Ricky Stenhouse Jr. beat Brad Keselowski in a photo finish Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
It’s the fourth career NASCAR Cup Series victory for Stenhouse, who won by 0.006 seconds over Keselowski. All have come at Talladega or Daytona International Speedway, where Stenhouse won most recently in the 2023 Daytona 500.
“This team has put a lot of hard work in, obviously we haven’t won since the 500 in 2023,” the Olive Branch, Mississippi, native told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “It’s been an up and down season. It was a lot of hard work just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this was a track one ours to come get. So for all of our Southern Mississippi people, appreciate you all coming. This means a lot winning here.”
Stenhouse dedicated the victory to the victims of last week’s flooding in western North Carolina. No. 47 Chevrolet co-owner and NASCAR on NBC analyst Brad Daugherty is a native of the region.
“Got to say we’re thinking about everybody in western North Carolina,” Stenhouse said. “Brad Daugherty, his family right where he grew up there in Black Mountain (where) a lot of people are struggling. I’m looking forward to seeing Brad. I’m looking forward to going to North Carolina and helping the cleanup. This win is really, really special.”
Through five of 10 playoff races, Stenhouse became the third nonplayoff driver to win, joining Ross Chastain (Kansas) and Chris Buescher (Watkins Glen) while ending a 65-race winless streak. Stenhouse is the record ninth driver this season to break a winless streak of at least 42 races.
Keselowski, who earlier had been involved in a 22-car crash that sent the race into overtime, came up just short of his seventh victory at Talladega.
“I just needed a half a foot I guess,” the No. 6 Ford driver said. “I got a really good push from (Kyle Larson) down the frontstretch but just wasn’t quite enough.”
William Byron finished third and locked up a spot in the third round of the Cup Series playoffs.
Kyle Larson and Erik Jones rounded out the top five, followed by Christopher Bell, Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin.
The race went into overtime after the caution flew with five laps remaining in the scheduled distance for a massive crash on the backstretch that collected 22 cars, according to the NASCAR boxscore. The race was halted for nearly 9 minutes of cleanup that proved controversial as some damaged cars were towed to the pits, and other drivers had to exit their cockpits.
Among those involved in the crash were playoff drivers Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe.
The wreck started when Cindric, who had been leading, got out of shape after a bump in the left rear from Keselowski (who had received a push from Logano). Cindric’s No. 2 Ford spun backward into the field, triggering the chaos.
Cindric was eliminated in the crash after leading 29 laps and winning the second stage.
Stage 2 also ended with a wreck that involved defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain, who finished last a week after winning at Kansas Speedway.
The crash started when Blaney lost control of his No. 12 Ford on a bump from Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet coming to the checkered flag as they battled for a top 10 in the stage. Blaney’s car took a hard right up the banking into the outside wall and collected the No. 1 Chevrolet of Chastain, who walked to an ambulance after being helped by safety workers to escape a car that was engulfed in smoke.
Blaney finished 39th but remained above the playoff cutline heading into the second-round finale Oct. 13 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Byron advanced to the next round by virtue of being 74 points ahead of the cutoff. Other drivers
above the cutline heading to Charlotte: Christopher Bell (plus-57), Kyle Larson (plus-52), Denny Hamlin (plus-30). Alex Bowman (plus-26), Blaney (plus-25), Tyler Reddick (plus-14) and Chase Elliott (plus-13).
The four playoff drivers below the cutline heading to the Roval: Joey Logano (minus-13), Daniel Suarez (minus-20), Austin Cindric (minus-29) and Chase Briscoe (minus-32).
Stage 1 winner: Chris Buescher
Stage 2 winner: Austin Cindric
Next: The second round will conclude Sunday, Oct. 13 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (2 p.m. ET on NBC)