NASCAR said Newman's car failed inspection because it was too low on both sides of the back of his Chevrolet. Penalties will likely be issued Tuesday, but that infraction is typically docked 15 points. Newman holds a 27-point lead over Kasey Kahne, who was eliminated Sunday.

The much-anticipated championship battle between Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports took a major hit. Penske got both Keselowski and Logano into the third round, but Hendrick had three of its four drivers eliminated Sunday. Only Gordon advanced.

"Great teams, great drivers, great friends. I hate to see them not in there," Gordon said about Johnson, Earnhardt and Kahne. "I really thought the chances of two of them getting in were very good, and certainly one of them. I thought two of us would be in there, and I thought there's a decent chance three could be there."

Hendrick and Penske drivers combined for 17 wins in the first 26 races, and have dueled all season as the top two organizations in NASCAR.

"We'll just go and try and win some races before the year's out," Earnhardt said. "That all we've got left."

But Talladega, one of only two tracks in NASCAR that requires horsepower-sapping restrictor plates and most of the field runs in one giant pack, is a crapshoot. One slip can trigger a massive accident, and a drivers' fate often comes down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That's what happened to Kyle Busch, who entered the race ranked second in the 12-driver field but was the fourth driver eliminated from the Chase because he was caught in an early accident. He was hit from behind, had to go to the garage for repairs and finished 40th on Sunday.

"We are destroyed. We are absolutely killed," said Busch, who appeared to be hit by Austin Dillon. "I got wrecked from behind. We are done."

The drivers in danger of elimination paced the early parts of the race. Most of them were not used to the different qualifying procedure NASCAR recently changed for Daytona International Speedway and Talladega. Many of those in fear of elimination charged to the front quickly.

Only Keselowski was where he needed to be at the end.

Johnson has to look ahead at chasing No. 7 in 2015.

"This year for sure there's disappointment," he said. "But the disappointment has been the weeks leading up to right now. We've dealt with that. You're not going to win every championship battle you go into. You'd like. The numbers show you don't win a lot of championships."

Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Landon Cassill, and Newman completed the top five. Danica Patrick led seven laps late in the race before fading to 19th.

So, we leave the fastest track that measures 2.66-miles and head to NASCAR’s smallest track, the half-mile Martinsville Speedway.  RIS will be there live to report all the action, and if the last round was any indication, fireworks are in order.

Unofficial Race Results for the 46th Annual Geico 500 - Sunday, October 19, 2014
Talladega Superspeedway - Talladega, AL - 2.66 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 194 Laps - 516.04 Miles - Purse: $5,450,725

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 5 2 Brad Keselowski Redd's Wicked Apple Ale Ford 194 47 4 118.4 $288,361 Running 5 12
2 13 20 Matt Kenseth Home Depot Toyota 194 43 1 71.7 $228,207 Running 1 1
3 33 15 Clint Bowyer PinkLemonade5HrEnergybenefittingLBBC Toyota 194 41 78.0 $180,329 Running
4 29 40 Landon Cassill(i) Carsforsale.com Chevrolet 194 0 85.3 $129,475 Running 1 1
5 11 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 194 40 1 59.8 $134,521 Running 3 10
6 7 33 Travis Kvapil Little Joe's Autos Chevrolet 194 38 76.6 $122,860 Running
7 18 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 194 37 110.6 $102,115 Running
8 26 9 Marcos Ambrose Black & Decker Ford 194 36 98.8 $130,125 Running
9 39 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet 194 36 1 94.1 $134,261 Running 1 2
10 19 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 194 34 84.3 $121,919 Running
11 40 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 194 33 87.1 $131,544 Running
12 8 5 Kasey Kahne Farmer's Insurance Chevrolet 194 33 1 104.4 $108,086 Running 2 12
13 30 3 Austin Dillon # Dow Chevrolet 194 31 67.2 $142,697 Running
14 36 36 Reed Sorenson Zing Zang Chevrolet 194 30 78.5 $105,973 Running
15 22 26 Cole Whitt # Bad Boy Mowers Toyota 194 30 1 67.5 $89,940 Running 1 1
16 34 66 Michael Waltrip MyAFibStory.com Toyota 194 28 55.7 $96,686 Running
17 42 42 Kyle Larson # Energizer Chevrolet 194 27 96.4 $114,681 Running
18 38 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx One Rate/Deliverminator Toyota 194 27 1 63.2 $96,536 Running 1 1
19 27 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet 194 26 1 79.9 $95,661 Running 1 7
20 1 55 Brian Vickers Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota 194 24 47.1 $129,594 Running
21 15 99 Carl Edwards Subway Ford 194 23 45.9 $102,511 Running
22 4 12 Ryan Blaney(i) SKF Ford 194 0 73.9 $82,940 Running 2 15
23 3 47 AJ Allmendinger Scott Products Chevrolet 194 21 51.3 $100,273 Running
24 2 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Chevrolet 194 22 2 118.2 $142,859 Running 9 84
25 24 16 Greg Biffle 3M Ford 194 20 1 66.4 $128,002 Running 1 1
26 43 24 Jeff Gordon Axalta Chevrolet 194 19 1 50.5 $129,197 Running 2 3
27 12 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet 194 18 1 87.7 $115,252 Running 1 1
28 35 98 Josh Wise Dogecoin/Reddit.com Ford 194 16 49.7 $84,440 Running
29 21 38 David Gilliland Long John Silver's Ford 194 16 1 57.0 $104,419 Running 1 2
30 25 34 David Ragan Dockside Logistics Ford 194 15 1 62.9 $103,633 Running 2 2
31 28 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet 194 14 1 98.5 $91,931 Running 2 31
32 16 21 Trevor Bayne(i) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford 194 0 72.7 $80,640 Running
33 9 32 Terry Labonte C&J Energy Services Ford 193 11 33.3 $80,490 Running
34 37 14 Tony Stewart Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet 190 11 1 46.3 $115,436 Accident 1 5
35 31 1 Jamie McMurray Cessna Chevrolet 189 10 1 63.6 $117,900 Running 1 3
36 20 27 Paul Menard Moen/Menards Chevrolet 188 8 71.3 $108,439 Accident
37 10 7 Michael Annett # Golden Corral Chevrolet 187 7 73.9 $79,821 Accident
38 23 49 Mike Wallace(i) Royal Teak Collection Toyota 186 0 26.6 $74,805 Running
39 17 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 166 5 56.3 $108,312 Running
40 41 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Halloween Toyota 145 4 31.1 $115,217 Running
41 6 95 Michael McDowell Jordan Truck Sales Ford 127 3 44.4 $62,805 Accident
42 32 83 JJ Yeley(i) Burger King/Dr Pepper Toyota 102 0 56.3 $58,805 Accident
43 14 23 Alex Bowman # Dustless Blasting Toyota 102 1 44.0 $55,305 Accident