What happened
On the final lap at Talladega, leader Carson Kvapil committed to the upper lane in Turn 3 as Sammy Smith attacked underneath. Smith cleared him with a push from Jesse Love and took the victory. Kvapil later called his lane selection the “wrong move.”
Earlier on the final lap, Kvapil moved down to block Sam Mayer’s inside challenge in Turn 1. Kvapil said that block pushed him out. He said the cars behind then ran side by side, leaving him on his own.
Justin Allgaier helped Smith build the challenge on the backstretch. Smith used his teammate’s draft to close on Kvapil and move to his left, then received Love’s push to complete the pass.
Background
Kvapil led 67 laps across the race. His final uninterrupted stretch at the scored lead ran from lap 63 through lap 93; Smith led lap 94.
What it cost
Kvapil fell from the lead to 2nd, losing 1 position and the victory on the final lap. Smith finished 0.084 seconds ahead. Allgaier pushed Kvapil in the run to the line, but Kvapil’s response failed to recover the lead.
What could have been done differently
Kvapil said he expected more teammate support and momentum up top and expected the bottom to get pinned down. He also described momentum as difficult to predict.
Kvapil should have covered the bottom before committing to the upper lane. Leaving that route open gave Smith room to attack underneath and use Love’s push to take the lead.