Kyle Larson took a major step closer towards achieving his third NASCAR Cup Series championship by notching a thrilling, overtime victory in the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 25.
The reigning two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led four times for 23 of 189 over-scheduled laps in an event where he qualified in 10th place and executed a smooth, methodical event amid the draft with his fellow competitors, Chase rivals and teammates from Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet affiliates. After notching a pair of top-five results throughout the first two stage periods and dodging a late multi-car accident in the second stage period that involved a handful of Chase contenders, Larson was shuffled from the front to the back amid the draft for a majority of the final stage period before he got shuffled just outside the top-20 mark after battling upfront within the final 15-lap mark.
As the laps dwindled, Larson weaved his way through the preferred drafting lanes to motor back towards the front and was racing in second place when he was ahead of a heavy multi-car wreck with five laps remaining that eliminated numerous Chase contenders and sent Joey Logano upside-down. Amid the chaos that sent the event into overtime, Larson was drafted to the lead by Austin Hill and the former maintained it at the start of the final lap before he got shuffled back to 11th place through the backstretch. With the front-runners scrambling to maintain momentum through the tri-oval, Larson seized upon a draft and a run from the inside lane to storm his way to his first-ever win on a superspeedway venue and be on the cusp of his 2026 championship hopes.
With on-track qualifying determining the starting lineup on Saturday, October 24, Chase Briscoe notched his first pole of the 2026 Cup season and the 10th of his career with a pole-winning lap at 186.065 mph in 51.466 seconds. Austin Hill qualified in second place with a lap of 185.949 mph in 51.498 seconds.
Prior to the event, Cole Custer and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to their respective entries. Ty Dillon was also sent to the tail end of the field due to unapproved adjustments that were made to his entry following inspection, in which Dillon was also assessed a drive-through penalty through pit road after taking the green flag.
During the pace laps and when the field drove through pit road, Carson Hocevar stopped in his pit box to have his entry assessed for any damage that a part from Bubba Wallace’s entry appeared to be left in front of Hocevar’s entry. Once Hocevar’s entry was assessed, he blended back on the track and for his 26th-starting spot.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Chase Briscoe and Austin Hill dueled for the lead through the first two turns and in front of two-stacked lanes. As the field fanned out to a three-wide formation through the backstretch and Turns 3 and 4, Hill managed to motor ahead from the inside lane throughout the tri-oval and lead the first lap.
For the second lap, Hill led the latter lap as he had three-stacked lanes trailing from behind. As Hill went on early defensive mode, he primarily stuck to the outside lane towards the outside wall to have teammate Austin Dillon lined up behind him. Meanwhile, Alex Bowman led the middle lane while Chris Buescher led the inside lane. With all but one of 40 starters separated by less than two seconds, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, and Austin Cindric were racing as the highest Chase contenders in the top-10, along with Buescher, as Hill led through the fifth lap mark.
On the seventh lap, the leaderboard shuffled up as Ryan Preece drafted his way into the lead while Hill dropped to fifth place. For the following lap, Josh Berry charged his way to the front as he led the latter lap over Preece. By then, nearly the entire field were lined up in two-stacked lanes from the outside and middle lanes while Ty Gibbs tried to charge his way to the front despite being the lone competitor on the inside lane. With Gibbs able to blend in behind Berry, Berry led the Lap 10 mark over Preece.
Through the first 15 laps and with the on-track shuffling continuing to ensue, Cody Ware was scored the leader ahead of Hill, Preece, Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon while Gibbs, Buescher, Elliott, Austin Cindric and Casey Mears were racing in the top 10 over Alex Bowman, Daniel Dye, Daniel Suarez, Joey Gase, Shane van Gisbergen, Gray Gaulding, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Cole Custer and Kyle Larson, respectively. Behind, Noah Gragson, Connor Zilisch, Christopher Bell, Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Joey Logano, Zane Smith, Berry and Chase Briscoe were mired in the top 30, respectively, as all but one of 40 starters were separated by nearly three seconds of one another. Meanwhile, Briscoe, Hocevar, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney were scored the lowest-running Chasers in 30th, 31st, 35th and 36th, respectively, while Ty Dillon, who served his opening lap drive-through penalty, was pinned a lap down in 40th place.
