Relive the big wrecks and photo finish at Talladega Superspeedway as NASCAR's top drivers looked to lock in a spot in the Round of 8.
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00:00Let's get ready to go, time to bring the action, you betcha, the action, like nowhere else and a track like nowhere else.
00:17This is Talladega, this is the Yellow and 500, let's go!
00:21McDowell's got his teammate Todd Gilliland right behind, giving him a nice push, Cedric on the high side.
00:32The front row guys are working well together, straight from the drop of the green.
00:51You can already see toward the back of the pack, the drivers are trying to make that outside line work three wide.
01:18Brad keselowski was one of those, he's up on that third lane.
01:23Saw a good shot earlier of Joey Logano, and this is Daniel Suarez having to serve a drive-through, a pass-through penalty, unapproved changes to the car, specifically the roof, and this is going to hurt.
01:35Lee, we saw that early shuffle that took Denny Hamlin from an eighth place starting spot to the very back of the pack.
01:41There he is now, riding around in the back, and it makes you wonder if the driver thought this was okay, if this was something he did or didn't intend to do.
01:48If he was just dropping back on his own, here's what he had to say.
01:51Well, that sucked.
01:54Succinctly, that sucked. He didn't necessarily want that to happen, but now Jeff, he's just got to deal with it and race from there.
02:00Off to a fast-flying start in the Yellowwood 500.
02:03However, we have come to a slower pace the first portion of the day, and it involves track house racing's Daniel Suarez, the driver who had to serve a penalty, do a pass-through, and then the pack caught him, Jeff.
02:16He did, he did, Pat. He did, the pack caught him.
02:18And instead of just going to the top or the bottom, he decided to try to go to the middle.
02:22He was trying to catch the pack so that he didn't lose it, so he didn't get lapped again.
02:27But watch right here. He's, everybody's getting by him. He tries to move up.
02:33And when he does, there's the 78 of B.J. McLeod, and he ends up spitting himself out.
02:39I just, that is an overreaction. Like, that was too much being afraid of getting lapped twice.
02:45Had he gotten to the back of this pack, Steve, with as big of a turbulence as I believe he could have stayed on to the back and just stayed one lap down.
02:53That's totally on Daniel Suarez, 100%.
02:56I'm not sure that view back there is any different. You look ahead and you say, 4 wide, 7 deep.
03:02Is this really a mess I want to get into? I mean, it looks like a formation lap.
03:05It doesn't appear that this could possibly be a group of cars going nearly 200 miles an hour.
03:11You wonder why I used to wake up nervous here, Jeff.
03:13Yeah, I know.
03:14I mean, this is it. I mean, if one person makes a mistake, one person just, this judges it by a foot.
03:21He's going to take a lot of people with him.
03:23You mentioned earlier, Jeff, and every single driver talks about it.
03:27It's the energy in the pack.
03:29What does that feel like from the driver's seat?
03:31Oh, it's, the car is buffing around. It's moving all over the place.
03:34You're trying to figure out, is there any energy coming from behind me?
03:38What is going on in the front?
03:40Now, you know, you're pretty much, pretty much locked in.
03:44Unless somebody leaves you a hole that you can dive into, you kind of have to just try to push your lane.
03:50Four wide has become two.
03:56And Ricky Stenhouse Jr. leads Kyle Larson.
04:04There are enough disruptors at the front of this pack, non-playoff drivers, I mean.
04:11In important positions to frustrate the playoff drivers.
04:15Watch that outside line.
04:17Chris Buescher getting the push from Tyler Reddick, who won here in the spring.
04:25Remember where that start-finish is, way past the travel.
04:30Here they come.
04:34Final lap, stage one.
04:36Chris Buescher gets a little break away from the pack, gets ahead of Ricky Stenhouse.
04:43And Chris Buescher will win stage one here at Talladega.
04:48We're gearing up to restart. Let's begin stage two.
04:51And we're going to check in and listen to Trey Poole, the spotter, for the nine of Chase Elliott.
04:57Here we go.
05:00We're good.
05:01Good roll. Stand by here. Stand by. Stand by.
05:05Alright, clear to move.
05:09There's only about ten in line on the top.
05:14Already a third line forming.
05:18Going to get tight here. Tight, tight, tight, tight.
05:24This pack is now going to get slower.
05:26Three-wide does not have the energy. Some are pitting.
05:29That's going to get it back to two-wide.
05:33So now is the... Oh, whoa!
05:35Martin Truex Jr. spun around on pit entry.
05:37He's got to back out. No damage.
05:40But now they're going to have to change tires on the 19.
05:42I would imagine after that long slide.
05:44So everyone else is going to assume take fuel only, Parker.
05:47Christopher Bell led the Toyotas down here.
05:49He will do fuel only.
05:50As you saw, the 19 spinning.
05:52That'll break up their cars, Dave.
05:54Denny Hamlin, fuel only. He is gone.
06:00You see how difficult it is to get to pit road.
06:04And we see this over and over, Steve,
06:07trying to get to pit road on these big racetracks.
06:10Incidents happen.
06:11Look at the points.
06:13Look how close it is.
06:17Denny Hamlin in 18th place.
06:19Got no stage points in the first stage.
06:26It's just biding the time or maybe no options.
06:29Can someone mount a charge in this final lap of the second stage?
06:33At the moment, there's only four playoff drivers in the top ten.
06:37Make that five now with Bowman.
06:39It's been strong again, which has been the storyline
06:42post the Olympic break.
06:46Here comes the pack into the tri-oval.
06:49Who's going to grab the points?
06:51Logano pulls out of the line.
06:52He's going for it.
