Between the time the race at Talladega ended Sunday afternoon and Monday night when I wrote this column, I read a whole bunch of stuff talking about how the race sucked and fans should be mad about the fact that the Joe Gibbs Racing guys (save for Denny Hamlin) laid back for most of the race to avoid trouble to move on to the Chase round of eight.

My response: blah, blah, blah. This is nothing new and, while, as you know, I’m not a fan of the format, I was quite entertained by all that went down at ‘Dega. As ‘Dega tends to do.

First, you had the guy who was the prohibitive favorite to win the Sprint Cup championship blow up and finish last. I honestly had a feeling about this one. Martin Truex Jr. had won two of the first three races of the round of 16 and, like Joey Logano who won all three races in the round of 12 last year, he peaked too early. Talladega is always an x-factor, regardless of the format, and while it wasn’t a crash, it bit Truex and ended his championship aspirations. Sucks for them, but added some intrigue to Sunday’s race since a big crash catching a few folks could have ended up making things different for Truex.

Then there was Brad Keselowski. The No. 2 Ford guys needed a win to move on and were well on their way to getting it, leading a race-high 90 laps. Then his motor went the way of Truex’s and he will be racing for pride the rest of 2016.

Then there came Denny Hamlin. The driver of the No. 11 started the day outside of the top eight and needed a good run to move on. Hamlin led 12 laps and coming to the checkered flag passed Kurt Busch to beat him by about a foot. By virtue of finishing third instead of fourth, Hamlin tied Austin Dillon in the points, but go the nod on the wins tiebreaker. All that matters is he is moving on, no matter how. As they say in poker, all you need is a chip and a chair. And Hamlin has his.

So again, I’m not the biggest fan of the format, but if you want intrigue every couple of weeks during the “playoffs” and appreciate a little nuance of the points system, Sunday was a good day for you. I hate that the 2017 schedule doesn’t have Talladega as the final race of the second round of the Chase (it will be in the middle of the round).

Off the track there was a good thing that made me feel good as a race fan. I caught Dale Earnhardt Jr. twice – once on NBCSN and again on MRN – doing a little color for the broadcasts. I’ll be damned if wasn’t really good at it. The way he talked about Keselowski working the draft made so much sense and he was able to clearly articulate the experience of being behind the wheel of a racecar at 200-plus miles per hour. I think when he decides to hang up his gloves, he will be welcomed in a booth for a network covering the sport if he is so inclined.

Totally unrelated, I have an old friend who, when in his cups, would howl at the moon. He was a bulletproof drinker who was known to say, on more than one occasion, “I’ll punch a bee. I don’t give a (expletive deleted).”

I feel like my friend and Kevin Harvick may be the same person.

If you missed it, Harvick may or may not have punched his teammate Kurt Busch post race after Busch hit Harvick on the cool down lap. I mean, you really have to not give a (expletive deleted) to punch a teammate.

“He cleaned the side of our car out after the checkered flag,” Harvick said. “All in all, the team did a great job. Didn’t have a scratch on it until then. That’s pretty good for Talladega.”

Harvick said, “not really,” when asked if Busch provided an explanation.

I’d love to be in Stewart-Haas Racing’s next competition meeting to see how this one is handled. I wouldn’t put it past Harvick to try to punch a bee.

Cagle
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By Andy Cagle

Contributing Columnist