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[h=2]Talladega chaos shakes up NASCAR Playoffs[/h] Sunday, 15 October 2017


By Kelly Crandall / Image by John Harrelson/LAT



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Talladega Superspeedway didn't need to be an elimination race to shake up the playoffs.

Sunday afternoon, seven playoff drivers earned DNFs after being collected in accidents. Only four playoff drivers were left running at the finish with two winding up inside the top 10. Brad Keselowski earned the victory to advance into the Round of 8 and Denny Hamlin finished sixth.
Jamie McMurray was the first driver knocked out on Lap 24. McMurray was hit by Erik Jones after making a late decision to pit and being unable to get down to the apron of the track. His 37th-place finish was the worst of the playoff drivers.
"There's nothing you can do about it. It's part of Talladega," McMurray said of his playoff hopes. "We know you can come out of here with a lot of points and be a winner of you can be in the position we are right now. We'll go to Kansas and do our best."

In a bit of foreshadowing, McMurray acknowledged he wouldn't be the only playoff driver disappointed after Sunday's race. Four more drivers were knocked out on Lap 173 when the "big one" occurred in Turn 3.
Martin Truex Jr. (who is locked into the next round) finished 23rd. Jimmie Johnson finished 24th after NASCAR parked him for deeming his crew worked on the No. 48 when the red flag was displayed.
"The thing I'm most concerned about is that there was a cue given to our spotter for our guys to start working on the car. We went out and made a lap and advanced quite a few spots as a result," Johnson said. "Now it looks like NASCAR is trying to take that away from us. Us and a few other cars heard the cue to allow the guys to start working when the red flag had finished but we didn't get the cue on pit road. I'm still not clear on what all went on. I think we're in a bad situation as a result. Hopefully, NASCAR can look at it and we can get this rectified."
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 26th. And Kyle Busch finished 27th. The accident collected 16 cars in total and started when Truex got into David Ragan.
Kevin Harvick finished 20th after being in a Lap 179 accident. Ryan Blaney was in the same wreck and finished 18th. Chase Elliott finished 16th after wrecking when he made it three-wide with Daniel Suarez and Kyle Larson with six laps to go.
Matt Kenseth finished 14th and Larson finished 13th. Both were also involved in accidents but were able to finish the race.
The playoff standings going into the elimination race at Kansas Speedway (drivers in red are outside of a transfer spot):
Martin Truex Jr. (locked into the next round)
Brad Keselowski (locked into the next round)
Kyle Larson: 3096 points
Kevin Harvick: 3089 points
Denny Hamlin: 3088 points
Chase Elliott: 3087 points
Ryan Blaney: 3076 points
Jimmie Johnson: 3074 points
Kyle Busch - 7 points
Matt Kenseth – 8 points
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 22 points
Jamie McMurray – 29 points