May 3, 2015
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins at Talladega: #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the GEICO 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway for his 1st win of the season, 6th win at Talladega and his 24th career win. The win is the first Sprint Cup Series race win for #88 crew chief Greg Ives.
#48-Johnson finished 2nd followed by #27-Menard, #21-Blaney (best career finish), #78-Truex Jr., #31-Newman, #9-Hornish Jr., #4-Harvick, #11-Hamlin and #98-Wise (his career best finish).
Harvick maintains the points / Chase lead with 394, 40 points over #78-Truex Jr.
Pole winner #24-Gordon led 47 laps and ran up front most of the race until late in the race when he sped on pit road and had to start at the rear, then was caught up in #19-Edwards wreck at the end of the race.
There were 27 lead changes among 15 drivers. There were 6 cautions for 23 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 159.487mph.
See unofficial race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Unofficial Race Results page (pdf) and check out the Penalty Report (pdf) and Lap Summary Report (pdf).
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Race & Points Report (pdf).(5-3-2015) - Race Fast Facts – Talladega:
#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the 46th Annual GEICO 500 , his 24th victory in 551 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and sixth top-10 finish in 2015.
This is his sixth victory and 15th top-10 finish in 31 races at Talladega Superspeedway. Earnhardt ties Jeff Gordon for the most wins at Talladega among active drivers with six each.
#48-Jimmie Johnson (second) posted his 11th top-10 finish in 27 races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his seventh top-10 finish in 2015.
#27-Paul Menard (third) posted his fourth top-10 finish in 18 races at Talladega Superspeedway.
#83-Matt DiBenedetto (18th) was the highest finishing rookie.
#4-Kevin Harvick leads the point standings by 40 points over #78-Martin Truex Jr.
(NASCAR Integrated Sports Marketing)(5-3-2015) - 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup CHASE Standings:
[after Talladega, race 10 of 36]
(by wins, then by points standings)
1) #4-Kevin Harvick [2 wins], 394
2) #48-Jimmie Johnson [2 wins], 342, -52 (3rd in driver points)
3) #22-Joey Logano [1 win], 335, -59 (4th)
4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., 319, -75 (5th)
5) #2-Brad Keselowski [1 win], 305, -89 (6th)
6) #20-Matt Kenseth [1 win], 292, -102 (8th)
7) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 281, -113 (10th)
8) #41-Kurt Busch [1 win], 255, -139 (15th)
9) #78-Martin Truex Jr., 354, -40 (2nd in drivers pts)
10) #1-Jamie McMurray, 297, -97 (7th)
11) #5-Kasey Kahne, 286, -108 (9th)
13) #27-Paul Menard, 280, -114 (11th)
14) #43-Aric Almirola, 279, -115 (12th)
14) #24-Jeff Gordon, 277, -117 (13th)
15) #31-Ryan Newman, 271, -123 (14th)
16) #10-Danica Patrick, 271, -141 (16th)
(ties are broken by wins, 2nds, 3rds, etc)
See the Unofficial Drivers Points Standings page (pdf) and Unofficial Owners Points Standings page (pdf).
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Race & Points Report (pdf).(5-3-2015) - Talladega Rookie of the Year Race Results & Points:
#83-Matt DiBenedetto, finished 18th, 11 rookie points
(DiBenedetto was added to the candidate pool this week)
#26-Jeb Burton, failed to qualify, 1 rookie point
#55/#34-Brett Moffett, did not race
#33-Alex Kennedy, did not race
#66-Tanner Berryhill, did not race
See the 2015 Rookie of the Year page for rules, standings and more.(5-3-2015) - Bayne explains what happened to cause the ‘big one’ at Talladega: #6-Bayne got loose on lap 47 after getting passed on the outside by #27-Menard, Bayne spun, collecting a dozen other cars, Bayne’s comment: “I haven’t seen it yet, but it felt like the 27 was really tight on our door and sucked us around. Our car was a little loose, but we had a fast race car today. I hate that a lot of cars got torn up, but especially our AdvoCare Ford. I felt like we worked our way in the top five a couple times there, and had a good shot at running well in this thing. The air is so sensitive here. Anything, when you get too close to somebody it can just pull you right around and it’s as much as hitting somebody physically when you get down on their door that tight and it’s just gonna happen.”
