Stenhouse snaps 65-race losing streak after late crash at Talladega scrambles playoff picture

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — A 27-car crash that involved eight of NASCAR’s 12 title contenders. A chaotic cleanup that infuriated competitors. And a surprise winner.

Just a regular race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snapped a 65-race losing streak by winning in overtime at Talladega on Sunday after a late crash collected more than half the field. Stenhouse is not in the playoffs and his victory marked the second consecutive week a driver not competing for the Cup Series title has won.

“It’s so tough to win these races. It’s so tough to miss the wrecks,” Stenhouse said. “These races are just chaos when it comes down to the end.”

The victory was the first for Stenhouse and his JTG Daugherty Racing team since he won the season-opening Daytona 500 to start 2023. He’s the 18th different Cup Series winner this year.

“It felt really good. This team has put a lot of hard work in, obviously we haven’t won since the 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season,” Stenhouse said. “We knew that this track is one of ours to come get.”

Stenhouse’s first career victory came at Talladega in 2017 and his four career Cup Series victories have come at either the Alabama superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway.

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

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

Cindric was the leader with five laps remaining in regulation when Logano, two rows back, gave Keselowski a hard shove directly into Cindric. It caused Cindric to spin and 27 of the 40 cars in the field suffered some sort of damage in the melee.

Even Stenhouse had a chunk of sheet metal missing from the driver side door area when he drove his car into victory lane. In the chaos of the cleanup, with teams fuming post-race over how NASCAR navigated the crash scene, some argued that Stenhouse’s door was missing some safety foam and he should have been forced to pit for repairs.

“I bet they did. I didn’t see any missing foam,” said winning crew chief Mike Kelly, who suspects NASCAR will review how it handled the chaotic cleanup in which some cars were towed back to pit road and repairs began for them as others were still stranded on the track. “They were put in a tough situation with that many cars involved in the wreck, and that many (tow trucks). It’s a tough situation.”

Stenhouse later acknowledged there indeed was foam hanging out of the gaping hole.

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

Keselowski finished second in a Ford for RFK Racing and was followed by Byron in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Byron is the points leader headed into Charlotte and his cushion is large enough to earn him an automatic spot into the round of eight.

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

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

Late crash salvages Blaney’s day

Ryan Blaney, who used his win at Talladega a year ago to spark his run to his first Cup Series title, was involved in a crash racing for points on the final lap of the second stage.

Blaney was pushed too hard from behind by fellow playoff driver Alex Bowman and the shove forced Blaney’s Ford to take a sharp left and then bounce up the track into the wall and Ross Chastain.

Blaney tried to keep his battered car out on track but the engine eventually failed, ending his race. He was second in the playoff standings entering the race and feared his career-high seventh DNF of the season would drop him to the verge of elimination.

“I don’t know if (Bowman) ever lifted and just drilled me from like three car lengths back. The worst possible spot you could do it, so it’s pretty dumb on his part and it figures that he gets away scot-free per usual,” Blaney said.

Because so many drivers wrecked late, Blaney only dropped to sixth in the playoff standings.

Suarez struggles all day

Daniel Suarez was already trying to work his way above the elimination zone when his race was derailed as it started.

NASCAR penalized Trackhouse Racing for making a modification to the No. 99 after inspection so Suarez had to serve a pass-thru penalty at the start of the race that dropped him off the lead lap. When the pack came upon him to put him a second lap down on lap 11, Suarez tried to preserve position and ended up running into another car.

It caused him to spin into the grass and the Chevrolet had to pit for repairs. He tried the entire race to get back on the lead lap, couldn’t make it, and then was one of the drivers in the late crash.

He finished 26th, somehow, and gained one spot in the standings to 10th. Suarez is only 20 points below the elimination cutline.

“It was a very difficult day. We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole with the pass-through penalty,” Suarez said. “I just made a mistake. I tried to block when they were coming, but they were just coming too fast. That was on me. We put ourselves in a hole, and unfortunately we weren’t able to recover. And then in the last wreck, obviously that finished killing our chances.”