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Chase Elliott earned a trip to the Playoffs’ Round of 8 when he won Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The victory was Elliott’s fifth of the season in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. It was the 18th win of the 2020 champion’s career.

He led four times for 10 laps Sunday.

“These things are so so hard to win, you gotta enjoy them and just appreciate everyone’s effort today,” Elliott said.

Finishing second was Ryan Blaney of Team Penske.

Michael McDowell was third while Ross Chastain was fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.

Erik Jones of Richard Petty Motorsports was sixth after having the lead on the final restart of the day.

Jones was narrowly out front when, with six laps to go, the caution flag waved after the car of Daniel Hemric stalled on pit road.

The race went green with two laps to go and Blaney went right to the lead on the low line.

On the final lap, Elliott pulled even but coming out of Turn 4, Elliott made his move. He took the lead and beat Blaney to the finish line by .046 seconds.

“It was a wild last couple laps,” Elliott said. “I wasn’t super crazy about being on the bottom and fortunately I got just clear enough off of [Turn] 2 to slide up in front of Erik [Jones] and he gave me some great shoves, obviously a Team Chevy partner there. Just had a good enough run to get out front and then was able to stay far enough in front of Ryan [Blaney] at the line to get it done.”

“I’ll look at it probably pick at a few things I probably should have done different,” Blaney said, “wish I would have done different, but it’s easy to say that now. Overall, it was a decent day. It just stinks to be that close to our first win of the season.”

Racing heads to the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield road course next for the final race in the Playoffs’ Round of 12.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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NASCAR Cup Series Race – 54th Annual YellaWood 500

Talladega Superspeedway

Talladega, Alabama

Sunday, October 2, 2022

1. (16)  Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 188.
2. (19)  Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 188.
3. (29)  Michael McDowell, Ford, 188.
4. (6)  Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 188.
5. (3)  Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 188.
6. (12)  Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 188.
7. (34)  Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 188.
8. (14)  Daniel Suarez (P), Chevrolet, 188.
9. (17)  Austin Cindric # (P), Ford, 188.
10. (5)  Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 188.
11. (33)  Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 188.
12. (9)  William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 188.
13. (20)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.
14. (4)  Aric Almirola, Ford, 188.
15. (21)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 188.
16. (27)  Bubba Wallace (P), Toyota, 188.
17. (1)  Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, 188.
18. (2)  Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 188.
19. (7)  Noah Gragson(i) (P), Chevrolet, 188.
20. (26)  Kyle Busch, Toyota, 188.
21. (28)  Cole Custer, Ford, 188.
22. (25)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 188.
23. (30)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.
24. (18)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 188.
25. (23)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 188.
26. (22)  Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 188.
27. (11)  Joey Logano (P), Ford, 188.
28. (8)  Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 187.
29. (24)  Kevin Harvick, Ford, 187.
30. (31)  Justin Allgaier(i), Chevrolet, 186.
31. (36)  JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 184.
32. (37)  Cody Ware, Ford, 184.
33. (35)  BJ McLeod(i), Ford, 182.
34. (13)  Daniel Hemric(i), Chevrolet, Electrical, 180.
35. (32)  Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, Accident, 44.
36. (15)  Harrison Burton #, Ford, Accident, 23.
37. (10)  Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, Accident, 23.

Average Speed of Race Winner:  153.569 mph.

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 15 Mins, 23 Secs. Margin of Victory:  0.046 Seconds.

Caution Flags:  6 for 25 laps.

Lead Changes:  57 among 17 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   C. Bell (P) 0;A. Almirola 1-2;R. Chastain (P) 3-5;A. Almirola 6-7;R. Chastain (P) 8-13;E. Jones 14-15;R. Chastain (P) 16;E. Jones 17-20;R. Chastain (P) 21-22;E. Jones 23-25;C. LaJoie 26;K. Busch 27-29;D. Suarez (P) 30;C. Elliott (P) 31-33;D. Suarez (P) 34;A. Almirola 35;D. Hamlin (P) 36-38;A. Almirola 39;D. Hamlin (P) 40-42;A. Almirola 43;D. Hamlin (P) 44-50;C. Custer 51-52;D. Hamlin (P) 53-55;W. Byron (P) 56;D. Hamlin (P) 57-59;R. Blaney (P) 60-61;M. Truex Jr. 62;K. Larson (P) 63-64;E. Jones 65-66;R. Blaney (P) 67-71;E. Jones 72;A. Almirola 73-76;T. Gilliland # 77;E. Jones 78;A. Almirola 79-103;T. Reddick 104-110;K. Larson (P) 111-112;T. Reddick 113-115;K. Larson (P) 116;T. Reddick 117;K. Larson (P) 118-119;C. Elliott (P) 120-122;L. Cassill(i) 123;C. Elliott (P) 124-126;E. Jones 127;C. Buescher 128;R. Chastain (P) 129-152;R. Blaney (P) 153-160;D. Hamlin (P) 161;K. Larson (P) 162;R. Blaney (P) 163-168;E. Jones 169;R. Blaney (P) 170;E. Jones 171;R. Blaney (P) 172-179;E. Jones 180-186;R. Blaney (P) 187;C. Elliott (P) 188.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ross Chastain (P) 5 times for 36 laps; Aric Almirola 7 times for 36 laps; Ryan Blaney (P) 7 times for 31 laps; Erik Jones 10 times for 23 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 6 times for 20 laps; Tyler Reddick 3 times for 11 laps; Chase Elliott (P) 4 times for 10 laps; Kyle Larson (P) 5 times for 8 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 3 laps; Daniel Suarez (P) 2 times for 2 laps; Cole Custer 1 time for 2 laps; Corey LaJoie 1 time for 1 lap; Landon Cassill(i) 1 time for 1 lap; Martin Truex Jr. 1 time for 1 lap; William Byron (P) 1 time for 1 lap; Todd Gilliland # 1 time for 1 lap; Chris Buescher 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 12,11,9,2,22,47,18,5,48,43

Stage #2 Top Ten: 9,31,5,99,43,1,77,17,16,14

 

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