CUP: Kansas winner Ross Chastain finishes last after Talladega battle boils over in Stage 2
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
SCREENSHOT: @NASCARonNBC
Ross Chastain picked up the 3rd last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway when his #1 Busch Light Camo Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 120 of 194 laps.
The finish, which came in Chastain’s 218th series start, was his first of the season and first in a Cup Series race since February 20, 2022 in the Daytona 500, 102 races ago. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 41st for the #1, the 677th from a crash, and the 861st for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 78th for the #1, the 1,396th from a crash, and the 1,962nd for Chevrolet.
Just last Sunday, Chastain finally scored his first win of the 2024 season, tracking down leader Kyle Busch, whose spin off Turn 2 ultimately led to Chastain’s fifth career victory. His was already the second of four Playoff races to be won by a driver outside the Playoff rankings, but also capped what had been one of the strongest seasons of any driver not contending for the championship. The win was his sixth top-five finish and 12th Top Ten of the year, which ranked him 14th at the end of the regular season, just 33 points short of taking Martin Truex, Jr.’s spot in the postseason. Now, the challenge was again to be a Playoff spoiler in one of the year’s most unpredictable venues, a track where Chastain won his second career race two years ago.
With 40 drivers entered for as many spots for only the fifth time in 2024, Chastain qualified 27th at Talladega with a lap of 53.077 seconds (180.417mph).
Securing the 40th and final starting spot was J.J. Yeley, who put up the slowest time in the NY Racing Team’s #44 Epoxy Depot Chevrolet with a lap of 54.768 seconds (174.847mph). He’d be joined at the back by two Playoff drivers caught with unapproved adjustments penalties on race morning: 21st-place Christopher Bell in the #20 DeWalt Toyota, and 31st-place Daniel Suarez in the #99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet. While Bell only needed a missing bolt added to the rear window, Suarez’ adjustment was to the roof, incurring a tail-end penalty, a car chief ejection, and like Aric Almirola the day before, a pass-through penalty to be served at the end of Lap 1.
Suarez lines up behind Bell just before the green flag. (SCREENSHOT: NASCAR Drive)
When the race started, Bell and Suarez trailed the field by open track on the inside lane behind 39th-place qualifier Zane Smith, whose #71 Focused Health Chevrolet was now up to 37th alongside Yeley’s #44 to his outside. Suarez crossed the line 3.07 seconds back of the lead to Bell’s 2.817 and Yeley’s 2.745. As the field came around to complete the first lap, Suarez slowed and served his pass-through penalty down pit road. He returned to the track 19.713 seconds back of the lead and 17.944 behind the now 39th-place Smith. Stranded without drafting help, Suarez gradually lost more ground to the field, dropping 27.761 back of the lead on Lap 3, 30.355 on Lap 4, and 32.968 on Lap 5. During this run, Suarez discussed with his crew the possibility of choosing the middle lane when the three-wide lead pack caught him. For now, the team told him to wait and see how the leaders were running. On Lap 7, the spotter estimated Suarez would be caught in five laps, and on Lap 9 was told the middle lane was running furthest back of the three lanes. On Lap 10, when he was 46.852 seconds back of the lead, it was decided Suarez would hold the middle lane.
The leaders caught Suarez in Turn 2 on Lap 12, but lane leader Austin Dillon’s #3 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Chevrolet cut to the low lane, causing Suarez to hold up the car that had been running behind Dillon - Todd Gilliland in the #38 Georgia Peanuts Ford. Gilliland then looked low down the backstretch and the trailing Austin Cindric followed, stranding Suarez in a new fourth lane between the middle and outside. After four cars passed him in both lanes, there appeared to be a large enough gap between Cody Ware’s #15 Arby’s Ford and B.J. McLeod’s #78 Chevrolet. Suarez cut right, but misjudged McLeod’s closing rate. Suarez nudged McLeod’s left-front with his right rear, turning Suarez into the outside wall, then sending him spinning down to the apron, narrowly missing cars in both lanes to his left. Under the ensuing caution, Suarez slid into the grass, then returned to the track with a flat right-front tire. Now two laps down, Suarez made a second stop on Lap 16, then returned to the track for the Lap 17 restart, where he cleared minimum speed.
