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NASCAR: Chastain wins last lap crapshoot at Talladega

Posted by AR1 staff

The last lap at Talladega is typically a crapshoot of who is going to win and this year Ross Chastain came out of the last lap scramble in front to win the 2022 version of the NASCAR crapshoot.

With 1 lap to go it was the #43 of Erik Jones being pushed by the #5 of Kyle Larson but with all the bump drafting going on behind them, it started to get real wild with 1/2 lap to go

Chastain led only 1 lap, but it’s better to be lucky than good – the seas parted when Larson moved up to block Kurt Bush and Chastain could not believe what he was seeing as he did nothing but drive straight through the parted seas to his 2nd win of 2022 in the last 200 yards for Trackhouse Racing.

Austin Dillon got 2nd by following Chastain ahead of Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson in a photo finish for 3rd and 4th.

Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-5.

Bubba Wallace and William Byron divided the stage wins. Wallace, a first-time winner in NASCAR’s most recent visit to Talladega, led nine laps in the opening 60-lap segment. Byron took command in the second stage, leading the final 37 of 60 laps for that green-checkered flag.

 

The race ending capped off a typically dramatic day featuring 41 lead changes among 16 drivers. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron led a race best 38 of the 188 laps and won Stage 2, but finished 15th unable to make up ground after his final pit stop in the dicey closing laps.

Bubba Wallace, who won last fall at Talladega and led 15 laps on Sunday, won Stage 1 – his first stage win of the season – but as with Byron, lost positions in the final laps. He was involved in a wreck coming to the checkered flag and finished 17th in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.

Elliott’s top-10 was good enough for him to extend the championship lead over 11th place finisher, Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney. He’s now 21 points up on the field heading to Dover (Del.) International Speedway next weekend where the NASCAR Cup Series will race Sunday in the DuraMAX Drydene 400 presented by ReLaDyne

Quick Quotes

1st – Ross Chastain

Ross Chastain with his patented watermelon celebration. You were a lap down at one point in this race. Talk me through the crazy last lap. You stayed on the bottom. Things just opened up for you.

ROSS CHASTAIN: Holy cow. I’m always the one going to the top too early, making the mistake. There at the end it was like eight to go, I was like, I’m not going up there again. I did that a couple times today. I was like, I’ll just ride on the bottom. If it works, I’m not going to lose the race for us, I’ll just let them.

This Moose fraternity, almost a million Moose members across the world, in the country, I know there’s some out here at Talladega, to win with the Moose onboard, they’ve been with me for a few years now, supported me everywhere I went.

I have no idea. They kept going up, kept moving out of the way.

 

Ross Chastain poses for a photo during NASCAR Production Days at Clutch Studios on January 18, 2022 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

You come to Trackhouse Racing this season. Could you ever imagine this amount of success this early on in your tenure here?

ROSS CHASTAIN: No. Are you kidding me? You know me. I’ve wrecked myself so many times and gotten into it with guys. I’ve probably got a watermelon seed. This is a true seedless.

Yeah, I mean, Justin Marks and what he laid out for us was ambitious. I had no idea, you know, what to expect other than I knew I had my group from last year, I had AdventHealth, the Moose, now with Worldwide Express and Jockey coming onboard, we’ve got partners. They’re believing in us.

We started the year with a lot of races open. We’re almost full now. It’s because of the vision of Justin Marks. Pitbull, Armando, we won, yeah!

3rd – Kyle Busch

What more did you need?

“It was just hard to pass all day. Really there at the end if two lanes were formed and they were pushing, there wasn’t really enough for a third lane to form to get any speed going. It was just kind of a stuck in line, if you will, in the first few lanes, but overall, the Interstate Batteries Camry performed to the best we could. We got up front there and we got shucked out of line. Every time we got up front, we got shucked out of line. That was frustrating. Thankfully we were able to salvage and get back some of those guys that were getting a little bit squirrelly at the end and get ourselves a P3, so we will take it and go on.”

4th -Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson, led 32 laps today. When you got out of the car, you said, I made a mistake. What would you have done differently?

KYLE LARSON: I feel like I did a pretty near perfect job for me at a superspeedway until the last lap there.