At the Lap 25 mark, two stacked single-file lines of competitors had formed as Dye shuffled his way to the lead, followed by Ware, Hill, Austin Dillon, Preece, Mears, Joey Gase, Keselowski, Buescher and Gray Gaulding, respectively, while 39 of 40 starters were separated by more than two seconds of one another. By then, Preece, Buescher, and Cindric were the three-highest Chase contenders racing within the top-15 mark, while a multitude of Chasers that included Larson, Elliott, Gibbs, Reddick, Briscoe, Byron, Hamlin, Bell, Wallace, Suarez, Hocevar, and Logano were mired within the top-30 mark, respectively. The lowest-running Chaser on the track was Blaney, who was mired in 39th place. As more Chasers, including Wallace, Hocevar, Bell, Hamlin, Logano, and Briscoe, drifted towards the rear of the field, with all competitors trying to save as much fuel as possible throughout the first stage period, Gaulding, who led the previous five laps, continued to lead on Lap 30.
On Lap 31, Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing’s trio led by Preece and including Keselowski and Buescher rocketed away from the field led by Gaulding, with the three RFK competitors posting lap times within 50 seconds while the rest of the field posted laps between the 52 and 53-second range. By then, the stacked field led by Gaulding opted to reduce their pace to preserve fuel while the three RFK competitors were ahead of the pack by more than 17 seconds at the Lap 35 mark.
The gap between the RFK trio and the field grew up to 22 seconds two laps later, with the latter trio also posting lap times that were two seconds faster, while Suarez led the pack in fourth place. As Gibbs, Mears, Custer, Gaulding, Cindric, Dye and van Gisbergen were mired in the top-10 mark, RFK’s Preece, Keselowski and Buescher led by 29 seconds by Lap 40 before the latter’s group advantage grew up by nearly 40 seconds just past the Lap 45 mark as they also started to reel in on the tail end of the pack that fanned out to three-wide formation.
Then on Lap 50, green flag pit stops commenced within the pack as a first wave of competitors led by Austin Dillon and including Elliott, Zilisch, Allmendinger, Cole Custer, van Gisbergen, Hill, Casey Mears, Cody Ware and Hocevar, with Hocevar getting penalized for speeding on pit road. The following lap, another wave of competitors that included Larson, Bowman, Suarez, McDowell, Stenhouse, Byron, Dye, Gase and Chastain pitted. RFK’s Preece, Keselowski and Buescher pitted from the top-three spots on Lap 51. By the time the latter three blended back on the track, they were mired within a stack of competitors while the top-16 competitors led by Bell, the latter group of which have yet to pit, were out in front by Lap 55.
Then on Lap 56, trouble struck for Bell, when he veered dead left towards the inside wall while trying to slow his No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE entry and peel off the track to pit with his Toyota teammates. The spin caused Bell to hit the inside wall as he sustained damage to his right-front and right-rear areas. Amid his incident, Bell managed to nurse his damaged entry to his pit stall without drawing a caution, but he dropped out of the lead lap category. Bell would then be penalized for having too many pit crew members over the pit wall as he had smoke coming out from his damaged entry.
For the following lap, Noah Gragson, who was trying to pit with his Ford teammates, nearly collided into both Cindric and Todd Gilliland as he slid his entry while trying to enter pit road and drove through the frontstretch’s tri-oval grass. Amid the pit stops, Buescher cycled to the lead as he, Preece and Keselowski were ahead of the field by 40 seconds nearing the Lap 60 mark.
Through the Lap 70 mark, RFK Racing’s Buescher, Preece and Keselowski led the rest of the field by 33 seconds, with Blaney leading a stacked field in fourth place. By then, Gilliland, Logano, Cindric, Reddick, Wallace and Erik Jones were scored in the top-10 mark ahead of Larson, Briscoe, Byron, McDowell and Hamlin, respectively. Behind, Elliott, Gibbs, Hocevar and Suarez were mired within the top-32 mark while Bell was eight laps down in 40th place.
Five laps later, RFK Racing’s advantage dropped a second, though the latter group led fourth-place Blaney by 32 seconds. Behind, Larson, Byron, Briscoe, Logano, Cindric, Reddick, Wallace, Elliott and Elliott were the next closest Chasers behind Blaney as all raced within the top-16 mark. RFK’s advantage dropped another three seconds down to 29 seconds throughout the next five laps (leading up to Lap 80) as Larson was in fourth place ahead of Byron and Blaney. By then, RFK’s Buescher retained the lead over Preece and Keselowski as the latter three continued to lead by 25 seconds over Larson and the field at the Lap 85 mark.
