Ricky Stenhouse Jr wins intense race at Talladega
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. held off the field in overtime to claim the victory in a dramatic NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway – edging Brad Keselowski and William Byron by a mere .006-second in a thrilling three-wide finish.
That heart-stopping finish was indicative of the afternoon of competition at NASCAR’s biggest track (2.66-mile) – which once again lived up to its reputation and provided a thrilling Playoff race that has major implications for the championship contenders.
A massive 27-car accident with five laps remaining brought out a red flag and stopped the race for nearly 10 minutes. The incident affected eight of the 12 Playoff cars in varying degrees. There is only one more race remaining in this round to settle which eight drivers advance to the next round of championship competition.
Stenhouse, the 36-year-old Mississippi native who is not Playoff-eligible, hoisted his fourth career trophy – all coming at superspeedway tracks – and first in 65 races. His No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Chevrolet led 19 of the 195 laps, including the all-important last one after a side-to-battle with six-time Talladega winner Keselowski and this year’s Daytona 500 winner Byron.
This marks the third time in the five Playoff races that a non-Playoff driver has hoisted the race trophy.
“Felt really good, we had our Chevy teammates behind us and I was hoping Kyle [Busch] wouldn’t push the six [Keselowski] that hard, I knew the 24 was going to try to get to the line,’’ said Stenhouse, who scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega in 2017.
“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in and obviously we haven’t won since the Daytona 500 in ’23. It’s been an up and down season, a lot of hard work this season trying to find a little bit of speed but we knew this track is one of ours to come get it.’’
The finish was set-up after the vast incident that took out several front-running cars and affected all but four Playoff drivers. Team Penske’s Austin Cindric – who essentially needed a victory to earn an automatic berth in the next Playoff round – was leading the race – having exchanged the top spot multiple time with Stenhouse in the closing 20 laps.
With five laps remaining, Cindric’s leading No. 2 Ford was hit from behind on the backstretch by Keselowski’s No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Ford which triggered an accordion-style accident from three rows behind the leader. Harrison Burton’s No. 21 Ford struck Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford that then pushed Keselowski’s car forward and into Cindric.
The aftermath collected 27 cars in all, completely sidelining Playoff drivers Cindric, who was credited with a 32nd place finish, his Penske teammate Logano (33rd), and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (30th).
“Obviously incredibly frustrated,’’ Cindric said. “Just really proud of my team and the full execution of the day. We got that stage win {second stage) and put ourselves at the front of that green flag pit cycle and had another shot [to win].
“I don’t feel like complaining right now, I’m too pissed off and it won’t do anything. But proud of the team. We’ve brought really fast race cars to every single race of the Playoffs and we’re going to have to bring another one next week and I need to go out and do my job.’’
His Penske teammate Logano, who was similarly frustrated, said there was nothing he could have done to avoid the accident.
“I don’t think we could have done anything much different,’’ the two-time series champion Logano said. “We had the bottom working fairly well and by the time we got off [turn] two, the push from the 21 [Burton] that transferred to the six (Keselowski) that transferred to the 2 [Cindric] just at a bad angle. And off he went.’’
Other Playoff drivers affected in the accident included, perennial Talladega race favorite Chase Elliott, who finished 29th after pitting for repairs following the accident.
Regular season champion Tyler Reddick was also in the accident and rallied to finish 20th. Alex Bowman, who was involved in two accidents on the day, finished 16th.
Reigning series champion Ryan Blaney ran among the leaders and scored points in both stages but was eliminated from competition mid-race in the day’s first multiple car accident, leaving him 39th of the 40 starters.
On the up-side, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson finished fourth tying his best ever Talladega finish – only his second top-five at the track in 20 races. Non-Playoff driver Erik Jones was fifth.
Another Playoff competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell was sixth, followed by Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Bell’s fellow Playoff driver and JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in 10th.
