TALLADEGA, Ala.: Hendrick Motorsports is usually a force to be reckon with during the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, but the results in Monday’s postponed YellaWood 500 put a big void in the organization’s ability to keep their four cars secured in the race for the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
All four of Hendrick Motorsports cars driven by Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson all showcased speed in their Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s, but in a race that triggered just two multi-car accidents, Hendrick Motorsports found three of their four vehicles damaged and out of contention for the win.
Talladega has been a mess for the potent No. 5 team with the powerful combo of Kyle Larson and Cliff Daniels. After experiencing engine issues in April, Larson found himself involved in a Lap 56 crash when Justin Allgaier lost control after an aggressive push from Byron which sent the No. 77 Chevrolet directly into the left-side of the No. 5 Cincinnati Chevrolet.
Larson sustained heavy damage to his car. Subsequently following the restart, Larson blew out a tire which caused further damage to the right side of his race car. Still, the leadership from Daniels and the arduous work from the No. 5 team kept Larson off the damaged vehicle policy.
The Elk Grove, Calif. native finished 37th, five laps behind.
“Yeah, I didn’t even see what happened and had no time to react or anything like that. It’s just part of this racing when you are not situated in good track position and just got collected there,” Larson said after the race. “So, yeah, a bit of a bummer, but could have been worse today.
“I haven’t seen the point total yet, but it seems like a lot of us are around the same spot. I think at times it looked worse; so, like I said, it could have been worse.”
The team did an excellent job keeping Larson on the lead lap until he could not get the car re-fired after repairs on pit road.
Larson owned the responsibility for the miscue.
“I screwed up where we could have been two less laps down and gotten a couple more positions,” added Larson. “Somehow I hit the ECU switch when I shut the engine off to allow the guys to work on the front end.
“And then, I couldn’t get it re-fired, so we went down a lap. And then I lost the draft and ended up losing another lap. I cost myself a couple more positions, but it is what it is.”
Despite his worst finish since outside the top-10 at Daytona in August, Larson remains second in the Playoff seed, 22 points ahead of the cutline.
Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Financial Chevrolet Camaro was turned from the race lead after a bump from Hendrick Motorsports teammate to fellow Chevrolet teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was too much for Bowman to keep control of his automobile.
The contact on Lap 98 sent Bowman into the backstretch wall and triggered a nine-car crash, which included Elliott.
“Yeah, just dumped over on the left rear and turned us around really bad. Bummer for the Ally 48 team,” said Bowman. “We had a fast car; we were leading there. That’s just superspeedway racing and the box that we’re put in by these racetracks.
“You’ll have that. Bummed to have torn up racecar, but we’ll move on and try to go win the ROVAL.”
Former Cup Daytona winner Byron tried to play the race safe on Monday, but with rain threatening and the race to halfway complete, the intensity picked up that triggered a Lap 116 accident that collected Byron, Ryan Blaney and the two JTG Daughtery cars of Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The penultimate race of the Round of 12 would end seventy-one laps short of its original distance due to rain with Byron, Larson and Bowman finishing 36th through 38th place, respectively.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” offered Byron. “He was just coming down the track and I was kind of trying to run a third lane. Just part of Talladega. We’ll go to the ROVAL, try to win that one and advance that way.”
Elliott, the reigning Cup Series champion didn’t have enough time to recover from being shuffled in the draft and had to settle for 18th.
“Well, the A SHOC team survived the day,” remarked Elliott. “I just got into the wrong lane there in the closing laps. Once that got sorted back out, I didn’t have a ton of options and we just ran out of time with the rain.
“Not the finish we needed, but we will head onto the ROVAL.”
The defending ROVAL winner looks to guarantee his movement into the Round of eight sitting seventh overall, nine points ahead of Harvick.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL next weekend where at least two of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers will be fighting for their lives to advance to the Round of 8.
Byron and Bowman stand 11th and 12th respectively in the Playoff standings with Byron 44 markers behind Kyle Busch in eighth.
Bowman is eight points behind Byron and stands fifty-two points behind Kyle Busch.
Without a win on Oct. 10, both drivers will need to execute a flawless ROVAL race with maximum stage points and some misfortune from the other Playoff drivers.
Last October, Byron finished sixth and Bowman eighth at the 2.280 mile road course, both behind race winner and teammate Chase Elliott.
“We were pretty buried anyway, and everyone is going to run pretty good,” added Bowman. “So, it was a must run really well situation anyways. It doesn’t really change much.
“We know we’re going to need to win. We’ll go do our best to make that happen.”
Byron has already had to throw a Hail Mary pass in this year’s Playoffs. He squeezed into the Round of 12 with a gutsy performance at Bristol.
He knows he’ll need to do the same at the ROVAL.
“Just like we did at Bristol,” Byron explained. “Try to do the best we can. We tried to win last week, and it didn’t work out. We tried to win today, and it didn’t work out. We’ll approach it like we do every week.”
“We’ll have a really fast car for the ROVAL, so we’ll just have to go and perform there.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
