Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Despite a gaping hole in his driver’s-side door, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. beat Brad Keselowski to the checkers by .006 seconds to win the 2024 YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Stenhouse had a solid day, finishing second in the first stage and keeping himself out of trouble, something that would prove hard to do. Early on, the race was only slowed for cause twice: a single-car slide by Daniel Suarez and a crash coming to the conclusion of stage two that took Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain out of the race.
The Big One happened with five to go when Keselowski and Austin Cindric touched, spinning the latter in front of the field. NASCAR officially lists 23 cars involved, but others definitely got in on the action, including Stenhouse, who rode out an eight-minute red flag before battling Keselowski in overtime. William Byron gave Stenhouse the well-timed push he needed to take the win, the fourth in his career and first in 2024.
And don’t forget Erik Jones. Jones had minor damage from the late incident but brought the No. 43 home fifth, his first top five in what has been a dismal year for Jones (and Legacy Motor Club as a whole). Jones looked strong all afternoon, and he made the right moves at the end. Could his good luck give his team a boost to finish the season stronger?
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
Another week, another issue arises from NASCAR’s Damaged Vehicle Policy. This week, a 28-car pileup left the infield grass looking like a junkyard. NASCAR allowed Chase Elliott to be pushed back to pit road after the incident, despite the car showing heavy damage.
Chase Briscoe, with less visible damage, did eventually finish the race, but not without confusion as his crew told him officials would allow the tow while safety workers told him otherwise.
Adding to the confusion was the fact that race went from the red flag back to caution while some cars were still in the grass, while others on pit road could work on their cars. NASCAR’s reasoning that it thought the track was clear doesn’t make a lot of sense; surely officials could see that there were still cars at the crash site, or ask safety crews if there was any doubt.
Teams and fans alike shared frustration that NASCAR didn’t communicate a plan before the race, especially at a track where crashes are likely and the issue would almost certainly arise.
This marks the fourth week this fall that the DVP and tow-back rules have been a problem. Josh Berry took issue with being forced to go to the garage last week at Kansas Speedway despite the only issue with his car being flat tires. He immediately took to the media after crashing to ask how other cars were being treated this time.
It does further muddy the waters that some of the cars involved this time were title contenders while Berry was not.
Blaney also questioned the rule after being towed to the garage at Watkins Glen International, though in his case, the damage to the No. 12 was extensive.
Is it time to scrap the DVP altogether?
NASCAR officials have said the decision is case-by-case, but it doesn’t come across that way to fans.
The sanctioning body says it will revisit the policy in the offseason, but it doesn’t need to be revisited. It needs to be abolished.
Either allow all damaged cars to be towed to pit road unless the team or driver deems them unfixable, or none at all.
The DVP clock also makes little sense in the context in which it was introduced. It was about safety, to keep damaged cars from returning to the race and shedding parts or causing more issues. But now teams are making repairs in a rush to get back on track in six minutes. While that was clearly made to discourage repairs, it hasn’t stopped teams from trying. Is a six-minute repair really safer than one the team can take their time with in the garage? Probably not.
The DVP was always a case of a rule being inserted where there didn’t need to be one. It’s time to make it a thing of the past.
Where… did the other key players wind up?
Pole winner Michael McDowell led four times for a race-high 42 laps. Like most of the field, he was collected in the Big One and finished 37th. By some measures, 2024 has been a disappointing season for McDowell, who made the playoffs last year and finished 15th in points. But by others, he’s having a better year than results show. His 256 laps led are a career high, more than he’s had in his last three seasons combined. His six poles lead all Cup drivers in 2024.
Byron was the points leader when the day began, and he’s still the point leader now that the dust has cleared. One of 24 drivers to lead a lap, Byron was also one who was able to avoid the massive crash with five laps to go. He didn’t have enough for Stenhouse or Keselowski, but he held off teammate Kyle Larson for third. That was good enough to lock him into the Round of 8 on points, giving Byron a little breathing room next week.
Joey Logano entered the race four points above the playoff cut line, and it looked like he could easily erase that deficit. Logano led 19 laps on the day, but was swept up in the lap 184 melee while running near the front and wound up 33rd. He sits 13 points behind eighth-place Elliott heading to the elimination race for this round.
