TALLADEGA, Ala. — Elliott Sadler was declared winner of the Xfinity Series race Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway after a NASCAR review to determine who was out front when a caution froze the field in overtime.
Sadler was chasing leader Joey Logano on the final lap when Logano tried to block Sadler’s attempt at a pass for the victory. Logano went high for a block, then low, but Sadler spun him during the rapid lane changing. Logano’s car turned into the wall and created a crash that brought out the yellow flag.
Brennan Poole crossed the finish line first, and thought he’d earned his first career Xfinity Series race.
He and Sadler both drove their cars to the flagstand and patiently waited through a NASCAR review that took more than five minutes.
NASCAR ruled Sadler was the leader when the race officially ended. Poole dropped to third.
There was a scary accident early on Lap 31 of the race, when Chris Cockrum was exiting Turn 2 with Garrett Smithley close behind. Cockrum suddenly turned left and collected Joey Gase, with both of their cars careening toward the inside backstretch wall.
Cockrum’s contact with the wall was so violent that it lifted his car off the ground and sent him pinwheeling around.
Fortunately, both drivers were able to get out of their cars under their own power and were taken to the track’s infield care center for examination.
A spin by Jeb Burton brough out the final caution with three laps remaining in the regularly-scheduled 113-lap portion of the race, necessitating a green-white-checkered finish when Logano had been out front and seemingly in position to win.
That followed an earlier caution flag came out for debris with nine laps to go, causing Logano to joke to his team over the radio: “I’m getting the idea maybe they don’t want me to win today.”
Earlier, also while leading, Logano got called to pit road by NASCAR for a loose roof rail that had broken and needed to be fixed, costing him the lead and valuable track position that he had to work feverishly to make up.
After Logano raced back to the lead on the final restart, he got turned while trying to aggressively block Sadler, causing a wreck that cost Logano the win and bringing out the yellow to freeze the field with Sadler in the lead — even though Poole went on to cross the start-finish line first, causing the rookie to think he had won instead.
Matt Tifft, who started from the pole, led 22 laps and Brandon Jones led a race-high 36. Logano led 19.
