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 [April 24, 2023]
With a win already under his belt this season, Richard
Childress Racing's Kyle Busch knew he could gamble at Talladega on
Sunday.
Busch took the lead in the second NASCAR overtime shootout and
earned the victory in Sunday's GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
in Talladega, Ala.
Following incidents with six laps to go and in the first extra
segment, Bubba Wallace passed Busch as the white flag flew, but
Wallace spun while blocking Ryan Blaney for second.
That caused the eighth caution, and Busch cruised around in his No.
8 Chevrolet at pace-lap speed to win under caution in the 196-lap
event and record the 62nd Cup Series win of his career.
"Sometimes you've got to be lucky," Busch said. "Some of these races
come down to that and you've got to take them when they come your
way."
In his second victory this season, the RCR driver won for the second
time at Talladega. His previous win was on April 27, 2008, while
driving for Joe Gibbs Racing -- 55 wins ago.
It was RCR's 13th team win at the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
Having enough fuel was an issue for Busch, but his Feb. 26 win at
Auto Club Speedway in California made the decision easy.
"We were sweating it being close, but I thought back to Fontana
earlier this year where we had a win," Busch said. "I'm like, 'We've
got to gamble. We're up here, you've got to take the track position
when you have it and go give it what you can on the restart.'"
Blaney finished second followed by Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe and
Brad Keselowski.
In his 800th career start, 2014 Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick
finished 20th.
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Apr 23, 2023; Talladega, Alabama, USA; A
multi-car wreck continues from contact between NASCAR Cup Series
drivers Bubba Wallace (23) and Ryan Blaney (12) on the final lap at
Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY
Sports
Arriving at Talladega without a pole position there
in 18 career seasons, Denny Hamlin produced a top-qualifying lap for
the first time and led the drivers to the green flag to open the
188-lap race around the high-banked track.
However, Briscoe and Wallace swapped the lead at NASCAR's largest
oval track during Stage 1, with Wallace topping the leaderboard with
23 circuits led.
The event's first caution flew with 18 laps left in the first
segment when Briscoe spun on pit road while leading a group of Fords
and was unable to get his No. 14 Mustang moving despite being under
power.
In his second race since returning from a broken tibia, Chase
Elliott roared across the finish line at Lap 60 followed by teammate
Alex Bowman for his first 2023 stage win.
But Aric Almirola earned a win in the second stage when teammate
Harvick pushed the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford to the line to
end Elliott's bid for a second straight segment triumph.
--Field Level Media
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