This weekend would mark the penultimate race of the round of eight as we went to the tall banks of Talladega for the YellaWood 500. Michael McDowell led the field to the green flag flanked by the Saturday ace Chase Briscoe.
The pack racing was immediately three wide as Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace brought the third lane to the front, after around 20 laps the pack actually divided into two two lane packs and stayed that way for a about 15 laps before things bunched up as the field got ready for green flag stops. Chase Briscoe, Ross Chastain, and Kyle Busch all got speeding penalties. Which ended up being a blessing in disguise as it helped them avoid the first caution of the day on lap 52. As Erik Jones pushed Noah Gragson into turn 3, turning him into AJ Almendinger and also collecting, Justin Haley, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and playoff driver Chase Elliott. During the yellow playoff drivers Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, and Christopher Bell would stay out among others in a bid for stage points.
The stage restarted with just two laps to go and it would be the Monster sponsored Toyotas of Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick that would race to the line with Gibbs just edging out Reddick to win the first stage.
Stage 1 Results:
- Ty Gibbs
- Tyler Reddick
- John Hunter Nemecheck
- Ryan Blaney
- Joey Logano
- Bubba Wallace
- Zane Smith
- Michael McDowell
- Carson Hocevar
- Christopher Bell
After pit stops at the stage break Ty Dillon and Chris Buescher led the field back to green. The pack raced two and three wide for most of the second stage, Kyle Busch, Josh Berry, and ajoey Logano being the major players up until green flag pit stops. During green flag pit stops Shane Van Gisbergen hit some standing water on the apron and spin out around multiple playoff drivers. Luckily only light tapping the rear or Christopher Bell’s Camry, this however did bring out a caution with nine laps to go in the second stage. Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick were stuck out and had to pit under the caution period. Chase Briscoe and Carson Hocevar led the field to green with four laps to go in the stage. Briscoe was able to hold off Larson and the charging chevys to win his first stage win of the year at a plate track.
Stage 2 Results:
- Chase Briscoe
- Kyle Larson
- Carson Hocevar
- William Byron
- Christopher Bell
- Ty Gibbs
- Todd Gilliand
- Ryan Blaney
- John Hunter Nemecheck
- Alex Bowman
During the stage break Josh Berry went behind the wall with mechanical issues and Denny Hamlin stalled on oit road with a broken starter. Nemecheck and Busch led the field to the start of the final stage. The racing was intense as everyone jostled for the best positions while also attempting to save fuel. The Penske teammates of Blaney and Logano pulled the bottom line ahead and tried to establish a stranglehold over control of the race. They managed to maintain that until about 30 laps to go when Gilliand and Hamlin would make a real challenge in the outside lane. Before green flag pit stops could start Cody Ware would spin out on his own and bring out a caution with 22 laps to go. Ryan Blaney won the race off pit road. Blaney and Gilliand led the field to green with 18 laps to go.
Gilliand, Zane Smith, Byron, and Buescher all ledbefore Byron turned Buescher on a bad push that sent him into the inside wall forcing us into a overtime attempt. Blaney and others pitted for fuel expecting more chaos. Teammates Byron and Larson led us back to the green flag. Wallace would push Larson clear of Byron and he moved down to cover the bottom as Briscoe pushed Wallace to the white. Larson would run out of gas on the backstretch and Briscoe would make a move to grab the lead from Wallace, he didn’t relinquish it as he held on to win the YellaWood 500 and lock himself into the Championship Race at Phoenic in two weeks. Byron spun in the trioval coming the checkered costing him a ton of points. As we enter Martinsville, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Elliott all sit in must win situations as Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell all sit well above the cutline.
Top Ten Results:
- Chase Briscoe
- Todd Gilliand
- Ty Gibbs
- Bubba Wallace
- Cole Custer
- Carson Hocevar
- Tyler Reddick
- Christopher Bell
- Zane Smith
- Brad Keselowski
Photo Credit: @STaranto92 on X
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