Hey y'all it's race day at Talladega and I couldn't be more excited. I went into this race expecting to see lots of big wrecks and competitive racing. Unfortunately I didn't really get that and was a little bit disappointed by the race today.

In my recent post my top five drivers that I predicted to win were Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, and Aric Almirola. Guess who won. My boy Aric! I have been watching him race lately and I could see him improving. I said in a recent post that I couldn't see him winning more that one race per season but that might be changing. I helped Brandonk make his NASCAR Draft Kings picks this week and I mentioned Almirola and how I thought he would do well but I second guessed myself. I should've stuck with my gut feeling and told him to pick Almirola because we could've made it so much higher in the rankings. Oh well, there's always next week.

There weren't many wrecks today which was kind of odd. Usually Talladega is full of wrecks and there's always "The Big One." Today there were a few minor wrecks and one '"big" wreck, but it was more mediocre than big.

Something else that caught me off guard was how the Stewart-Haas Racing team stayed together for almost the whole race. As a matter of fact, for about the last 30 laps of the race this team isolated themselves from the rest of the pack and dominated the first four positions. The other cars tried catching up with them but none of them could work together well enough to pull it off. It looked like it was going to be a blowout win for the Stewart-Hass Racing team until Alex Bowman got loose and ran into the wall taking out JJ Yelley out with him

After that wreck the cars made a few caution laps but half of the Stewart-Haas Racing team ran out of fuel forcing them to pit. This took out Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick. This resulted in Almirola being able to take the win. It had been 1,561 days since his last win. This was a really sweet victory for Aric Almirola especially because it secured his spot in the round of 8 along with Chase Elliott in the playoffs.

Updated Playoff leaderboard from nascar.com

Next week they're racing at Kansas Speedway in the Hollywood Casino 400. The race will air on NBC at 2 pm EDT.

Did you watch the race today? What do you think? I'd love to hear from y'all even if you didn't watch the race. Comment below!

XOXO @hellsbelle 🖤

NASCAR / stewarthaas

Talladega: @hellsbelle gives her review

Talladega: @hellsbelle gives her review

Talladega: @hellsbelle gives her review