NASCAR- The Yellawood 500 sees Briscoe win three times in 2025
By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Talladega, Ala. – Talladega lived up to it’s reputation of being unpredictable. Chase Briscoe has never won at a super speedway until he won the Yellawood 500. His 16 laps led bring him to the Championship Four, joining Denny Hamlin in Phoenix. Kyle Larson was in line to win his first Superspeedway race, but so were quite a few drivers. Christopher Bell looks solid in points being +37 and Larson is +36. For the four drivers below the cut line, William Byron (-36), Joey Logano (-38), Ryan Blaney (-47) and Chase Elliott (-62) all have to win to move on. Carson Hocevar was involved in two late race incidents.
The scrambled finality to qualifying led to unpredictability to how the race would play out. Michael McDowell, not to shabby on drafting tracks, wins the pole and Chase Briscoe is his wing man at number two. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is very good at drafting tracks but qualifies at the end of the field.
Time to drop the green flag
Stage 1 (Laps 1-61) Top 8 after S1
Michael McDowell leads the field to green and the race quickly finds drivers 3 wide through most of the field. Josh Berry takes over the race lead and McDowell falls to 5th. By lap 4, Kyle Busch takes the lead. It is four-wide at the back of the pack. Major lead changes as Berry, Wallace, and Logano run up front. Xfinity race winner Austin Hill is running 6th on lap 15. Preece takes over the lead with Bell running second. By lap 18, Busch goes out front with SVG second and Justin Haley third.
Nearly halfway through S1, the Machines are packed up in the front with three wide lanes in much of the pack. Cody Ware and JH Nemechek trade the lead with Berry .009 behind. Lap 33 finds the field running two-wide up front. Hamlin, who hung out in the rear of the field leads by lap 34 with Berry/Logano 2-3. Lap 37 brings Busch to the lead for the third time, with Brad Keselowski second and Hamlin third. The field is single-file through fifth place. The first pit stops come on lap 43 with Busch taking over the lead. A second wave of drivers pit just a lap later. Briscoe is caught speeding on pit road. Denny Hamlin tries to pit but is shoved to the wall and stays out. Cindric cycles to his first lead of the day with Blaney second and Zane Smith third. With the final pit stops of the stage,On Lap 52, Noah Gragson gets turned by Erik Jones in Turn 3 while battling for the lead, triggering a multi-car accident. Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Justin Haley, Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. all get collected in the incident. Elliott is day done, 62 points out of the top four. The green flag is dropped with two to go and Ty Gibbs and Logano are 1-2. Gibbs is first with Reddick second and JH Nemechek is third. A total of 15 drivers lead S1 among 21 lead changes.
Stage 2 Top Finishers S2
The green flag is dropped on lap 66 with Ty Dillon in the lead and Chris Buescher second. Berry takes the lead on lap 69. 32 drivers are still on the lead lap out of the 40 starters. Anthony Alfredo takes over the race lead on lap 78 with Briscoe and Herbst 2-3. Cody Ware takes the lead on lap 86 before Busch wrestles the lead from him. Busch and Berry trade the lead for x laps with Buescher third. Berry retakes the lead on lap 104 with Busch second and Logano third. Most of the field are racing three wide. The first cluster of drivers pit on lap 107 including Busch. Briscoe inherits the lead with Buescher second.
SVG spins on lap 110 entering the pits with several cars pitting. A caution is thrown after it was apparent he could not move on his own. Byron and Larson barely escape. This is the second caution for cause in the race. The final few laps were mopped up by the 19. Chase Briscoe clears the field again and blocks both lanes. Kyle Larson bumps Chase Briscoe in the trioval, and Briscoe makes a great save. He wins the Stage. A total of 23 drivers have led among the 47 lead changes.
Final Stage (123 to Finish)
JH Nemechek and Kyle Busch lead the field to green on lap 125. Ty Gibbs takes over with 56 to go with Wallace/Suarez 2/3. Logano takes over on lap 134 with Blaney second. Ford has the top 4 cars leading and the entire field is within 1.6 seconds of the lead. Herbst quickly loses speed and pits. While Logano leads, both McDowell and Anthony Alfredo are now 2-3. Berry pits and leaves for the garage.
The race only has two cautions for cause, four total. (150 laps)
Logano continues to lead with 31 laps to go and Blaney is pushing him hard. Hamlin is crashing the party and so is Todd Gilliland. The field is running two-wide through the first 14 rows remaining in the field. Logano goes around Gilliland with Blaney- Hamlin 3/4. Hamlin has improved 24 positions since the S3 restart. Cody Ware spins on lap 165 with 23 to go. This brings out the third caution for cause, the 5th overall. Blaney gains two spots off pit road. Gilliland and Blaney cycle to the lead. Larson and Logano will start on row two. Gilliland drives his 34 out front and finds Larson maneuvering to second to second. The field is running two-wide with Suarez pushing Larson to the lead with 14 to go.
Final Results
With just 10 to go, Zane Smith uses the draft to roll to the lead with Chastainsecond and Gilliland third. Both two and three wide are the norm. Larson- Briscoe- Byron are now 1-2-3. The top 25 cars are .08 seconds apart. Wirh three laps left, it’s Bubba, Byron, and Briscoe. The field is up to four wide with two to go. Buescher is in the lead with Hocevar second and Byron third. Buescher Hocevar pushes Byron who turns the 17, The restart is good to Chevy until Bubba takes the lead then Briscoe goes by and takes the win. Gilliland, Gibbs, and Wallace are 2-3-4. Byron is spun by Hocevar.
Checkered Flag
. In total, 27 drivers lead for a total of 77 lead changes. The best part for Briscoe, was there was not a 78th lead change. Briscoe has won his 3rd race of the season. Briscoe has won seven poles, 15 top 5’s, 19 top ten’s and only 3 DNF’s thi season. How in the world did the final few laps play out for you to win and advance to the Championship 4?
“Ty Gibbs, incredible teammate there. I mean, I honestly would not have won that race without Ty. An amazing team effort. I can’t believe I won a superspeedway race. I haven’t done it at any level. Thank you guys so much. Every time we come to Talladega, this place is sold out. Johnny Morris is here from Bass Pro Shops. It’s not hit me — we’re going to Phoenix.”
They Said It
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT LED TO YOU GUYS BEING A PART OF OUR INCIDENT? “We went through the first cycle and it didn’t work out for us, I thought we did the right stuff there to get some stage points, that’s our priority. Yeah, so then it was just seeing whether we could get it fixed enough to go back out or not, but we had a steering rack issue so I couldn’t drive it out.” DO YOU THINK YOU HAD A WINNING CAR TODAY IF NOT FOR THAT INCIDENT? “I don’t see why not, our Discount Tire Ford Mustang was really fast, and I felt like we positioned ourselves well for the cycle but maybe didn’t have enough cars there.”
Factioids that may interest only me
Kyle Busch leads 26 laps today. The first laps he has led since the Kansas spring race.
Six of Ty Dillon’s eight career top 10s in Cup have come at drafting tracks.
Erik Jones has three top fives in the last six races at drafting tracks, including each of the last two. … Jones has eight top 10s in 17 Cup starts at Talladega.
Talladega has produced ten different winners the last ten races.
NASCAR Fantasy Picks
It has been quite a while since I have changed three racers from my weekly fantasy team from before qualifying to after. It should have been more.
Tale of the Tape
What’s Next
