Larson Wins in Thrilling Fashion, Earns First Superspeedway Win at Talladega!
LINCOLN, A.L. - Kyle Larson stunned the world Sunday, October 25, as he won the YellaWood 500! With his win, Kyle Larson now moves his points lead to 73 points over Denny Hamlin heading to Martinsville, and has a huge opportunity to potentially clinch the championship before the final race at Homestead.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The race was a unique race compared to most Talladega races as a lengthened stage one saw strategy play a factor early on. In the first stage, the distance was 98 laps long, as the length provided opportunity for fuel strategy.
It was a super-save, and then things changed on lap 31.
RFK Racing has the field in shock as Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski, and Chris Buescher lined up and pulled away from the field. On lap 32, they pulled 6.8 seconds away from Gray Gaulding, who ran fourth at the time.
Then on lap 38, the RFK trio opened up their lead to over 22 seconds. On lap 43, they found themselves on the same straightway as the rest of the pack as they sat 34.4 seconds ahead of the pack.
On lap 52, the RFK trio opted to pit after the cycle started on lap 51 with Kyle Larson. The second pack would gain back over time during the stretch of the back half of the stage, but it wasn't close to enough as Chris Buescher won the stage for RFK with ease.
But the first stage also didn't come without some drama and devastation. During his pit stop on lap 56, Christopher Bell lost the back end of his car, causing him to spin and clobber the inside wall. The race stayed green, which was a crushing result.
Bell's damage was major as he finished the race 12 laps down in 35th. This incident likely is the nail in the coffin of his championship hopes as he leaves Talladega 74 points behind Kyle Larson.
The first caution for incident did not occur until lap 132 in to the second stage, as a stack up down the backstretch saw Ryan Blaney get turned by Bubble Wallace, triggering a 12-car accident. The championship hopes that were impacted in the incident was Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick.
In the accident, both drivers sustained significant damage. Ryan Blaney was unable to continue the race, meanwhile Tyler Reddick spent majority of the third stage in the garage. Reddick came back on the track but finished the race 52 laps down in the 37th position. Ryan Blaney finished 38th, and Blaney left Talladega -107 points off the championship lead, while Reddick's deficit heading into Martinsville became -126 points.
As for the winner of the second stage, Joey Logano edged out Kyle Larson for the victory putting himself in a good position for the closing stage.
Both Larson and Logano battled for the majority of stage three, but things finally gave way on lap 183. In the trioval Joey got a big push from Carson Hocevar causing him to lose control and get turned into the outside wall. Logano's car proceeded to flip over after launching off the right front of Chase Briscoe's car, and slid on his roof as more cars crashed around.
After turning Logano, Hocevar lost control, crashed down the track and caused multiple cars to pile together in yet another big one. Unfortunately, the ugliness of the crash didn't end with just Logano on his roof. In the fray, Riley Herbst got hit hard, causing his car to lose brakes and control, resulting him hitting the inside wall driver side first at a high rate of speed.
It took some time after the crash for Herbst to get out the car, as he needed medical assistance. But thankfully, Herbst was cleared from the care center with a cast on his wrist.
Earlier in the Chase, Riley Herbst was sidelined with a concussion after being hit by Connor Zilisch at New Hampshire. There is no further update on his status, but this was the second hard hit Herbst had taken in a matter of weeks.
As for the overtime finish, the only word that can describe the finish is insanity. Kyle Larson led the field on the white flag, but found himself shuffled out of line by austin Hill coming out of turn two. Entering turn three, Kyle Larson was in 11th.
Larson proceeded to then use momentum with Ross Chastain through the middle lane, and simply got a slingshot of a lifetime in the tri-oval. As the field moved up the track, Larson went from to the bottom and went from 5th to first, to secure the victory.
OTHER NOTES:
It was a great race for Todd Gilliland as he controlled the field on the final restart. Unfortunatley for Gilliland, things didn't go his way on the final restart causing him to lose the lead. Gilliland then had no major help on the final lap in the tri-oval causing him to finish 7th.
Other drivers who came close in the closing laps were Cole Custer and Ricky Stenhouse Jr, as both were in the mix late. In the case of Stenhouse, Ricky was leading the race exiting the tri-oval in the closing yards. But instead, it was both Kyle Larson and William Byron with the momentum that shot around in the closing feet.
Stenhouse finished 3rd, while Cole Custer put up another notworthy perfromance at a Superspeedway as his momentum had stalled and came home with a 5th place finish.
Joey Logano also joined majority of the Chase field after his crash in a tough scenario as he ultimatley finished 34th after flipping over. Logano heads to Martinsville -100 points off the lead, likely out of the championship mix.
Lastly, the win for Kyle Larson wasn't just huge for his championship pursuit, but also his personal pursuit, as secured his first ever Superspeedway victory in 59 attempts.
UP NEXT:
The NASCAR Cup Series will head to Martinsville Speedway for its penutimate race of the season, Sunday, November 1 for the Xfinity 500! Coverage of the race can be found on NBC and MRN, with the green flag slated for 2:00 P.M. ET! In the spring it was Chase Elliott who stunned late, so Hendrick Motorsports will hope the good vibes at the Paperclip continues as they seek to clinch the championship a week early!
Motorsports Today will have on site coverage all weekend long, so make sure to stick with us on X, Tiktok, Youtube, instagram, and here at MotorsportsToday.net!
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