Kyle Larson Pulls Off Miraculous Win At Talladega Superspeedway To Take Command Of The Chase
by Hunter Thomas October 25, 2026 0 commentsTALLADEGA, Ala. – Kyle Larson went from 11th to first on the final lap to win the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway and take command of The Chase with just to races remaining.
Larson had been strong all day long in Alabama, and throughout the race, many Chase competitors fell victim to mistakes and big crashes. On the final lap, Larson led the field into Turn 1 and through Turn 2, but then got shuffled out of the bottom lane and into “no man’s land” in the middle. Larson fell back to 11th as the leaders banged doors. Even once onto the tri-oval, Larson was outside the top-five, but he battled back and beat teammate William Byron and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to the checkered flag.
“Yeah, really all day long, I had help from the Chevy cars out there. It helped because they were all fast, as well, and had good days going,” Larson said. “That’s what it takes on speedways, I feel like, is to have some allies. So just was proud of everybody at Chevrolet for the effort that they put in. Huge thank you to my team, as well. This wouldn’t be possible without them. It’s been 22 years since that terrible plane crash that took so many loved ones from Hendrick Motorsports. I really felt like they were riding with us there on that last lap to get this win.”
The win marked the first superspeedway finish of Larson’s career in the NASCAR Cup Series. He now has sole command of The Chase as he leads by a whopping 73 points over Denny Hamlin. Christopher Bell is third in the standings, 74 points back, and Chase Briscoe is fourth, 77 back. A driver can only earn a max of 76 points in a race, so with only two more races to go, Larson is well out front.
“Well, I mean, as we all probably did in the field, we felt like there was an opportunity to have a good day if things went right, and man, did everything go just how I needed it to,” Logano said. “I did not expect to have the point lead that I had when I got out of the car. I thought I’d be in the 40s, maybe 50s, which is still amazing. But a 73-point lead is incredible. Hopefully, we can go to Martinsville and have a good day and then just close it out would be amazing.”
William Byron finished second, followed by Ricky Stenhouse, who battled back from a lap down earlier in the race to competing for the win.
Ross Chastain finished fourth. He was out in front of the field for much of Stage 3, but he was a lap down. The late cautions allowed him to get back on the lead lap and challenge for the win. Cole Custer rounded out the top-five.
“Not sped on that first stop,” Chastain said. “We had a massive issue with our speed prediction and I just completely forgot to go to the new lights on that first stop. We were stuck a lap down for most of the day, and I thought we were going to sweep a bucket of Busch Light camo into the trailer, but glad we made it and got our lap back. I thought we were going to get it back the old fashion and that would have been really cool. On the last lap, Brandon McReynolds (spotter) just called to push the No. 5 (Kyle Larson, race winner). I’m thankful he did it because he could see a lot better than I can, and I’m glad that a Chevrolet won.”
Completing the top-10 was Carson Hocevar, Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell.
There were 41 lead changes among 15 drivers. RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher led a race high of 53 laps, mainly due to he and his teammates dominating the race strategy in Stage 1, where they lapped much of the field.
The caution came out on four occasions for 18 laps. Two cautions were for big crashes.
On Lap 133 in Stage 2, Ryan Blaney had to check up after a missed drafting opportunity with teammate, Joey Logano. The chain reaction sent him and 11 other drivers crashing along the backstretch, including Chase contenders, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace.
Joey Logano flipped on Lap 184 in the tri-oval after contact from Carson Hocevar. Logano slid down the fontstretch upside down before coming to a stop. Safety crews rolled his car back over, and he climbed from the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford under his own power. Riley Herbest took two incredible hits, one with the outside wall and another with the inside wall. He also walked away under his own power. The red flag was displayed for 13 minutes and 25 seconds ad the carnage was cleaned up from the 15-car accident.
“It looks like I 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 think 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. There were some vicious hits in that one. I’m just happy to be alive.”
The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 1 for the Xfinity 500. Live coverage will broadcast on NBC at 2 p.m. ET.
Photo Credit: Mitchell White/TheFourthTurn.com
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