Olive Branch native Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. came out victorious Sunday night in a thrilling finish to a chaotic NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The 36-year-old driver was able to maintain a razor-thin distance from Brad Keselowski and William Byron to cross the checkered line in an epic overtime photo-finish at the wildly popular Alabama venue. Stenhouse was a grand 0.006 seconds ahead of the two counterparts who threatened a late push.
What a finish at @TALLADEGA!! pic.twitter.com/uMgVnUyalQ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 6, 2024
The Mississippian’s win followed a massive wreck involving 28 vehicles — the largest crash in NASCAR history — with five laps remaining in the race. Officials waived the red flag and stopped action for about 10 minutes.
Big trouble on the backstretch! pic.twitter.com/fsZl9XQV5v
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 6, 2024
Sunday’s feat marked Stenhouse’s first win since the 2023 Daytona 500 and his fourth career Cup Series win as a professional driver. Each of his victories has taken place at Daytona and Talladega.
“Man, this team has put a lot of hard work in and obviously we haven’t won since the Daytona 500 in ’23,” Stenhouse said after the big win. “It’s been an up-and-down season, a lot of hard work this season trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get it.”