Q) SO THERE WASN’T ANYTHING YOU COULD DO IN THAT SITUATION KNOWING HE WAS COMING ON YOUR OUTSIDE?
Bayne: “There’s nothing you can do, really. You can lift and try to hang onto it, but there’s nothing you can do.”
Q) YOU WERE UP FRONT EARLY TOO.
Bayne: “I thought we had a really fast car compared to Daytona and I thought we were gonna have a shot to run top five here today. We made our way to the front a couple times and then the 27 just pulled down really tight on our door. When you have that much momentum going by on the outside you’ve got to have a pocket in between your cars or it’s going to suck you around. I hate that everybody got torn up, but especially our AdvoCare Ford.”
Q) IS IT TYPICAL TALLADEGA?
Bayne: “It’s typical Talladega anytime you come out of the infield care center it seems like. It’s easy to get torn up here if you’re doing everything right or if you do something wrong. I didn’t feel like we had much in our control there today. Maybe I could have got down a little bit before the 27 came by, but it all happened so fast. We just got really loose and that’s gonna happen here. I think handling is becoming an issue here at Talladega, so the cars are moving around a lot more. I did think it was a little early to have Talladega crashes already. I thought we were all fine to ride around the top and then the bottom lane came and you’ve got to get in where you fit in and try to make moves when everybody else is, but we were minding our own business there and I hate that we got torn up.”(Ford Racing)(5-3-2015) - What happened to Brian Scott in Talladega wreck: #33-Brian Scott, lost an engine on lap 18, got in his own oil and spun, collecting #55-Waltrip at Talladega. Scott said: “Unfortunately blew an engine, no warning. The temperatures were fine. I blew it going into Turn 1. I have to apologize to the other teams that we took out. Of course the bad thing about Talladega is when something happens other cars are all around you, unfortunate short end to our day. ECR engines and RCR everybody at the shop does a great job. I’m sure they will bring it back and they will diagnosis it and they will fix the problem whatever it was. But their horsepower, our engines everything has been great. On the XFINITY side they ran flawlessly. I hate it for our partners Shore Lodge, Whitetail, Albertsons, everybody to have a day ruined like that.”(Team Chevy)(5-3-2015)
- Race Coverage of the GEICO 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway is scheduled for Sunday, May 3, 2015.
Television (TV): FOX at 1:00 pm/et; Pre-Race show at 12:30pm/et; green flag approx. 1:20pm/et
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius XM Satellite NASCAR Radio 90
Scheduled Race Re-Airs:
Monday, May 4 at 10:00am/et on FS1;
Monday, May 4 at 8:00pm/et on FS1 - Talladega Sunday Pre-Race Schedule:
1:00:00: Intro to presentation of colors by Alabama National Guard
1:00:20: Invocation by Allen Singley, volunteer Alabama Raceway Ministries, student pastor Grandview Baptist Church, Dothan, Alabama
1:01:00: National anthem by 313th United States Army Band
1:02:30: Fly-by: Alabama State Police (3 helicopters, Semi truck flying American flag passes by start-finish line)
1:05:30: Grant Lynch addresses crowd from start-finish line
1:07:30: “Drivers, start your engines” by Sr. Airman James A. Sottile, biomedical equipment tech, Maxwell AFB
1:19:30: Green flag GEICO 500
eastern time (NASCAR.com) - Parsons selling #98 team? Phil Parsons declined comment on Saturday regarding the sale of the #98 Phoenix Construction Ford. Sources told motorsport.com the #98 team struck a deal with Jay Robinson on Wednesday night. Robinson, who fields the #62 Premium Motorsports Chevy with Brendan Gaughan (and a 2nd part-time team, #66), could not be immediately reached for comment. Josh Wise currently pilots the #98 Phil Parsons Racing Ford, which currently lists Mike Curb as the owner.(Motorsport)(5-3-2015)
- Talladega Superspeedway Notes & Facts – Sunday – race:
· There have been 91 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Talladega Superspeedway, one NSCS event in 1969 and two races per year since 1970.