With Byron’s finish, he becomes the first and only Playoff driver to secure a position in the next eight-race round. Bell is next in the standings, holding a 57-point advantage on the Playoff cutoff line, followed by Larson, Hamlin, Bowman, Blaney, Reddick and Elliott.
Elliott is 13 points ahead of Logano going into next week’s road course race at the Charlotte ROVAL – the final race of this Playoff round which will set the next eight-driver round. Daniel Suarez, who rallied to a 26th place finish despite spending most of the race recovering from a pre-race penalty for equipment violations, is now 20 points behind Elliott for that final transfer position.
Cindric and Briscoe are 29 and 32 points back, respectively, essentially needing a victory at Charlotte.
The final race of this Playoff round is next Sunday, the Bank of America ROVAL400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (2 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). A.J. Allmendinger is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 31
Race Results for the YellaWood 500 - Sunday, October 6, 2024
Talladega Superspeedway - Talladega, AL - 2.66 - Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 195 Laps - 518.7 Miles
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 10/6/2024 @ 07:58 PM Eastern
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 32 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kroger Health/Palmolive Chevrolet 195 2 49 Running 5 19 5
2 13 6 Brad Keselowski BuildSubmarines.com Ford 195 35 Running 2 2
3 16 24 William Byron (P) RaptorTough.com Chevrolet 195 3 5 48 Running 1 1
4 12 5 Kyle Larson (P) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 195 4 9 42 Running 1 1
5 30 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 195 32 Running
6 21 20 Christopher Bell (P) DEWALT Toyota 195 5 37 Running
7 35 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 195 30 Running 2 4
8 7 3 Austin Dillon Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet 195 29 Running 1 1
9 26 23 Bubba Wallace U.S. Air Force Toyota 195 7 32 Running 2 3
10 8 11 Denny Hamlin (P) FedEx One Rate Toyota 195 27 Running
11 24 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 195 26 Running
12 34 15 Cody Ware Arby's Ford 195 25 Running 1 1
13 15 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 195 24 Running
14 37 77 Carson Hocevar # Delaware Life Chevrolet 195 23 Running
15 17 16 Shane Van Gisbergen(i) WeatherTech Chevrolet 195 4 0 Running 4 9
16 23 48 Alex Bowman (P) Ally Chevrolet 195 6 26 Running 1 1
17 20 17 Chris Buescher Nexletol Ford 195 1 30 Running 4 12 1
18 28 51 Corey LaJoie Mighty Fire Breaker Ford 195 19 Running 1 5
19 4 8 Kyle Busch Lucas Oil Chevrolet 195 3 26 Running 2 7
20 14 45 Tyler Reddick (P) Nasty Beast Toyota 195 6 22 Running 2 2
21 39 71 Zane Smith # Focused Health Chevrolet 195 16 Running
22 38 78 * BJ McLeod(i) Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet 195 0 Running 1 1
23 3 38 Todd Gilliland Georgia Peanuts Commission Ford 194 14 Running 1 2
24 33 62 * Anthony Alfredo(i) Fortify Building Solutions Chevrolet 194 0 Running
25 22 10 Noah Gragson Beef A Roo Ford 194 12 Running
26 31 99 Daniel Suarez (P) Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet 194 11 Running
27 40 44 * JJ Yeley(i) Epoxy Depot Chevrolet 193 0 Running
28 25 13 * AJ Allmendinger(i) Strive Chevrolet 193 0 Running 5 9
29 11 9 Chase Elliott (P) Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet 190 2 17 Running 1 1
30 36 14 Chase Briscoe (P) Rush Truck Centers Ford 189 8 10 Running
31 29 42 John Hunter Nemechek GearWrench Toyota 188 6 Running
32 2 2 Austin Cindric (P) Discount Tire Ford 183 9 1 17 Accident 10 29 1
33 6 22 Joey Logano (P) Shell Pennzoil Ford 183 4 Accident 7 19
34 9 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 183 3 Accident
35 18 41 Ryan Preece Wonder Bread Ford 183 2 Accident
36 19 4 Josh Berry # SunnyD Ford 183 1 Accident
37 1 34 Michael McDowell Love's Travel Stops Ford 183 1 Accident 4 42
38 10 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet 183 1 Accident 1 1
39 5 12 Ryan Blaney (P) Menards/Pennzoil Ford 124 10 8 5 Accident 2 6
40 27 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Camo Chevrolet 120 7 10 6 Accident 6 17
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 26 Mins, 25 Secs. Average Speed: 150.773 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.006 Seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: 17, 47, 24, 5, 20, 45, 1, 14, 2, 12
Stage 2 Top 10: 2, 9, 8, 16, 24, 48, 23, 12, 5, 1
Failed to Qualify: None.