06:53So too is Larsen.
06:55Here comes Joey Logano with a big stomp.
06:57Boom!
06:58Ryan Blaney at the end of stage two.
07:04Ross Chastain as well.
07:07The reigning Cup Series champ has a big one right on the line
07:12at the end of the second stage.
07:14That is huge right there.
07:18That has major consequences to the playoffs.
07:24Let's show you some replays on what transpired
07:26coming to the line to complete the stage.
07:29Bowman with just a push trying to get to the start-finish line
07:33to get the best finish.
07:35And the cars get very light in the tri-oval.
07:39There's not as much banking there.
07:41The cars aren't planted in the racetrack.
07:43And a little bit of push just gets Blaney out of control.
07:47And a huge impact for both the 12 of Blaney,
07:51the 1 of Chastain.
07:53Watch this and listen.
07:56Boom!
07:59Just an enormous impact to that outside safer barrier.
08:05And watch behind this.
08:07The 22 and the 11, both playoff drivers.
08:1022 impact, 11 also.
08:13Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace form that front row.
08:17Ready to get the signal to go.
08:20The Yellowwood 500, the final stage.
08:23Let's do it.
08:34Opening two stages, very different.
08:37Pretty much formation and rhythmic in the first stage.
08:40Second stage had varied strategies
08:43and was certainly more mixed.
08:45What are we in store for here over the next 61 laps?
08:48Chaos. That's what my guess is going to be.
08:51I'm not sure when it's going to happen.
08:53They're catching 38 car.
08:56Remember, he served a penalty.
08:58They're going to try to get around him.
09:00Todd's going to probably stay right to the bottom.
09:02This late in the race is no need of playing games with this.
09:07This is what happened to A.J. Armendinger earlier.
09:11And look at that.
09:12Look at the speed of the pack.
09:14Here we go.
09:15Sendrick's gone.
09:16So too is Logano.
09:18Harrison Burton's in there.
09:21The whole field.
09:22My goodness.
09:25Something stacked everybody up on the front two rows.
09:32The push has got...
09:33Something happened to slow them down.
09:35Look at this mess.
09:37With five to go, we got this far.
09:41Logano's in it.
09:45Logano went pretty early.
09:46Here's Gilliland trying to get back to it.
09:48Here it is.
09:49We were looking at the back of the pack.
09:51I knew something happened at the front to get everybody stacked up.
09:54Watch the bottom row.
09:57Right there.
09:59The 2 got so far out in front of the 6.
10:04And then with all the pushing and shoving, when he got to the 2 car,
10:09he was going so fast right here.
10:11Boom!
10:12And around he goes.
10:13He got there, and he was also kind of moving from right to left.
10:17It happened so quick.
10:19Look at the push.
10:20This is what I saw.
10:21And the 22 was getting pushed by the 21.
10:24The 21 was getting pushed by the car behind him.
10:27It all happened because the 2 got out so far.
10:31And that got mixed up when they passed the lap car of Gilliland.
10:35That changed the energy of the pack.
10:38That was a big hit to the left side of the 47.
10:41Unbelievable.
10:42The 47 was able to keep it straight.
10:45If we watch that again, watch this 2 car right here.
10:47Gets pushed.
10:48Bang!
10:49Right off the 47, Stenhouse is able to keep it straight.
10:53Look at the 9.
10:54Chase Elliott, big impact.
10:57Are you ready to go?
10:59The big one is done.
11:00We've got a race to finish.
11:02And there's a race to be won.
11:05The Yellowwood 500 here at Talladega Super Speedway
11:08going into overtime.
11:10The fans on their feet.
11:13Let's go!
11:14Who's got the magic on the big track?
11:23They played nice for so long.
11:28But now the gloves are off in overtime.
11:30The outside lane has more cars lined up.
11:33Here comes Tristan Brabell to the 5.
11:37Look at Kyle Busch, that blue 8 on the top line.
11:42Doing what he can.
11:43Eric Jones in the pink and white car in the mix.
11:46Keselowski on the low line.
11:50Both front rows got separated from each other.
11:53Now they're trying to get hooked back up.
11:55White flag out.
11:57Next flag will end the race.
11:59Kyle Busch to the outside.
12:01Overtime presented by Credit One Bank.
12:04Who's got the magic in these final 2.5 miles?
12:07Busch is out of it.
12:08He's been sent back.
12:10Stenhouse in the green and white machine.
12:12William Byron.
12:13Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson in the 5.
12:18We've had some dramatic finishes this year.
12:20And it's got that feeling about it again.
12:26Keselowski got it.
12:29Keselowski got bounced out of the playoffs at the last round.
12:35The built submarine's car is in front.
12:37But for how much longer?
12:39Here comes Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12:42Through the tri-oval.
12:43Keselowski down low.
12:45Stenhouse high.
12:46Byron goes for it on the outside.
12:50Poor dude.
12:53Oh, did we get it?
12:56Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
12:58We got it back.
13:00Wins for the first time since he won the Daytona 500.
13:06Check out how close this was.
13:11Wow.
13:13Six thousandths of a second.
13:15Six thousandths of a second.
13:20And that'll get it.
13:22Keselowski's going to relive this one.
13:24Watch right here.
13:28Brad gets the big push from Larson.
13:31But just not enough.
13:35Why is William Byron highlighted in yellow, fellas?
13:38He advances to the round of eight.
13:40He advanced with points.
13:41He didn't take a win.
13:42Bell has to be feeling good as well as Larson.
13:44Hamlin.
13:45Maybe even Bowman.
13:46But then it starts to get very tight down there around the cut line
13:49with a roval next week.