Talladega Review, Charlotte Roval Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E31

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races from Talladega, highlighting Chase Elliott's win and a lack of major crashes. The Xfinity and truck races were also discussed, with AJ Allmendinger and Matt DiBenedetto securing wins. The host then covers news, including Alex Bowman's concussion diagnosis and the announcement of Hailey Deegan's Xfinity Series debut. The upcoming races at the Charlotte Roval are previewed, with Myatt Snyder predicted to win the Xfinity race and William Byron predicted to win the Cup race. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I'm your host Will England and in this episode I'm going to be reviewing the races from Talladega. I'll also cover the news and I'm going to review this weekend's races at the Charlotte Roval, but first let's take a look at the results from Talladega. Chase Elliott gets his fifth win of the season and his second at Talladega, followed by Ryan Blaney in second, Michael McDowell in third, Ross Chassain in fourth, Danny Hanlon in fifth, Eric Jones in sixth, Todd Guildaland in seventh, Daniel Suarez in eighth, Austin Sendrick in ninth, and Chase Frisco rounds out the top ten. And this race was very good for Talladega's standards. There was no huge big ones, there was a little bit of a pileup early on toward the back, but it was not a wreckfest up front. There was still plenty of side by side 2x2 racing, with occasional 3x2. It was not going to be a single file line up toward the top because of a protest. I guess these guys wanted to be less aggressive, so they were not making as aggressive moves during the race because of safety concerns. But it still led to some good racing, and you don't need huge ones to get a good race at Talladega. So overall, a very good race at Talladega, and this next-gen car has a pretty good super speedway package. And at least it wasn't a disaster, like the Coke 0400 at Daytona. Next up for Xfinity, AJ Almalinger gets his first super speedway win at Talladega, followed by Sam Mayer in second, Landon Castle in third, Ryan Sieg in fourth, Josh Berry in fifth, Parker Kligerman in sixth, Ty Gibbs in seventh, Daniel Hemrick in eighth, Brandon Jones in ninth, and Noah Gregson rounds out the top ten. And this race was also very good. The Xfinity plate package is very good, and although the cup race had some DNFs, the Xfinity race had zero DNFs. Everyone from AJ Almalinger to Mason Massey in 38th finished this race. That has to be like the first time ever, or one of the few times ever, that there's never been a DNF in a Talladega race. But it still was pretty entertaining to watch, and overall, it was still a very good race at Talladega, without the chaos. And now let's take a 180 and take a look at the trucks. Matt DiBenedetto finally gets his first national series win in an S-Car camping wheel truck series by winning at Talladega, followed by Ben Rhodes in second. Brett Holmes comes up short in third after the caution came out, and Ben Rhodes was ahead of him as well. Ryan Priest finishes fourth, Christian Eckes finishes fifth, Hailey Deegan gets her third top ten and her second this season, which is the first time that a female has finished in the top ten twice in a year in the national series since Danica Patrick did in 2015. Chase Purdy finishes seventh, Colby Howard finishes eighth, Parker Kluigerman finishes ninth, and Tyler Ankrum rounds out the top ten. And talk about a complete 180 from the other two races. This race was chaotic. There were plenty of wrecks going on, and that green-white checkered led to a very crazy finish. And I gotta talk about Jordan Anderson's incident. So in the final lap of stage one, Jordan Anderson has a big fire in turn one. I'm not sure if it was caused by the engine or something else, but his car just explodes, and his truck is just on fire. And he even got into the cockpit, which is the scariest thing. And he couldn't even see, so he had to look out the window. And he came off turn two and went down the back stretch and hit the inside wall, coming to a stop. And then he almost got flung out of the truck because he was looking outside by having half of his body out, and he almost got crushed by his truck. And so he immediately escaped and then laid down because he had some burns. And then he went to the Infant Care Center and then was transferred to a hospital in Birmingham where he was treated for second degree burns. Second degree burns aren't as bad as third degree burns, but they're still pretty bad. But at least it wasn't more severe. I'm glad that he was able to get out of the truck before it led to more serious problems. And overall, a solid weekend for Talladega Great Racing, with two relatively clean races, which are Cup and Xfinity, and of course, a chaotic truck race, the boot. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. During the Texas race, Alex Bowman got spun around, probably from a flat tire. And in turns three and four, he had one of those rear end and front end hits, kind of like how Kurt Busch had at Pocono. And it has led to Alex Bowman being diagnosed with concussion symptoms. And last weekend at Talladega, Noah Gregson stepped in for him. And this weekend, Noah Gregson is back once again at Charlotte Roval. And it's just sad to see Alex Bowman's championship hopes dashed early because of no fault of his own, but because of how these cars handle these wrecks. And I'd like to see what Noah Gregson can do in the competitive cup ride, because he's been mostly racing for Kalec and for Beard Oil Motorsports. And he's gained a lot of experience with those cars, although they're not competitive. I'd like to see what he can do in Hendrick Equipment. He was running pretty good at Talladega in the 48. So with the Charlotte Roval, I'd like to see what he can do. And I'd say this will probably not be the last race that he subs in, because he may have to sub in at Las Vegas. But we'll have to see. Next, an announcement that I've been anticipating since February. And finally, the announcement is here. Hayley Giegen will be making her Xfinity Series debut at Vegas for SS Greenlight Racing in the 07. And she said earlier this year before Sonoma that she couldn't find any funding. Well, it looks like one of her recent sponsors that have stepped up, Christine Auction, they will be sponsoring her in this endeavor. And after months of waiting, because we anticipated her to race earlier this year and have multiple starts, but yesterday she's finally made the announcement. And it sounds like this might be her only