Race report

NASCAR Cup Talladega II

Almirola ends winless streak with dramatic Talladega win

The ending didn’t go quite as Stewart-Haas Racing had planned but the result was just as important.

Jim Utter

Edited: Oct 15, 2018, 6:29 AM

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Race winner Aric Almirola, Stewart-Haas Racing

Aric Almirola took the lead on the final lap of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega when his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch ran out of fuel, and hung on for his first victory of the season.

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Kurt Busch criticizes NASCAR for "two missed calls" at finish

The win could not be more timely for Almirola, who is locked into the third round of the playoffs regardless of his performance next weekend at Kansas Speedway.

It’s Almirola’s second career win. He came within a lap of winning the season-opening Daytona 500 but was spun out by Austin Dillon.

"This is so awesome! It's Talladega! You guys are awesome," Almirola yelled to the fans after his win. "I've been so close so many times this year and this team, everybody believing in me, Tony Stewart, Gene Haas, (thank you) for giving me a chance.

"Four or five times this year I feel like we've had a shot to win and haven't been able to seal the deal. To come here, a place that I love - I won an Xfinity race here last year - I just love racing at Talladega.

"I came to this track with the mindset that they we were going to race and give them hell. If we wrecked, we wrecked, and if we win, we win - and we won!"

The win ended his 149-race winless streak in the Cup Series.

Almirola also praised the team effort from SHR and Ford.

"There are 400 employees back at Stewart-Haas Racing. There are close to 200 employees at Roush Yates Engine shop. Thank you," he said. "This was an incredible race for us. We were so committed to each other and so organized, and nobody in the field could touch us. It was us against the field. What an impressive run. I'm just proud to be the one on top today."

Read Also:

Kevin Harvick: SHR's plan was "all about survive and advance"

Clint Bowyer finished second, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Joey Logano completed the top-five.

Until the overtime, Kurt Busch was leading his three SHR teammates – Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Almirola – into a finish that would have been decided among themselves.

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the cars that had had pit before the stage break remained on track with Brad Keselowski leading the way when Stage 3 went green on Lap 116.

Shortly after the restart, Jamie McMurray was penalized for forcing Paul Menard for going below the double-yellow line.

On Lap 123, William Byron got a shove and moved ahead of Keselowski and into the lead for the first time.

On Lap 127 Keselowski made a power move on Byron to take the lead going into Turn 3. Logano follows his Team Penske teammate into second.

Kurt Busch moved up into second on Lap 130 with help from Harvick.

On Lap 137, McMurray hit the wall entering the tri-oval and drove into the infield grass, where his No. 1 Chevrolet came to a rest.

All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for fuel and tires with Kurt Busch the first driver off pit road. He led the way when the race returned to green with 47 laps remaining, followed by Keselowski, Harvick and Ryan Blaney.

Led by Kurt Busch, the four SHR cars soon got together in the bottom line and tried to break away from the rest of the field.

With 40 to go, Kurt Busch remained out front of Harvick and his SHR teammates with Menard running in fifth.

A tire got loose during a pit stop and ended up in the infield grass which forced NASCAR to call a caution on Lap 160. Some of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for fuel – many needed to make it to the finish.

Kurt Busch continued to lead the way followed by his three SHR teammates on the restart with 24 laps to go.

With 20 laps remaining, Kurt Busch continued to lead the way with the only change up front being Bowyer moving into the second position.

The SHR group remained unchallenged with 10 laps in the race.

With three laps to go, Alex Bowman hit the wall to start an incident that also collected Byron and J.J. Yeley. That sent the race into overtime.

On the two-lap restart, Kurt Busch led his two SHR teammates as Harvick, Keselowski and Blaney were forced to pit as they were low on fuel pressure.

Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Laps Led 1 10 United States Aric Almirola Ford 193 1 2 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 193 0.105 3 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 193 0.311 4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 193 0.433 5 22 Joey Logano Ford 193 0.479 6 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 193 0.525 1 7 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 193 0.528 8 20 United States Erik Jones Toyota 193 0.539 9 21 Paul Menard Ford 193 0.605 10 95 Regan Smith Chevrolet 193 0.631 11 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 193 0.664 12 62 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 193 0.679 1 13 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 193 0.781 14 41 Kurt Busch Ford 193 2.664 108 15 13 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 193 3.273 16 19 Mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 193 3.348 17 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 193 3.361 18 00 Joey Gase Chevrolet 193 3.557 19 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 193 3.875 20 24 William Byron Chevrolet 193 5.364 5 21 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 193 6.393 22 99 United States Landon Cassill Chevrolet 193 13.089 23 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 193 16.469 24 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 193 17.108 1 25 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 193 20.048 26 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 193 22.609 1 27 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 193 28.400 21 28 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 193 34.727 46 29 12 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 193 1'07.968 6 30 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 192 0.770 2 31 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 192 0.942 32 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 191 2 laps 33 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 191 2 laps 34 7 Canada D.J. Kennington Chevrolet 190 3 laps 35 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 186 7 laps 36 23 United States J.J. Yeley Ford 185 8 laps 37 96 Jeffrey Earnhardt Toyota 185 8 laps 38 51 Cody Ware Ford 185 8 laps 39 38 David Ragan Ford 173 20 laps 40 34 Michael McDowell Ford 155 38 laps

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