On Lap 90, the shuffling within the pack ensued as Chasers Larson, Byron, Blaney, Briscoe, Logano, Cindric and Reddick were racing within the top-11 mark while Wallace was shoved out of the draft. Meanwhile, RFK Racing’s Buescher, Preece and Keselowski retained the lead by 22 seconds before the advantage slightly shrunk down to 20 seconds at the event’s halfway mark on Lap 94.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 98, RFK Racing’s Buescher, Preece and Keselowski claimed the top-three spots, with Buescher nabbing his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Trailing the group 17 seconds behind was Larson, who secured fourth place, as Byron, Herbst, Briscoe, Blaney, Logano and Cindric were scored in the top 10, respectively. With eight of 16 Chase contenders (Buescher, Preece, Larson, Byron, Briscoe, Blaney, Logano and Cindric) securing the event’s first round of stage points, the remaining Chasers that include Reddick, Hamlin, Elliott, Wallace, Suarez, Gibbs, Hocevar and Bell were scored in 11th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 29th, 30th, 33rd and 40th, respectively, with Bell scored nine laps behind. In addition, 26 of 40 starters were scored on the lead lap.
A lap after the first stage period concluded, Larson, Byron, Reddick and McDowell pitted for fuel. Once pit road became accessible for the field prior to the Lap 100 mark, Buescher led the field to pit road for service, but Herbst managed to exit pit road first ahead of Logano, Buescher, Keselowski, Briscoe, Preece, Jones, Blaney, Cindric and van Gisbergen, respectively. Meanwhile, Berry, Larson and Byron, the latter two of whom had pitted a lap prior, remained on the track and cycled to the top of the leaderboard. Numerous names that included Larson returned to pit road to top off their entries with fuel prior to the start of the second stage period.
The second stage period started on Lap 103 as Herbst and Logano occupied the front row. At the start, Herbst led a long line of competitors with the field scattered through the first two turns and the backstretch before Logano made a move to Herbst’s outside and assumed the lead through Turns 3 and 4. As Logano led the next lap, RFK Racing’s Keselowski, Buescher and Preece along with Erik Jones and Blaney followed suit while the field tried to settle in a stacked pack. Meanwhile, Logano retained the lead at the Lap 105 mark before Jones led for the first time four laps later.
At the Lap 115 mark, Keselowski and Logano dueled in front of two-stacked lanes for the lead, with Jones, Blaney, Herbst, Buescher, Preece, Wallace, van Gisbergen and Larson scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 27 of 40 staters were scored on the lead lap as Hamlin, Briscoe, Zilisch, Byron, Elliott, John Hunter Nemechek, Reddick, Bowman, Hill and Cindric were mired in the top-20 mark over Gilliland, McDowell, Allmendinger, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Berry and Custer. Meanwhile, Suarez, Gibbs and Hocevar were mired a lap down while racing within the top-30 mark while Bell continued to race at the tail end of the field and nine laps down in 40th place.
Ten laps later, Keselowski and Logano continued to duel in front of a lead lap group of 27 competitors that were separated by two seconds of one another. As the field started to fan out to three lanes with shuffling ensuing, Buescher battled Logano for the lead with drafting help from teammate Preece as Blaney was also up in the mix towards the front while Keselowski dropped to sixth place. As Buescher continued to lead the Lap 130 mark, Larson started to ignite a charge from a third drafted lane while being pushed by Wallace before he veered to the left and made his move to the inside of Logano for the lead on Lap 131.
Then on Lap 131, the caution flew when Blaney, who checked up and got misaligned with teammate Logano while pushing the latter at the front from the outside lane through the backstretch, received a hard push by Wallace when he briefly lifted off the throttle, with Wallace being pushed by Elliott. The contact ignited a check-up and caused Wallace to turn Blaney and get sideways against the outside wall as a multi-car wreck ensued. The carnage involved a multitude of Chase contenders that included Reddick, Elliott, Gibbs, Preece, Suarez and Hamlin. Among others involved included Gragson, Chastain, Nemechek and Gaulding, who was at full throttle and nearly weaved through the carnage before he slid sideways and spun exiting the backstretch. At the moment of caution, Larson assumed the lead from Logano as Buescher, Keselowski, van Gisbergen, Zilisch, Cindric, Briscoe, Byron and Jones were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the latter caution period and following the carnage, some led by Buescher and including Keselowski, van Gisbergen, Zilisch, Jones, Herbst, Hill, Hamlin, Gilliland, Berry, McDowell, Bowman, Stenhouse, Custer, Austin Dillon, Preece, Wallace and Gibbs pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. By then, Blaney, Elliott, Nemechek and Reddick were knocked out of contention.
