Ross Chastain wins Talladega Cup race after last lap overtake
Ross Chastain won the Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon in a last-lap scramble.
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Noah Gragson wins chaotic Talladega Xfinity race
Noah Gragson won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway by holding off Jeffrey Earnhardt after teammate Justin Allgaier ran out of gas at the start of the third overtime.
Jeffrey Earnhardt clinches maiden pole at Talladega
Jeffrey Earnhardt, grandson to Dale Earnhardt, won his maiden pole in the No. 3 car for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Young Motorsports crew chief suspended after Talladega incident
Truck Series crew chief Eddie Troconis has been suspended indefinitely for violating the NASCAR behavioral policy. The 42-year-old’s suspension came as a result of breaching NASCAR’s policy that indicates “Member-to-Member confrontation(s) with physical violence and other violent manifestations such as significant threat(s) and/or abuse and/or endangerment.” Troconis, has been serving the current season in Young Motorsports as crew chief for driver Kris Wright in the Truck Series and as crew chief for part of the year for driver Josh Williams in the Xfinity Series. According to reliable sources, Troconis was involved in a physical altercation with a member of another team last Saturday night at Talladega Superspeedway, which is what led to his suspension. Young’s Motorsports did not comment on Troconis’ suspension. Troconis has been a crew chief for 142 races over nine seasons in the Truck Series with two wins – in 2017 and 2018 with driver Ben Rhodes. He has also served as a crew chief in the Xfinity Series in a total of 20 races with five different drivers.
Hate follows Bubba Wallace after Talladega win
23XI Racing and NASCAR’s only fulltime driver Bubba Wallace won the YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup race in Talladega on Monday. Perhaps it was a big day for the 28-year-old since he was the first black driver since Wendell Scott in 1963 to win at the premier level of the sport. Sunday being the biggest day of his career, a lot of trolls and hate came for him as he emerged as the race leader to win the Talladega cup race which was rescheduled and shortened due to the rainy and wet conditions. Some said the race was rigged and NASCAR called the race to favour Bubba Wallace. Looking back, the black driver is not new to hate and trolls. Back in June 2020, NASCAR informed Bubba Wallace that a noose had been found in his garage stall at Talladega. This happened as he was waiting in his motorhome for a rainstorm to subside on the superspeedway. Wallace was led to believe that he was the victim of hate crime because neither did he step foot in the garage nor see the noose. Even the FBI who followed up the matter were called in by NASCAR. After Bubba Wallace underwent the ordeal, some people still doubted him saying he somehow came up with the ‘hoax’ to get support during the nationwide racial reckoning after George Floyd was murdered. Others also hate him because he is vocal when it comes to social injustice. He successfully called on NASCAR to ban confederate flags in its events. Denny Hamilin, the co-owner of 23XI Racing Team with Michael Jordan, advised Bubba Wallace to keep off social media for his mental wellbeing. “People just automatically dislike me because I hired Bubba Wallace,” said Hamlin, a first-year team owner also who scoffed at the notion the race was fixed. “I spend way too much money and these teams spend too much money to fix it,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “Any time there’s unique circumstances, it’s fixed. When a team is close to winning a football game, they fumble on the one yard line, it’s fixed. It’s just (criticism from) someone that’s having a bad day.” Wallace said after Monday’s race he had followed Hamlin’s advice several months ago and stopped reading social media. “It’s helped out a ton. I would go and read the comments (and) after a bad race I would become one of those haters that doesn’t know anything. I would become one of them. Just start telling myself a bunch of dark thoughts,” Wallace said. “In high school, I was always worried about what other people thought of me. I finally let that go. “I’m not going to be able to please everybody. Doesn’t matter if I won by a thousand laps or won a rain-shortened race, not everybody is going to be happy with it,” he said. “That’s OK because I know one person that is happy and that’s me because I’m a winner and they’re not.”