Spring Talladega winner Tyler Reddick started the day four points below the cut line. Thanks to a sixth-place finish in stage one and the worse luck of his competitors, Reddick was able to turn his 20th-place finish into a bit of a positive: He’s now above the cut line in seventh heading to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
When… was the moment of truth?
The fall race at Talladega has always been the biggest wild card in the playoffs, with many would-be title contenders seeing their hopes evaporate in a chain-reaction crash that started far away from them. This week that crash affected a whopping 28 cars (the official report says 23, but others had visible damage).
Looking ahead to 2025, it will be an even bigger factor as the second race in the Round of 8.
It’s hard to argue that a superspeedway doesn’t belong in the playoffs simply because a champion should have to face every type of track to claim that title. On the other hand, speedway racing has become more about avoiding trouble than about trying to lead the race, and the odds of at least one crash taking out a playoff driver due to no fault of his own are incredibly high.
But does being in the playoffs hurt the racing at Talladega?
Its spot ramps up the excitement for sure and gets fans to tune in. Because of the propensity for crashes, it’s one of the races most likely to have the “Game 7 moment” that NASCAR so desires. A lot of fans love the Big One.
But the playoff aspect also means that often, some contenders will choose to ride for most of the race just to avoid trouble. It’s not limited to playoff drivers, either. Stage points bring a little shakeup late in the stages, but is a race that’s 90% driving to avoid trouble and then 10% racing to gain position a great race? It can provide a great finish, but the finish alone doesn’t make a race great.
This weekend’s edition featured more four-wide racing and aggression than usual, even before the massive pileup with five to go, but there was still plenty of just riding.
The superspeedway package also contributes: If packs were broken up a bit so the smallest mistake didn’t trigger a pileup, drivers would have the chance to make moves all day. When the package allowed for tandem drafting, some fans didn’t like that if there was an odd number of entries, someone was automatically screwed. But cars could make moves, some of them pretty wild, and the crashes didn’t involve quite so many victims.
Under the current package, though, drivers are forced to run at 70% for much of the race just to survive. The spring race isn’t always better because it’s not in the playoffs, because the race to the playoffs is in full swing. This shouldn’t be about running at 70% … especially when everyone knows the Big One will eventually happen anyway.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
After next week’s Bank of America ROVAL 400, the playoff field will be cut down to just eight remaining teams. Charlotte Motor Speedway’s infield road course offers a last opportunity for a pass into the next round with a win. Of the six races held on the road course configuration, five have been won by current playoff drivers.
The best driver without a win on the Charlotte road course is Alex Bowman, whose 6.4 average finish tops all Cup drivers. In five races, Bowman has a perfect five top 10s. Other drivers with average finishes inside the top 10 are Elliott, Logano and Reddick, also contenders for the title this year.
It’s not a sure ticket to the next round, however. Suarez and Cindric, both of whom have average finishes below 20th, will need to find something if they hope to advance. Neither has ever scored a top-10 finish on this track.
Spoilers, you say? Last year’s race went to road course ace AJ Allmendinger. Other drivers who have fared very well at the track and are hungry for wins include Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Ty Gibbs.
All in all, next week presents an excellent opportunity to a few playoff drivers, but also for a spoiler. In other words, it’s wide open, and definitely still an unknown.
How… does the Round of 8 look with one race left?
While some drivers took advantage of others’ misfortune to bolster their chances of advancing, the four drivers below the cut line should enter the elimination round at Charlotte with a must-win mindset. Ninth-place Logano has a 13-point chasm to cross to advance, and that’s a lot of ground to make up. Especially since Elliott, a two-time winner on the Charlotte ROVAL, is the driver he has to displace.
While Elliott is only one point behind Reddick, and both Elliott and Logano could get by him with great finishes, Reddick’s average finish on the road configuration is a spectacular 7.0 — better than both Elliott’s 8.2 and Logano’s 8.7.
As good as Logano’s average is, he has to not only finish ahead of at least one of two drivers who have done even better than he has, but finish far ahead of them. He needs to go in believing he has to win to move on.
Suarez, Cindric and Briscoe all sit 20 or more points outside of the top eight. They’d not only have to springboard past somebody ahead of the cutoff but also Logano. All three have average finishes of 19th or worse at Charlotte. Realistically, it will take a win.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.