NASCAR Playoffs at Talladega recap, finishing order: Aric Almirola wins 1000Bulbs.com 500 in OT
By Nick Tylwalk
On a day when his team dominated, Aric Almirola was in the right place with enough fuel left when it mattered most at Talladega.
There was no Big One in the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, nor was there much passing for the lead. Stewart-Haas Racing was in control almost the whole way — but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some nail-biting moments late and some surprises in store. In the end, Aric Almirola took the checkered flag, winning for the first time in 149 races and assuring himself of a spot in the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Playoffs.
Almirola was part of an almost ridiculously powerhouse performance by the four SHR cars. Led by pole-sitter Kurt Busch, the Stewart-Haas drivers were able to consistently get lined up single file and drive away from the rest of the field.
That led to stage victories for both Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, with only occasional forays by Kyle Busch and the Team Penske drivers looking like any kind of threat to their dominance.
As has been the case nearly every week in this year’s playoffs, a late caution flag sparked some late uncertainty. Alex Bowman, desperately in need of a win himself to stay in championship contention, was involved in a wreck with just three laps to go, forcing an overtime finish.
That was a problem for several cars running up front who were running on fumes. Things got so bad for Harvick and Ryan Blaney that they dove onto pit road just as the pace car was peeling off for the overtime restart, effectively taking them out of the equation for the win.
Kurt Busch still got a good launch, and had Clint Bowyer and Almirola with him. A wreck behind the leaders on the final lap could have given him the win, but as it didn’t affect the leaders, NASCAR elected to keep the race under green.
That ended up spelling doom for the 41, which ran out of gas with only one turn to go. Almirola drove around his sputtering teammate and had enough left in the tank himself to make it back across the start-finish line first, securing a win that was a long time in the making.
Almirola’s only previous NASCAR Cup Series win was also at a superspeedway, coming at Daytona back in 2014. He very nearly won the Daytona 500 to start his first season at SHR, but in terms of timing, this victory at Talladega probably works out even better.
“I just love racing at Talladega,” Almirola said during his post-race interview with Rutledge Wood. “I came to the track with a mind set that we were going to go race and we were going to go give ’em hell, and if we wreck, we wreck, and if we win, we win. And we won, we did it buddy!”
The scene now shifts to next week’s race at Kansas Speedway, the cutoff event for this round of the playoffs. With Martin Truex Jr. on the bubble and the likes of Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson on the outside looking in, it’s bound to be a tense weekend for some … just not Almirola.
Next. 1000Bulbs.com highlights, stage results from Talladega. dark
2018 1000Bulbs.com 500 finishing order from Talladega Superspeedway
(p) – driver still in contention in NASCAR Playoffs
- Aric Almirola (p)
- Clint Bowyer (p)
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano (p)
- AJ Allmendinger
- Jimmie Johnson
- Erik Jones
- Paul Menard
- Regan Smith
- Kyle Larson (p)
- Brendan Gaughan
- Trevor Bayne
- Kurt Busch (p) – Stage 1 winner
- Ty Dillon
- Daniel Suarez
- Austin Dillon
- Joey Gase
- Bubba Wallace
- William Byron
- Chris Buescher
- Landon Cassill
- Martin Truex Jr. (p)
- Ross Chastain
- Ryan Newman
- Kyle Busch (p)
- Brad Keselowski (p)
- Kevin Harvick (p) – Stage 2 winner
- Ryan Blaney (p)
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Chase Elliott (p)
- Corey LaJoie
- Alex Bowman (p)
- D.J. Kennington
- Jamie McMurray
- JJ Yeley
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Cody Ware
- David Ragan
- Michael McDowell