Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was unlike many other races at the feared 2.5-mile oval. The majority of the 188-lap affair was run under green flag conditions – and the winner’s last name wasn’t Earnhardt.
Ford’s Joey Logano took his third straight victory at Talladega in a thrilling green-white checker finish that saw much of the field fall victim to a multi-car wreck. When the flag came out, Kevin Harvick’s Chevy – suffering from an ailing engine, couldn’t keep up with the rest of the field. This caused a slight bottleneck, which sparked the usual multi-car type wrecks Talladega is known for. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Logano, both starting from the front row, raced to the start finish line before the yellow flag came out, with Logano taking the win by a splitter’s distance.
With that result, Earnhardt Jr. was knocked out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, much to the dismay of the diehard Earnhardt fans in the Talladega grandstands. Logano, meanwhile, chalked up his third straight win in the 12-drive Contender round of the Chase and his 14th of his career.
“I had a good start, and then the 24 was pushing me and the plan worked perfectly but the inside lane started pulling back up,” Logano told NASCAR.com. “I saw the (caution) lights come on when I was still in the lead, and I thought we had it.
“It’s all about how the timing loops are and the camera makes sure that is what happened,” he added. “It’s such a crazy race. There were such long green flag runs, you never see that. To pull it into victory lane here at Talladega is so cool.”
Logano’s Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski was fourth in the final order, enough to keep his Sprint Cup bid alive, while, Carl Edwards (fifth), Jeff Gordon (third), Martin Truex Jr. (seventh), Harvick (15th), Kurt Busch (10th) and Kyle Busch (11th) also advanced to the eight-driver Eliminator round.
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