Talladega Superspeedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service For the second time in as many seasons, Denny Hamlin broke Matt DiBenedetto’s heart, before NASCAR removed the pathos from the situation with a post-race ruling. At the end of a third overtime at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin beat DiBenedetto to the finish line to win by .023 seconds—roughly two feet—in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at the 2.66-mile track. But NASCAR erased the close call by penalizing DiBenedetto for forcing William Byron below the yellow line separating the racing surface fromRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One wild card race down, one to go. A crazy afternoon at Talladega, as expected, wreaked havoc on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, putting a number of championship contenders in dire straits with just one race remaining before the postseason field is cut from 12 drivers to eight. Heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, only Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin are truly safe having already clinched their spots in the next round. Busch automatically advanced with his win at Las Vegas, while Hamlin punchedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Let me make this clear about Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, I’m not holding back. Denny Hamlin wins a long and controversial 200-lap, three-overtime saga by just 0.023 seconds over Matt DiBenedetto and like last August at Bristol, the racing crowd jeered the now 44-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at the expense of Matt D coming up short of a maiden win. Gutted for DiBenedetto, but that’s just the way life is sometimes. Stuff isn’t meant to be and will have to wait another weekRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The final two races that make up the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be a gauntlet for the drivers still in championship contention with races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval set to wreak havoc on the Playoff field. Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega is the first wild card race that will have to be dealt with, as the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing will likely throw a wrench into even the best laid plans and leave some of the Playoff driversRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Justin Haley led two laps in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300, but one of them was the one that counted. Grabbing the lead on Lap 112 of 113, Haley earned a spot in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs with the victory in the second Round of 12 race, his third of the season, the third of his career and his third straight in an Xfinity superspeedway event, a streak matched only by the late Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. HaleyRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a wild two-lap shootout that ended prematurely with a multicar wreck near the entrance to Turn 3, 19-year-old Canadian Raphael Lessard earned his first NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series victory in Saturday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Talladega Superspeedway. Lessard had nosed ahead of runner-up Trevor Bayne while Stewart Friesen’s Chevrolet spun into the outside backstretch wall on the final lap, causing the caution that froze the field. The yellow made a winner of Lessard, but what was euphoria for one KyleRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The final set of races have been confirmed by NASCAR Thursday with several changes to the playoffs and some series returning to race tracks once more or the first time in a long while. The Cup Series was the least affected with the announcement as all 10 playoff venues remain the same despite rumors of Las Vegas and Texas swapping dates due to the the former hosting the Electric Daisy Carnival. The quest for the championship will begin at Darlington Raceway (Sept. 6) and will wrapRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Since the discovery of a noose hanging in the garage at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, NASCAR has been in the process of conducting its own investigation into the matter, releasing the findings in a Thursday teleconference. As NASCAR President Steve Phelps detailed, the timeline of events between Sunday and the conclusion of the investigation is as follows: The noose is found by a member of the No. 43 team sometime between inspection and pre-race on Sunday. Sunday, 4:30 pm: NASCAR is alerted to the presence ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The FBI Office in Birmingham, Alabama has wrapped up its investigation into the noose found in the garage area of Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 car at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, concluding there was no hate crime committed. In a statement released by the agency Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr. summarized the results of the investigation, noting the noose had been present in that garage stall since last year. “On Monday, fifteen FBI special agents conductedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After an emotional 24 hours, Bubba Wallace was all smiles after climbing out of his Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet at the conclusion of Monday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Not even the heinous act of an unknown person or persons placing a noose in Wallace’s garage stall late Sunday, which shook the sport to its core and made waves far and wide across the sports landscape, could deter Wallace from the path he has been on as of late. Instead of being a deterrent, Sunday’s discoveryRead More