Yahoo Sports Brad Keselowski wins at Talladega with last-lap pass of Matt DiBenedetto
Brad Keselowski has his sixth Talladega win. He's the ninth winner of 2021. That's pretty nice.
Keselowski passed Matt DiBenedetto just after the white flag to get his first win of the season at Talladega on Sunday. Keselowski expertly navigated the race's final two laps after a flat tire on Martin Truex's car caused an overtime restart.
DiBenedetto was the leader on the final restart and had Keselowski behind him as they headed to the white flag. But DiBenedetto moved up to block Ryan Blaney and Keselowski went ahead of him on the inside with help from Michael McDowell.
Breaking down the finish: pic.twitter.com/0ggvHCha2C
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 25, 2021
You may remember that McDowell and Keselowski were main characters at the end of the Daytona 500. Keselowski went to pass Team Penske teammate Joey Logano on the final lap and Logano blocked the move. That block came nearly simultaneously as a push from McDowell. Keselowski and Logano collided and McDowell escaped the crash to get the first win of his career in NASCAR's biggest race.
Logano, meanwhile, had his car go airborne near the end of the first stage. Keselowski was officially in that wreck as he tried to avoid it. As Keselowski went low to avoid the crash he got hit on the right side. But his car never hit the wall and wasn't damaged significantly enough to affect it.
There was a wreck on the final lap in this race. Multiple crashes, in fact. But they all happened behind the lead and NASCAR didn't throw a caution. Chris Buescher got into the wall, Erik Jones went spinning into the outside wall in the trioval and Ross Chastain hit the inside wall past the finish line.
The win means Keselowski is tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for the second-most wins at Talladega. And it means he still has a ways to go to catch Dale Earnhardt. The Intimidator won 10 times at the famed Alabama track and the final win of his career came at Talladega in the fall of 2000.
So how many winners will there be?
Keselowski's win isn't a surprise. He was one of the favorites entering the race because of his past Talladega success and it seemed inevitable that he would get a win at some point in 2021. He's too good to go winless.
We still have to talk about his win's impacts on the playoff field. Nine of the 16 spots in the Cup Series playoffs are provisionally reserved through 10 races. That's a first in NASCAR's playoff era. And there are bound to be more winners this year.
Points leader Denny Hamlin hasn't won. Neither has Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch or Chase Elliott. They will all probably win a race before the playoffs begin. That means the playoffs will likely start with at least 13 winners.
Will there be more? Maybe. The second Daytona race is the regular-season finale. There are road course races at Circuit of the Americas, Road America and Indianapolis in addition to races at Sonoma and Watkins Glen before the playoffs begin. A surprise winner or a few could emerge from those six races.
But it continues to be unlikely there will be 16 or more winners through the first 26 races. Someone is bound to go on a hot streak and win a few races. That sure seems a lot more likely than a driver like McDowell winning a race and missing the playoffs because 17 drivers won races.
Kyle Larson's very short and very bad day
If you're going to have a bad day at Talladega you might as well get it over quickly.
Kyle Larson finished last after his car started overheating on the second lap. And that overheating problem ended up ending Larson's race.
Larson rejoined the race three laps down after he rejoined the race three laps down after pitting for his team to diagnose the problem. And that problem got worse. Larson's engine immediately went bad and he had to retire from the race. He completed a grand total of three laps.
Race results
1. Brad Keselowski
2. William Byron
3. Michael McDowell
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Matt DiBenedetto
6. Kaz Grala
7. Tyler Reddick
8. Austin Dillon
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Cole Custer
11. Chase Briscoe
12. Anthony Alfredo
13. Ryan Newman
14. Ryan Preece
15. Aric Almirola
16. Ross Chastain
17. Christopher Bell
18. Kyle Busch
19. Bubba Wallace
20. Harrison Burton
21. Chris Buescher
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Chase Elliott
25. BJ McLeod
26. JJ Yeley
27. Erik Jones
28. Cody Ware
29. Timmy Hill
30. Justin Haley
31. Martin Truex Jr.
32. Denny Hamlin
33. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
34. Joey Gase
35. Kurt Busch
36. Josh Bilicki
37. Quin Houff
38. Alex Bowman
39. Joey Logano
40. Kyle Larson
Points standings
1. Denny Hamlin, 446
2. Martin Truex Jr., 359
3. Joey Logano, 353
4. William Byron, 351
5. Ryan Blaney, 346
6. Brad Keselowski, 318
7. Kevin Harvick, 308
8. Chase Elliott, 306
9. Kyle Larson, 300
10. Christopher Bell, 280
11. Kyle Busch, 271
12. Austin Dillon, 268
13. Michael McDowell, 244
14. Alex Bowman, 241
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 229
15. Chris Buescher, 229
17. Matt DiBenedetto, 217
18. Kurt Busch, 216
19. Ryan Newman, 198
20. Bubba Wallace, 196
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