The event’s next restart on Lap 138 featured Larson and Logano dueling for the lead in front of Briscoe, Cindric and a stacked filed through the first two turns and the backstretch as Logano had the edge from the outside lane while being pushed by teammate Cindric. On the inside lane, Larson had Briscoe pushing the latter while Buescher and Byron followed suit. Meanwhile, Logano, who opted to remain on the outside lane in front of teammate Cindric, managed to lead the next four laps amid his side-by-side duel with Larson.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 143, Logano beat Larson by 0.012 seconds to claim his seventh Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Larson settled in second ahead of Briscoe, Cindric, Byron, Buescher, Zilisch, van Gisbergen, Jones and Hill, respectively. With six Chase contenders (Logano, Larson, Briscoe, Cindric, Byron and Buescher) racking up the event’s second round of stage points, the remaining Chasers on the track that include Hamlin, Preece, Wallace, Hocevar, Suarez, Gibbs and Bell were mired in 17th, 18th, 19th, 24th, 28th, 29th and 35th, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, a majority of the field led by Logano and including Larson, Briscoe, Cindric, Byron, Preece, Hamlin and Wallace pitted while the rest led by Buescher remained on the track. Among others who remained on the track behind Buescher included Jones, Gilliland, Herbst, Bowman, McDowell, Custer, Keselowski and Austin Dillon as Zilisch was the first competitor to exit pit road first.
With 40 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Buescher and Jones occupied the front row. At the start, the latter two dueled in front of a stacked field that began to fan out three lanes deep. With Buescher leading the next lap, the next 13 competitors racing just behind Buescher were non-Chase contenders as Gilliland, Jones, Bowman and Herbst were mixing up the competition within the top-five mark. Custer would then navigate his way into the top-five mark for the next lap as Buescher maintained a steady lead. As the field fanned out to four-stacked lanes, Jones, who assumed the lead with 36 laps remaining was leading as Bowman, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Buescher, Custer, Hill, Larson, McDowell and Hocevar were scored in the top 10, respectively, with 35 laps remaining.
Then with 34 laps remaining, Larson navigated his way back atop the leaderboard. As Larson retained the lead with 30 laps remaining, teammate Byron followed suit in second ahead of Hill, Jones, Bowman, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, Berry and Keselowski while Briscoe was mired in 13th place behind Herbst and van Gisbergen. Meanwhile, Cindric, Preece, Logano, Buescher, Hocevar and Wallace were mired in 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 23rd and 24th, respectively, with Hocevar getting shoved out of the draft.
Down to the final 25 laps, Larson continued to lead Byron, Hill, Jones, Stenhouse, Bowman, Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Keselowski, Berry and the field of 23 competitors racing within a second of one another. Stenouse would duel with Larson for the lead two laps later before the former led a lap for himself during the next lap. By then, Hamlin drafted his way up to fourth place as he drafted Stenhouse and Byron, who was scored in third place, continued to push teammate Larson from the inside lane. Amid the battles and shuffling at the front, Stenhouse had a slight advantage over Larson as the event reached its final 20-lap mark.
Stenhouse received the upper advantage over Hamlin, Logano, Larson, Keselowski, Hocevar, Byron, van Gisbergen, Briscoe and Hill with 15 laps remaining before Larson and Byron got shuffled back to 13th and 16th, respectively, during the next lap. By then, Logano cycled his way back to the lead as Larson got shuffled out of the top-20 mark during the next two laps. With Larson trying to navigate his way back into the top-20 mark, Byron was mired in 15th in between Buescher and Preece and Hamlin, Logano, Hocevar, Briscoe and Cindric were in the top-eight mark as both Stenhouse and Logano battled for the lead with 10 laps remaining.
As the laps dwindled, the field fanned out to three lanes as Larson tried to muscle his way to the front from the inside lane. Initially having no help to motor quickly to the front, Gilliland then moved in front of Larson, which allowed the inside lane to slowly move back to the front as Stenhouse and Logano led the field. With six laps remaining, the inside lane prevailed as Gilliland started to challenge for the lead, with Gilliland being pushed by Larson. By then, Logano was pinned behind the lapped competitor of Chastain while Stenhouse started to get shuffled from the lead.
