TALLADEGA, AL – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the YellaWood 500 to score his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his second at Talladega. His margin of victory over second-place Brad Keselowski was .006 of a second.
Stenhouse was the 17th winner in the 31 NASCAR Cup Series races this season.
Due to a green-white-checkered finish, the race extended seven laps past its scheduled 188-lap distance.
There were four caution periods for a total of 24 laps. Only 22 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Stage 1 Winner: Chris Buescher of RFK Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford)
Stewart-Haas Racing Finish:
- Noah Gragson (Started 22nd, Finished 25th / Running, completed 194 of 195 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 36th, Finished 30th / Running, completed 189 of 195 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 18th, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 183 of 195 laps)
- Josh Berry (Started 19th, Finished 36th / Accident, completed 183 of 195 laps)
Stewart-Haas Racing Points:
- Chase Briscoe (12th with 3,029 points, 32 points below the top-eight cutoff)
- Noah Gragson (25th with 516 points)
- Ryan Preece (26th with 495 points)
- Josh Berry (27th with 491 points)
Playoff Standings (with one race to go before Round of 8):
- William Byron (3,122 points) +74 points (Clinched spot in Round of 8)
- Christopher Bell (3,105 points) +57 points
- Kyle Larson (3,100 points) +52 points
- Denny Hamlin (3,078 points) +30 points
- Alex Bowman (3,074 points) +26 points
- Ryan Blaney (3,073 points) +25 points
- Tyler Reddick (3,062 points) +14 points
- Chase Elliott (3,061 points) +13 points
- Joey Logano (3,048 points) -13 points
- Daniel Suárez (3,041 points) -20 points
- Austin Cindric (3,032 points) -29 points
- Chase Briscoe (3,029 points) -32 points
“It’s not the day we wanted, just with how everything went, ” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I don’t know the points, but I’m sure it’s not good. This is one of those races where if you didn’t run top-five or whatever, you’re probably going to be in a must-win either way so that probably makes it a little more clear now and puts it where it’s not on that bubble of, ‘Well, should we go for points or should we just try to win the race?’ At least now, I feel it’s pretty obvious, so it was a frustrating day. It felt like we were in position at the end, and then I didn’t know what happened. We had all the Fords in line and thought we would be really good, and then the wreck happened. I was shoving the 21 (Harrison Burton), and I knew we were in the middle of the back straightaway, and then it felt like everybody stopped. Surprisingly, we didn’t hit each other super hard, and it felt like everybody was going to be fine and we were going to keep going straight, and then all of a sudden, they all started wrecking from each way. I haven’t seen it, but we’ll just go on to the next one.”
Briscoe finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
“We were running on the top lane and they started wrecking. Got collected into it, slid through the infield down the back straightaway,” said Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Beef-a-Roo Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“I think we knew something was going to happen when we were catching the 38 (Todd Gilliland) and him staying on the bottom that it would shuffle things up, and it certainly did. It’s frustrating because I think all of us that were in the top 10 or so were in a great position for the end of that race and giving Wonder Bread and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing a great finish. Ultimately, it wasn’t our day, but it was certainly still frustrating,” said Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 Wonder Bread Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“Yeah, I thought we all worked together really well today. We pitted early there in that stage and it just didn’t work out. All of our teammates, I think we worked really well together today. Unfortunately, none of us made it through that wreck,” said Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday, Oct. 13 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. The sixth race in the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
