Kyle Larson Scores First Superspeedway Win in Talladega Chase Race

by Holly Cain – NASCAR Wire Service

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Larson turned in one of the most dramatic victories of his two-time NASCAR Cup Series championship career going from 11th place to Victory Lane on the final lap of overtime to win Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Larson maneuvered his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet low and passed seven cars in just the final quarter mile of Talladega’s famed 2.66-mile-high banks to claim his first ever win in 59 races on a big drafting-style track.

He celebrated the “statement win” with his three children who climbed into the car for the Victory Lap celebration — daughter Audrey, 8, waving to the crowd out of the passenger side window, his youngest son Cooper, 3, sitting inside too and 11-year-old son Owen perched from the roof hatch waving the checkered flag to a thrilled crowd who clearly appreciated one of Larson’s most amazing — and overdue — Victory Laps.

The reigning series champion fell from the lead to 11th place with a lap to go and then negotiated his way forward once again, dropping to the bottom lane and roaring to the win by a photo-finish 0.041 seconds over his Hendrick teammate William Byron, Hyak Motorsports Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain who crossed the line door-to-door-to-door directly behind.

Haas Factory Team’s Cole Custer and Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar helped Chevrolet to a top six sweep on the afternoon.

“I don’t know, I got really lucky with kind of how everything worked out there,” the 34-year-old Californian Larson said with a smile, trying to describe the phenomenal winning move.

“I was so edgy in Turns 1 and 2 with Richard Childress Racing driver Austin Hill pushing me, he was helping me.”, Larson said.

Now with only two races remaining, Larson has exponentially expanded his championship lead over his closest challengers: three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota teammates. He now holds a 73-point advantage on regular season champ Denny Hamlin, is 74 points up on Christopher Bell and 77 points up on Chase Briscoe.

“Really got to thank all my Chevy GM partners for working with me all day,” Larson continued. “I really felt it and definitely the best speedway race I’ve ever had because of it, so thanks to all of them.

“I was upset with myself off Turn 2, my hands off the wheel, just mad. And then all of a sudden everything just opened up and I was able to keep my momentum up,” he said of the last lap. “Unbelievable way to get my first superspeedway win.”

The ending was an exclamation point for a race that had all the typical Talladega trademarks — a photo finish, close-quarter sparring all afternoon, a 13-minute red flag and a pair of massive multicar accidents that have greatly impacted The Chase presented by Mobil 1 with only a pair of races left to settle the 2026 championship.

“I felt like the energy got broken up off Turn 2 and I was like, ”man, I’ve got a shot here,” two-time Daytona 500 winner Byron said of the last-lap dramatics. “Once I got clear going into [Turn] 3 it was a good job keeping the momentum going. … Man, second sucks but it’s good that Kyle won. We worked really well together all day and if I couldn’t win, I wanted him to win.

“Just proud of the fight.”

It was just that. All day throughout the field.

The 98-lap opening stage of the 189-lap race set the stage for the drama. The three Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford Mustangs seemed to stun the competition — lining up bumper-to-bumper-bumper as they roared off to a lead of more than 30 seconds on the entire fuel-saving field enroute to RFK’s Chris Buescher’s easy Stage 1 win. He led a race high 53 laps on the day but was collected in the late-race accident.

The second massive crash — with only five laps remaining in regulation — brought out the red flag and eliminated many strong cars. As with an earlier multicar accident, it happened toward the front of the field. This one — involving 15 cars — appeared to be triggered by spring Talladega winner Hocevar, who hit the rear bumper of three-time series champion Joey Logano in tight-quarter drafting.

Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 23 laps on the day and was battling for the top position when Hocevar’s Chevy made contact. It spun Logano’s car into traffic behind and flipped it upside down, his Ford sliding down the track and coming to rest that way at the exit of the tri-oval. After safety crews flipped the car back on its tires, Logano climbed out on his own.

“Just got a little push in the wrong spot there,” Logano said. “It was a very much a ‘Talladega Nights’ moment like, ‘Oh, no. I’m upside down. This is not good moment.’

