A look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Winners
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — He snapped a 65-race winless streak with his victory at Talladega. Stenhouse has won races in back-to-back seasons for the first time in his Cup career. He moved from 27th to 24th in the points.
Fans who like parity — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. became the 18th different winner this season. The record for most different winners in a season during the modern era is 19, which happened in 2001 and 2022.
Fans who like parity, part 2 — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. became the ninth different winner this season to snap a winless streak of 42 or more races. That’s the most ever in a season. Others who broke long winless streaks this season: Brad Keselowski (110 races), Chase Briscoe (93), Austin Cindric (85), Alex Bowman (80), Austin Dillon (68), Daniel Suarez (57), Joey Logano (49) and Chase Elliott (42). Harrison Burton scored his first Cup win in his 98th career start.
Fans who like parity, part 3 — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. became the ninth different winner in the last nine races at Talladega — the longest streak in the track’s history. Those other winners were Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Stenhouse.
Kyle Larson — His fourth-place finish snapped a streak of 14 consecutive races at drafting tracks that he had failed to finish in the top 10.
Erik Jones — He finished a season-best fifth. It was his first top-10 result since placing eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500.
Justin Haley — He finished a season-best seventh. It came in his second race since rejoining Spire Motorsports.
Denny Hamlin — He was running 32nd and was set to be below the cutline before the 23-car crash that sent the race into overtime. Hamlin finished 10th and is fourth in the points — 30 points above the cutline — heading into this weekend’s elimination race at the Charlotte Roval.
Losers
Michael McDowell — Pole-sitter was collected in a crash and placed 37th. He’s won five poles this season at drafting tracks and his average finish in those races is 25.6.
Austin Cindric — He was running at the front when contact turned him, triggering the 23-car crash that sent the race into overtime. He finished 32nd and is 29 points below the cutline going to the Charlotte Roval.
Ryan Blaney — Wrong place, wrong time. He was collected in a crash and finished 39th. He has been eliminated by an accident in four of the last seven races.
