Ryan Blaney wins the YellaWood 500 NASCAR cup race at Talladega, clinches spot in Round of 8
TALLADEGA − Ryan Blaney won the 2023 YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday in the middle race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff Round of 12.
Blaney took the white flag and was the first one back, beating Kevin Harvick by 0.012 seconds. It is Harvick's final race at Talladega. It is Blaney's third win at Talladega.
"I think you appreciate these things more because they are so hard to win, such an up in the air thing, you never know if it's going to work out for you or not. You have to really appreciate whenever you can win here. Really, really fortunate we've been lucky enough to win here three times," Blaney said.
Stage one was won by Blaney and stage two was won by Brad Keselowski. With the win Blaney clinches his way into the Round of 8, joining William Byron.
Solid day for Hendricks
The season has been full of up-and-downs for Hendricks motorsports with only two drivers making the playoffs. Byron had already clinched his spot in the Round of 8 with a win at Texas but was the strongest car through two stages at Talladega. He was second in both stages, keeping 18 stage points for himself. Kyle Larson added 12 stage points to help his spot above the cutline while Chase Elliott earned 13 to help himself in the owners playoff. Alex Bowman added six points in the stages.
Hendricks had two drivers in the top 8.
Toyota playoff drivers struggle
There was some hope for three Toyota playoff drivers going into Talladega. Bubba Wallace came in under the cutoff and was looking to gain some valuable stage points but was unable to capture any. Denny Hamlin found himself one lap down and struggled to earn the free pass, getting passed by Carson Hocevar at the end of stage two for the pass. After a stage one accident Christopher Bell suffered damage to his front bumper and stayed around the 30th position. Hamlin finished fifth, salvaging a tough day for him.
Aggressive three wide racing takes toll
It only took five laps for a third line to form, leading to aggressive racing early in the race. The third line fell behind, sending some of its leaders back to the mid-20s. It led to a crash near the end of the first stage when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ran out of gas and caused Ross Chastain to hit the wall and leave the race along with a lengthy repair to Christopher Bell's front bumper.
Chastain ended the race below the playoff cutoff line.
Up next
NASCAR heads back to Charlotte for the ROVAL, while the dates for next year's Talladega races have not been announced yet.
Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports and Jacksonville State athletics for the Gadsden Times. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Ryan Blaney wins the YellaWood 500 NASCAR cup race at Talladega
