The increasing pressure on the Playoff drivers in the NASCAR top division brought aggressive racing to the YellaWood 500. The scrambling at the end brought catastrophe to several, but a photo finish Talladega win to Denny Hamlin.
Competition in the second race of the second round of the NASCAR Playoffs was aggressive and competitive from the start to the finish at Talladega Suprespeedway. During the race 18 drivers exchanged the lead of the race 59 times. Chris Buescher was the winner of stage one of the race. Martin Truex Jr. was the winner of stage two. However, it appeared that the strongest cars that would compete for the race would be Joey Logano who led a race high 45 laps and Chase Elliott who led 41 laps. Denny Hamlin came in third on the laps led list at 26 laps out front.
The first of 13 cautions periods came on lap one of the race. One of those cautions included at least 10 cars in the accident. Two of those cautions included a red flag period of more than 10 minutes each. By the end of the race 30 of the cars on the track were involved with at least one on track incident.
The final caution periods put the race in a green-white-checkered NASCAR Overtime finish. It actually took multiple attempts at the green-white-checkered finish to get to the end of the race.
Denny Hamlin raced to a photo finish on the last lap of the race. It gives him his first win of the Playoffs and seventh win of the 2020 season. Most important at this point of the season he clinched his spot in the next round of the post-season.
Erik Jones came across the finish line in second place side-by-side with Denny. Ty Dillon claimed a third place finish with William Byron in fourth place. Chase Elliott was able to round out the top five. See the complete YellaWood 500 race results here.
Denny Now moves to the top of the NASCAR Playoff Standings. Last week’s winner Kurt Busch now sits in second place. Kevin Harvick is in third place followed by Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski in fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings here.
This weekend will be an elimination race. Add the pressure of that to racing on the ROVAL of Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Playoff drivers not locked in the next round will be feeling maximum pressure. Which four will be eliminated from the post-season following the Bank Of America ROVAL 400 Sunday, October 11th?
By: Buck Stevens
