Last Sunday’s (April 21) race at Talladega Superspeedway was pretty typical of NASCAR’s largest oval. Lead changes were frequent, though some drivers were more comfortable at the front of the pack than others.
The field shuffled around several times as drivers tried to make efficient pit stops and work with their manufacturer allies. But in the end, it all seemed to matter very little. When the race was over, the winner was someone whose plan had gone wrong, and nearly everyone else wound up with a wrecked racecar.
Tyler Reddick took home the trophy, emerging as the victor after Michael McDowell and Brad Keselowski got tangled up fighting for the lead on the last lap.
Reddick got to the front of the field after he and several of his fellow Toyota drivers made their final pit stop with 37 laps to go.
The plan was to have the seven Toyota drivers still in contention for the win make their last pit stop under green together, then get lined up as quickly as possible coming out of the pits. If they were successful, the Toyotas could run full throttle in a tight draft as the rest of the pack tried to save fuel. Once all the pit stops were complete, the Toyotas would then cycle to the front of the field.
For about four laps, it looked like the Toyota teams had outsmarted everyone. Then the plan backfired, dramatically. Going into turn 3, John Hunter Nemechek knocked Bubba Wallace out of line, who in turn got Erik Jones out of shape. Before you could say “Let’s go places,” Jones spun sideways across the track and slammed the wall, taking Wallace, Nemechek and Denny Hamlin with him. Reddick escaped the crash by being first in line, while Martin Truex Jr. and Ty Gibbs dodged the spinning cars. Yet at the time, it looked like Toyota had carelessly thrown away a potential race-winning strategy.
Reddick, Truex and Gibbs maintained their track position after the rest of the field pitted, but then it felt like the Ford drivers, especially McDowell and Keselowski, were the ones in control of the race. Not far behind them were Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Noah Gragson and Josh Berry, as well as McDowell’s Front Row Motorsports teammate Todd Gilliland.
The remaining Toyota drivers were outnumbered.
It has been a rough start to the 2024 NASCAR season for Ford, which has not won any NASCAR Cup Series races this season.
However, drafting tracks have long been a strength of the Blue Oval teams, and Sunday was no exception.
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