NASCAR: Engine failures knock Truex Jr., Keselowski out of Chase

Mechanical failures at Talladega delivered the first real shocks of the 2016 Chase when Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski, who had been among the heavy favorites for the title, were eliminated from the championship hunt by engine failures.

Truex's No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota suffered the blow-up on lap 41. Coming into the weekend, Truex had won four races this season, including two of the first three Chase events. The retirement earned him an unwanted place among the four drivers who dropped out of contention when the Chase field was cut from 12 to eight at the checkered flag. Keselowski joined him on the list after his Penske Ford was forced to the garage on lap 144 of 188 after blowing its engine.

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"Just developed a vibration and started to lose a little bit of power," said Truex. "Originally I thought it could have been a tire because it was shaking worse and worse and worse until it was time to pit. I slowed down to hit pit road and felt the vibration still there and knew it was the engine.

"Definitely not the way we wanted today to go – it's a tough way to go out, but proud of the effort and proud of all the guys. The engines have been great all year, and every once in a while you'll have a failure, and it's unfortunate that it was with everything on the line. I don't know, it is what it is and it's racing. It's part of it and we'll move on. We're going to go try to win the last five races or whatever is left and have a good end to our season."

Keselowski was similarly fatalistic after his elimination, which stung all the more for the speed he had shown. The Penske driver had led nine times for a race-best 90 laps before his engine failure.

"We came here to win and we were doing what we needed to do to win, and it just didn't play out," Keselowski told NBCSN. "It just wasn't meant to be.

"We had an incredible car today and I'm really proud of that. Just got to keep pushing and hopefully we can go win these next four (races). I want to finish the season with the most wins and we've got a great shot at that, leading it right now. Cars that ran like this one did today, it'll all work out."

Joining Truex and Keselowski in being eliminated from title contention were Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon, who tied on points with Denny Hamlin but was eliminated by tiebreak.