NASCAR Barometer: Ryan Blaney Takes Third Talladega Triumph

Ryan Blaney narrowly edged out Kevin Harvick at the line to win his third career race at Talladega Superspeedway in Sunday's YellaWood 500. His victory, the second of the season, came with the added bonus of a place among the final eight championship contenders, too. The Team Penkse driver can now rest easy knowing that he does not have to do anything special at the Charlotte road course and that his quest to be one of four drivers to race for the season championship will continue in the final round of eliminations. The only other driver assured of a spot in the final eight with Blaney is William Byron, who finished third on track at Talladega, only to be promoted to second following the disqualification of Kevin Harvick. Blaney edged Harvick by a mere 0.012 seconds only for the No. 4 machine to fail post-race inspection and be demoted to a 38th-place finish. 

The coming week's race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course offers the other 10 playoff contenders one final chance to join Blaney and Byron in the final round of championship eliminations. Christopher Bell won the race last season, and he is one of those 10 hoping for another top result this time around. Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Kyle Busch will start the weekend in the danger zone needing as many points and good fortune as possible to escape elimination.

UPGRADE

Ryan Blaney - Blaney and teammate Austin Cindric worked together early to earn Blaney a valuable stage win Sunday at Talladega. He started the afternoon in the playoff drop zone and needed as many points as possible to undo that situation, and that first segment win set the stage for his success. After that segment win, Blaney and team kept their car at the front through the remaining miles and found themselves in position to race for the win in the final laps. When the checkered flag waved, it was the No. 12 that edged out Kevin Harvick at the line, moving Blaney out of the playoff drop zone and into the final eight with a chance to race for a spot among the final four championship eligible drivers. Blaney won the first race on Charlotte's road course and has four top-10s from all five races there, but the pressure is off for the time being.

Brad Keselowski - Keselowski earned himself valuable stage points along with a playoff point for winning the second stage Sunday at Talladega. The RFK Racing driver has been desperate to win for his new team, and he showed it by racing at the front through the first two stages Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Talladega's tendency to bite hit Keselowski in the final stage as he was part of a multi-car wreck that knocked him out of the running. Those earlier stage points proved quite valuable, though. With one race remaining in the current round of elimination races, Keselowski enters the decider with a two-point advantage over Tyler Reddick and the drop zone. Despite leading 39 laps on Charlotte's road course, Keselowski has just one top-10 finish at the track. He finished 14th in last year's race despite starting 31st.

William Byron - Byron maintained the momentum from his Texas win with a runner-up finish Sunday at Talladega. The Hendrick Motorsports driver became the first driver locked into the final eight of the playoffs with that win, but he didn't rest on his laurels Sunday. Instead, Byron collected stage points in both race segments before joining his Hendrick teammates to fight at the front in the final laps. Byron kept his nose clean through the scramble and made the right moves on his way to a third-place finish on track, which was later upgraded to second after Kevin Harvick was disqualified. Byron now has four finishes of ninth or better in the last five races, and he has a head full of steam headed to Charlotte. With two sixth-place finishes and 80 total laps led from his five starts at the road course, he should be confident of maintaining his current strength, too.

Denny Hamlin - Like Byron, Hamlin continues to harness momentum as the 2023 season builds to its climax. The No. 11 was fast enough to be at the front of the field Sunday at Talladega, but traffic and an early speeding penalty forced him to exercise patience. Hamlin and team worked hard through the middle portion of the race to get back on the lead lap, and a caution with less than 30 laps remaining made that reality. From there, Hamlin worked his way back through the field and into the top five for the final laps. He also benefitted when his fourth-place finish was upgraded to third. Hamlin now has a comfortable 48-point cushion over eighth in the standings, and a spot among the final eight championship contenders appears inevitable. Fantasy players can expect him to continue giving his all and coming away with top finishes even when faced with adversity, like at Talladega.

