But don’t tell that to Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth or Joey Logano.

There were five wrecks at Talladega Sunday, but the Big One included just 14 cars. They are often bigger — much bigger.

And there were just two big crashes, the 14-car pileup and one that collected eight cars. There’s usually more.

But that’s no consolation for Gordon, Kenseth, Logano, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and others who wound up in the garage on Sunday.

The winners and losers from Talladega.


Winners

Denny Hamlin — Hamlin proved that patience pays off, both at Talladega and long-term. After a fairly miserable 14 months since his crash and injury at California last year Hamlin made all the right moves at Talladega and came away with his first victory of the season. The key now will be whether he and his Joe Gibbs team can sustain the momentum.

Greg Biffle — After a slow start to the season, Biffle has come on strong in the last four races and was at his best at Talladega, leading 58 laps. His runnerup finish launched him into the top 10 in points.

Clint Bowyer — Bowyer had a miserable race last weekend, finishing last at Richmond, but he bounced back at Talladega for his best finish of the season (third).

Brian Vickers — Vickers led six laps, ran in the lead pack much of the race and followed his teammate (Bowyer) across the finish line to climb back to 10th in points.

Danica Patrick — She proved again that she knows how to race on restrictor-plate tracks and contend. She drove to the front, led six laps and drove to the front again before getting shuffled back at the end. She knows how to get to the front. Now she must learn how to stay there.

AJ Allmendinger — It’s too early to declare Allmendinger for real, but he scored his first top-five finish of the season and his third top-10 with JTG Daugherty Racing.

Landon Cassill — There’s always one big surprise at Talladega, and this time it was Cassill, who snuck into the lead pack late in the race and finished a season-best 11th. He’s now finished 11th and 12th in the two restrictor-plate races.

Losers

Brad Keselowski — You can’t blame a driver for racing hard to get his lap back. But when you’re six laps down? After ruining his own race by spinning after contact with Danica Patrick, Keselowski caused a big wreck when he spun in the middle of the lead pack. He’s one of the most aggressive drivers in the sport, but he was a bit too aggressive — and at the wrong time — at Talladega.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. — Dude, what are you doing? That was the refrain from Junior Nation during most of the race. After winning the Daytona 500, Earnhardt chose to spend most of the race riding around at the rear of the field trying to avoid the wrecks. That turned out to be the wrong move as he finished 26th.

Joey Logano — Logano led 25 laps and looked to have the car to beat, but he got behind and got caught up in a big crash when Jimmie Johnson spun. Logano has had plenty go right this season, so he was probably due for some bad luck.

Jimmie Johnson — Johnson is having such uncharacteristic bad luck that he spun out at Talladega and he doesn’t know why. And Talladega is not the place you want to spin out, especially in the middle of a big pack of traffic. The last two Sprint Cup champions caused the two biggest wrecks at Talladega.

Carl Edwards — Edwards just can’t buy a break at Talladega. He led early and had a fast car but had a tire go down and wrecked late in the race. He has now finished 30th or worse in three of the last five races at Talladega.

Matt Kenseth — Kenseth entered the race as one of the favorites, but he led just one lap — he led 142 last year — before joining Gordon in the biggest wreck of the day. He finished 37th, two spots ahead of Gordon, the points leader.

 


PHOTOS:

Sprint Cup race at Talladega