NASCAR Talladega 2016 results: Full finishing order for Hellmann’s 500

The misfortune of championship contenders Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. worked to the betterment of Joey Logano, who assured himself a spot in the next playoff round with a victory Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

Keselowski and Truex each won four times during the season, but both needed strong Talladega finishes to put themselves in position to avoid elimination in the deciding race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup quarterfinal round. That didn’t happen, with each suffering engine failures that sent them to the garage prematurely. Also eliminated were Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon, who lost a tiebreaker to Denny Hamlin to earn the last transfer position.

Chronic overheating caused Keselowski’s engine to go sour. While leading a race-high 90 laps, he continually picked up debris on his grille, sending his engine temp to climb.

“We just had a tremendous racing going, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Keselowski said.

Logano took control of the race following Keselowski’s mechanical troubles, leading 45 of the final 49 laps. He and Keselowski both drive for Team Penske.

“I felt bad for Brad because I think he had the fastest car,” Logano said. “There were times that if he did get shuffled out he drove back to the lead and it was like, ‘Wow.’

“He had a very good car and unfortunately got some garbage which made his motor retire. That’s a tough one.”

Along with Logano and Hamlin, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, and Matt Kenseth are the eight drivers who qualified for the third Chase round, which begins next weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Edwards and Kenseth are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, with Kurt Busch and Harvick teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing. Johnson is with Hendrick Motorsports.

After the race, Harvick initiated a confrontation with Kurt Busch by shoving his teammate, who was still sitting inside his car. Harvick said the incident was prompted by Busch slamming into him on the cool down lap.

“He cleaned the side of our car out after the checkered flag,” Harvick said. “I don’t really understand that.”

Said Busch: “He has a misunderstanding of the call at the end of the race. He will understand it and I’m sure he will clear it up in his interview.”

The typical craziness associated with restrictor-plate racing was largely absent on Sunday. The biggest accident involved three cars (twice) and each incident was rather benign, a stark contrast to the spring Talladega that featured multiple cars becoming airborne.

A caution for Alex Bowman’s single-car spin along the front stretch with two laps remaining necessitated an overtime finish and set up the most dramatic moment of the afternoon. On the ensuing green-white-checkered restart, Hamlin and Dillon were vying to be among the eight moving to the semifinal round.

Hamlin finished third by a nose over Kurt Busch and Dillon was ninth. That gave Hamlin the tiebreak as he had the best result within the second round.

“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.”

Hellmann’s 500 results