What Happened?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. barely beat Brad Keselowski and William Byron to the line in a thrilling three-wide overtime finish by a mere 0.006 seconds at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Oct. 6 to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2024.
Following closely behind the trio were Kyle Larson and Erik Jones to round out the top five.
The victory is the fourth in Stenhouse’s career and third ever for JTG Daugherty Racing. It also marks the 18th different Cup Series winner of 2024.
What Really Happened?
Despite there still being one race left in the Round of 12, for the likes of playoff underdogs Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric, their championship hopes are practically over in 2024.
The duo entered the event in a points deficit but had high hopes of leaving the state of Alabama in at least a position that didn’t involve a must-win scenario heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL.
And for a good chunk of the event, they were doing a pretty solid job.
Both Cindric and Briscoe had scored stage points early on and seemed to be putting themselves in a position to leave the 2.66-mile track with a realistic shot to make the Round of 8. For Cindric, who had won stage two and was trading position with the lead in the closing laps of the race, the chance of advancing into the next round with a win right then and there was entirely real. In fact, for most of the event, many likely considered him a favorite to win.
Then, with four laps to go and the lead and possibly the win in his grasp, he got a shove from Brad Keselowski that didn’t quite hit right.
It was statistically the largest crash in Cup Series history with a grand total of 28 cars involved, and it could not have arrived at a worse time for the two Ford drivers trying to keep their championship hopes alive.
Cindric’s day was over almost immediately. Briscoe, however, would have to endure a stream of confusion from the safety team of whether to tow or not to tow the No. 14 out of infield — a decision that would put the Hoosier native out of the race and behind the wall.
The result was the two playoff Cinderella stories all but striking midnight by the end of the day. Both Cindric and Briscoe left the venue 11th and 12th, respectively, at least 29 points below the cut line. It’s not mathematically impossible for either driver to make up that gap in…
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