A Stenhouse Spoiler at a Tumultuous Talladega
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pulled off a thrilling overtime victory at the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500, edging out Brad Keselowski and William Byron by a razor-thin 0.006-second margin in an electrifying three-wide finish at Talladega Superspeedway.
The nail-biting conclusion was just one highlight of a wild afternoon at the 2.66-mile track, which once again lived up to its reputation for delivering high-stakes playoff drama. With only one race remaining in this round of the playoffs, the pressure was on for the 12 championship contenders.
A massive, record-setting 28-car wreck with just five laps to go brought out the red flag, halting the race for nearly 10 minutes. The chaos impacted eight of the 12 playoff drivers, shaking up the standings ahead of the final race in this round, which will determine the eight drivers moving forward.
Stenhouse broke a losing streak with his first win since the 2023 Daytona 500. Driving the No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet, Stenhouse led 19 of the 195 laps, including the most crucial one after a tense side-by-side battle with six-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski and 2023 Daytona 500 champ William Byron.
This marks the third time in five playoff races that a non-playoff driver has taken home the trophy.
The dramatic finish followed a major crash that claimed several top contenders. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric had been leading after swapping the top spot with Stenhouse throughout the closing 20 laps. However, with five laps to go, Cindric’s No. 2 Ford was nudged by Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford, causing a chain reaction wreck involving Harrison Burton, Joey Logano, and ultimately 28 cars in total.
Cindric finished 32nd, Logano 33rd, and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe 30th, all of whom were knocked out of contention in the aftermath.
“Obviously incredibly frustrated,” Cindric remarked. “I don’t feel like complaining right now. I’m too pissed off, and it won’t do anything.”
Logano, equally upset, reflected, “I don’t think we could have done anything much different. We had the bottom working fairly well, and by the time we got off [turn] two, the push from the 21 [Burton] transferred to the six [Keselowski] just at a bad angle. And off he went.”
Other playoff drivers caught up in the crash included Chase Elliott, who finished 29th, and Tyler Reddick, who recovered to finish 20th. Alex Bowman, involved in two separate incidents, finished 16th.
Defending Talladega winner Ryan Blaney had a strong day derailed by a final-lap crash in Stage 2, caused by a push from Bowman and Larson bump draft push that sent his No. 12 Ford into a spin. Blaney finished 39th.
Kyle Larson finished fourth, tying his best result at Talladega. Erik Jones rounded out the top five, while playoff drivers Christopher Bell (sixth) and Denny Hamlin (10th) also secured solid finishes. Byron’s finish locked him into the next round of the playoffs.
Bell currently holds a 57-point cushion above the cutline, followed by Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, Blaney, Reddick, and Elliott. Elliott is 13 points ahead of Logano, with the playoff field shrinking from 12 to eight drivers after next week’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Cindric and Briscoe sit 29 and 32 points below the cutoff, respectively.
The final race of the Round of 12 is next Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course, where AJ Allmendinger is the defending race winner.
