TALLADEGA, Alabama.—Jamie McMurrray had been in possibly one of the luckiest places on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway—at the front side of the field as Austin Dillon’s crazy trip on the backstretch finished the Camping World RV product sales 500 under caution.
Dillon’s last-lap crash off Turn 2 in the sixth race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup introduced the 3rd caution of the competition and froze the positions before race runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. could make a move.
The triumph had been McMurray’s very first of this year, his 2nd at Talladega as well as the seventh of his profession. Four of those victories have actually come at restrictor-plate competition superspeedways.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., tapped Dillon into Casey Mears, completed 3rd – a career-best finish for the rookie. Paul Menard arrived in fourth, closely followed by Kyle Busch.
David Ragan, the winner at Talladega in May, came in sixth. David Gilliland, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer finish the top 10.
Jimmie Johnson completed 13th but took over the series lead from Matt Kenseth, whom fought an ill-handling truck during the 2nd half of the competition and finished 20th after dodging the last-lap wreck. Johnson now leads Kenseth by four points with four events remaining in the Chase.