Most of the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup series race at Talladega evoked cold sweats amidst a flashback to the late 1990s at Daytona and Talladega. There was a line of aligned cars leading the pack, with nobody able to challenge. The solid line of cars was running up front, with everybody shuffling behind them.
Then, well, Talladega happened.
A couple of wrecks and fuel mileage coming into play shuffled the running order. Sure, two of the cars running up front all day, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer, finished 1-2, but we got some excitement from it all. And if I had told you a year or two ago that Chase Elliott and Almirola would be the only two drivers locked into the round of eight entering NASCAR’s elimination race, I think you would be pleasantly surprised.
With that, here are some of my favorite stats from the weekend that was at Talladega. As per usual, these stats are completely unrestricted.
Everybody is a winner at Stewart-Haas Racing
Almirola’s win seemed like it was in the works for much of the season. After close calls in the Daytona 500, at Chicago and New Hampshire, Almirola finally picked up his second career win, snapping a 149-race winless streak that ranks as the eighth-longest span between wins in series history.
Overall, it’s the 11th win for Stewart-Haas Racing this season, which has also seen Kevin Harvick, Bowyer and Kurt Busch in Victory Lane.
That makes Stewart-Haas the eighth team in series history to get four different drivers a win in a single season, and the first since Joe Gibbs Racing did it in both 2015 and 2016.
Among other active teams, Hendrick Motorsports did it five times (last in 2014), Roush Fenway Racing did it three times (last in 2007) and the Wood Brothers did it in 1965.
A third straight second career win?
On Sunday, Almirola picked up his second career Cup series win, something Elliott had done the week before, and Ryan Blaney the week before that.
The first half of the season saw Kyle Busch, Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. dominate Victory Lane, but now we’re getting some new blood in the winner’s circle.
It’s rare to see this many inexperienced winners at the same time. The last time we had three consecutive race winners who all entered that race with zero or one career wins was in the spring of 2000. In that year, Matt Kenseth won at Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won at Richmond and Jeremy Mayfield won at California. Remember Mayfield?
Before that, you have to go back to 1987. In that run, Davey Allison picked up his first two career wins in a three-race span, and Kyle Petty won the race sandwiched between Allison’s victories.
Running on empty
Most of the race featured four Stewart-Haas cars running in the top four. Most of those laps were run behind Busch, who led 108 laps. Unfortunately for Busch, he ran out of fuel on the final lap, handing over the lead to Almirola, who led only one — albeit the most important — lap.
This is the 25th time a driver has led at least 100 laps in a Talladega race, but just the fourth time since 1995. Kenseth (142 in 2013), Jeff Gordon (139 in 2005) and Earnhardt Jr. (133 in 2002) were the others.
Of the 25 instances of drivers leading 100-plus laps at Talladega, there have been 14 instances in which that driver went on to win the race, and 20 of those drivers finished in the top 10.
Busch becomes one of the five who didn’t, but he’s the only one of the five who actually finished the race, helping his playoff hopes.
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1988: Darrell Waltrip leads 123 laps, finishes 33rd (engine)
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1986: Bill Elliott leads 116 laps, finishes 24th (engine)
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1979: Neil Bonnett leads 122 laps, finishes 17th (engine)
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1970: Buddy Baker leads 101 laps, finished 12th (race report says spin/fire as the reason, which seems like a really good reason to pull out of a race)