Before Talladega I said give me the 2, Jesse Love's car, even though they haven't been the killers they were in recent years. I said if they got out of there with a big points day, "they got a stranglehold on this thing. It'll be really hard to lose it by the time they get to Homestead."
He didn't get the big day. Love scored no stage points, picked up two penalties under one caution and left Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday with 34 points. Justin Allgaier scored 51. Love's lead in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase, the series playoff, fell from 36 to 19 over Allgaier's No. 7, according to NASCAR's standings. He still leads, with two races left. Sammy Smith won the race, and he said Love was the one pushing him at the end.
Nobody joined the 2
Love started on the pole in the No. 2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. By lap 8, NASCAR's notes had him trying to make the inside lane work, "but nobody joins him," and he was running around eighth. The first stage, one of the two segments that pay points before the finish, ended with him outside the top 10.
Under that caution, NASCAR's infraction sheet lists two penalties on the 2: improper fueling, and pitting before pit road was open. Both sent him to the tail end of the field. He used the middle lane to get to fifth on lap 45, but the second stage ended with him outside the top 10 again.
The alliances showed what they had
On the show I said the technical alliances "and how strong they actually are, we probably will figure out here." I said Austin Hill, Love's teammate, would probably be "a great wingman," at least until the very end, when he would go off for himself.
Hill said Saturday morning, "I'm planning on going and winning both stages." His day went the other way. He had a long stop for radio trouble on the first-stage caution and was flagged for pitting before pit road was open. He drove back to the front and briefly cleared Carson Kvapil for the lead on lap 42 before Allgaier, pushed by Smith, took it. Hill finished fourth in the second stage. On the restart on lap 57, Taylor Gray of Joe Gibbs Racing and Harrison Burton touched in the tri-oval while racing for the lead. Gray spun, and Hill and Brandon Jones were collected. Hill later had a flat right front tire and finished 35th.
That crash collected three Chase drivers. Gray finished 21st and Hill 35th; Jones recovered to ninth. All three were eliminated, along with Parker Retzlaff and Rajah Caruth. Any driver 153 or more behind the leader after Talladega was out. Gray left 155 back.
I'd said the question at Talladega wasn't who could win, because anyone can. It was how aggressive you'd be chasing stage points, in a series where you can get caught up in other people's mess way easier.
The 17 had help after all
I also said the one Chase driver with no alliance was Corey Day, out there by himself in a Hendrick Motorsports car. JR Motorsports went in planning to help him. Smith said the team had "a good plan going into the race" to get stage points for the 1, the 7 and the 17: Kvapil, Allgaier and Day.
Day needed it. He had a water leak in qualifying, then went to the rear for an engine change. He was seventh by lap 5. He was first off pit road after the first stage and led the restart. Kvapil won the first stage, Allgaier the second, and Day scored in both. He finished sixth and gained 10 points on Love. He's third, 29 back. Kvapil, who finished second, is 59 back.
The 2 behind the 8
When the last lap started, Kvapil was leading and Smith was second, both in JR Motorsports Chevrolets. Allgaier pushed Smith to Kvapil's inside on the backstretch. Smith said that in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 his spotter told him to drag the brake, a light touch on the pedal, to "get connected with the two stronger." Love pushed him the rest of the way. "He did a great job pushing me," Smith said.
Smith said he knew before the race how Love would see it. "I knew he probably wanted me to win more than the one or the seven or 17," he said. Smith is seventh in points, 108 back. He won by 0.084 seconds over Kvapil. Love was third.
Creed had to be kind of perfect
I said Sheldon Creed had to be "kind of perfect" at "the most imperfect place that we have," and that Haas was in a weird spot, with Creed and Sam Mayer needing the same thing. He was fifth in the first stage, sixth in the second and fifth at the finish in the No. 00 for Haas Factory Team. He picked up nine points on Love and is fourth, 50 back. Mayer started third, scored in neither stage and finished 13th. Mayer is 96 back.
Picks
On Episode 8 of The Grand National Show, I took Love, who ran third. Parker Kligerman took Allgaier, fourth, and Chris Wilner took Creed, fifth. Davey Segal took Caruth, who was second in the first stage and finished 17th. Dillon Welch, who called in during our Truck Series show, took Hill, 35th. Both were eliminated.
The Chase goes to Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, Oct. 31, on The CW, and ends at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 7.
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