Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s pass for the win in the final lap at Talladega Superspeedway was met with cheers from the packed grandstands and from his celebrating No. 17 team after the GEICO 500 checkered flag. And it was in 2014 - the past year a Roush driver had won a race before Sunday - that Stenhouse embarrassingly failed to qualify at Talladega. In fact, the younger Stenhouse revealed after the race this wasn't the first time his dad went to extreme measures to congratulate his son after a race. To no surprise, "The Big One" collected 18 cars. And Joey Logano probably wants to forget this week after his encumbered win and then Chase Elliott landing on his hood.
"We didn't run many laps inside the Top 5 or Top 10 all day because the vehicle just really didn't have a lot of speed doubled-up with everybody side-by-side", Earnhardt said.
"Just got to keep, myself, got to keep working hard".
"We did all we could here today and it's all circumstantial on how you win these things", Busch said. After initially going a lap down, he received the "lucky dog" award for being the first auto a lap down following the caution that come out after "the Big One".
Kyle Busch is well-known for making snarky comments after a race in which things don't go his way.
NASCAR had to make a decision on the final lap of the Xfinity race at Talladega: throw the caution after a hard hit to the wall by Darrell Wallace Jr. on the backstretch or allow the drivers to race to the finish. Waiting in Victory Lane was fellow driver and long time girlfriend, Danica Patrick who's race was cut short due to "The Big One" with 20 laps to go. Stenhouse got a push from McMurray around Busch and made it stick for the win.
Stenhouse started from the pole and praised the power from his Doug Yates-built Ford engine for the speed. "It's a tremendous win for the whole organization and to get Jack back into victory lane - and Talladega is the closest race track to my hometown (Olive Branch, MS)".
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He began analyzing a sample of the malicious software and noticed its code included a hidden web address that wasn't registered. The attacks apparently exploited a flaw exposed in documents leaked from the US National Security Agency (NSA).
The green flag for the GEICO 500 will be waved later today. If a team can't fix its damage on pit road in five minutes, the vehicle is ruled out of the race.
Brad Keselowski was able to get a run on the Joe Gibbs teammates and regained the lead for the first time since he won the first stage.
Denny Hamlin gave Toyota its first taste of the front of the field when he won the second stage. Haley, who drives for GMS Racing in trucks, missed the first two races of the season because he was under 18.
Only 10 starts into the 36-race season, Stenhouse already is one shy of his single-season records for top-five and top-10 finishes - four and six, respectively, set last season.
Kasey Kahne moved up to fifth by the finish and Kurt Busch was sixth.
NASCAR will race at the Kansas Speedway next Saturday night. Kyle Busch earned the victory previous year - his third of the season - during a streak in which Joe Gibbs Racing won eight of the first 13 races of the season.
Notes: Stenhouse is the 11th first-time victor at Talladega. Gone was longtime driver Greg Biffle so that Roush could downsize to two full-time teams and direct additional resources towards Stenhouse and Trevor Bayne, several behind-the-scenes roles were restructured, and additional personnel brought in.
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