NASCAR Talladega 2016 results: Brad Keselowski wins Geico 500

On a day when the mayhem was nearly inescapable, Brad Keselowski knew the best way to avoid trouble was by staying up front. He did that better than anyone Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, leading a race-high amount of laps and avoiding the carnage that saw 35 of 40 cars become collected in various crashes to win the Geico 500.

The victory was Kenseth’s second of 2016 and fourth overall at Talladega. Kyle Busch finished second, Austin Dillon third, Jamie McMurray fourth and Chase Elliott fifth.

“None of the accidents today were at the front,” Keselowski said. “That’s your highest percentage shot, if you can run up front. It sounds real easy, it’s not, otherwise everybody would do it.

“We were fortunate to be second, third or better in every one of those accidents.”

The second restrictor-plate race of the season featured a rash of multi-car incidents including 12- and 21-car accidents and a seven-car crash on the last lap just as Keselowski crossed the finish line.

“It’s just Talladega. It is what it is,” Busch said. “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.

“About everybody had some sort of damage and was tore up. I don’t think there was a car that came out of this place without needing the body all redone.”

In separate accidents the cars of Chris Buescher and Matt Kenseth became airborne and flipped, while Danica Patrick slammed nose-first into a SAFER barrier in the same crash that involved Kenseth. No drivers were injured Sunday.

“I hit my foot pretty hard and hit my arm pretty hard,” Patrick said. “I have hit the inside wall at a superspeedway, I think like four times now, and that was the hardest.”

Ten cautions slowed the race for 41 laps.

Keselowski and Team Penske stablemate Joey Logano largely controlled the final 30 laps, exchanging the lead between them until a caution for the Kenseth and Patrick accident with six laps remaining reset the order.

Kurt Busch then emerged to challenge Keselowski, but as the field jockeyed and fanned out Busch slid backwards while Keselowski jumped ahead. Over the final laps, Keselowski continually blocked those behind attempting to pass preventing anyone from mounting a charge.

While the spate of crashes left several drivers trying to comprehend all that unfolded Sunday, Keselowski had a different outlook.

“Racing has always been that balance of daredevils and chess players,” Keselowski said. “Some weekends we’re chess players, some weekends we’re daredevils. (Talladega) has always been the more daredevil style of track, which probably offsets some of the tracks that we go to where we’re the chess player.”

Ty Dillon, who replaced Tony Stewart on Lap 53, finished sixth. Because Stewart started the race, he is considered the driver of record and gets credit for the result.

Clint finished seventh, Busch eighth, Ryan Blaney ninth and Trevor Bayne completed the top 10.