EASTABOGA, Ala. – Somehow through all the carnage during Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Ty Dillon managed to draft the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet to a brilliant sixth place finish in a race that Tony Stewart started behind the wheel.
The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion started at the tail of the field and hung on to the lead draft until green flag pit stops occurred on Lap. Electing to stay in the car, Stewart was tapped for speeding which ultimately found himself going a lap down.
When Dale Earnhardt Jr., spun on the backstretch on Lap 50, the first caution waved allowing Stewart the opportune time to climb from his car, but also the beneficiary of the free pass which put his team back on the lead lap.
Stewart climbed from his car on Lap 52 and begun the driver change which took 70 seconds to complete.
“It sucks to be honest,” said Stewart after climbing from his car. “I know why we got to do it, but it sucks. It still sucks that you have to do it but if I hadn’t broke my back at the end of January; we wouldn’t be in this situation. Good news is this is last time we have to do it and I am back in next week.”
Starting at the tail, Dillon quickly showed the capabilities of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet diligently working his way through the field and hovering inside the top-10.
Despite narrowing avoiding several late-race skirmishes, which produced jaw-dropping results, Dillon emerged unscathed and found himself in the hunt for a three-lap shootout which ended with another huge wreck and a sixth place finish for the No. 14 team.
All things considered, job well done.
“We had a really strong car,” noted Dillon. “Fighting from behind, it’s hard to get it up front. I felt like if we could lead a pack at any point, we would have put ourselves up front. Early one, once I first got in the car, we drove right up to into the Top 10 really quick and we had some air on the nose and was able to go.
“The team built an awesome race car. I just kind of got mired back. I made some mistakes being my first time here racing. But we were able to dodge crashes and survive here, which is the big thing. We made some good moves at the end to get us into to the top 6 or 7.”
Stewart will officially receive credit for his first top-10 finish of the season and will drum up crucial points as his battle to climb inside the top-30 in the series standings and score his is 49th career Cup win underway.
Two races in, Stewart is 38th overall, 71 points behind Matt DiBenedetto who occupies 30th and the cutoff mark for entry into the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
In reality, it was a wise move from Stewart to switch drivers. When racing resumed on Lap 58, the GEICO 500 seemed to spark a level of intensity that never seemed to simmer throughout the remainder of the race.
From one crash to the next, carnage was in full-force, with cars even airborne and hard impacts too, Stewart’s decision was golden, considering the outcome where at least 33 of the 40 cars were damaged in some capacity.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
