Almirola ends winless streak with dramatic Talladega win

Aric Almirola took the lead on the final lap of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega when his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch ran out of fuel, and hung on for his first victory of the season.

The win could not be more timely for Almirola, who is locked into the third round of the playoffs regardless of his performance next weekend at Kansas Speedway.

It’s Almirola’s second career win. He came within a lap of winning the season-opening Daytona 500 but was spun out by Austin Dillon.

"This is so awesome! It's Talladega! You guys are awesome," Almirola yelled to the fans after his win. "I've been so close so many times this year and this team, everybody believing in me, Tony Stewart, Gene Haas, (thank you) for giving me a chance.

"Four or five times this  year I feel like we've had a shot to win and haven't been able to seal the deal. To come here, a place that I love - I won an Xfinity race here last year - I just love racing at Talladega. 

"I came to this track with the mindset that they we were going to race and give them hell. If we wrecked, we wrecked, and if we win, we win - and we won!"

The win ended his 149-race winless streak in the Cup Series.

Almirola also praised the team effort from SHR and Ford.

"There are 400 employees back at Stewart-Haas Racing. There are close to 200 employees at Roush Yates Engine shop. Thank you," he said. "This was an incredible race for us. We were so committed to each other and so organized, and nobody in the field could touch us. It was us against the field. What an impressive run. I'm just proud to be the one on top today."

Clint Bowyer finished second, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Joey Logano completed the top-five.

Until the overtime, Kurt Busch was leading his three SHR teammates – Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Almirola – into a finish that would have been decided among themselves.

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the cars that had had pit before the stage break remained on track with Brad Keselowski leading the way when Stage 3 went green on Lap 116.

Shortly after the restart, Jamie McMurray was penalized for forcing Paul Menard for going below the double-yellow line.

On Lap 123, William Byron got a shove and moved ahead of Keselowski and into the lead for the first time.

On Lap 127 Keselowski made a power move on Byron to take the lead going into Turn 3. Logano follows his Team Penske teammate into second.

Kurt Busch moved up into second on Lap 130 with help from Harvick.

On Lap 137, McMurray hit the wall entering the tri-oval and drove into the infield grass, where his No. 1 Chevrolet came to a rest.

All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for fuel and tires with Kurt Busch the first driver off pit road. He led the way when the race returned to green with 47 laps remaining, followed by Keselowski, Harvick and Ryan Blaney.

Led by Kurt Busch, the four SHR cars soon got together in the bottom line and tried to break away from the rest of the field.

With 40 to go, Kurt Busch remained out front of Harvick and his SHR teammates with Menard running in fifth.

A tire got loose during a pit stop and ended up in the infield grass which forced NASCAR to call a caution on Lap 160. Some of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for fuel – many needed to make it to the finish.

Kurt Busch continued to lead the way followed by his three SHR teammates on the restart with 24 laps to go.

With 20 laps remaining, Kurt Busch continued to lead the way with the only change up front being Bowyer moving into the second position.

The SHR group remained unchallenged with 10 laps in the race.

With three laps to go, Alex Bowman hit the wall to start an incident that also collected Byron and J.J. Yeley. That sent the race into overtime.

On the two-lap restart, Kurt Busch led his two SHR teammates as Harvick, Keselowski and Blaney were forced to pit as they were low on fuel pressure.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	193		1
2	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	193	0.105
3	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	193	0.311
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	193	0.433
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	193	0.479
6	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	193	0.525	1
7	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	193	0.528
8	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	193	0.539
9	21	Paul Menard	Ford	193	0.605
10	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	193	0.631
11	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	193	0.664
12	62	Brendan Gaughan	Chevrolet	193	0.679	1
13	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	193	0.781
14	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	193	2.664	108
15	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	193	3.273
16	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	193	3.348
17	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	193	3.361
18	00	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	193	3.557
19	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	193	3.875
20	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	193	5.364	5
21	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	193	6.393
22	99	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	193	13.089
23	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	193	16.469
24	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	193	17.108	1
25	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	193	20.048
26	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	193	22.609	1
27	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	193	28.400	21
28	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	193	34.727	46
29	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	193	1'07.968	6
30	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	192	0.770	2
31	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	192	0.942
32	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	191	2 laps
33	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	191	2 laps
34	7	D.J. Kennington	Chevrolet	190	3 laps
35	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	186	7 laps
36	23	J.J. Yeley	Ford	185	8 laps
37	96	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Toyota	185	8 laps
38	51	Cody Ware	Ford	185	8 laps
39	38	David Ragan	Ford	173	20 laps
40	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	155	38 laps