TALLADEGA, Ala. — Joey Logano could only shake his head. His Team Penske outfit, the class of the field at Talladega Superspeedway in recent years, was unable to make headway against the four-pronged Stewart-Haas Racing cavalcade, which ran first through fourth for the bulk of Sunday’s event.

No one else was able to make much hay on a day when SHR pegged the meter on performance, engineering and teamwork.

RELATED: Almirola wins in Overtime | Busch, Harvick win stages

“I don’t know what it is, but wow, from qualifying all the way through, they’re just stellar race cars that Stewart-Haas put together this weekend,” Logano said. “Like I said, it would’ve been a total crime if one of them didn’t win, as strong as they were and as many laps as they led. I mean, they led the whole race. As solid as they were working as teammates, it was definitely remarkable. One of them deserved to win.”

Aric Almirola stood alone at the end of Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500, with only fuel mileage and an overtime restart breaking up a potential top-four sweep for the organization. So powerful was the SHR quartet, any of them stood a well-earned chance on a sunny afternoon full of playoff implications.

Clint Bowyer followed his teammate to the checkered flag in second place, but sputtering gas tanks in the final two laps kept pole-sitter Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick from following suit. But all four emerged on the plus side of the playoff picture after one of the postseason’s biggest wild-card events, with the Round of 12’s elimination event looming at Kansas Speedway next weekend.

Stewart-Haas drivers started like they ran for much of the day — first through fourth — and led 155 of the 193 laps, frequently orchestrating their positions on restarts by getting in formation and powering away. Teamwork is often a best-laid plan that sometimes unravels in Talladega traffic, but Stewart-Haas stayed devoted throughout to their all-for-one approach. Rarely has it worked so seamlessly.

“The way our cars took off, handled, drafted, had more speed than the rest, endured that speed through the distance of a run, I knew our best opportunity was to stay together,” Bowyer said. “That’s what we did. I think the performance of our cars just kind of painted that picture for us, put ourselves in that position. We did a good job of being disciplined, taking care of one another on the restarts.”

MORE: Bowyer says, ‘We ruled the day’ | Playoff standings

That level of care is what has given Stewart-Haas a more comfortable position after a rocky Round of 12 opener last weekend at Dover left Almirola and Bowyer on the outside looking in.

“We worked every restart out to where we stayed committed to each other and got in line, and it was us against the field,” said Almirola, who notched SHR’s 50th premier series victory and its first at the 2.66-mile track. “When we started to drive off from the field in that first stage as the stage went on, I knew we had something special.”

Team Penske had entered Sunday’s tussle with five wins in the last six Talladega races, the latest stretch of dominance in the cyclical nature of restrictor-plate racing. Sunday, Stewart-Haas Racing dictated the tempo and monopolized the strategy, bringing to mind other commanding stretches in stock-car history.

WATCH: Stewart-Haas Racing puts on drafting clinic

“We knew the Fords coming in here were the cars to beat. They have been at the restrictor-plate tracks for quite a few years now,” said Martin Truex Jr., who came home 23rd Sunday. “But to see that kind of domination … that’s something we haven’t seen since back when Dale Jr. used to come here and lead all those laps. DEI (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.) cars back in ’04, ’03 … before I went there. That’s just crazy to see. Hats off to them. What a hell of a job they did.”

Said Bowyer: “I’ve seen other guys, other teams, other organizations put that together before. The Hendrick organization has been there before, the Gibbs cars have done that before. It was our turn, you know what I mean? The Penske cars have done that before.

“We finally got all four cars to the cream of the crop. Oh my gosh, was it awesome.”

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Aric Almirola has been tantalizingly close to winning this season, only to come up empty.

On Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, he finally got to light the victory cigar.

When the No. 41 Ford of Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch lost fuel pressure on the final lap of the 1000Bulbs.com 500, Almirola was there to collect his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory since 2014 and clinch a spot in the Round of 8 in the series playoffs.

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Almirola’s second career victory — and his first in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford — came one week after a late caution at Dover robbed him of a chance to win.

At the end of a race in which the Stewart-Haas cars achieved mind-bending dominance at NASCAR’s biggest track, Almirola finished .105 seconds ahead of teammate Clint Bowyer, who, coincidentally, caused the telltale caution at Dover — one that mirrored a similar situation at New Hampshire in July.

“This is awesome! At Talladega!” Almirola exulted after taking the checkered flag. “I’ve been so close so many times this year. Four or five times this year, I feel like we’ve had a shot to win, and I haven’t been able to seal the deal. … I feel like I’ve let (the team) down so many times, because we’ve had so many opportunities to win and haven’t done it. …

“We come here, a place that I love — I won an Xfinity race here last year. I just love racing at Talladega, and I came here with the mind-set that we were going to go give ’em hell, and if we wreck, we wreck, and if we win, we win. And we won!”

Led by Busch, the four Stewart-Haas drivers swept the top four starting positions in Saturday’s knockout qualifying session. But that was just the beginning. Busch won the first stage of Sunday’s race, followed by Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Almirola.

RELATED: SHR dominates until late hiccups

It was more of the same in Stage 2, with Harvick taking the green/checkers ahead of Bowyer, Busch and Almirola. Harvick scored enough stage points to clinch a spot in the Round of 8 of the Cup Playoffs.

“This was an incredible race for us,” Almirola said. “We were so committed to each other and so organized, and nobody in the field could touch us. It was us against the field. What an impressive run. I’m just proud to be the one on top today.”

The SHR drivers were running 1-2-3-4 with three laps left when playoff driver Alex Bowman lost control of his No. 88 Chevrolet in Turn 4 to cause the eighth caution of the afternoon.

WATCH: Late Bowman wreck shakes up field

The yellow put Harvick and fellow playoff drivers Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney in dire straits with respect to fuel, and all three came to pit road to gas up before the final restart in overtime on Lap 192. Busch held the lead until his car sputtered in Turn 4 on the final lap — after a multicar wreck in Turn 1 damaged the cars of playoff drivers Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr.

Almirola surged into the lead and took the checkered flag, leading his only lap of the afternoon.

With the runner-up finish, Bowyer climbed from outside the Round of 8 cutline to sixth in the playoff standings, 21 points to the good.

WATCH: Bowyer praises SHR teammates

“I was happy for Aric,” Bowyer said. “He had that race won last week (at Dover), and it was me that brought out the caution. I feel like he got a little redemption there.

“Was happy that we finished second.  I think it was second, second and second (in all three stages). As far as our day went, we needed to be a little bit better.”

Because of the late-race fuel shortage, Keselowski and Blaney enter next Sunday’s Round of 12 cutoff race at Kansas in ninth and 10^th place, respectively. Keselowski, who finished 27^th at Talladega, trails reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. (23^rd Sunday) by 18 points for the final spot in the Round of 8. Blaney, who ran 29^th, is 22 points back.

Kyle Larson salvaged an 11^th-place finish after a litany of issues, including a blown left-rear tire and spin on the backstretch, but Larson trails Truex by 26 points. Bowman, who finished 33^rd after wrecking, can advance to the Round of 8 only by winning at Kansas.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished third on Sunday, followed by Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, who solidified his claim to a Round of 8 berth with the fifth-place finish. Logano is 39 points ahead of Keselowski, his Team Penske teammate.

AJ Allmendinger ran sixth, followed by Jimmie Johnson, who recovered from a spin through the tri-oval grass and contact with the inside wall on Lap 62 to come home seventh. Erik Jones, Paul Menard and Regan Smith completed the top 10.