What in the world just happened?
I want to get something out of the way before I say what I’m going to say: I’m a huge NASCAR fan. I’ve been watching since I was around 10 years old, have gone to dozens of races over the years, and always tune into the NASCAR race on Sundays over the NFL. So everything I’m going to say is because I’m a fan of the sport.
But with that said, today’s race at Talladega was one of the biggest embarrassments to the sport that I’ve ever seen.
NASCAR has been struggling to figure out how to keep drivers from running around at half throttle during the beginning of a run to save fuel at superspeedways, and they’ve made changes to the stage lengths and spoilers in order to try to improve the racing at Daytona and Talladega.
It didn’t work today.
For most of the first stage, cars were running around the track at as little as 25% throttle, sometimes going as slow as 155 mph on a day when the cars topped 200 mph for the first time in the era of the Next Gen car.
At one point the top three in the race were Gray Gaulding, Daniel Dye and Cody Ware, if that tells you anything about how slow they were going.
Drivers were even comparing it to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, where fans are able to ride around the track in a real race car at reduced speeds:
The only saving grace for the first half of the race came thanks to the RFK cars of Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece. The teammates apparently decided to try something different, and while the rest of the field ran around trying to save fuel, the RFK cars floored it and nearly lapped the entire field – something that’s unheard of at Talladega.
Well after the embarrassing show that was the first half of the race, the drivers were finally unleashed for the second and third stage, which provided some pretty good racing thanks to smaller spoilers that NASCAR brought to Talladega for the first time. And with just a few laps to go, a massive crash brought the race to a halt after Joey Logano flipped and landed on his roof.
Luckily Joey was alright, and the field lined up for a restart with just two laps to go.
Obviously with just two races left in the season after today, championship contenders Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin were fighting hard for the win. And it looked like Larson was going to have it wrapped up as he was leading on the final lap until Austin Hill jumped to the bottom of the track and brought the rest of the line with him, leaving Larson in the middle with no help and sinking through the field.
But with just half a lap to go, Larson finally found help from fellow Chevrolet driver Ross Chastain, who hooked onto his back bumper and pushed the #5 car from 11th to first in the final corner to take the win.
It was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen.
An exciting final lap, a photo finish…so what’s the problem?
Well before the race started, it was reported that Chevrolet had given orders to their teams to assist Larson during the race, given the fact that he’s racing for a championship and is realistically the only Chevy still in contention:
And if you look at the final turn, Larson got a push from Chevy teammate Chastain while passing race leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a Chevy, as well as his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who were two wide and blocking the track for Ford driver Todd Gilliland behind them.
So did the Chevys intentionally slow down and block to allow Larson to make his way back to the front to win the race? That’s certainly what NASCAR fans think happened:
https://twitter.com/Alyx2448/status/2114473817795944772
I mean, just look at the replies to NASCAR’s tweet.
And to add to the controversy, it also appeared that Larson went below the yellow line while making a pass, which is strictly prohibited at Talladega and would result in a penalty.
@NASCARONFOX Every single Chevy let off the gas AND he went below the double yellow
— Mets Reb-ular season’s over (@SportsRebo) October 25, 2026
Of course as others point out, it was the Chevrolet of Austin Hill that knocked Larson out of line to begin with and sent him back to 11th, but Hill then suddenly ran out of fuel almost immediately and dropped to the back.
Regardless, with the win Larson is now 73 points ahead of Denny Hamlin with just two races left in the season, and could very easily clinch his third championship next weekend with one race still remaining.
It would have been an instant classic finish if it weren’t for the news of the Chevy team orders getting out before the race, but now (combined with what certainly looks to be a yellow line violation), this race is always going to be questioned by fans.
What a shame.
