Six cars were involved in a multi-car wreck in the final stage at Talladega Superspeedway, and Chase Elliott pulled off a heroic maneuver to avoid serious damage. Elliott managed to dodge two cars as they were spinning out to come out of the chaos unscathed, narrowly missing Christopher Bell’s car.
the crash meant that Bell was done for the afternoon, with Chase Briscoe also spinning out but managing to settle on the grass.
“I was just in full riding out mode and then got hit,” Bell said when being interviewed after retiring from the race, suggesting that he didn’t see it coming. Zane Smith, Justin Halen, and Ryan Blaney were also involved in the multi-car wreck, but it was a lucky escape for Elliott who narrowly missed winning the first stage earlier in the race.
Austin Cindric edged out Elliott by a matter of inches to take the first stage, after qualifying for Sunday’s GEICO 500 in second place. But Elliott moved third in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after the second stage, jumping Denny Hamlin as he closes in on current leader Kyle Larson.
The Cup Series leader was forced to start dead last following a technical issue ahead of qualifying, providing drama that has followed this weekend. To kick off a dramatic Sunday at Talladega, Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson was banned from qualifying after his team made an unapproved adjustment to the roof rails on his car.
It occurred when they were pushing the car out to the grid, and NASCAR officials stepped in. At the start of Sunday’s race, Bubba Wallace and Martin Truex Jr. were complaining about technical issues with their radios. Joey Logano was also made to serve a pass-through penalty for speeding on pit road, something that occurred due to poor communications.
“All four radios are f***** up right now,” a member of Truex Jr’s team was heard saying. Then, Hamlin span into the pit road as seven cars entered at the same time, with the driver nudging John Hunter Nemechek’s car.
But all racing drivers battled on until Bell’s car span out in the later six-car wreck, and he became the first to retire from the race due to major damage. Elliott won his first race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway last week, and he was successful at Talladega last year.
After a slower start to the season, Elliott is now right back in the mix at the top of the standings. “I felt like we’ve just been running better throughout not just the last few weeks,” Elliott said after the win last week.
“I mean, yes, we’ve had better finishes over the last few weeks. I feel like just generally speaking from a competitive standpoint we’ve been better to the competition throughout really most of the season, we just haven’t always had great finishes and great results.”
