Brad Keselowski won Sunday’s Alabama 500 at Talladega to advance in the playoffs in a race where only 14 cars finished the race.  10 playoff drivers got in wrecks, including Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch.  Keselowski passed Ryan Newman on the last lap in the small pack of cars that were left and won.  “That takes some stress off me for next week,” Keselowski said.  “I survived.  What a special day.  We were able to come here and get it done.”  Keselowski led just 7 laps, but won stage 1 and the race.  Keselowski will advance to the Round of 8 in the playoffs with the win.

Multiple big ones late in the race took out nine playoff drivers, being Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott.  Jamie McMurray was taken out in an earlier crash, and faces a probable must-win situation at Kansas on Sunday.  “You assume everyone is working as a group,” McMurray said. “It was my fault. I assumed that they said the 18 was going to let me in, so I thought we were all going to pit. I didn’t even know where the 77 was. When I got on the brakes, I thought we were all coming to pit road as a group. I’ll take the blame for that. I just kind of assumed we were coming to pit road right there. Obviously not everyone was.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove his final race at Talladega on what was declared Dale Earnhardt Jr. day in the whole state of Alabama.  Earnhardt Jr. announced that the Alabama 500 would be his last race at Talladega because of how dangerous it can be.  “This was one I was worried about,” Earnhardt said. “In the back of my mind, I was concerned, but you can’t win if you race scared. You have to block it out, take the risks and hope it’s not your day to get in one of the accidents. And it wasn’t.”