By Matt Courson, Staff Writer
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ricky Stenhouse edged Brad Keselowski to score his fourth career victory and second at Talladega Superspeedway.
“We had our Chevy teammates behind us, and I was hoping Kyle (Larson) wasn’t going to push the 6 that hard. I knew the 24 was probably going to try and get to the line there,” Stenhouse said.
“But, man, 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. It was a lot of hard work this season just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew that this track is one of ours to come get. So for all of our Southern Mississippi people, appreciate you all coming. This means a lot, winning here.”
Veteran Superspeedway racer Brad Keselowski finished second by just .006 seconds. Three of the eight closest finishes in NASCAR history have occurred in 2024.
“He (Larson) gave me a good push down the frontstrech, but the 24 was able to really stick with the 47 there and just needed a tiny bit,” Keselowski told Ford Performance. “It’s a good finish for us. We’ve been knocking on the door of these plate tracks. I hate that we didn’t bust through with a win, but I’m happy to be right there in contention.”
William Byron finished third, followed by Kyle Larson in fourth and Erik Jones in fifth. The fourth place run for Larson ties his best career finish at a Superspeedway race in 47 starts.
Chris Buescher won Stage 1 and Austin Cindric won Stage 2. There were only two caution flags for incidents in the opening two stages. Playoff driver Daniel Suarez hit the outside wall while trying to blend in line on lap 11. Ryan Blaney crashed coming to the end of Stage 2 after receiving a bad push from Alex Bowman in the trioval. Last week’s winner, Ross Chastain, was also collected in the incident.
“The Big One”, a massive 27 car crash on lap 183 involving eight Playoff drivers, set up the overtime finish. It was triggered by a push from Joey Logano to Brad Keselowski.
William Byron is the only driver safe heading to next week’s Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL after securing enough points to advance into the Round of 8. On the outside of the playoff bubble is Logano (-13), Suarez (-20), Cindric (-29), and Chase Briscoe (-32).