Laird Wins 5th Race of 2023 at Talladega

Talladega is one of the most unpredictable racetracks in motorsports. This iconic race is always full of intense side-by-side racing and always puts on a show. The TNR Grand National Series sponsored by Schue Lawn Service race did not disappoint fans. Despite being a track where any driver has a chance to win, the dominant driver of 2023 JD Laird picked up his 5th win of the season in style, spinning backwards across the line to win by a margin of 0.016 seconds over Jake Bustos.

The race only had two cautions, both for incidents on lap 14 and a late race wreck that lead to a green-white-checkered finish. Jake Bustos led coming to the final restart with teammate Johnny Eckert right behind. Through typical Talladega last lap chaos, JD Laird and pole sitter Bronson Stafford got a run-on leader Jake Bustos coming to the line. Laird spun across the nose of Bustos and won by a narrow margin (shown above). Bill Edwards, TNR points leader with just five races remaining in the season, survived the chaos for a 3rd place finish. Laird led the race high 18 laps, followed closely by Matthew Rodriguez who led 16 laps and Robert Kenny who led 12. Also leading laps in the Goose 160 were Jake Bustos, Bill Edwards, Johnny Eckert, Vinvent Valvano, Chip Hansen, Jason Gracias, and Johnny Williams.

The next race for the TNR Grand National Series sponsored by Schue Lawn Service will be at Richmond. Only five races remain in the 2023 season, so stay tuned to WRN on Monday nights to see who will come out victorious in a very close championship points race. Bill Edwards currently leads by 36 points over Philip Scott.