Yeah, I should have, like, I think just kind of faked going high, then went back low. I had that run. Ross helped me with that run. It kind of baited me into going to the outside. Just a little inexperience probably there.

But really proud of my team. We did a great job executing all race long. The car was great. I felt like we could push people great. I felt like we could receive pushes well. Yeah, like I said, really proud of them.

Honestly, the first time I’ve had a legit shot at winning a plate race in the Cup Series. Happy about that. When you’re close, I was in the exact position I wanted to be in, I didn’t want to be leading. I felt like I did a good job with patience and stuff. Made one small mistake there and it cost me the win.

5th –  Martin Truex Jr.

What was it like there at the end?
“It got a little hairy there at the end. Guys just made bonsai moves, coming from everywhere, but we were able to put our Bass Pro Shops Camry in a pretty good spot there. We ran up front all day. We are just outnumbered. We get outnumbered. You get up there and run with 10 Chevys and you are the lone Toyota, you can’t do anything. You are stuck. You just have to ride in line. It was a tough day from that standpoint, but overall, it was a good day. Top-fives in both stages, I think, and the race. We have had a tough couple of weeks, so we needed that, but you always want to win.”

6th – Erik Jones (led going into last lap)

On the other side of that celebration is Erik Jones. Such a strong run today. Where did it go wrong?

ERIK JONES: I mean, just the last lap, right? It’s typical here. Been close here so many times, in this race and the fall race. U.S. Air Force Chevy had good speed, felt good to be up front.

Coming there that last lap, we were single file. I felt pretty good about it. They kind of doubled up behind us. That top lane was getting some momentum. Looking back, I wish I would have stayed at the bottom and let the 1 push me. I didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed.

But try to defend on the 5, you’re too far ahead already right here. Obviously a defense on the 5 kind of gives the door to the 1.

It is what it is. You’re trying to just win the race. You can only see how much is going on from the seat. You’re trying to make the best decision you can the last 1500 feet.

Happy to run up front, lead laps. Would really love to get the 43 in Victory Lane. I thought today might be the day. All day long we were fast and had speed. Especially being up front there at the end, the last 10, I knew we had a shot, but just couldn’t quite close it out.

Race Results

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME

Average Speed of Race Winner:  148.637 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 21 Mins, 52 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.105 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  6 for 28 laps.

Lead Changes:  41 among 16 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   C. Bell 1;D. Suarez 2-3;C. Bell 4-9;D. Suarez 10-35;C. Custer 36;J. Logano 37;K. Larson 38-50;B.

Wallace 51;K. Larson 52;B. Wallace 53;K. Larson 54;B. Wallace 55-60;B. McLeod 61;K. Larson 62-64;E. Jones 65;K.

Larson 66;E. Jones 67;K. Larson 68-69;E. Jones 70-73;B. Wallace 74;E. Jones 75-82;B. McLeod 83;W. Byron 84-121;*.

Yeley(i) 122;E. Jones 123-124;K. Busch 125;E. Jones 126;K. Busch 127-128;R. Blaney 129-151;B. Wallace 152;E.

Jones 153-154;B. Wallace 155-159;C. LaJoie 160;K. Busch 161;D. Hamlin 162-170;K. Larson 171-176;E. Jones 177;K.

Larson 178-181;E. Jones 182-183;K. Larson 184;E. Jones 185-187;R. Chastain 188.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  William Byron 1 time for 38 laps; Kyle Larson 9 times for 32

laps; Daniel Suarez 2 times for 28 laps; Erik Jones 10 times for 25 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 23 laps; Bubba

Wallace 6 times for 15 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 9 laps; Christopher Bell 2 times for 7 laps; Kyle Busch 2

times for 3 laps; BJ McLeod 2 times for 2 laps; Kurt Busch 1 time for 1 lap; * JJ Yeley(i) 1 time for 1 lap;

Corey LaJoie 1 time for 1 lap; Ross Chastain 1 time for 1 lap; Joey Logano 1 time for 1 lap; Cole Custer 1 time

for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 23,5,20,24,19,9,45,43,48,47

Stage #2 Top Ten: 24,9,5,19,48,18,10,43,1,45