TALLADEGA — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snapped a 65-race losing streak by winning in overtime at Talladega Superspeedway after a late crash collected more than half the field, including eight of the 12 championship contenders.
Stenhouse is not in the playoffs and his victory Sunday marked the second consecutive week a driver not competing for the Cup Series title has won.
The victory was the first for Stenhouse and his JTG Daugherty Racing team since he won the season-opening Daytona 500 to start 2023.
“It felt really good. This team has put a lot of hard work in, obviously we haven’t won since the 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season,” Stenhouse said. “It was a lot of hard work this season just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew that this track is one of ours to come get.”
Stenhouse’s first career victory came at Talladega in 2017 and his four career Cup Series victories have come at either the Alabama superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway.
Stenhouse won in a three-wide finish between Brad Keselowski and William Byron, who with his third-place finish became the only driver locked into the third round of the playoffs.
Four drivers will be eliminated from the playoffs next Sunday on the hybrid road course/oval at Charlotte. Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are all below the cutline.
Cindric was the leader with five laps remaining in regulation when Logano, two rows back, gave Keselowski a hard shove directly into Cindric. It caused Cindric to spin and 24 of the 40 cars in the field suffered some sort of damage in the melee.
Even Stenhouse had a chunk of sheet metal missing from the driver side door area when he drove his car into victory lane.
The race was red-flagged for nearly nine minutes of cleanup, and 22 cars remained on the lead lap for the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish. Many of those 22 cars were damaged.
Keselowski finished second in a Ford for RFK Racing and was followed by Byron in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron is the points leader headed into Charlotte and his cushion is large enough to earn him an automatic spot into the round of eight.
Kyle Larson of Hendrick was fourth and followed by Erik Jones of Legacy Motor Club in a Toyota. Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing was sixth in a Toyota and followed by Justin Haley of Spire Motorsports. Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing finished eighth, Bubba Wallace was ninth with 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan in attendance, and Denny Hamlin, the other co-owner of the team, rounded out the top 10.
Only four drivers still active in the playoffs finished inside the top 10.
Late crash salvages Blaney’s day
Ryan Blaney, who used his win at Talladega a year ago to spark his run to his first Cup Series title, was involved in a crash racing for points on the final lap of the second stage.
Blaney was pushed too hard from behind by fellow playoff driver Alex Bowman and the shove forced Blaney’s Ford to take a sharp left and then bounce up the track into the wall and Ross Chastain.
Blaney tried to keep his battered car out on track but the engine eventually failed, ending his race. He was second in the playoff standings entering the race and feared his career-high seventh DNF of the season would drop him to the verge of elimination.
“I don’t know if (Bowman) ever lifted and just drilled me from like three car lengths back. The worst possible spot you could do it, so it’s pretty dumb on his part and it figures that he gets away scot-free per usual,” Blaney said.
And as for his chances to advance in the playoffs?
“We’ll just see where we are at the end of the race on points and go from there.”
Because so many drivers wrecked late, Blaney only dropped to sixth in the playoff standings.
Suarez struggles all day
Daniel Suarez was already trying to work his way above the elimination zone when his race was derailed as it started.
NASCAR penalized Trackhouse Racing for making a modification to the No. 99 after inspection so Suarez had to serve a pass-thru penalty at the start of the race that dropped him off the lead lap. When the pack came upon him to put him a second lap down on lap 11, Suarez tried to preserve position and ended up running into another car.
It caused him to spin into the grass and the Chevrolet had to pit for repairs. He tried the entire race to get back on the lead lap, couldn’t make it, and then was one of the drivers in the late crash.
He finished 26th, somehow, and gained one spot in the standings to 10th. Suarez is only 20 points below the elimination cutline.
Up Next
The playoff field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight when four are eliminated next Sunday at The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. AJ Allmendinger won the race a year ago.
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