Then with five laps remaining, the caution flew for a harrowing accident through the tri-oval when Logano, who was racing in the top five and still pinned behind Chastain, got sideways off the front nose of Hocevar. The contact caused Logano to veer back to the right, hit the outside wall and as he got hit by Briscoe, roll over and slide across the frontstretch, including the start/finish line, on his roof as multiple competitors were collected. Among others who were involved included Cindric, Keselowski, Suarez, Allmendinger, Buescher, Briscoe, Berry, Stenhouse, Bowman, Hocevar, Zilisch and van Gisbergen.
Notable competitors who took hard hits during the incident were Erik Jones, who hit the outside wall head-on after he got clipped by Hocevar, and Herbst, who barely got clipped by Jones, hit the outside wall on the right side hard before he veered dead straight towards the inside wall and pounded the left side at full speed. Following the carnage, all competitors involved, including Logano, exited their respective entries, with Logano’s upside-down No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry getting rolled back over before the driver climbed out. The carnage placed the event in a red flag period for 13 minutes and 25 seconds.
When the red flag lifted and the event restarted in overtime, Gilliland was leading ahead of Larson, Hill, Byron, Stenhouse, Austin Dillon, Hamlin, McDowell, Preece and Custer, respectively. At the start, Gilliland and Larson dueled for the lead through the first two turns until Larson, who restarted on the outside lane, was shoved ahead by Hill entering the backstretch. Larson then moved to the left to keep Hill behind him amid the draft as Stenhouse launched his attack from the outside lane. Amid two-stacked lanes, Larson retained the lead for a full cycle in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson remained in the lead ahead of Hill, Stenhouse, Gilliland, Hamlin, McDowell, Byron and the field. Then after shoving Larson with a brief advantage through the first two turns, Hill made a move beneath Larson entering the backstretch. Hill’s move allowed Stenhouse to motor ahead with the lead as he was pushed by Hamlin and Hill led the inside lane ahead of Gilliland while Larson started to drift back with no drafting help as the latter was scored in 11th place. Through the backstretch, Hill, Hamlin and Gilliland rubbed fenders, but they kept racing straight entering Turns 3 and 4.
Through Turns 3 and 4, Stenhouse held a steady lead over Hill, Gilliland and the field before Hill, who tried to reel in Stenhouse, dropped below the apron as he dropped off the pace. Through the tri-oval, Byron and Custer reeled in Stenhouse as Gilliland, who also tried to reel in, started to lose momentum with no drafting help. Meanwhile, Larson, who reeled back into the top-10 mark as he was scored in eighth place through Turns 3 and 4 before he moved into fifth place entering the tri-oval, went low and overtook Gilliland, Custer, Byron and Stenhouse. With the checkered flag waving, Larson managed to edge teammate Byron by 0.041 seconds to score the victory at Talladega.
With the victory, Larson notched his 35th NASCAR Cup Series career victory in his 436th series’ start, his third of the 2026 season, his first at Talladega Superspeedway and his first on a superspeedway, drafting venue. Larson’s Talladega victory was also the fifth of the 2026 Cup season for Hendrick Motorsports, the organization’s 15th overall win at Talladega and the ninth of this season for Chevrolet.
Prior to Talladega, Larson held a five-point advantage after he finished 34th last weekend at Phoenix Raceway due to a late-race accident. With the Talladega victory along with netting 16 stage points from the first two stages, Larson grew his lead up to 73 points. With two-scheduled events remaining to the 2026 season, he took a major step closer towards clinching his third Cup Series championship.
“I got really lucky with how everything worked out there,” Larson said on the frontstretch on NBC. “[Today was] Definitely the best speedway race I’ve ever had because of [the Chevrolet teamwork]. I was pissed at myself off of [Turn] 2. I’m like hands off the wheel, just made and then all of a sudden, like I don’t know. Everything just opened up off of [Turn] 4, so they almost crashed into [Turn] 3 and [I was] just able to keep my momentum up. Unbelievable way to get my first speedway win. What a day. Holy [expletive]. Points are great. [Expletive] yeah.”