Caution Flags: 4 for 24 laps; Laps: 13-16 (#78, 99 incident backstretch [None]); 62-66 (Stage 1 Conclusion [99]); 122-127 (#12, 1, 22, 16, 11, 51 incident frontstretch / Stage 2 Conclusion [13]); 185-193 (#45, 48, 34, 17, 9, 13, 2, 21, 22, 42, 14, 23, 10, 99, 51, 4, 38, 62, 71, 19, 16, 20, 43, 47, 41, 31, 77 incident backstretch [Red Flag 00:08:42] [None]).
Lead Changes: 66 among 24 drivers; M. McDowell 1-13; *. McLeod(i) 14; B. Keselowski 15; M. McDowell 16-38; J. Haley 39; R. Chastain 40-41; A. Bowman (P) 42; R. Chastain 43-47; D. Hemric 48; R. Chastain 49-51; K. Larson (P) 52; R. Chastain 53-57; R. Stenhouse Jr. 58-59; C. Buescher 60-62; B. Keselowski 63; W. Byron (P) 64; C. Buescher 65-66; T. Reddick (P) 67; C. Buescher 68-73; C. LaJoie 74-78; M. McDowell 79-82; R. Blaney (P) 83-87; S. Van Gisbergen(i) 88-90; R. Chastain 91; S. Van Gisbergen(i) 92; R. Blaney (P) 93; S. Van Gisbergen(i) 94-95; R. Chastain 96; S. Van Gisbergen(i) 97-99; J. Haley 100-102; A. Cindric (P) 103-116; C. Elliott (P) 117; A. Cindric (P) 118-122; T. Reddick (P) 123; K. Busch 124-129; B. Wallace 130; K. Busch 131; B. Wallace 132-133; C. Buescher 134; *. Allmendinger(i) 135; C. Ware 136; J. Logano (P) 137-141; *. Allmendinger(i) 142; J. Logano (P) 143-145; *. Allmendinger(i) 146-150; J. Logano (P) 151; A. Cindric (P) 152; J. Logano (P) 153-157; *. Allmendinger(i) 158; J. Logano (P) 159; A. Cindric (P) 160; J. Logano (P) 161; A. Cindric (P) 162; *. Allmendinger(i) 163; J. Logano (P) 164-166; A. Cindric (P) 167-168; A. Dillon 169; T. Gilliland 170-171; M. McDowell 172-173; A. Cindric (P) 174-175; R. Stenhouse Jr. 176-177; A. Cindric (P) 178; R. Stenhouse Jr. 179; A. Cindric (P) 180; R. Stenhouse Jr. 181-182; A. Cindric (P) 183; R. Stenhouse Jr. 184-195.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: October 13, 2024 - Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course
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CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS
POS NO. DRIVER MFR +/-
1 24 William Byron Chevrolet +74
2 20 Christopher Bell Toyota +57
3 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet +52
4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota +30
5 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet +26
6 12 Ryan Blaney Ford +25
7 45 Tyler Reddick Toyota +14
8 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet +13
On The Bubble
9 22 Joey Logano Ford -13
10 99 Daniel Suárez Chevrolet -20
11 2 Austin Cindric Ford -29
12 14 Chase Briscoe Ford -32
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