Ross Chastain’s Twentieth-place end Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway — along with his Racing Insights metric rankings from the race — weren’t illustrious. Nevertheless, one technique the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing driver performed throughout Sunday actually proved to be monumental in how the race completed.
How so? Properly, let’s dig into it … and see how the Racing Insights knowledge helps paint the image.
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Throughout the remaining stage of the Jack Hyperlink’s 500, a Toyota cavalcade — together with Denny Hamlin, Riley Herbst, Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace — utilized the surface lane throughout green-flag stops. With dominant pace because the laps waned, it appeared as if the Toyota prepare would pace away, leaving everybody else within the metaphorical (and maybe literal) mud.
Not if one driver had something to say about it. Chastain, forward of the Toyota group however with a lot slower pace, maneuvered his No. 1 Chevy in entrance of the Toyota group, led by Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing machine. Consequently, Hamlin — along with the Toyotas behind him — checked up, eliminating the pace benefit.
Sadly for Hamlin and the majority of the Toyotas, the pace couldn’t be revived, with Austin Cindric’s No. 2 Ford finally taking the Talladega victory. The truth is, just one Toyota completed the race inside the highest 10 (Wallace, eighth). Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe have been the subsequent greatest finishers at 14th and fifteenth, respectively. Amongst different Toyota finishes included Ty Gibbs (seventeenth), Jones (18th), Hamlin (twenty first), and Herbst (Twenty second).
The block didn’t end in a marquee outcome for Chastain, and the No. 1’s Racing Insights knowledge didn’t pop off the web page, both; Chastain completed the race ranked twenty first in Passer Ranking, Twentieth in Protection Ranking and fifteenth in Restart Ranking.
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However that blocking maneuver did maintain off the Toyotas, and if Racing Insights’ knowledge is any indicator, such a transfer would possibly’ve been the X issue that prevented the producer from discovering Victory Lane. The important thing metric is the Restart Ranking. 4 of six drivers with one of the best Restart Ranking have been Toyotas: Reddick (first), Herbst (second), Gibbs (fourth) and Hamlin (sixth).
Toyota’s bread and butter got here on the restarts at Talladega, and if not for Chastain’s block, the producer very nicely may’ve capitalized on this power because the race reached its conclusion.
Different notables from Sunday:
— Regardless of having a Twenty fourth-ranked Passer Ranking, Kyle Larson completed runner-up, thanks partially to a fourth-ranked Protection Ranking and seventh-ranked Restart Ranking.
— William Byron, Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, completed third, regardless of possessing Passer, Protection and Restart scores all twelfth or worse.
— Noah Gragson collected his first high 5 of the season (fourth) regardless of having the Eleventh-worst Restart Ranking.
— Hocevar completed sixth; his Twenty second-ranked Restart Ranking was his highest-ranked ranking of the day.
