Loose wheel dashes Earnhardt's hopes — NASCAR notebook

Dale Earnhardt Jr. needs a great showing today as he sits 24 in the standings right now.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. survived the late carnage at Talladega to win Sunday's NASCAR Geico 500.

The crowd roared Saturday in qualifying when he shot to the top of the board, but it was short-lived.

Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin appeared to have the strongest Toyotas in the field, while Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Because if you go to watch a race at Talladega, your driver can literally possibly take the lead at any time in the race. His lap was 190.780 miles per hour in a Chevrolet. "I'm all good", Allmendinger said. After an ARCA victory at Kentucky Speedway in 2008, Stenhouse Jr. figured his father had climbed the backstretch fence. "Would have liked that pole".

"This is the closest race track to my hometown (Stenhouse is a MS native), and man, the fans were out here this weekend".

Only one person can win any NASCAR race but winning isn't everything - especially when a massive wreck happens and takes out a large portion of the field. "I tried to get off him but at the moment it was too late", Allmendinger said.

Moore led the Gamecocks in tackles his first three seasons before sitting out a year ago following neck fusion surgery.

"We just did something pretty insane". The 22 cars' 32nd place finish at Talladega also dropped Logano in the standings. "I'm just trying to learn and go win races". "He and Trevor both have stepped up, and that's really what's brought us back". But at least he wasn't passing me.

"He got a push off of [Turn] 2, I guess", Busch said. "The wheel was coming off and I thought I had a flat tire".

Stenhouse did start from the pole and praised the power from his Doug Yates-built engine for the speed.

Trevor Bayne, the second Roush driver, had a brief fling with stock vehicle racing celebrity, winning the 2011 Daytona 500 with a brilliant drive for the Wood Brothers Racing team before it became a Penske adjunct. Daniel Suarez, his teammate, was seventh. The driver of the 17 auto rallied on the last lap despite front end damage with a bold pass and ended RFR's 102 race winless streak. The victory makes him eligible for the All-Star race later this month, and likely a slot in NASCAR's playoffs.

"I was confident that Ricky would win a race this year".

Some of the fan enthusiasm is likely fueled by the presence of two time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso, who will drive a McLaren-sponsored vehicle for Michael Andretti's team. So far. Stenhouse has a pair of top-five finishes and four top-10s.

His average starting position at Kansas (14.1) is second-best for his Cup career behind Atlanta (11.2) and his average finish is fourth-best behind Talladega, Bristol and Chicago.

But he said there's been much improvement at Roush that is noticeable in all areas of the organization. The guys want to work there. We're not there yet, but they know we're here. "This year, every race, we're just getting better and better".

Along the way, Roush hoarded multimillion-dollar sponsors across the hoods of those cars and trucks and formed a partnership with John Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox (thus the name Roush Fenway Racing). (17) lead the pack into the trioval for a restart during the Alabama 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

He knew just minutes into practice at Talladega that he had a Ford capable of winning. "There's teams that don't look at us throughout practice yet, but they will". "It goes either way, and we couldn't be in a better place right now".

Busch was third at the end of the stage.

Earnhardt lost a lap because of the unscheduled stop but got it back as the highest-scored lapped auto when NASCAR called the seventh caution on Lap 179. Justin Allgaier, Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler and Almirola all made plays for the Saturday win.

Almirola had to drive using his rearview mirror to fend off attacks for the lead from every lane. "Hold on one second sir, let me call the director of security".

"I've felt like the way our cars have performed and the way they've driven, I've felt like we could get something in victory lane before the season was up".

"The guys are building really good cars".

"Ricky demonstrated before he came to us six or eight years ago that he was a champion", Roush said. "The draft is so insane and different".

"They come out here to have fun". He'll need to pick things up to make a playoff run in his final season.