Bristol quick takeaways: A few surprise finishers in the top 10
Throughout 2016 we may have way too many quick thoughts for our post-race posts. So consider our Takeaways feature to be the home of our random and sometimes intelligent musings. Sometimes the post may have a theme. Sometimes it may just be a mess of unrelated thoughts. Make sure you tweet us your thoughts after the race or email your post-race rants via the link in the signature line below.
• Look at the top 10 from Sunday’s race at Bristol. If you showed this top 10 to a fellow race fan and asked them to guess the track, the most common guesses would be Daytona and Talladega.
[Related: Carl Edwards wins at Bristol]
1. Carl Edwards
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Kurt Busch
4. Chase Elliott
5. Trevor Bayne
6. Matt DiBenedetto
7. Kevin Harvick
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Ryan Newman
10. Joey Logano
[Related: Junior bounces back from dead battery at race start to finish second]
DiBenedetto’s finish is the best finish for BK Racing in team history and his career-best finish. It’s also his first top-10. His previous career-best finish was 18th at Talladega last spring.
Bayne’s top five is his first top-five finish since winning the 2011 Daytona 500 for his only Sprint Cup Series win. It’s also his best finish for Roush Fenway Racing, which had all three of its cars in the top 10 at one point late in the race. Greg Biffle ended up finishing 12th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 16th.
Bowyer’s top 10 is his first of the season and his first top 10 since Talladega in the fall.
[Related: Kyle Busch hits wall twice and spins as effort for third-straight win falls short]
• Matt Kenseth is the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver without a win now. There’s still no need to panic. He led 352 of 400 laps at Richmond in the fall. Richmond is the site of the next Cup race.
• Kyle Larson’s season is quite the roller coaster. After climbing into the top 20 in points, he promptly had an issue with the track bar on the car and finished 35th.
• Ty Dillon took out Landon Cassill in Friday’s qualifying when he spun into Cassill’s slowing car. Sunday, Cassill tried to slide in front of Dillon late in the race and the two made solid contact again. Dillon was dealing with a wounded car after contact a few laps earlier, and Cassill was attempting to capitalize on great track position he garnered through some solid pit strategy. And while the thoughts of payback for Friday are likely more dream than reality, you can’t blame Cassill for being a bit reckless given the driver he was passing.
• Will there be any procedural changes after Aric Almirola’s crash? After Almirola hit the wall, his car eventually came to rest facing an inside wall separating the track and pit road. He had lost reverse gear in his car and with the way his car was positioned, needed help from track workers to get his car off the wall and pointed in the right direction.
Instead, Almirola was apparently instructed by workers to get out of his car despite it being able to carry on if was simply moved. He was called to the NASCAR hauler after the race, according to the Fox broadcast and his car was towed away from the scene.
Had Almirola been able to stay in his car he could have continued on. Reverse isn’t vital. While we understand track safety workers are erring on the side of caution, Almirola should be able to continue on in a circumstance like that.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
