Chevy’s Kurt Busch Advances, Chase Dreams End For Keselowski & Truex

Kurt Busch battles to 4th

Rusty Jarrett/Chevy

Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS, races to a fourth place finish Sunday, October 23, 2016 in the third and final Round of 12 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup's 10-race Chase at Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama.

Busch advances to the first Round of 8 next week at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia.

Entering the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski looked like two major contenders to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

After Sunday's Hellmann's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, both men now find themselves eliminated after a pair of engine failures prematurely ended the day early for both drivers.

Truex started from the pole and led early on in Sunday's race, but on lap 42 just after a green flag pit stop the engine in his Toyota suddenly expired. He finished last on Sunday and despite entering the race with a 13-point gap over ninth place in the standings, Truex was eliminated from Chase contention.

"Just developed a vibration and started to lose a little bit of power. Originally I thought it could have been a tire because it was shaking worse and worse and worse until it was time to pit. I slowed down to hit pit road and felt the vibration still there and knew it was the engine," Truex said. "Definitely not the way we wanted today to go. It's a tough way to go out, but proud of the effort and proud of all the guys. The engines have been great all year and every once in a while you'll have a failure and it's unfortunate that it was with everything on the line. I don't know, it is what it is and it's racing. It's part of it and we'll move on. We're going to go try to win the last five races or whatever is left and have a good end to our season."

It's a disappointing end to the Chase for Truex, who won twice in the first round of the championship only to struggle during the second round before being eliminated on Sunday.

"It's been a roller coaster that's for sure," Truex said. "I wish we could have done a better job at Kansas and Charlotte and maybe had a free pass coming here. That certainly would have been big knowing the circumstances, but we did the best we could. We have a great team and we've had a great season and we're going to go out and try to win the rest of the races and see what we can do."

Sunday was maybe even more disappointing for Keselowski, who dominated most of the Hellmann's 500 in his No. 2 Miller Lite Ford for Team Penske. He led a commanding 90 laps during the race, but struggled with overheating issues on his Ford because of debris on his front grill.

Keselowski's engine expired on lap 145 moments after he dropped out of the race lead in order to get debris off the nose of his Ford. He wasn't sure if the engine failure was related to the debris on his grill or not.

"Something let go. I'm not sure exactly what, but it's unfortunate," Keselowski said. "We had a really fast Miller Lite Ford and that kind of ended our day. It was a lot of fun to be leading at Talladega. I really like this track. It's been good to us and there are a lot of great fans here today. We were doing the best we could to make a show of it and have some fun and lead some laps and just happy and proud to have a fast car.

"We came here to win and we were doing what we needed to do to win and it just didn't play out. It just wasn't meant to be."

Keselowski and Truex weren't the only drivers eliminated from the Chase on Sunday afternoon. Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon were also eliminated, with Dillon losing out on the final position in the third round via tiebreaker with Denny Hamlin.

Chase Elliott #24 was eliminated too

Three of Team Chevy’s best will race on in the Chase for the Sprint Cup after Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch each advanced to the Round of 8 with four races remaining in this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series campaign.

Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe’s Pro Services Chevrolet SS finished the Round of 12 with the second-most points among eligible drivers with Harvick and the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS third in the standings. Each had won a race in the Round of 12 to clinch a spot in the final four events — Johnson at Charlotte and Harvick at Kansas.

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet SS, left Talladega seventh in the point standings following his fourth-place finish in Sunday’s race. It was a remarkable comeback from Busch, who was 13^th with 36 laps to go.

All three drivers — and the other five championship contenders — have their point totals reset to 4,000 heading into next week’s race at Martinsville Speedway.

Team Chevy had five drivers finish in the top-10 Sunday. Busch was fourth with Kyle Larson sixth in the No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet SS. Harvick placed seventh, followed by Austin Dillon ninth in the No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet SS. Dillon finished tied for the final transfer spot into the Round of 8 but missed out on the tiebreaker.