Stenhouse ends his 65-race losing streak after a late crash at Talladega and heads to the playoffs, pictured

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — A 27-car crash involving eight of NASCAR's 12 title contenders. A chaotic cleanup that angered the competition. And a surprise winner.

Just a normal race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended his 65-race losing streak with an overtime victory Sunday at Talladega after a late crash claimed more than half the field. Stenhouse is not in the playoffs and his victory marked the second straight week won by a driver not contending for the Cup Series title.

“It’s so hard to win these races. It’s so hard to miss the wreckage,” Stenhouse said. “These races are just chaos in the end.”

The victory was the first for Stenhouse and his JTG Daugherty Racing team since winning the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2023. He is the 18th Cup Series winner this year.

“It felt really good. This team has put in a lot of hard work, obviously we haven't won since the 2023 500cc race. “It’s been a season of ups and downs,” Stenhouse said. “We knew this track would be one of ours.”

Stenhouse's first career win came at Talladega in 2017 and his four Cup Series victories have come at either Alabama Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway.

Stenhouse won in a three-wide finish between Brad Keselowski and William Byron, who with his third place was the only driver to advance to the third round of the playoffs.

Four drivers will be eliminated from the playoffs next Sunday at the hybrid road course/oval in Charlotte. Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe are all below the cutline.

Cindric was the leader with five laps to go in regulation time when Logano, two rows back, gave Keselowski a hard shove right into Cindric. This caused Cindric to spin and 27 of the 40 cars in the field sustained some form of damage in the melee.

Even Stenhouse had a piece of metal missing from the driver's door area when he drove his car into victory. In the chaos of the cleanup after the race, as teams were angry about how NASCAR handled the accident scene, some argued that Stenhouse's door was missing some safety foam and he should have pitted for repairs.

“I bet they did. I didn't see any missing foam,” said Mike Kelly, boss of the winning crew, who suspects NASCAR will review how it handled the messy cleanup, in which some cars were towed back to pit road and repairs began , while others were still stranded on the pit track. “They were in a difficult situation with so many cars involved in the accident and so many (tow trucks). It’s a difficult situation.”

Stenhouse later admitted that there was actually foam hanging out of the gaping hole.

The race was halted for nearly nine minutes of cleanup, and 22 cars remained on the lead lap for the two-lap sprint to the finish. Many of these 22 cars were damaged.

Keselowski finished second in a Ford for RFK Racing, followed by Byron in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron is the league leader ahead of Charlotte and his cushion is big enough to secure him an automatic spot in the last eight.

Kyle Larson of Hendrick was fourth, followed by Erik Jones of Legacy Motor Club in a Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell finished sixth in a Toyota, followed by Spire Motorsports' Justin Haley. Richard Childress Racing's Austin Dillon finished eighth, Bubba Wallace was ninth in the presence of 23XI Racing co-owner Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, the team's other co-owner, rounded out the top 10.

Only four drivers still active in the playoffs finished in the top 10.

The late crash saves Blaney's day

Ryan Blaney, who used his victory at Talladega a year ago to clinch his first Cup Series title, was involved in a crash race for points on the final lap of Stage 2.

Blaney was pushed too hard from behind by fellow playoff driver Alex Bowman and the push forced Blaney's Ford to turn sharply left and then crash up the track into the wall and Ross Chastain.

Blaney tried to keep his stricken car on the track, but the engine eventually failed and his race ended. He was second in the playoff standings entering the race and feared his career-best seventh DNF of the season would put him on the brink of elimination.

“I don’t know if (Bowman) ever lifted me back three car lengths and just drilled me. Worst spot imaginable, so it’s pretty stupid on his part and you assume he’ll get off scot-free like he always does,” Blaney said.

Because so many drivers broke down late, Blaney only fell to sixth place in the playoff standings.

Suarez fights all day

Daniel Suarez was already trying to move past the elimination zone when his race was derailed at the start.

NASCAR penalized Trackhouse Racing for making a modification to the No. 99 after inspection, forcing Suarez to serve a drive-through penalty early in the race, which pushed him off the lead lap. When the pack overtook him on the 11th lap and dropped him a second lap, Suarez tried to maintain his position and ended up colliding with another car.

This caused him to spin into the grass and the Chevrolet had to pit for repairs. He tried throughout the race to get back on the lead lap but couldn't and was then one of the drivers involved in the late accident.

He somehow finished 26th and moved up one place in the overall standings to 10th. Suarez is just 20 points below the elimination limit.

“It was a very difficult day. “We got ourselves into trouble a little bit with the pass-through penalty,” said Suarez. “I just made a mistake. I tried to block as they came, but they came too fast. That was up to me. We threw ourselves into a hole and unfortunately we didn't manage to recover from it. And then with the last accident, that obviously ruined our chances.”

Next

The playoff field will be reduced from 12 to eight drivers 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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