A non-playoff driver has won a NASCAR Cup Series race for the second week in a row.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. defeated Brad Keselowski in an overtime photo finish after the worst crash in NASCAR history.
Stenhouse got a push from William Byron to pass Keselowski in the trioval. Keselowski, a six-time winner at Talladega, couldn’t get enough momentum from Kyle Larson behind him to pass Stenhouse for the finish.
A huge crash took out almost everyone at the front of the field, with less than five scheduled laps to go. Austin Cindric was leading the final race when he was spun ahead of everyone else before Turn 3 when Joey Logano Keselowski nudged Cindric.
Keselowski and Stenhouse escaped unharmed because they were able to avoid the wreckage.
The wreck was simply the byproduct of what happens at the end of Cup Series superspeedway races today. Drivers know they have to push each other to make passes. And if a push doesn’t land squarely on the driver’s bumper, chaos can ensue.
“I don’t think we could have done much differently,” Logano said of the jostling among drivers in the low line.
Officially, 28 drivers were involved in the accident.
It is Stenhouse’s first victory since winning the 2023 Daytona 500. All four of Stenhouse’s career Cup Series victories have come at either Daytona or Talladega and it is his second victory for the one-car JTG-Daugherty Racing team.
Next week’s race at the Charlotte Roval (2 p.m. ET, NBC) is the final race in the second round of the playoffs. Four of the twelve play-off drivers will be eliminated after the race and Byron is the only driver who has already secured a spot in the eighth round.
YellaWood 500 results
1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2. Brad Keselowski
3. William Byron
4. Kyle Larson
5. Erik Jones
6. Christopher Bell
7. Justin Haley
8.Austin Dillon
9. Bubba Wallace
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Martin Truex Jr.
12.Cody Ware
13.Ty Gibbs
14. Carson However
15. Shane van Gisbergen
16.Alex Bowman
17. Chris Buescher
18. Corey LaJoie
19.Kyle Busch
20.Tyler Reddick
21. Zane Smith
22. BJ McLeod
23. Todd Gilliland
24. Anthony Alfredo
25. Noah Gragson
26.Daniel Suarez
27. JJ Yeley
28. AJ Allmendinger
29. Chase Elliott
30. Chase Briscoe
31. John Hunter Nemechek
32. Austin Cindric
33. Joey Logano
34.Harrison Burton
35. Ryan Preece
36. Josh Berry
37. Michael McDowell
38. Daniel Hemric
39. Ryan Blaney
40. Ross Chastain
