May 4, 2014
- Hamlin wins at Talladega: #11-Denny Hamlin won the Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway for his 1st win of 2014, his first restrictor plate track win and his 25th career win.
#16-Biffle finished 2nd followed by #15-Bowyer, #55-Vickers, #47-Allmendinger, #27-Menard, #4-Harvick, #5-Kahne, #42-Larson and #17-Stenhouse Jr.
#40-Landon Cassill scored his career best finish at 11th and #7-Michael Annett scored his career best finish at 16th.
#33-Scott, who won the pole, was involved in a wreck on lap 137 and finished 42nd.
#24-Gordon, who came into the race as the points leader, was involved in the first big wreck and finished 39th but still leads the points by 3 over #20-Kenseth.
#22-Logano leads the Chase Seeding with two wins. #4-Harvick is second, also with 2 wins, but lower in points. They are followed by #18-Busch, #99-Edwards and #88-Earnhardt, Jr.
There were two big wrecks:
On lap 137: #2-Keselowski, who was 6 laps down at the time, got loose and spun, involving: #21-Bayne, #24-Gordon, #14-Stewart, #7-Annett, #18-Busch, #20-Kenseth, #23-Bowman, #26-Whitt, #27-Menard, #33-Scott and #48-Johnson.
On lap 175: #48-Johnson got loose, got into #17-Stenhouse, moved up into #22-Logano who went into the outside wall involving: #41-Busch, #34-Ragan, #95-McDowell and #36-Sorenson.
There were 48 lead changes among 23 drivers and there were 8 cautions for 31 yellow flag laps.
The average speed was 152.103.(5-4-2014)See unofficial race results, awards, money won, laps led, cautions and more on the Unofficial Talladega Race Results page (pdf) and check out the Talladega Penalty Report (pdf).
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Talladega Race & Points Report (pdf).(5-4-2014) - Race Fast Facts – Talladega Superspeedway:
#11-Denny Hamlin won the 45th Annual Aaron’s 499 , his 24th victory in 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his first victory and third top-10 finish in 2014. With the win, Hamlin is all but locked into the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. In 2013, he missed the Chase for the first time in his career.
This is his first victory and sixth top-10 finish in 17 races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his first points race win at a restrictor plate track (he has four non-points race wins at Daytona).
#16-Greg Biffle (second) posted his sixth top-10 finish in 23 races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his fourth top-10 finish in 2014.
#15-Clint Bowyer (third) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 17 races at Talladega Superspeedway.
#42-Kyle Larson (10th) was the highest finishing Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate. It is his fifth top 10 this season.
#24-Jeff Gordon leads the point standings by 3 points over #20-Matt Kenseth.(NASCAR Integrated Sports Marketing)(5-4-2014) - 2014 Sprint Cup Driver Chase Championship Points Standings:
[after Talladega, race 10 of 36]
1) #24-Jeff Gordon, 347
2) #20-Matt Kenseth, 344, -3
3) #18-Kyle Busch [1 win], 343, -4
4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. [1 win], 328, -19
5) #99-Carl Edwards [1 win], 328, -19
6) #22-Joey Logano [2 wins], 305, -42
7) #48-Jimmie Johnson, 304, -43
8) #16-Greg Biffle, 300, -47
9) #31-Ryan Newman, 299, -48
10) #55-Brian Vickers, 297, -50
Other drivers with at least one win, likely will make the Chase:
11) #2-Brad Keselowski [1 win], 294, -53
12) #11-Denny Hamlin [1 win], 292, -55
19) #4-Kevin Harvick [2 wins], 258, -89
27) #41-Kurt Busch [1 win], 196, -151 (52 pts ahead of 31st)
See OFFICIAL race results & points standings on the Official Talladega Race & Points Report (pdf).(5-4-2014) - Current 2014 Sprint Cup Driver Chase Seedings:
[after Talladega, race 10 of 36 if Chase seeding started after this race]
1) #22-Joey Logano, 2 wins, 6th in points
2) #4-Kevin Harvick, 2 wins, 19th
3) #18-Kyle Busch, 1 win, 3rd
4) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1 win, 4th
5) #99-Carl Edwards, 1 win, 5th
6) #2-Brad Keselowski, 1 win, 11th
7) #11-Denny Hamlin, 1 win, 12th
8) #41-Kurt Busch, 1 win, 27th
(no wins, in by points)
9) #24-Jeff Gordon, 1st
10) #20-Matt Kenseth, 2nd
11) #48-Jimmie Johnson, 7th
12) #16-Greg Biffle, 8th
13) #31-Ryan Newman, 9th
14) #55-Brian Vickers, 10th
15) #42-Kyle Larson, 13th
15) #3-Austin Dillon, 14th
(5-4-2014) - Kahne and Truex Jr. qualifying times disallowed: after qualifying for the Aaron’s 499 Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR announced that the times for #5-Kasey Kahne and #78-Martin Truex Jr. had been disallowed. Kahne’s car did not meet the minimum weight requirement and Truex Jr’s car did not meet minimum height requirement that is used for restrictor-plate tracks. Kahne will start 41st and Truex Jr will start 42nd. #5 crew chief Kenny Francis and Truex Jr. offered these quotes about the situation:
Kenny Francis, Crew chief of the #5 Farmer Insurance / Thankamillionteachers.com Chevy on the #5 teams time getting disallowed: “Basically we had a malfunction with a ballast container. The cap that holds the ballast in came out. It could be mechanical or human error we are not really sure what happened. At the end of the day 25 pounds of ballast came out and we were 25 pounds light at the scales. The time was disallowed and we will have to start at the back.”