Back under green, Suarez found a spot in the high lane and managed to keep up with the pack. “If anything happens,” his spotter reminded him on Lap 19, “we just can’t be involved.” Suarez was now fighting his car around the track. His steering wheel was still an inch off center, and he told the crew to check the right-rear toe link on their next stop. By Lap 40, the leaders had enough fuel to reach the end of Stage 1, and Suarez was alerted to the increased pace. With that uptick came concerns that someone else would lose the draft, then take the “Lucky Dog” from Suarez as the first car one lap down. On Lap 59, Austin Dillon had dropped to 39th, trailing a five-car draft that was running six seconds back of the lead, and Suarez had also broken away, trailing the draft of Daniel Hemric’s #31 Cirkul Chevrolet. That time by, Anthony Alfredo made an unscheduled stop in his #62 Fortify Building Solutions Chevrolet and returned to the track one lap down – just before Stage 1 ended on Lap 62. But since Alfredo had pitted on a closed pit road, the #62 was listed on the tail end of the lead lap, awarding Suarez the first of his two laps back.
On the Lap 67 restart, the battle was now between Suarez and Alfredo for the next “Lucky Dog,” and a chance to return to the lead lap. Suarez quickly cleared Alfredo on Lap 68 while, behind them, Yeley had a poor restart and by Lap 70 had already fallen 6.789 seconds behind 37th-place running A.J. Allmendinger in the #13 Strive Chevrolet. On Lap 79, Alfredo’s spotter shouted, “23 up top – go, go,” linking Alfredo with Bubba Wallace’s #23 Air Force Toyota. Together, the pair drafted past Suarez, putting them back in the “Lucky Dog” spot with Suarez back to last place. But with the stranded Yeley now losing even more ground, 25.299 seconds behind 37th-place Hemric on Lap 79, Yeley would soon be in position to take the spot from Alfredo. This occurred on Lap 85, when Yeley held the outside lane in the tri-oval and went a lap down, putting the #44 in the “Lucky Dog” spot. But, still linked with Wallace, Alfredo caught and passed Yeley on Lap 86.
During green-flag stops, Martin Truex, Jr. spun his #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota on Lap 95, leaving him hopelessly behind the pack of Toyotas that came in with him. He held the low lane on Lap 96 as the leaders quickly rushed past on the backstretch. And with Alfredo still staying among the leaders, Truex plummeted to 39th, then last on Lap 97, when Suarez finally cleared him. But Truex still had speed, and on Lap 98 clawed his way back past Suarez on his way to rejoining the lead pack. As pit stops continued under green, Yeley incurred a speeding penalty on Lap 101 for running too fast in Section 1, forcing a pass-through that dropped him to last on Lap 103. By then, Suarez had also leap-frogged past Alfredo for the “Lucky Dog.” On Lap 103, Yeley was again caught by the leaders in Turns 1 and 2, putting him a second lap down.
On Lap 114, with the end of Stage 2 fast approaching, Alfredo and Suarez resumed their battle. For now, the spot belonged to 38th-place Suarez, who was running by himself, but Alfredo was closing fast, running second in a pack of cars led by William Byron’s fleet #24 Raptor Chevrolet. This was then complicated on Lap 116, when Allmendinger had also lost touch with the draft and was now lapped in the 36th spot. Behind Allmendinger was the #7 Gainbridge Chevrolet of Justin Haley, who had come down pit road a couple laps earlier, and was also a lap down.