start of the year, unless she's planning to run Homestead 2. I'm guessing that probably Joe Graff Jr. will probably be back in the 07 that next week at Homestead while Hayley runs in the truck race only. So I hope that she does good. She's been okay in the truck series. Three top tens is better than zero top tens. And with the truck series being chaotic, I'd like to see what she can do in a less chaotic environment and in a competitive car, because I'm guessing that this is a storehouse-prepped car. Meanwhile, in trucks, she's running a DGR-prepared truck, and DGR is not the best, but the 07 is a very well-prepared car, and it's been competitive with a mid-pack driver in Cup. Of course, Colt Custer is an Xfinity veteran, but he hasn't done very well in the Cup series so far. But he's run competitive in this car every time that he's gotten in it. So I'd like to see what Hayley Deegan can do in the car, because this will probably be her best shot in a competitive car since probably her days in the K&N West series, when she ran for probably the best team, because she was running Toyota. And this car has been very fast this year at mile and a half, and who knows what could happen, so I wish her good luck in this endeavor. Legendary broadcaster Brent Musburger has been named the South Point 400 Grand Marshal. Next is the Talladega TV ratings. NBC got a 1.64 rating and 2.827 million viewers for Sunday's race, which is up from last year because it was pushed to Monday on NBCSN, but it's down from 2020, which got booted to cable, and the finish was on NBCSN, being all this race went all the way through on NBC, and it still got lower than that. So I have no idea what's going on. It's probably a mixture of both the NFL and NBC, but it's just been bad for the playoffs this year with TV ratings. Something needs to be done, because this is starting to get bad, because even Talladega is down significantly in the playoffs. That usually doesn't happen. Cody Ware will be missing the Charlotte-Marble race to help his foot heal after the Texas wreck. James Davidson is back in NASCAR for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity race at the Charlotte-Marble this weekend. Julia Launderer returns to Apple Prime Racing at Homestead. William Byron's penalty after Texas is being appealed by Hendrick Motorsports, and the appeal will be heard on Thursday. AJ Omdanger is expected to run the College 16 and Cup full-time next year, and the official announcement is supposed to be today at 11, so I'll go into a little more detail next week just in case that there's more. Beard Motorsports is expected to run in the Daytona 500 next year. Currently the driver is not known, but I know it will not be Noah Gregson, so we'll see who will take that 62 entry. They have a Las Vegas guy like Gregson or gone, so I have no idea who will take that spot. Daniel Kibat will be making his Xfinity Series debut for Sandhunt Racing at the Charlotte-Roval. Ream will be returning to sponsor Christopher Bell next year as a primary sponsor. IndyCar driver Connor Daly will make his Cup debut this weekend at Charlotte. And finally, Kaz Grala will be running the 34 for Jessie Illusion Motorsports at the Charlotte-Roval. And so that's it for this week's news. Now it's time to preview this weekend's races at the Charlotte-Roval. Starting with the Xfinity race, we have the drive for the Cure 250 presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. The race will be 67 laps and 155.44 miles. And the race will be on October 8th at 3pm Eastern Time on NBC. But you may want to check your local listings because sometimes your local station may black it out for a local football game. Last year I had to watch on the NBC Sports app because my local station broadcasted a college football game. So check your local listings. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Myatt Snyder. Myatt Snyder has been fast on the road courses in that Jordan Anderson number 31. And I think after those burns, I think Jordan will finally become a winner as an owner. I think Myatt Snyder will win at the Charlotte-Roval. And coming into that race, AJ Allmendinger and Noah Grixson have been the only ones to advance to the next round. Meanwhile Ty Gibbs is 49 points above the cut line. Austin Hill is 43 points above the cut line. Josh Ferri is 27 points above. Justin Allgaier is 25 points above. Sam Mayer is 12 points above. Sieg is 6 points above. Hemric is 6 points below. Herbst is 10 points below. Jones is 10 points below. And Clements is 47 points below. So it'll be a little tight toward the cut line. And it's according to how these guys are on the cut line run this weekend, which will determine if they advance or not. And finally for the cup race, we have the Bank of America-Roval 400. The race will be 109 laps and 252.88 miles. And the race will be on October 9th at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. And now let's take a look at the weather for the cup race. On Sunday, it'll be mostly sunny with a high of 69 degrees. Winds will be southeast at 5 mph and there's a chance of rain of 6%. So no rain and it'll be mostly sunny. It'll be a little cool and it won't be blazing hot, but it'll be sunny. And so coming into this race, let's take a look at the playoff standings. Chase Elliott so far has been the only driver to advance to the round of 8, getting that win at Talladega. Ryan Blaney is in second with 32 points above the cut line. Jai Sting is 28 points above. Henwin's 21 points above. Logano's 18 points above. Larson is 18 points above. Flores is 12 points above. Briscoe and Sendrick are currently tied at the cut line with Briscoe getting the edge over Sendrick, having 9 points. William Byron is 11 points below after the penalty. Bell is 33 points below. And Alex Berman is 54 points below after missing Talladega, which virtually eliminates him from the round of 12. Bell has a little bit of a shot if he can run competitive and possibly win. Byron has a small chance that he can point his way in, but it's going to be close and it's going to be tight between Sendrick and Briscoe. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with William Byron. William Byron was so close to winning last year until he got involved in a wreck with Tyler Reddick. I think this time William Byron will get redemption and he will win to make it into the round of 8 by winning at the Charlotte Roval. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. If you're going out to the Charlotte Roval this weekend, I hope you have a good time. If you're not, have a good time wherever you are. And I'll see you next week.