It was a relatively tame race at Talladega Superspeedway, with just one caution for incident in the first 75 laps of the 94-lap race.
A traditionally wild 20-lap dash to the finish followed, with three cautions, one red flag, one overtime attempt and a surprise winner.
On lap 75, Shane van Gisbergen almost wrecked but saved it, causing Dean Thompson right behind him to slow down. Jordan Anderson, running right behind Thompson, did not lift and knocked Thompson into van Gisbergen, causing a six-car wreck.
On the ensuring restart, there was another caution for debris from Aric Almirola’s No. 20 car, which had a tire rub go nuclear.
On the restart from that, there was a 10-car wreck that involved six playoff drivers, which brought out a 10-minute red flag.
On the overtime restart, Chandler Smith briefly took the lead. It looked like a different Georgian was actually going to win on one of these drafting tracks, but Sammy Smith made a daring pass exiting turn 4 of the last lap.
Sammy Smith was then able to hold off Ryan Sieg in the tri-oval and to the line in an incredibly close finish for third on back.
The Winners
With his second career win, Smith has advanced to the next round of the playoffs.
There had been some discourse that Smith was having a sophomore slump, but this win has changed the entire outlook of his season. He just needs to capitalize on it in the next round.
Sheldon Creed may have gone for a spin coming to the line, but he was still able to finish fourth. This puts his tally at 11 top-five finishes in the last 15 races, stretching all the way back to a runner-up at Sonoma Raceway in June.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was David Starr. The Texan got a 57th birthday present a week early as a result of driving smart all day, walking away with an eighth-place finish. It’s his first top-10 finish in NASCAR since he finished fifth in a Xfinity race at Daytona in July 2017.
The Losers
Justin Allgaier and Cole Custer were both effectively taken out in the final wreck. Both would go back out with wounded cars and make it to the last restart, only finish 25th and 26th, respectively.
For Custer, the Talladega result likely won’t mean much with his points cushion. Allgaier’s result, however, came after a terrible race last weekend. The Illinois native is now in a bad position going into the Charlotte…
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