· Talladega Superspeedway is tied with Michigan International Speedway for holding the ninth most NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points paying races (90).
· Richard Childress Racing has the most wins at Talladega in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with 12; followed by Hendrick Motorsports with 11.
· Nine different manufacturers have won in the NSCS at Talladega; led by Chevrolet with 39 victories; followed by Ford with 21 and Toyota with three.
· There have been eight NSCS races resulting with a green-white-checkered finish at Talladega Superspeedway: spring of 2005 (188/194), fall of 2005 (188/190), spring of 2007 (188/192), fall of 2008 (188/190) spring of 2010 (188/200), fall of 2012 (188/189), spring of 2013 (188/192) and fall of 2014 (188/194).
· Only two of the 91 races at Talladega Superspeedway have been shortened due to weather conditions: spring of 1987 and fall of 1996.
· Since the advent of electronic scoring the closest margin of victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway was the (04/17/2011) race won by Jimmie Johnson with a MOV of 0.002 second – the MOV is tied with the 2003 Darlington race as the closest finishes in the NSCS using electronic scoring.
(NASCAR)(5-3-2015) - BK Racing Partners with Interscope Recording Artist, Yelawolf for Talladega: BK Racing has partnered with Interscope Records Recording artist, Yelawolf for this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. Yelawolf, a Slumerican/Shady Records/Interscope Records recording artist from Gadsden, Alabama, will be joining the BK Racing stable with a special paint scheme on board JJ Yeley’s #23 Toyota. Yelawolf’s new album, Love Story, is currently debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Chart and No. 3 overall on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. Watch the videos for Yelawolf’s current single, “American You” HERE and “Best Friend,” featuring Eminem, HERE. “NASCAR provides a unique opportunity for athletes, brands, artists and media properties to crossover, integrate and/or triangulate their marketing efforts,” team co-owner, Anthony Marlowe commented. “From our experience, this weekend’s campaign at Talladega between Yelawolf, NASCAR, MAXIM Magazine, MAXIM Fantasy Sports, and BK Racing will not only be highly successful, but will also provide a massive media value return to all involved.” Yelawolf and BK Racing driver, JJ Yeley, will be holding a Question and Answer session, followed by a photo opportunity at the #23 transporter on Sunday, May 3rd at 9:15am. The team invites all media and fans to stop by.(BK Racing)(5-3-2015)
- Hendrick to be honored: America’s Car Museum (ACM) will award the Nicola Bulgari Award to Hendrick Motorsports owner, Hendrick Automotive Group chairman and automobile collector Rick Hendrick, to recognize his contributions to the automotive industry and promoting America’s automotive heritage. The award will be given on June 26th at ACM’s Wheels & Heels Annual Gala. The Nicola Bulgari Award, named after the famous luxury jewelry designer and avid car collector, is awarded annually to individuals who make significant contributions to preserving America’s automotive heritage through education, car restoration and collecting classic cars. Past recipients include Dr. Frederick Simeone, founder of the Simeone automotive Museum, Edward Welburn, vice president of global design for General Motors and McKeel Hagerty, president and CEO of Hagerty.(HMS)(5-3-2015)
- Entry list: There are 28 trucks on the preliminary entry list for Friday’s Toyota Tundra 250 at Kansas Speedway. A few notes:
Joe Nemechek is in the #8;
Austin Theriault is in the #29;
Justin Jennings is in the #36;
BJ McLeod is in the #45;
The #63 is TBA;
The #99 of Bryan Silas is not on the initial entry, nor is the #50 of MAKE Motorsports. Travis Kvapil is expected to run that truck in place of Cody Ware.(5-3-2015)
See the complete list on the Kansas entry list page.
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