Takeaways from Talladega: Wallace's crash a blow for an underfunded Richard Petty Motorsports

Bubba Wallace was racing near the front of the field early in Sunday’s race at Talladega.

That’s a big deal for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2019. The underfunded single-car team only really has chances to compete at tracks like Daytona and Talladega. Elsewhere it’s at a money — and therefore speed — disadvantage to the behemoths that dominate the Cup Series.

Alas, the good vibes didn’t last very long. Wallace triggered the first crash of the race when he was pushing Ryan Blaney on lap 11 and collected Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and others in the wreck.

“All I was trying to do was just some wreck avoidance,” Wallace said. “I didn’t want to wad up the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney). That’s the last car I want to wad up out there. Had such a big run on him. And the No. 22 (Joey Logano) pulled up and he checked up a little bit. I went to go to the bottom, where I was safe. I don’t know if I crossed his bumper or whatever. But it got him wiggled down and shoved me even farther down than I wanted to go. So, I went back up just to stay off the apron and it just unloaded. It’s just unfortunate, but I tried not to wreck my buddy, Ryan, and it cost our day and some others. I apologize.”

It’s worth wondering why Wallace made a move to the left when he was so close to Blaney in the first place. It’s easily understandable how he could have been caught off-guard by the closing rate early in Sunday’s race because of NASCAR’s new rules. It’s less understandable why he didn’t just bump Blaney instead of try to make an evasive move to the left.

Thanks to the crash, Wallace is now 28th in the points standings and ahead of just three drivers who have started every race this season. Any hope of the team qualifying for the playoffs is basically nonexistent and may not be much of an exaggeration to say the goal may simply be survival at this point. RPM has been struggling to find sponsors since Smithfield left with Aric Almirola. And crashed cars don’t help fix budget problems.

Kurt Busch not penalized with four laps to go

Kurt Busch clearly went below the double-yellow line to make a pass of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with four laps to go. It was not a penalty.

According to NASCAR’s rulebook, a driver who makes a pass below the yellow line can be penalized or a driver who forces another driver below the yellow line can be penalized.

Per a NASCAR spokesperson, Busch was forced below the yellow line. Not by Stenhouse, but by a push from race-winner Chase Elliott behind him. And therefore he wasn’t penalized.

If you’re confused, we can’t blame you. While NASCAR’s position is defensible — there’s a large caveat in the rule that allows for NASCAR to use discretion — the easiest way to clear up any yellow line confusion is to simply abolish the rule entirely.

[Chase Elliott wins at Talladega; full results]

Michael McDowell crashes out early

One of the drivers who is behind Wallace in the points standings is Michael McDowell. After starting 12th, McDowell got caught in the wreck that started with Wallace and he finished last.

McDowell’s fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500 was nothing but a fluke. Since then he (and Front Row Motorsports as a team) has been awful. His 15th-place finish at Texas is his only one above 24th in the succeeding nine races.

Fox’s telecast was horrendous

Fox’s broadcast of Sunday’s race might have been the worst of the season. And that’s getting under a low bar.

Wallace’s crash happened when the network was in its first commercial break. That happens sometimes. TV can’t control when crashes happen.

During the second green-flag commercial break, Jimmie Johnson hit the wall. After Fox came back from break it decided to go with a paid Ford spot rather than immediately inform viewers that Johnson had hit the wall. It wasn’t a good example of putting the viewing audience first over corporate interests.

Later in the race, Denny Hamlin hit the wall but Fox casually mentioned his issue and implied that it was directly attributable to his involvement in the early crash.

Then, as the race was winding down, race producers had an infatuation with using split-screen feeds. A pre-taped spot with Joey Logano aired with 15 laps to go as racing was getting hectic up front.

And then when the crash to set up the race’s final restart with five laps to go happened, Fox was in split-screen again showing viewers a shot of Logano driving his car.

There are many who feel that Darrell Waltrip’s retirement at the end of Fox’s portion of the 2019 schedule will be the change that the network needs to get back to its exceptional NASCAR broadcasting ways. Based on the production of Sunday’s race at Talladega, that’s a dubious belief. Fox needs an overhaul that makes smartly informing viewers a priority.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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