Leave it to Talladega to play the wild card.
It’s usually always true that the spring Talladega race provides a chance for an unexpected winner, giving chances for teams like Phoenix Racing or Front Row Motorsports to grab a victory and a big payday.
This season, however, with Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske winning the first nine races of the season, it seems like anybody else winning would be an upset.
I’ll do the insane and claim that Chase Elliott’s Talladega victory was a big upset on Sunday, despite the fact that he drives for, historically, one of the most successful organizations in all of NASCAR history, if not the No. 1.
So let’s dig into the “upset” Hendrick Motorsports victory at Talladega with three of my favorite stats from the weekend.
Twice as nice
As Elliott picked up the win, right behind him was teammate Alex Bowman, who had a career-best second-place finish.
It was the 41st 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series, extending their own series record. The second-most belongs to Joe Gibbs Racing, with a distant 23. But this is the first time either Elliott or Bowman has been involved in one of those.
Not surprisingly, the drivers who have the most 1-2 finishes for Hendrick are Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, each with 14 wins. And among those 28 combined wins, in 11 of them, the other one finished runner-up.
It had been more three years between 1-2 finishes for Hendrick. The most recent of those before Sunday came in February 2016, when Johnson won at Atlanta, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishing second.
Career days
Not only did Bowman collect the best finish of his career, but a pair of drivers picked up their first career top-5 finishes, in true Talladega fashion.
Ryan Preece finished third for JTG-Daugherty Racing in his 15th Cup start, while Daniel Hemric was fifth in his 12th start.
They become the 525th and 526th drivers in series history with top-five finishes, and just the second set of drivers since 2000 to each pick them up their first top-fives in the same race.
In April 2009, also at Talladega, Brad Keselowski picked up his first win, in a big upset for Phoenix Racing, while Scott Speed finished fifth for Red Bull Racing. One of those drivers went on to win a championship, the other’s Cup career just about topped out there.
The last time it happened before that was in August 1999 at Watkins Glen. Road course specialist Ron Fellows finished second behind Gordon, while Jerry Nadeau finished fifth in a sweet-looking Cartoon Network-sponsored car.
Century mark
Sunday was the 100th Cup Series race at Talladega, making it the eighth different track to hold at least 100 Cup Series races, joining Daytona, Martinsville, Darlington, Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta and Bristol.
Strangely, it’s the third time that Hendrick Motorsports has won at a track celebrating its 100th race, joining the 2004 Darlington race (won by Jimmie Johnson) and the 1997 Daytona 500 (won by Jeff Gordon in a 1-2-3 Hendrick finish).
So which tracks are due up next for the century mark? Both Dover and Michigan will get there, as both have hosted 98 Cup races with two dates remaining this season.