“But I can’t thank the safety crew enough. They did an amazing job flipping that thing over. The car did a great job. The last time I flipped, it was crushed on my head. This time, I don’t think anything really caved or crushed at all. I appreciate what NASCAR has done. Thank you and the safety team for getting me out of there.”

Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

An earlier multicar incident on the backstretch — involving 12 cars — eliminated another Penske championship contender, 2023 series champion Ryan Blaney, among others. The two Penske drivers are mathematically still in the title hunt, but they lost significant ground after looking so strong.

Logano is now fifth in the standings, 100 points off Larson’s total and Blaney is sixth, 107 points back. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, is the only other driver still technically in the title chase, but he trails Larson by 126 points.

Bell, who went into the race ranked second, only five points behind Larson, spun and hit the wall coming to pit road on the opening pit stop of the race – his No. 20 JGR Toyota suffering significant damage and finishing 35th in the 40-car field. Briscoe, whose Toyota Camry started from pole position, was eliminated in the late race accident and finished 33rd.

Hendrick Motorsports executive and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon said after the race that although things certainly look in the team’s favor toward Larson’s title, “There’s no points lead big enough at this point.”

Stage 2 recap

Joey Logano beat Kyle Larson for the Stage 2 victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega by just 0.012 seconds in the YellaWood 500.

Larson was followed by Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, William Byron and Chris Buescher as the top six spots were swept by drivers competing in The Chase. Connor Zilisch, Shane van Gisbergen, Erik Jones and Austin Hill completed the top 10.

The first multicar accident of the afternoon occurred at Lap 132 of Sunday’s race, wiping out numerous contenders.

Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney were leading the outside lane when Bubba Wallace could not avoid Blaney, triggering a 12-car pileup down the backstretch during the second stage of the YellaWood 500.

Among those 12 were eight competitors in the championship hunt in The Chase: Blaney, Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Ryan Preece, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suárez.

Blaney was unable to continue, taking a significant hit to his championship hopes; Blaney entered Sunday’s race fifth in the standings, 40 points behind series leader Kyle Larson. Reddick, last week’s winner at Phoenix Raceway, entered seventh in points, 56 points out from the lead. Blaney, Reddick and Elliott were among those whose vehicles were taken to the garage. Also collected in the crash were Ross Chastain, Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek and Gray Gaulding.

Larson was scored as the race leader at the time of caution.

Stage 1 recap

RFK Racing took the opening stage of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway into its own hands as Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski swept the top three spots in Stage 1 of the YellaWood 500.

Points leader Kyle Larson placed fourth in the stage ahead of William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Austin Cindric in the first stage of the eighth race of The Chase.

Heavy fuel saving early slowed the field’s pace to 58-second lap times, down 11 seconds from the fastest lap of the stage set by Chase Elliott on Lap 73 of 47.546 seconds. The RFK Racing trio of Preece, Keselowski and Buescher decided it was time to catch the field sleeping and stood on the throttle, creating a three-car draft of their own to open up a 22-second lead over the rest of the field by Lap 38, running lap times three seconds per lap faster than the rest of the field. Once pit stops cycled through, the trio led by as many as 40 seconds over the fourth-place car.

Christopher Bell’s day quickly turned disastrous when attempting to pit on Lap 56. Bell was leading a pack of Toyotas to pit road when his No. 20 Toyota broke out of control and spun toward the inside wall. Bell slammed the wall with his right-front and right-rear corners and incurred significant damage.

Bell’s team changed four tires on the initial stop, but Bell cut a right-front tire due to a fender rub after returning to action. Pitting to repair some damage and get two new right-side tires, the team was then issued a pass-through penalty for too many crewmen over the wall. Insult was added to injury when the car punctured another right-front tire, trapping Bell in 40th place, nine laps down by the end of the stage.

Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith also suffered a flat right-rear tire on Lap 72, but the field avoided the No. 38 Ford, which made it back to pit road.

NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming Larson as the race winner.