Meanwhile, Chastain was enjoying a strong start to the afternoon, at one point shaking free of a four-wide battle for the lead to hold the top spot for 17 of the first 96 laps. On Lap 120, coming to the green-and-white checkers to end Stage 2, he was running behind Kyle Busch as the fourth car on the outside lane. Entering the tri-oval, Busch ducked out of line to pass Ryan Blaney’s #12 Pennzoil / Menards Ford, which cut left to follow teammate Austin Cindric’s #2 Discount Tire Ford. As Busch side-drafted past Blaney at corner apex, Alex Bowman’s #48 Ally Chevrolet closed quickly on Blaney’s rear bumper – too quickly. Bowman bumped Blaney, whose car hooked left into Shane van Gisbergen’s #16 WeatherTech Chevrolet, then careened to the right. Blaney barely missed Busch, only to cross directly in front of Chastain, and the two collided. The pair skidded across the line with Blaney 8th in Stage 2 and Chastain 10th before Chastain stopped on the apron of Turn 1. Crews arrived to help Chastain from his now smoldering car, his day done. Blaney limped around the track with heavy right-front damage for another five laps before his engine blew in Turn 3, ending his day under yellow. Chastain took last from Yeley on Lap 123, and both Chastain and Blaney were reported out by NASCAR on Lap 138.
Onboard Blaney's car after he stopped his damaged car in Turn 3 around Lap 185. (SCREENSHOT: NASCAR Drive)
After beating Haley, Alfredo, and Suarez for the Lucky Dog, Allmendinger rallied in the final stage to lead nine laps, only to be involved in the day’s biggest accident with four laps to go and finish 28th. Neither Alfredo nor Suarez got their laps back and finished 24th and 26th, respectively. Completing the Bottom Five were Hemric, who tried to escape to the high lane in Turn 3 before the hole closed, destroying the left-front of his Chevrolet. Polesitter Michael McDowell took 37th in the #34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford with Josh Berry, the Kansas last-place finisher, rounding out the group in 36th. Much like Berry’s incident last week in Kansas, many of the drivers listed out because of crash damage may have only needed new tires to continue competing in the race.
As Stenhouse wins, a few other underdogs survive the madness in Talladega
While Sunday belonged to Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who earned his first Cup win since the 2023 Daytona 500, a few others survived the chaos with strong finishes. Coming home 5th was Erik Jones in the #43 Dollar Tree Toyota, his first top-ten finish since he ran 8th in this year’s Daytona 500. Justin Haley’s second race in his return to Spire yielded a 7th-place finish with four laps led, his third top-ten finish of the year and first since Gateway. Corey LaJoie also shined after his driver swap, at one point leading teammate Cody Ware to the top two spots on track before the crash separated them. Ware came home 12th with LaJoie holding on to 18th, each on the lead lap.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*This marked the first last-place finish for the #1 in a Cup Series race at Talladega since July 29, 1990, when Terry Labonte’s #1 Skoal Classic Oldsmobile lost the engine after 6 laps of the DieHard 500.
*Chastain is only the second driver in 2024 to finish last in a Cup race after leading a lap in the same event. The other was Chris Buescher, who led 2 laps at Las Vegas on March 3rd.
*This marks only the seventh time a Cup race at Talladega saw a last-place finisher lead at least one lap, and is the second-most laps completed by any of those drivers. The record remains 11 laps, scored by Kevin Harvick, who was disqualified from a 2nd-place finish in this race last year.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #1-Ross Chastain / 120 laps / crash / led 17 laps
39) #12-Ryan Blaney / 124 laps / crash / led 6 laps
38) #31-Daniel Hemric / 183 laps / crash / led 1 lap
37) #34-Michael McDowell / 183 laps / crash / led 42 laps
36) #4-Josh Berry / 183 laps / crash
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Stewart-Haas Racing (5)
2nd) Penske Racing (4)
3rd) Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Spire Motorsports (3)
4th) Rick Ware Racing, Trackhouse Racing (2)
5th) Front Row Motorsports, Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing (1)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Ford (16)
2nd) Chevrolet (10)
3rd) Toyota (4)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
