Yahoo Autos As 33 of 40 Cars Take Damage, Brad Keselowski Wins Talladega
While many see restrictor plate racing as little more than a conduit for 15 and 25-car wrecks and strange results, the discipline is also host to some of the most interesting and strategic racing around, as exhibited by this year's Daytona 500 that came down to three team-affiliated cars plotting moves over five and ten laps that all came together in the end, leading to one of the closest and most exciting finishes in the history of the race. While that race, relatively clean as it was, would be a shining example of all restrictor plate racing could be, today's 500 miler at Talladega was decidedly not.
Part of the reason that this year's Daytona 500 was so interesting was that, despite the fact that one team had clear dominance, all of the drivers with a real chance to win both had completely healthy cars and the positioning they needed to be in contention when it came time to make a move to win the race. This year's first Talladega race initially seemed significantly more open, with Joe Gibbs Racing's restrictor plate package waning in dominance just as Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing's packages were coming back into their own, but after four major wrecks that left 33 of the race's 40 starters with at least some damage, the race came down to just two healthy, fast cars.
Those would be the cars of Penske's Brad Keselowski and JGR's Kyle Busch, and while Keselowski was exceedingly fast all race long, Busch didn't make his push until the last restart. Since NASCAR didn't red flag the race after its third major wreck (which left Matt Kenseth nearly rolled over after a harrowing aerodynamic-aided blow-over), there were just three laps left when the race went back to green, and with little time for a move to develop over time or for anyone deep in the pack to try to get near the front, not even Busch could really do much to stop Keselowski from pushing his way into the lead and staying there over the closing laps.
With every other one of the other four 2016 race winners involved in earlier wrecks, a track known for its finishes saw its flagship race end with a past champion pulling away with little real challenge. With Keselowski already a winner, this leaves no change in the Chase grid heading into next weekend's 400 mile race at the 1.5-mile intermediate track in Kansas.
