Geico 500 welcomes fans back to stands in Talladega
After a year of races in which drivers roared past empty stands, fans returned to Talladega Superspeedway for a tripleheader weekend capped by Sunday's Geico 500. For safety, attendance was limited to 35% of the track's capacity. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr. / Alabama NewsCenter)
“Better late than never” was never more meaningful than Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
Of the 191 laps run during the Geico 500, Brad Keselowski led only one, and it was the one that mattered most as the driver of the No. 2 MoneyLion Ford Mustang used that late lead to win the marquee event of the race weekend.
Despite sustaining damage in an early wreck, and even though he led only one lap in Sunday’s race, Keselowski nailed down an opportunistic overtime victory in the 10th event of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Keselowski surged to the front on the final lap after fellow Ford driver Matt DiBenedetto abandoned the bottom lane, giving him a clear run to the front. Keselowski thus claimed his first victory of the season, the 35th of his career and his sixth at Talladega to tie Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for second-most all time at the 2.66-mile track.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. leads in Talladega track wins with 10.
As the ninth different NASCAR winner this season, Keselowski joined Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney on the 2021 victory list. In so doing, he is virtually assured of being in the playoff for the overall season title.
[vimeo 541814514 w=640 h=360]Longtime fans and the newly converted rave about Geico 500 at Talladega from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Keselowski said he thought “Merry Christmas!” to himself when the bottom lane opened up on the final lap.
“The whole race, I had a couple of opportunities to take the lead, but I just kept thinking, ‘Man, just keep your car in one piece till the end,’” he recalled. “We’ve been so close here, and it just didn’t seem to want to come together here the last few years, and I’ve been on kind of a four-year drought here, but it’s nice to get number six.”
Sunday’s winner said he never dreamed he would tie Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. for victories at Talladega.
“Those guys are really legends,” he said. “I’m just really proud of my team. We had an accident there early, and they recovered and got it fixed up to where I could keep running. My crew chief, Jeremy Bullins, had a lot of confidence.
“I told him (before pitting on lap 173 of a scheduled 188), ‘I want to come in and put four tires on this thing,’ and he said, ‘Yep, go ahead.’ And that really helped a bunch at the end.”
William Byron ran second to extend his streak of Top 10 finishes to eight races. Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell was third, followed by Kevin Harvick and DiBenedetto. Kaz Grala, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Cole Custer completed the Top 10.
Aided by an accident, Mobile native Bubba Wallace earned bonus points for notching his first stage win in the second stage of the race. He completed the race at No. 19.
Sunday’s win was Keselowski’s first return to the winner’s circle at Talladega Superspeedway since he took the Alabama 500 on Oct. 15, 2017. Sunday also marked the return of fans to the stands after races here last year were run with no one in the stands.
Gadsden’s Bailey Mack said she generally comes to Talladega races every year, except for last year. “It was miserable. It was sad,” she said. “Now we’re back. Go, Kevin Harvick!”
Michael Harden was in town from Danville, Virginia. He was rooting for his “hometown guys.”
“Either the 12 (Ryan Michael Blaney) or the 11 (Denny Hamlin) or the 96 (Ty Dillon),” he said. “As long as it’s hometown. As long as it’s hometown, from Virginia or North Carolina.”
Colleen Pospishil moved from her shaded seat to one in the sunshine as the race reached its latter laps.
“I was getting a little cold,” the Mokena, Illinois, resident said. “It’s chilly up here. My husband’s a big fan. I’m just a fan in training.”
Her husband, Patrick Pospishil, has been a fan about 20 years, traveling to tracks across the country.
“I got some tickets for a Christmas present and I’m just enjoying the day,” he said. “Every year, they try to send me to a different track. This year was Talladega so I can cross Talladega off my list.”
Trina Newsome of Memphis watched the race with her husband, Vincent. She didn’t hide her excitement as the stock cars roared by. She admitted that she didn’t have a rooting interest, at least not for anyone behind a steering wheel.
“This is my first time being here, but my son is (on the) pit crew of No. 7,” she said, referring to the car driven by Justin Allgaier. “He does the car, so he invited us down here since we were this close.”
Matt Mussleman, 58, attended with his wife, Deanna. The man from Iron City, Tennessee, stuck a finger in his right ear every time the cars zoomed by.
“It’s loud,” he said. “It hurts my ear just on this side.”
But he wouldn’t consider missing this event.
“Because I love it,” Mussleman said. “We’ve been coming here since 1985.”
Andrew Gurtis is the regional vice president of operations for the NASCAR Southeast Region. He recalled a strong storm that blew through Saturday that temporarily knocked out power at the Superspeedway. It was back on just 10 minutes later.
“Glitches are going to happen; it’s how you respond to them,” he said. “We’re going to have problems on a race day. There are a lot of moving parts and things are gonna happen.
“I appreciate the relationship that Talladega has with Alabama Power,” Gurtis continued. “Actually, our director of operations here, Jason Payne, was on the phone right away with Andrew Green, our representative with Alabama Power. I credit them both for having the power come right back on. Now it may have been an automatic switch, but they might as well get credit, because they get blamed all the rest of the time.”
