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NASCAR Heads to Talladega

The final superspeedway stop of the year comes this Sunday when the NASCAR Cup Series stops in Talladega, Alabama for the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

 

Denny Hamlin led 137 of 267 laps at Las Vegas and opened the second round of the playoffs the same way he opened the first: by winning.

 

Hamlin was winless until the playoffs began. Kyle Larson still leads in the point standings, but three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are closing in. His lead has shrunk to 14 points over Hamlin, 22 over Kyle Busch and 26 over Martin Truex Jr. Ryan Blaney is fifth, 33 behind. 

 

Eight of the top 10 finishers at Las Vegas are playoff contenders. Kevin Harvick had a postrace lug nut violation, which means crew chief Rodney Childers will be fined $20,000 and suspended from the race in Alabama.

 

The 500 mile, 188 lap race fires up at 2 pm on Sunday.

 

The XFinity series and Truck Series will also be in Talladega this weekend. Justin Haley is the reigning winner of last fall's race and last week's winner, Josh Berry, substituting for the injured Michael Annett, led a 1-2-3 finish for JR Motorsports at Las Vegas, his second victory of the season.

 

Justin Allgaier was second and Noah Gragson third. Gragson’s finish came despite two pit road penalties. 

 

Eight of the 12 drivers in the playoffs finished in the top 10. Defending series champion Austin Cindric leads A.J. Allmendinger by seven points in the title chase. Allgaier and Gragson are 28 and 29 points behind, respectively, and Daniel Hemric is 32 behind.

 

The XFinity cars run at 4:30 pm on Saturday going 300.58 miles and 113 laps. 

 

The Chevrolet Silverado 250 truck series race will precede the XFinity race Saturday at 1 pm. 

 

Christian Eckes led a 1-2-3-4 finish for ThorSport Racing at Las Vegas, taking the lead on a restart with four laps remaining for his first career victory.

 

Fast facts: Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter followed Eckes across the finish line. John Hunter Nemechek won his series-best 11th stage, but mechanical problems relegated him to 33rd and cost him the series points lead. Rhodes leads him by six with Stewart Friesen 25 back, three-time champ Crafton 29 behind and defending series champ Sheldon Creed 34 behind.

 

Raphael Lessard won this race last year after starting 15th. 

 

The trucks race at 1 pm on Saturday for 250 miles and 94 laps. 

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