Drivers don't like Talladega as much as they just accept it

ByBOB POCKRASS
May 1, 2016, 8:04 PM

— -- TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Kyle Busch finished second, and in some ways he could consider himself the first loser at Talladega Superspeedway behind Brad Keselowski.

But anyone who watched the Geico 500 would know that any car that finished Sunday afternoon was a winner. Twelve cars failed to finish the crashfest -- seven others finished the race at least six laps down -- and seven more cars wrecked on the final lap to the surprise of no one.

There were cars upside-down twice during the event. There were cars on fire. It was insane and thrilling and stupid and exciting and jaw-dropping and head-scratching.

That was Talladega.

"I hate it," Busch said about the restrictor-plate style of racing. "I'd much rather sit at home."

Keselowski celebrated in Victory Lane as if his prayers were answered. But there probably were more prayers thankful for the creators of SAFER Barriers, head-and-neck restraints and strict rules for cars to handle devastating crashes no one wants to see. And in that sense, nothing bad really happened. No drivers suffered more than bumps and bruises. No pieces appeared to fly into the stands.

"This [track] is one where it's in your face challenging to if you make a mistake, it's going to be a really, really big wreck," Keselowski said. "You could go airborne, a lot of bad things could happen.

"That is part of the challenge, overcoming that thought in the back of your head. It's difficult for people to do, but it's part of what makes it special, is the fact that you know that can happen."

Austin Dillon, who finished third, called the day both "wild" and "fun" -- and he has been on both sides of that in restrictor-plate races, including his scary airborne crash into the Daytona catch fence last July.

"I have to put myself in a situation I don't want to be in to get into a good situation," Dillon said. "You have to put yourself in bad situations that you wouldn't normally do to figure out how to get to the front.

"That's where it all comes from. I don't know personally how to fix it. The only thing I can do is I know they've got new innovations they want to do to the cars to make them safer, like the foot box they've been working on. As far as aero-wise, if we need to put something on the back of the car to keep them on the ground, I'm all for it."

Keselowski spent much of his day weaving in front of the three lanes of traffic behind him, leading a race-high 46 laps, including the final 17 for his second win of the season. He blocked and blocked and blocked every chance he could get. It almost looked as if he was daring someone to get him airborne.

In some ways he had to -- he was one of only five cars that wasn't involved in a wreck all day, and part of that was because he ran up front most of the race. Then again, second-place Busch was involved in an accident and Dillon's car had tape holding pieces together. Fourth-place Jamie McMurray was involved in one of the wrecks, but fifth-place Chase Elliott and sixth-place Ty Dillon (driving in relief of Tony Stewart) avoided them all.

Keselowski said those blocking moves were the ones he had to make, and they weren't reckless.

"When the cars get close to each other, they squeeze a pocket of air," Keselowski said. "That makes blocking extremely successful because you can pull down in front of someone, hit that pocket of air, they beach ball push you away, for lack of a better term.

"That's part of the racing, it's what works here. It's our responsibility as drivers to figure that out."

Some figured it out better than others. A day earlier, Joey Logano tried to block Elliott Sadler at the end of the Xfinity Series race and found himself airborne. Keselowski had enough of a gap on Busch near the end of the Cup race that Busch had no choice but to remain in line.

As Busch said afterward, there is nothing new to big, hard, multicar wrecks. The race Sunday had plenty, a wreck with 21 cars, another with 12 cars. The eight-car and seven-car wrecks that would have been "Big Ones" anywhere else were small at Talladega.

One of those "small" ones sent Chris Buescher flipping. One of the "big" ones turned Matt Kenseth upside-down.

"We continue to work on the roof flaps and things like that," Keselowski crew chief Paul Wolfe said. "But, gosh, I'm not saying there isn't ways to do better than what we have. I'm sure there is.

"NASCAR does a great job of continuing to look into ways to do that. But kind of at the speeds we're running, sometimes it seems like there's not a whole lot you can do once you get sideways at that kind of speed."

The race Sunday might have had a little more aggressiveness thanks to the threat of rain, which meant the race could end virtually at any moment once the drivers hit the halfway mark of 94 laps. The rain never came, and the thrills and the prayers never ended.

"These cars, you try to get a little bit aggressive, start bumping people and pushing people, they're real easy to get out of control," Busch said. "I really don't know why we're bumping and pushing and everything else, because these cars, they go slower when you push.

"Makes a lot of sense. That's how stupid we are."

One of those heavy pushes turned Danica Patrick, who had X-rays to her chest (they were negative) after she felt pain while breathing after an accident. She wonders if there could be less run-off area where cars can gain speed before hitting inside walls.

But as she talked about it, she seemed a little resigned to the fact that this was just the nature of restrictor-plate racing. Her hardest hits have come at restrictor-plate tracks.

"We don't want cars to go in the air," Keselowski said. "There's never a guarantee where they are going to land. We don't want them to land in a fan's lap."

Keselowski didn't say that to be trite. He has just lived his life around racing to take that matter-of-fact view. His often-used line that race-car drivers are a balance of "daredevils and chess players" made sense Sunday afternoon after his win.

"You're going to make a move inches from another drive, cut them off, push them, you're going to drive sideways, hang it all out there knowing something bad can really happen," Keselowski said. "I think it's special under the circumstances and under that level of adversity. It's a challenge I've always embraced."