Kyle Larson made a move Sunday that left him on the brink of becoming a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The reigning Cup champ lost the lead on the backstretch but raced back for a dramatic win in the NASCAR Cup Series’ 34th race of 2026, the YellaWood 500, on a damaging day for playoff drivers at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.
The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports driver watched Austin Hill get by him in a two-lap shootout following a red flag and fell back to 11th. Larson roared to the front, got a push from Ross Chastain in the low lane and beat teammate William Byron all the way from eighth by 0.041 seconds for his first Talladega victory.
He became the 13th different winner in the past 13 Talladega races.
“I don’t know, I got really lucky with kind of how everything worked out there,” said Larson, who stretched his lead over second-place Denny Hamlin to 73 points, 74 over Christopher Bell and 79 over Chase Briscoe. “I was so edgy in (Turns) 1 and 2 with (Austin Hill) pushing me … Kind of wandered me up the track. He got underneath me. No fault at all to him. He was helping me great all day.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chastain and Cole Custer finished in the top five.
At the front, the three RFK Racing Fords of Daytona summer race winner Ryan Preece, Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher lined up nose-to-tail and pulled away to lead by more than 43 seconds at Lap 50 as pit stops began under green-flag conditions.
Disaster struck for Christopher Bell on Lap 56 when he had to slow down his No. 20 Toyota while coming too fast to pit road. He looped the yellow car into the inside retaining wall, causing significant damage as the race stayed green. Bell brought it back to pit road under green 10 laps later and lost multiple laps to finish 35th.
Currently third in points, the No. 20 driver dropped 69 points to Larson.
Led by Buescher, the blue oval trio took the first three spots in Stage 1 with Larson finishing fourth. Polesitter Chase Briscoe was seventh.
The “Big One” on Lap 132 created the second caution with 11 laps to go in Stage 2. With Joey Logano’s No. 22 at the point, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott sparked a melee right at the front of the field on the backstretch that collected a number of Chase competitors.
Of the seven drivers with a realistic shot at winning the title, Blaney finished 38th and dropped 107 points behind Larson. Last week’s winner Tyler Reddick stayed seventh in points but finished 37th Sunday and is 126 out.
On a restart with five to go, Logano held on to beat Larson and Briscoe for the segment’s top bonus points.
As the race neared its end with five circuits left, the No. 22 of Logano checked up behind the lapped car of Chastain and was hit by Carson Hocevar. Logano’s car flipped and wound up on its roof as cars slid down the frontstretch and Riley Herbst crashed full speed into the inside wall.
The track safety crew finally were able to get Logano, unhurt, from the Ford, but he came in 34th and is now 100 behind Larson.
–Field Level Media