Bubba Wallace becomes the first black driver since 1963 to win in cup series after Talladega win
After rain forced the delay of the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway from its originally scheduled Sunday date to a Monday afternoon affair, precipitation, once, again interfered on Monday, shortening the race from 188 laps to 117 laps. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. was in the lead when NASCAR called the race official to claim his first-career NASCAR Cup Series win and the first victory for 23XI Racing. “Part of me is just sitting there waiting – it’s not over with,” Wallace said of the anticipation of waiting for NASCAR to call the race. “Just sit there and bide our time and if we go back racing, let’s put ourselves in position. So many cool fans behind us at the pit box just cheering for it to rain so that kind of amped up the intensity a little bit. Just so proud of everyone at 23XI Racing. New team and coming in here getting a win late in the season reminds me of 2013. Waited so long to get that first truck win. I know a lot of history was made today, which is really cool, but it’s about my guys and it’s about our team and about what we’ve done. Appreciate Michael Jordan, appreciate Denny [Hamlin] for giving me an opportunity and believing in me. Like we talked, it’s pretty fitting that it comes here at Talladega.” With the win, Wallace is only the second African-American driver to win a race in NASCAR’s premier series, the first since NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott’s in in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1963. “I never think about those things, but when you say it like that, it obviously brings a lot of emotion on and joy to my family, fans, friends,” Wallace said. “It’s pretty damn cool. Just proud to be a winner in the Cup Series.” Team Penske duo Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano finished second and third, respectively. Kurt Busch was fourth, Christopher Bell rounded out the top-five. “It was a good day for us, not the win,” Keselowski said. “Gosh, if I would have known it was gonna rain right then I had a move I could have made and I was like, ‘No, we’ve got five laps in the stage left, I don’t want to burn that move yet,’ and then it rains, so I feel like I kind of let one slip away here. All in all, it’s still a great day. We scored a lot of stage points, which is really positive and put ourselves in a good position next week to go to the Roval.” After a fourth caution on lap 98 for a crash involving playoff drivers Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., along with Tyler Reddick, Matt DiBenedetto, Ross Chastain, Quin Houff, B.J. McLeod and Ryan Preece, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bell traded the lead back-and-fourth before Kurt Busch took the lead on lap 108. A few laps later, Wallace took the lead before a lap-116 incident involving Preece DiBenedetto and Bowman. “Just dumped over on the left-rear and turned us around really bad,” Bowman said. “Bummer for the Ally 48 team. We had a fast car; we were leading, there. That’s just superspeedway racing and the box that we’re put in by these race tracks. You’ll have that. Bummed to have torn up race car, but we’ll move on and try to go win the Roval.” The race was still under the caution for the lap-116 crash when it was red-flagged for rain and, ultimately, called official. The end of the race came three laps shy of the scheduled conclusion of stage two, so the finishing order was used to determine second-stage points, also making Wallace the official stage-two winner. Chris Buescher won stage one under caution. The yellow flag waved for the second time, the first for an on-track incident, on lap 56 for an incident involving Justin Allgaier, Preece, Chase Briscoe and playoff driver Kyle Larson. Kevin Harvick and Logano each led 13 laps in the first stage, most of any driver. After Kyle Busch started on the front row alongside pole sitter and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, he took the lead on the opening lap. Other lap leaders in the first stage included DiBenedetto, Truex, Wallace, Cole Custer, Kurt Busch, Hamlin and Keselowski. “We went up there early and led some and were feeling our car out,” DiBenedetto said. “We had good speed and was as good as always. The Quick Lane Mustang and Wood Brothers always bring really fast race cars here and really wanted to feel it out. We got shuffled a little and was just riding. We were committed to that before the day started. Leverage the situation to our advantage that we don’t need stage points, so we were gonna cruise and let the wrecks happen and then in stage three go and try to run up front and go for the win, but Mother Nature threw a little kink in our plans here and obviously we see what happened.” Hamlin’s time up front came after recovery from sliding through his pit box during a lap-25 caution. Soon after the race restarted for the second stage, a tire issue for Larson resulted in a caution on lap 67. That yellow flag was exchanged for the red flag because of light precipitation that halted the race four about 18-and-a-half minutes. When the race went back under caution before a restart, most drivers pitted to top-off their gas tanks, but Justin Haley stayed out to lead a few laps before drivers like Buescher, Bell, Hamlin and Harvick returned to the front to lead laps. Buescher finished sixth, Hamlin was seventh, Harvick eighth, Erik Jones ninth, and Austin Dillon finished 10th. “We got a little bit behind,” Harvick said. “I got shuffled out there too late for the rain storm, but our Ford Mustang was fast and we were able to make up some ground and get back up closer to where we needed…