Kyle Larson was 11th with one lap to go. He won the race. That is the whole YellaWood 500 in two sentences, and it still does not do justice to what happened at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
Larson took the bottom lane in overtime, picked off seven cars in the last quarter mile of the 2.66-mile track, and beat Hendrick teammate William Byron to the line by 0.041 seconds. It was his first superspeedway win in 59 tries. It also turned a close points race into a near lock.
How Larson Won It
The last lap started with Larson buried. He had no run, no lane, and no obvious way forward. Then the top lane stalled and the bottom opened up.
Larson dropped down, got a push, and the whole front of the field came back to him at once. Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ross Chastain crossed the line door to door behind him. Four cars covered by less than a tenth of a second.
Larson did not pretend he had it figured out. "I don't know, I got really lucky with kinda how everything worked out there," he said afterward. He also admitted he had already given up on it. "I was pissed at myself off of [Turn] 2, my hands off the wheel, just mad," he said. "Unbelievable way to get my first superspeedway win."
His other line said more about the day than any stat: "I felt like Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. out there with half the field kind of helping me."
The Two Wrecks That Shaped the Day
Talladega did what Talladega does. Twice.
The first came on lap 132, late in Stage 2. Ryan Blaney checked up in the No. 12 and moved from the middle lane to the top. Bubba Wallace got into the back of him and the whole thing folded. Eight Chase drivers were caught in it: Blaney, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Wallace, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, and Denny Hamlin, who took front-end damage. Chastain, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek and Gray Gaulding were in it too.
The second came on lap 183 and was worse. Joey Logano's No. 22 got turned and flipped, and roughly 15 cars piled in behind it. Erik Jones and Riley Herbst both took massive hits. NASCAR red-flagged the race for 13 minutes and 25 seconds to clean it up, which set up the overtime restart that handed Larson the win.
Ross Chastain's No. 1 Trackhouse Chevrolet. He was part of the four-wide photo finish, taking fourth. Photo: Nascar9919 / CC BY 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Strategy and Pit Calls
Superspeedway strategy is mostly about two things: where you are when the caution falls, and whether you have fuel to make it. Both mattered here.
Chris Buescher ran the first half of the race. He led 53 laps, more than anyone, and took Stage 1 in the No. 17. Joey Logano took Stage 2 in the No. 22. Neither one was anywhere near the front at the end. Buescher finished 32nd, Logano 34th. That is the superspeedway tax. Leading laps at Talladega buys you stage points and nothing else.
The lap 183 red flag reset everything. Cars that had been shuffled back got a clean restart and a full fuel load from the earlier cycle. Larson was one of them. Crews that had short-pitted for track position before the wreck found themselves in a straight drag race instead, and track position stopped mattering the moment the field bunched up.
The other half of it was lane choice. The top lane had been the fast lane most of the afternoon. On the last lap it stopped working, and the few drivers who committed to the bottom early got the run. Larson was the first one down there.
Stats and Fun Facts
- 41 lead changes among 15 different drivers.
- Scheduled for 188 laps, went 189 on a green-white-checkered finish.
- Four cautions for 18 laps, plus one red flag of 13 minutes and 25 seconds.
- Chase Briscoe won the pole at 186.065 mph.
- Chase Elliott turned the fastest lap of the race at 201.405 mph on lap 73, then finished 36th.
- Race time was 3 hours, 7 minutes, 54 seconds at an average speed of 160.534 mph.
- The win came in Larson's 59th career start on a drafting track.
Who Is Hot and Who Is Not
Hot: Kyle Larson. Three wins in the first eight Chase races and now a 73-point lead on Denny Hamlin with two to go. He leaves Talladega with the one track type that had always cost him finally checked off.
Hot: William Byron. Second by four hundredths, and the Hendrick cars were the class of the field all afternoon. Byron has been fast and unlucky for weeks.
Hot: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Third in the No. 47. He is still one of the best plate racers in the garage and nothing about this result was an accident.
Not: Ryan Blaney. Started the wreck he could not avoid, finished 38th, and is now 107 points out. He called his title hopes "life support" afterward. That is about right.
Not: Team Penske. Logano flipped and finished 34th. Blaney finished 38th. Austin Cindric was 27th. The whole organization lost a month of work in one afternoon.
Not: Chase Briscoe. Pole winner, 33rd finisher. He led nothing and gained nothing on a day he needed both.
The Points Picture With Two Races Left
Larson sits on 2,441 points. Hamlin is 73 back, Christopher Bell is 74 back, Logano is 100 back and Blaney is 107 back. Two races remain, Martinsville on November 1 and then the finale.
Martinsville is a Larson track. Hamlin and Bell need something close to a disaster for the No. 5 to make the last race matter. You can see the full picture on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule and standings.
Fan Pick of the Week: How It Played Out
This week's matchup put fan favorite Ryan Blaney and his No. 12 against underdog Josh Berry in the No. 21. The vote came in 100 percent Blaney, 0 percent Berry. Nobody took the underdog.
Everybody was wrong. Blaney got collected in the lap 132 wreck and finished 38th. Berry stayed clean, stayed out of trouble, and came home 12th. The underdog beat the favorite by 26 spots.
Fans who enter their email and pick the driver who finishes higher get a 5 dollar code good all week. This week's new matchup is already up at the Rivalries page.
Gear Up
Larson gear and gear for the rest of the top five, all in stock right now:
- Kyle Larson #5 2026 Kansas Clean Sweep Winner T-Shirt
- Kyle Larson #5 2026 Cup Series Schedule T-Shirt
- Kyle Larson #5 HendrickCars Uniform Pit Hat
- Kyle Larson #5 Vintage Blue Hoodie
- Kyle Larson #5 Throwback Cotton Twill Snapback
- William Byron #24 2026 Raptor Racing T-Shirt
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. SunnyD Mesh Hat
Win shirts go up fast and sell out faster. You can also get them automatically through the win shirt subscription, or browse the newest gear in the store.
Your Take
Here is the one we keep arguing about. Larson passed seven cars in a quarter mile because half the field pushed him there. Does that make it the best last lap of the season, or does it make it a lottery ticket that happened to land on the points leader?
Tell us where you land in the comments.
