Kyle Larson picked the perfect moment for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega Superspeedway, rallying from 11th to first on the final lap of the YellaWood 500 to extend his Chase points lead by a wide margin. In desperate need of a rebound after his worst finish of the Chase, the defending series champion turned a race he had long struggled to win into a commanding step toward another title.
Kyle Larson (Credits: ESPN)
Kyle Larson Wins Talladega After Final-Lap Rally From 11th to First
Larson took the white flag in the lead, only to lose 10 places after being shoved out of first on several bumps by Austin Hill. That looked like the end of his winning chance, but Talladega’s final lap had one more twist. In a three-wide finish, Larson took the chequered flag by a few feet over Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who had spent much of the race pushing Larson to the front. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 0.066 seconds behind in third.
It was not even Larson’s only recovery of the closing laps. After plummeting from the lead to 21st in four laps earlier, he had fought back to second on lap 184 when a 15-car crash stopped the race for 13 minutes for track cleanup and sent it into overtime. The race also featured a scary moment for Stage 2 winner Joey Logano, who was inverted and slid a fair distance on his roof before the safety team flipped his car back over and he walked away.
Larson Leads Chase by 73 Points With Two Races Left
With his third victory in the past seven races, Larson moved 73 points ahead of Denny Hamlin in the Chase standings with two races remaining. Christopher Bell sits third, 74 points back, and Chase Briscoe fourth, 77 back — and with a maximum of 76 points available in a single race, Larson’s advantage is now a formidable one.
The win also ended a long personal drought. Despite leading the Chase for the past five races, Larson had arrived at Talladega as an underdog on drafting tracks, with a series-worst average finish of 30.6 at Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta, and no win on any of those tracks in 58 prior starts — the longest superspeedway drought among active drivers. He led 21 laps on Sunday and made nearly all the right moves in the finicky draft, where a split-second mistake can cause a huge pileup and many of his title rivals made costly errors over 500 miles.
Afterwards, Larson credited the help he received from fellow Chevrolet drivers throughout the day, saying that having allies is what it takes on speedways, and thanked his team for the effort. With two races to go and a 73-point cushion, the defending champion is now firmly in control of the Chase.
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Source: ESPN — read the full story there.