Martin Truex Jr., #78 Furniture Row Chevy – time was disallowed after failing post qualifying inspection: “After positing the fastest practice speed yesterday, today’s result and infraction were disappointing to say the least. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we have a fast car for tomorrow’s race, and as we have said many times, qualifying really doesn’t mean that much here.”(Team Chevy)(5-4-2014) - Bayne Set To Make 50th Career Sprint Cup Start: When Trevor Bayne takes the green flag on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, it will mark his 50th career Sprint Cup race, and all of them have come in the #21 Ford Fusion fielded by the famed Wood Brothers race team. “That’s definitely the best of them,” Bayne said. “And if I get to 400 starts, that will still be the best.” Team co-owner Eddie Wood said Bayne, now 23, has been a good fit for his family-owned team since making his Cup debut and his first run in the #21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion in the fall of 2010 at Texas Motor Speedway, where he finished a strong 17th. “We’ve had a lot of good runs with Trevor,” Wood said. “It’s worked out well for both of us, especially with us running a part-time schedule and him having a full-time Nationwide Series ride with Roush Fenway Racing.”(Wood Brothers Racing)(5-4-2014)
- Final Richmond TV Ratings: Fox Sports earned its lowest NASCAR television rating in 13 years televising the sport last week. NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Richmond earned a 3.3 final rating and 5.6 million viewers on FOX last Saturday, down 11% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year (3.7, 6.1M), and down 8% in both measures from 2012 (3.6, 5.9M). The 3.3 rating is the lowest ever for NASCAR Sprint Cup racing on FOX, falling below the previous mark of 3.6 set on multiple occasions. Of the sixteen lowest rated Sprint Cup races ever on FOX, fifteen have taken place since the start of the decade. Of note, ten of the sixteen lowest rated races have taken place on Saturday nights, including five from Richmond alone. Last week’s 3.3 rating also ranks as the lowest for the spring Richmond race 2004 on FX (2.9). Despite the lower numbers, the race was the #2 sporting event of the weekend on broadcast or cable, trailing only ABC’s Clippers/Warriors NBA playoff game (4.2, 6.5M).(Sports Media Watch / Sports Business Daily).
See past races for 2014 and a five-year comparison chart on the 2014 NASCAR TV Ratings page.(5-4-2014) - Talladega Notes & Facts – Sunday – races:
· 433 drivers have competed in at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Talladega; 297 in more than one.
· Only two of the 89 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.
· There have been seven 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) and spring of 2013 (188/192).
· 43 different drivers have won at Talladega Superspeedway, led by Dale Earnhardt with 10. Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with six.
· 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 38 victories; followed by Ford with 21.
· The deepest in the field that a race winner has started at Talladega was 36th, by Jeff Gordon in the spring of 2000.
(NASCAR)(5-4-2014) - David Gilliland’s son wins First Late Model race: Thirteen-year-old Todd Gilliland [son of #38-David Gilliland]earned his first late model win Friday night at Ace Speedway (Altamahaw, N.C.) in just his seventh start in a stock car. The win came after a day of sweeping the top spots in the event’s practice sessions and earning the pole. The David Gilliland Racing driver started from the third position in the 40-lap Limited Late Model race after the top three cars were inverted after qualifying. It was Gilliland’s first pole in a stock car. The eighth-grader from Sherrills Ford, N.C., didn’t take long to push his No. 98 Ford up to the front, taking the second spot within the first 10 laps and then taking the lead with 24 to go. Said Todd, “I just wish my dad (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver David Gilliland) had been there, but he’s in Talladega. I couldn’t wait to talk to him after. I want to be just like him when I grow up.”(Breaking Limits)(5-4-2014)
Main Page | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997