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Talladega Huge One Shakes Up Playoff Standings

TALLADEGA, Ala. — One of the largest crashes in NASCAR Cup Series history came with five laps to go in Sunday’s (Oct. 6) YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The wreck involved anywhere from 23 to 28 cars and derailed the days of half the playoff field while easing pressure on those who managed to avoid it.

The incident began as the pack worked its way by the lapped car of Todd Gilliland on the backstretch on lap 185. A little side-to-side movement led to an off-center push from Brad Keselowski to Austin Cindric, causing the No. 2 car to spin directly in front of the field.

“The No. 38 (Gilliland) blended on the track from the bottom, which is where the Ford lane was, and when he did, it tore the Ford lane apart, and a rubber band snapped down the backstretch,” Keselowski said of the wreck post-race. “I caught back up to the No. 2 (Cindric) car, had to check up, the No. 22 (Joey Logano) got in the back of me and pushed me through the No. 2 and it just wadded everybody up.

“I don’t really think Joey did anything wrong, I don’t really think Austin did anything wrong; real unfortunate circumstances.”

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Cindric, who entered Talladega well below the playoff cutline, had ran up front all day and earned 12 stage points. In a matter of seconds, he went from a contender to win, clinching a spot in the Round of 8, to a 29-point deficit that leaves him in desperation mode heading to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL next weekend.

“I don’t really feel like doing a whole lot of complaining about what happened or whose fault it is, it doesn’t really matter,” Cindric said. “It puts us in a must-win situation for the Charlotte ROVAL, and we’ve brought some exceptionally fast race cars every single race in the playoffs, and I cannot understate how proud I am of my race team.

“We’ll have to bring another [fast car] next week.”

Cindric wound up 32nd, just ahead of Penske teammate Joey Logano. The driver of the No. 22 entered Talladega as the last driver above the cutline, but after finishing 33rd, he’s now 13 points behind it.

The two-time Cup champ echoed the frustrations of many concerning this style of racing having such an outsized outcome on the playoff race.

“I didn’t even have fun today,” Logano said.

Chase Briscoe made little headway toward the Round of 8, but he was running inside the top 10 when the crash occurred. He ended up 30th, six laps off the pace after his No. 14 needed a tow back to pit road. The Southern 500 winner now sits 32 points behind the cutoff.

“I have no idea what happened on the wreck, I was just shoving the No. 21 (Harrison Burton), so you can’t really see anything,” Briscoe said. “And next thing I knew we were all wrecking on the back straightaway.”

Oddly enough, the crash negated much of the shakeup that had played out over the course of the afternoon. Just before the wreck, four drivers ran within eight points of one another for the final spot. Now, Chase Elliott sits as the driver in eighth place, 13 points to the good even after being caught up in the carnage and finishing 29th.

Similarly, Tyler Reddick entered Talladega as the first man out. He too was in the massive pileup, but he left 14 points above the cut with a 20th-place finish. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney seemed to be in a precarious position after crashing to end stage two. He finished the race in 39th, but the Big One left him 25 points up, only losing a net total of three points after entering Talladega plus 28.

Indeed, the rich did get richer. Alex Bowman spun through the mess and finished 16th with a 26-point cushion. Denny Hamlin sustained damage from the Blaney incident and missed the huge crash entirely. He wound up with a top 10, 30 points to the good.

“Through that [last] pit cycle, the damage we had just made us too slow to hang on to the pack, and so we needed something like that to happen, others misfortune for us to capitalize on it,” Hamlin said.

“… I feel very fortunate to be on the good end of missing it.”

Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell finished fourth and sixth, and both sit more than 50 points ahead of the cutline. Meanwhile, William Byron clinched a spot in the Round of 8 on points after a third-place finish.

“[Clinching a spot] allows some people probably on the team in the shop to look ahead to Las Vegas, which will be a big race,” said Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle.

They’re the only ones breathing easy this Monday (Oct. 7). All the other title contenders? They’re still figuring out how this late-race wreck changed the course of their season — and potentially ended their title hopes.

About the author

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!

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