NASCAR Talladega 2016 results: Joey Logano wins Alabama 500

Joey Logano solidified his spot in the semifinal round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a win on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway. Denny Hamlin earned the last bid with a third-place finish that gave him the tiebreaker over Austin Dillon.

Logano assumed command of the Hellmann’s 500 when Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, who led a race-high 90 laps, suffered an engine failure with 36 circuits remaining. In scoring his second victory of the season, Logano assured himself one of the eight slots in the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.

“This is the first time in the Chase format that I’ve come into Talladega without a win to be locked into the next round,” Logano said. “The feeling of the weekend is definitely a lot different when you know you’re not locked into the next one.

Joining Logano in advancing are Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth. Dillon, Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Chase Elliott were eliminated on Sunday.

Keselowski and Truex’s eliminations were the most surprising, as both own four victories on the season and entered the playoffs regarded as title favorites. Truex won two of three races in the opening Chase round, but struggled in the second bracket with consecutive equipment failures in the races preceding at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway.

“I wish we could have done a better job at Kansas and Charlotte and maybe had a free pass coming here,” Truex said. “That certainly would have been big knowing the circumstances, but we did the best we could. We have a great team and we’ve had a great season and we’re going to go out and try to win the rest of the races and see what we can do.”

Hamlin having a better finish (third) than Dillon (sixth) in the second round was the tiebreaker in claiming the Chase’s eighth transfer position. Hamlin had to overcome an earlier pit road speeding penalty, and he beat Kurt Busch by a margin of 0.006-seconds to finish third.

“We needed some things to fall our way if we didn’t win the race,” Hamlin said. “Today things fell our way. The last lap, we went out and earned it.”

The four JGR Toyotas advancing to the semifinal is a manufacturer record. The third round begins next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.