By Bob Pockrass
Denny Hamlin was the winner, and deservedly so Sunday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway.
But the story came down to what everyone often sees at Talladega – valiant efforts, crashes, and the rule book. NASCAR made several calls of its double-yellow-line rule that is in place for Daytona and Talladega, penalizing Matt DiBenedetto on the final lap and ruling a Hamlin move legal because he was forced below the yellow line.
NASCAR also rescinded a passing below the yellow line violation after a protest by Chase Elliott’s team, and penalized Chris Buescher for forcing Elliott below the line.
Here are three takeaways from a wild middle race of the second round of the NASCAR playoffs:
1. DiBenedetto So Close
Matt DiBenedetto had a great car but was placed in awkward positions at the end of the event. At one point, he restarted beside Joey Logano with Brad Keselowski also among the leaders, a Team Penske trio.
DiBenedetto is a Penske driver who is loaned to Penske affiliate Wood Brothers Racing – at least he is for another five more races. Penske has yet to announce whether DiBenedetto will return next year. So he was faced with a situation of making sure he didn’t do anything to ruin the day for two Penske teammates who could have used a win to advance in the playoffs as well as doing what was best for him to earn a landmark first career Cup victory.
DiBenedetto didn’t do anything wrong as Logano and Keselowski got shuffled back and eventually involved in a wreck. He later crossed the finish line in second, losing a battle to Hamlin.
But hold on – NASCAR ruled he forced William Byron below the yellow line and relegated him to a 21st-place finish.
NASCAR said it was a clear-cut call, but nothing ever seems all that clear cut when racing for the win.
"I just want it so bad," DiBenedetto said. "It’s been a tough week, honestly, with the uncertainty, and I just pray to continue driving for the Wood Brothers. It’s a dream come true and there’s a lot of people involved that go into the decision-making and I just pray and pray I get to do it."
DiBenedetto admits he was blocking as much as he could.
"My windshield was filthy from all the speedy dry," DiBenedetto said. "I was having trouble seeing to block. I was blocking everyone’s lane. I mean, that was pure desperation, but that’s how I drive every race."
Last year at Bristol, DiBenedetto battled Hamlin for the win, coming up just short. This would have been DiBenedetto’s third second-place finish of the season.
"Denny Hamlin a couple times now – he did a great job," DiBenedetto said. "He’s just a tremendous racer. These are tough to swallow. It’s deja vu."
2. Not So Close
With Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola all involved in wrecks – Dillon was the only driver to finish the race, and he placed 12th – those four drivers pretty much face a must-win situation in the elimination race next Sunday on the Charlotte road course.
Busch and Dillon are 21 points behind Joey Logano, who currently holds the spot just ahead of the cutoff, while Alex Bowman is one point ahead of Logano and 22 ahead of Busch and Dillon.
Maybe, with a slew of 20 available stage points, Busch and Dillon could put themselves in position if Logano and Bowman don’t score any stage points. But Logano is a solid road racer, and Bowman finished 12th on the one road-course race this year. They will be hard to catch.
Busch had predicted two weeks ago that he would not advance out of this round.
"I just hate it when I’m right," he said.
Bowyer is 38 points behind and Almirola is 48 points back. For all intents and purposes, they need a win.
Bowyer’s wreck occurred when he spun Jimmie Johnson.
"I don’t know if that was how they had their cars built or whatever, but as soon as you got close to him, he was all over the place," Bowyer said.
"Obviously didn’t mean to wreck him, but you’re going hard and three-wide and people are behind you pushing. I was hoping he would save it, but he didn’t and we all wrecked."
3. Still Big Wrecks at Dega
Following the scary Ryan Newman wreck in the Daytona 500, NASCAR had hoped to limit the viciousness of the wrecks by cutting horsepower from 550hp to 510hp for the races at Daytona and Talladega and not allowing ducts to help air flow at the front of the cars.
This race was full of multicar wrecks, including Kurt Busch getting airborne, although no one was injured.
"We wreck a lot at all these speedways, and it’s just a part of it," Dillon said. "I do feel like we’ve had better packages than others at certain points in time in my career. I’d have to go back and really study which ones I like the best.
"But I don’t know about this one. This hasn’t been that much fun."
Hamlin said the closing speed in the draft is still significant.
"You still get massive runs," Hamlin said. "It's really reliant on the car being behind you."
