Talladega notebook: Won-or-done likely path for Elliott
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[October 22, 2016]
The Sports Xchange
By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Distributed by The Sports Xchange
TALLADEGA, Ala. -- In a sense, Chase
Elliott comes to Talladega Superspeedway with the greatest amount of
freedom, simply because he has the largest challenge to overcome and
the narrowest path to do so.
After unfortunate results at Charlotte and Kansas, the Sunoco Rookie
of the Year points leader is 12th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup standings, 25 points behind Joey Logano and Austin Dillon, who
are tied for eighth.
After the Hellman's 500 on Sunday (on NBCSN at 2 p.m. ET), the Chase
field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight, and Elliott likely must
win in order to advance.
"I think, for us, we're obviously disappointed in the way the past
two weeks have gone, having such strong cars over the past two weeks
and having the ability to go and contend with some of those guys,"
said Elliott, who was wrecked in a late restart accident at
Charlotte and fell victim to a fluke tire rub at Kansas.
"Obviously, to end like it did was disappointing, but for us it puts
us in a pretty simplistic situation for this weekend -- having to
have a really good run, if not have to win. Like I said, it's a
simple position that we're in, and we're up for the challenge and
looking forward to Sunday."
Elliott led 103 laps at Charlotte and had passed Kevin Harvick for
the lead at Kansas before his race went south after a green-flag pit
stop with fewer than 100 circuits left. Elliott damaged his left
rear fender returning to the track and cut a tire in the process.
Coincidentally, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne had the
same issue at roughly the same time.
"To be honest with you, we've kind of come to the conclusion that it
was a freak incident," Elliott said. "We haven't been doing anything
the last couple of weeks that would cause it. So we did identify
that it was happening when I would get up on the racetrack off the
exit of Turn 2. That's a pretty abrupt banking change, and we're
hitting it pretty hard under green-flag conditions.
"You hit it hard throughout the weekend, and it was weird that you
don't have that kind of stuff happen. ... Once the car traveled down
into the corner, it obviously cut it. The best we can figure out
that our incident and Kasey's was the same, but we hadn't done
anything different the past number of weeks. It was an unfortunate
situation for us."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Oct/22/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
Elliott, of course, can overcome all his Round of 12 issues if he
can pick up his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory on Sunday.
ROLES DIFFERENT FOR PENKSE TEAMMATES
Last year, Joey Logano did all he could at Talladega Superspeedway
to help Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski advance to the Chase's
Round of 8.
Then again, last year Logano was in a position to do so, given that
he had won the first two races in the Round of 12. And with Logano's
help, Keselowski advanced to the penultimate round with a
fourth-place finish.
But in the Hellman's 500 on Sunday, both Logano and Keselowski will
be fighting for their Chase lives. Heading into the Round of 12
cutoff race, Logano is tied for eighth, the final transfer position.
After wrecking out of last Sunday's Kansas race in 38th place,
Keselowski is 11th in the Chase standings, seven points behind
Logano and Austin Dillon.
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Accordingly, each driver will have his own agenda on Sunday.
"Brad was in a do-or-die situation and I was locked in, so our main
goal was to get Brad through," Logano said of last year's Talladega
race, which he won to sweep the round. "That was our goal. There was
a lot of talk about how we help each other and how we can put him in
position to make the moves at the end of the race. I gave him my
commitment that I was going to be there for him.
"I was going push him along. I was going do everything that I knew
how to do to help him win," Logano added. "That situation will
happen throughout a lot of other teams this week, but it's something
Brad and I need to have an understanding that, 'Hey, yeah, we're
going to help each other as much as we can, but we both kind of have
to win.'
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Oct/22/images/ads/current/Webster_SDA_HI_2016.png)
"It's a little bit different than that race, but at the same time
we're good teammates. We're going to race each other and we're going
help each other like we do every single week."
But they won't be helping each other at the expense of their own
Chase chances.
SHORT STROKES
On Sunday, six-time Talladega winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss
his first restrictor-plate race since his debut in the 2000 Daytona
500, breaking a string of 67 straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series plate
races. In the Hellman's 500, Alex Bowman is subbing for Earnhardt,
who is recovering from a concussion and will not return to
competition this season. ... GEICO has extended its sponsorship of
the May race at Talladega through 2019. In addition, GEICO will be
the entitlement sponsor of the restart zone all International
Speedway Corporation tracks with the exception of Auto Club Speedway
in Fontana, Calif. The GEICO Restart Zone was established this
weekend at Talladega; starting in 2017, it will be a fixture at 11
ISC tracks. ... Ryan Reed has re-signed a multi-year deal with Roush
Fenway Racing to continue competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Reed, who was diagnosed with Type I diabetes five years ago, hopes
to make his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut in the Hellman's 500 at
Talladega on Sunday. He is one of five drivers competing for four
available spots in the 40-car field. ... Drafting with fellow Ford
drivers Chris Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne, Greg
Biffle paced opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Talladega
with a lap at 198.949 mph. The only non-Ford interloper in the top
five was Chevrolet driver AJ Allmendinger, who was second fastest at
198.327 mph. ... Jimmie Johnson, who has already locked up a spot in
the Round of 8 thanks to his win in Charlotte, led the final
practice on Friday with a lap of 196.386 mph.
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