Ricky Stenhouse Jr. broke a 66-race winless streak on Sunday, (Oct. 6) winning the YellaWood 500 at Talladega in a photo finish.
A push on the final lap from William Byron was all Stenhouse needed to edge Brad Keselowski for the victory by .006 seconds.
“I felt really good. We had our Chevy teammates behind us,” Stenhouse said, describing the final laps to NBC Sports. “I was hoping Kyle [Larson] wasn’t going to push the No. 6 that hard. I knew the No. 24 was probably going to try and get to the line there. This team has put a lot of hard work in. Obviously, we haven’t won since the [Daytona] 500 in 2023.
“We knew that this track was one of ours to come get.”
Keselowski, Byron, Larson, Erik Jones, Christopher Bell, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top 10.
After a penalty for unapproved adjustments, Daniel Suarez was forced to serve a pass-through penalty on lap 1.
The field got three-wide early, with polesitter Michael McDowell taking an early lead.
As the field came up to lap Suarez on lap 12, Suarez attempted to stay in the middle of the pack. However, contact with the outside wall and BJ McLeod sent the No. 99 spinning into the turn 3 grass and limping back to pit road with flat tires.
The majority of the field opted to pit after the early yellow, with those that stayed out initially pitting with one lap to go in the caution period.
McDowell cleared Keselowski for the lead on lap 18, with the pack once more forming into three lanes almost immediately. With a Wonder Bread scheme alluding to Ricky Bobby, Ryan Preece took the lead for a brief moment on lap 22, battling with McDowell and Kyle Busch for the top spot. Todd Gilliland pushed McDowell back to the lead on lap 23.
Haley knifed his way through the field early, moving up to lead the third lane by lap 30. A fourth lane soon formed, which Haley jumped down to lead as Ross Chastain and Larson cut through the middle. Haley cleared McDowell for the lead on lap 39, with Chastain and Austin Cindric battling right beside him.
Larson pushed Chastain to the lead on lap 41, with the rest of the pack being four-wide multiple rows deep. After intentionally fading early in the race, Hamlin finally made an appearance, briefly pushing Daniel Hemric — the leader of the fourth lane — to the lead on lap 43.
The lead pack thinned out with 10 laps to go in the stage, with some drivers opting to drift back and avoid a potential accident. Stenhouse briefly jumped to the lead on lap 59, with Larson in tow.
With the help of a huge push from Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher cleared Stenhouse for the stage one victory, with Byron, (third) Larson, (fourth) Bell, (fifth) Reddick, (sixth) Chase Briscoe, (eighth) Cindric (ninth) and Ryan Blaney (10th) being the playoff drivers to earn stage points.
Suarez was awarded the free pass at the stage end, putting him just one lap down. Byron won the race off of pit road, with Buescher coming off of pit road in second place. All four Hendrick cars opted to top off with fuel, forcing Byron to yield the lead to Buescher for the restart.
Buescher cleared the pack for the lead on lap 69, with the field once more forming a third lane as soon as the restart commenced. With the help of Ty Gibbs, McDowell challenged Buescher for the lead on lap 74, with the two Ford Mustangs drawing even with each other. However, the bottom line quickly moved up as well, with John Hunter Nemechek pushing the No. 51 of Corey LaJoie to the lead briefly on lap 75. LaJoie and teammate Cody Ware soon claimed the top two spots, jostling with McDowell, Bell and Buescher for the race lead.
All three Team Penske cars finally made their way to the front, with Blaney, Cindric and Joey Logano taking over the top three positions. A wave of cars came down pit road on for fuel lap 84, including McDowell and Preece. Keselowski, Ware and Gilliland attempted to pit with the group but missed pit road and were forced to pit by themselves on lap 85.
With the help of a hefty push from Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen briefly overtook Blaney for the lead on lap 87, eventually clearing Blaney and incurring a battle for the lead with Chastain. The lead pack eventually caught the trio of Gilliland, Keselowski and Ware, lapping all three drivers.
A pack of Toyotas pitted on lap 95, with Martin Truex Jr. spinning as he entered pit road. The incident forced Truex Jr. to change tires on the stop, putting the No. 19 all alone once he was back on track. A big group of Chevrolets – including Chastain, Larson and Alex Bowman – pitted on lap 99, with van Gisbergen, Blaney, Logano and Cindric among others coming down for fuel.
After passing the wounded car of Haley, Cindric took the lead on lap 104. The field quickly reverted to double-wide form as the stage drew to a close. With help from van Gisbergen, Chase Elliott drew even with Cindric with six laps to go in the stage.
The final lap of stage two saw a mixed bag of results for Team Penske: CIndric won the stage, but a huge crash took out Blaney and Chastain as they crossed the finish line.
After not taking tires on his pit stop, Busch won the race off of pit road. A major penalty was handed down to Bowman as the No. 48 team was penalized for removing equipment on their pit stop.
The ensuing restart brought a host of new characters to the front, including Wallace and AJ Allmendinger, who both briefly led laps. However, the cream of the crop soon found their way back to the front, with Gilliland, Logano and Cindric all getting back into the top five. Allmendinger — who was previously one lap down — stayed up front, leading with the help of Briscoe.
Allmendinger led the first small pack down pit road, with Hemric and van GIsbergen following him. Another three-car pack pitted with 19 laps to go, with the first large pack coming down pit road with 18 laps to go, comprised mostly of Chevys. The Fords — led by Gilliland and Logano — pitted on the next lap. However, Gilliland was dealt a crucial speeding penalty, relegating him to the back of the pack.
The pack fully reformed with 14 laps to go, with Cindric and Stenhouse fighting for the race lead.
With 4 laps to go, the fabled ‘Big One’ finally broke out on the backstretch. A push gone wrong from Keselowski sent CIndric spinning and the field went into chaos. Bowman, Reddick, Briscoe, Gilliland, McDowell Logano, Elliott, Allmendinger, Preece, LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson, and Wallace were all involved.
NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 Results
The Cup Series will conclude the Round of 12 on Oct. 13 at the Charlotte Roval. The Bank of America ROVAL 400 will go green shortly after 2 p.m. ET, with coverage on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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