Chase Elliott leads Hendrick 1-2-3 in Stage 2 at Talladega
Chase Elliott held of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman as Chevrolet claimed both stage wins at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Photo by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Images
Fellow HMS teammate William Byron was third, Ryan Blaney fourth and Austin Dillon completed the top-five.
Also collecting stage points were Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson, Daniel Hemric, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch.
Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, Daniel Suarez was the first off pit road and led the way when the race returned to green on Lap 59.
Bowman quickly got around Suarez after the restart to take the lead for the first time in the race.
On Lap 63, HMS teammates Bowman, Elliott and Byron were running first through third.
Brad Keselowski used the outside line to get around Bowman and moved into the lead on Lap 67.
Logano powered into the top spot on Lap 70 as Kyle Busch moved into the top-three.
Kyle Busch gave David Ragan a push and sent him into the lead on Lap 73 but he quickly got stuck in the middle and dropped back. On Lap 74, Blaney took the top spot.
Kyle Busch finally got himself to the lead on Lap 76 only to see Blaney grabbed it right back.
Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. traded the lead over the next several laps. With 30 laps to go in the stage, Stenhouse maintained a small advantage over Keselowski.
On Lap 84, a number of Chevrolet teams elected to make a green-flag stop to take on fuel necessary to make it to the end of the stage. Denny Hamlin was forced to take his No. 11 Toyota to the garage on Lap 87 for a mechanical issue.
With 20 laps to go, Kyle Busch moved into the lead as several more cars elected to make their green-flag pit stops.
Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 92, Stenhouse had moved out front followed by Keselowski and Elliott.
Elliott powered into the lead on Lap 94 followed by Bowman and Keselowski.
With 10 laps to go in the stage, Elliott maintained a small advantage over his teammates, Bowman and Byron.
With five laps remaining, Chevrolets claimed the top-seven positions and eight of the top-nine.
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