Christopher Bell - Sometimes drivers have to maximize a bad situation, and that is what Bell did Sunday at Talladega. He was involved in an early crash that damaged his car, but rather than giving up or forcing the issue, Bell and team changed their strategy to be more conservative and take what the afternoon would give them. Bell hung onto the back of the draft and avoided further missteps to claim a 14th-place finish despite racing more than two-thirds of the afternoon with a damaged car. The result was his worst since Darlington, but it limited the playoff damage the incident could have inflicted. Bell now faces one more race of the current round with a 20-point cushion to the eighth and final transfer spot. Sunday's perseverance means he does not face the pressure of replicating his Charlotte win from last season and just needs a decent afternoon by his standards to advance.

DOWNGRADE

Ross Chastain - Chastain put himself in position to pick up stage points in the first segment of Sunday's race, but when traffic ahead compressed after Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s car sputtered, Chastain was squeezed, lost control, and spun into the outside barrier. The No. 1 machine sustained heavy damage in the incident, which forced the playoff contender out of the race. It was a heavy blow to his playoff hopes, and he now faces a tense trip to Charlotte with his championship hopes in the balance. Chastain has yet to finish in the top 20 at the Charlotte road course, which only serves to add to the pressure he faces this week. Chastain is a former road course winner, but a repeat of that may be the only scenario that will keep his playoff push alive.

Kevin Harvick - Sunday's race at Talladega appeared to be a resurgence for Harvick, and he narrowly missed a potential win in a photo finish. It was all too good to be true, though. Following one of Harvick's best races of the season, NASCAR announced that he would be disqualified after finding that his car's windshield was not properly attached. It was the first time this season that NASCAR disqualified a car from a race, and Harvick lost all stage points after being moved from second on track to 38th in the finishing order. The infraction will be especially disappointing to the former champion considering the race is likely to be the last superspeedway start of Harvick's career. He remains winless in his final full-time season with just five races remaining to end his career on a more positive note.

Kyle Busch - Busch seems to be floundering at the worst possible time. His last three races have all ended with finishes of 20th or lower, which leaves him last among the 12 championship eligible drivers with only one more race to make something happen and avoid elimination. The gap to the top eight and playoff safety is a big 26 points, which is going to be tough to overcome in a single race. While anything could happen at the Charlotte road course, Busch will need every point he can get along with a healthy dose of luck to advance. A win would be ideal, and Busch does have some top recent finishes at the track. He crossed the line fourth in 2021 and third in 2022. He and the team have a big hole to dig themselves out of, and they will need everything to go right for them this week to do so.

Tyler Reddick - It seemed for much of Sunday's race that Reddick had a car that could contend for a top-10 finish. Unfortunately, he failed to maximize stage and race points.  Despite leading briefly, Reddick wasn't able to do enough in the race to stay out of the playoff drop zone and only collected one stage point from the second segment. His 16th-place finish was his third consecutive finish of 15th or lower, which is not good enough to stake a claim as a final-eight contender. Reddick heads to Charlotte this weekend two points behind Brad Keselowski and the final eight playoff positions. While Reddick is a road course contender, the extra pressure of starting behind the goal is not helpful. He led 21 laps in an eighth-place showing last season and finished second the year prior. Reddick will need a similar race this week to stay afloat in the playoff battle.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Bubba Wallace - After another good result at Texas, Talladega was poised to be a race that Wallace could use to put one foot into the next round of elimination races. However, the Wallace fantasy players are accustomed to seeing at superspeedways was absent. Wallace spent most of the race's 500 miles mired in traffic and failed to score any stage points. That trend didn't change in the final segment and Wallace finished the race 23rd. It was just his second finish outside of the top 20 since the playoffs began, and he now faces a road course with a nine-point deficit to the transfer positions. Wallace isn't exactly known as a road course racer, but his skills on the superspeedways are well established. Sunday's race at Talladega felt like a missed opportunity. He'll need to seize the opportunity at Charlotte to ensure he is one of the final eight.