“It just helped with so many Chevrolets up [at the front],” Larson added. “I can’t really say enough about that. I felt like Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. out there with half the field kind of helping me. I hope you fans enjoyed it. That was a great little green white checkered there. Man, what can I say? Thanks to my team, [crew chief] Cliff Daniels, my spotter, Tyler Monn, for staying patient with me through this speedway stuff that I struggle at really bad. Thanks to my fans for also staying patient with me to get a speedway win.”
Byron, who finished in fifth place during both stage periods and made a late overtake on Stenhouse through the tri-oval, ended up settling in second place behind teammate Larson by 0.094 seconds. Byron’s runner-up result generated mixed emotions for the Charlotte native, with the driver happy for Larson, but disappointed on falling short of achieving his first victory of this season.
“Damn, second sucks,” Byron said. “It’s good that Kyle [Larson] won. We worked really well together all day. If I couldn’t win, I wanted him to win and at the end there, we weren’t really connected together…It’s been a rough year in that sense, but proud of the fight. It’s fun to come to these places and be able to have chances to make decisions at the end. [I] Thought I made the right [move] and then out of nowhere, I’m like, ‘OK, here comes somebody on the bottom,’ and it was [Larson]. Happy for those guys and yeah, sucks to finish second, but it’s a good day.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a two-time Talladega Cup winner, settled in third place while Ross Chastain and Cole Custer finished in the top five. Carson Hocevar rallied to finish sixth while Todd Gilliland, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Hamlin’s eighth-place result was enough for the Virginia veteran to jump to second place in the Chase standings amid issues for his teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe. With a 73-point disadvantage, however, Hamlin was not shy about being realistic about what Larson needs to do to win the 2026 title.
“Truthfully, [Larson’s team]’ve done a lot of things right and a lot of things have really gone right, and we’ve not done that,” Hamlin said. “We got a big old gap. As long as [Larson] can keep his four tires on it the next two weeks, then he’ll be champion again.”
With four Chase contenders (Larson, Byron, Hocevar and Hamlin) finishing in the top 10, the remaining Chasers that include Ryan Preece, Ty Gibbs, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney finished 13th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 27th, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th and 38th, respectively.
The eighth Cup Series Chase event of the 2026 season at Talladega saw 41 lead changes among 15 leaders, and four cautions over 18 laps. In addition, only 14 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
Results:
- Kyle Larson, 23 laps led
- William Byron
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., nine laps led
- Ross Chastain
- Cole Custer
- Carson Hocevar
- Todd Gilliland, six laps led
- Denny Hamlin
- Alex Bowman
- Michael McDowell
- Austin Dillon
- Josh Berry, eight laps led
- Ryan Preece, 23 laps led
- Austin Hill, six laps led
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Cody Ware, one lap down, nine laps led
- Ty Gibbs, one lap down
- Daniel Suarez, one lap down
- Zane Smith, two laps down
- Noah Gragson, three laps down
- Joey Gase, three laps down
- Bubba Wallace, four laps down
- Gray Gaulding, four laps down, five laps led
- Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident, 12 laps led
- Daniel Dye, five laps down, one lap led
- Riley Herbst – OUT, Accident, two laps led
- Austin Cindric – OUT, Accident
- Erik Jones – OUT, Accident, six laps led
- Connor Zilisch – OUT, Accident
- Shane van Gisbergen – OUT, Accident
- AJ Allmendinger – OUT, Accident
- Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, 53 laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident
- Joey Logano – OUT, Accident, 23 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident, three laps led
- Chase Elliott, 42 laps down
- Tyler Reddick, 52 laps down
- Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident
- John Hunter Nemechek – OUT, Accident
- Casey Mears – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Chase Drivers
After the eighth Chase event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kyle Larson leads the Chase standings by 73 points over Denny Hamlin, 74 over Christopher Bell, 77 over Chase Briscoe, and 94 over Joey Logano. The rest of the 16-car Chase field is displayed below.
- Kyle Larson
- Denny Hamlin -73
- Christopher Bell -74
- Chase Briscoe -77
- Joey Logano -94
- Ryan Blaney -107
- Tyler Reddick -126
- Ty Gibbs -183
- Austin Cindric -188
- Carson Hocevar -198
- William Byron -214
- Chase Elliott -218
- Bubba Wallace -218
- Daniel Suarez -240
- Ryan Preece -249
- Chris Buescher -253
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series’ Chase schedule is the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, November 1, and air at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
