Kyle Larson won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, extending his points lead in The Chase presented by Mobil 1 and claiming his first superspeedway victory.
RELATED: Unofficial results | At-track photos: Talladega
Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron finished second — just 0.041 seconds behind Larson — ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain and Cole Custer. Carson Hocevar, Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell rounded out the top 10.
The race ended on a green-white-checkered restart in NASCAR Overtime after a major crash in the final 10 laps. On the final lap, Larson was leading the inside lane when a push from Austin Hill shoved Larson into the middle, sinking Larson through the field. Stenhouse surged to the lead on the outside while more contact between Hill and Hamlin broke the rest of the pack’s momentum. Hill maintained second place exiting Turn 4 but appeared to run out of fuel and pulled out of line. That drop in momentum allowed Larson to recover with an enormous run, storming up the inside and rocketing past Stenhouse for the win exiting the tri-oval.
SHOP: Race winner gear
Larson now leads The Chase by 73 points over Hamlin, with Christopher Bell third (minus-74) and Chase Briscoe fourth (minus-79).
The “Big One” struck at Lap 183 when contact at the front of the field triggered a 15-car crash exiting the tri-oval of the 2.66-mile oval. Joey Logano spun from the outside lane into the outside wall, the nose of his car clipped by Chase Briscoe. Logano’s No. 22 Ford lifted airborne and flipped onto his roof, skidding down the frontstretch before coming to a halt on its roof. Safety crews immediately tended to Logano’s car and turned the car back on its wheels, allowing Logano to climb from the car under his own power. Logano, Briscoe, Daniel Suárez and Carson Hocevar were among The Chase drivers involved in the melee.
Stage 2 recap
Joey Logano beat Kyle Larson for the Stage 2 victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega by just 0.012 seconds in the YellaWood 500.
Larson was followed by Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, William Byron and Chris Buescher as the top six spots were swept by drivers competing in The Chase. Connor Zilisch, Shane van Gisbergen, Erik Jones and Austin Hill completed the top 10.
MORE: Stage 2 results
The first multicar accident of the afternoon occurred at Lap 132 of Sunday’s race, wiping out numerous contenders.
Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney were leading the outside lane when the two became disjointed, shucking Blaney right toward the outside SAFER barrier. His No. 12 Ford lost momentum just in front of Bubba Wallace, who was getting shoved in the outside lane and could not slow to avoid Blaney, triggering a 12-car pileup down the backstretch during the second stage of the YellaWood 500.
Among those 12 were eight competitors in the championship hunt in The Chase: Blaney, Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Preece, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suárez.
Blaney was unable to continue, taking a significant hit to his championship hopes; Blaney entered Sunday’s race fifth in the standings, 40 points behind series leader Kyle Larson. Reddick, last week’s winner at Phoenix Raceway, entered seventh in points, 56 points out from the lead. Blaney, Reddick and Elliott were among those whose vehicles were taken to the garage. Also collected in the crash were Ross Chastain, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek and Gray Gaulding.
Larson was scored as the race leader at the time of caution.
Stage 1 recap
RFK Racing took the opening stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway into its own hands as Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski swept the top three spots in Stage 1 of the YellaWood 500.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch RFK Racing clinch Stage 1 dub
Points leader Kyle Larson placed fourth in the stage ahead of William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric in the first stage of the eighth race of The Chase.
Heavy fuel saving early slowed the field’s pace to 58-second lap times, down 11 seconds from the fastest lap of the stage set by Chase Elliott on Lap 73 of 47.546 seconds. The RFK Racing trio of Preece, Keselowski and Buescher decided it was time to catch the field sleeping and stood on the throttle, creating a three-car draft of their own to open up a 22-second lead over the rest of the field by Lap 38, running lap times three seconds per lap faster than the rest of the field. Once pit stops cycled through, the trio led by as many as 40 seconds over the fourth-place car.
Christopher Bell’s day quickly turned disastrous when attempting to pit on Lap 56. Bell was leading a pack of Toyotas to pit road when his No. 20 Toyota broke out of control and spun toward the inside wall. Bell slammed the wall with his right-front and right-rear corners and incurred significant damage. Bell’s team changed four tires on the initial stop, but Bell cut a right-front tire due to a fender rub after returning to action. Pitting to repair some damage and get two new right-side tires, the team was then issued a pass-through penalty for too many crewmen over the wall. Insult was added to injury when the car punctured another right-front tire, trapping Bell in 40th place, nine laps down by the end of the stage.
Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith also suffered a flat right-rear tire on Lap 72, but the field avoided the No. 38 Ford, which made it back to pit road.
This story will be updated.