The NASCAR YellaWood 500 race concluded with a photo finish as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. edged out Brad Keselowski by a mere 0.006 seconds. It marked the season’s third photo finish — the first unfolded at Atlanta during the second race of the regular season where Daniel Suarez narrowly defeated Ryan Blaney by 0.003 seconds.
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The second occurred at Kansas with Kyle Larson slipping past Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds. However, these nail-biting finishes didn’t necessarily mean that overtaking was a breeze.
NASCAR recently showcased the intensity of the race on social media, posting a snapshot and a YouTube video capturing the cars spread four-wide at the end of Stage 1.
The YouTube video was titled, “Wild four-wide racing for the lead during Stage 1 at Talladega,” and the picture on X bore the caption, “This was something special,“ stressing the race’s neck-to-neck competitiveness.
Despite the spectacle, the difficulty drivers faced in passing each other seemed as prevalent at Talladega as on other tracks, stating the Next Gen cars’ inability to execute passes.
The move sparked a backlash from fans who criticized NASCAR for portraying an unrealistic image of the race on X, with one fan pointing out, “Cars at half throttle saving gas in a parade? Hmm.“ Another fan drew a comparison to everyday traffic, noting, “No, it was like watching LA traffic were 4 cars are holding everyone back.“
This was something special. 👏 pic.twitter.com/Mx8D5HoQOQ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 7, 2024
A third expressed frustration with the current format, suggesting, “You can see this on any interstate any day of the week, this truly sucks. Just make stages not have breaks and you’ll fix this, have your cake and eat it too.”
A longtime NASCAR enthusiast shared a blunt assessment, “As a long-time NASCAR fan, I do not consider this good racing. I see a mess waiting to happen. Again, I do not consider this good racing.” Echoing the sentiment, another fan highlighted the most possible strategy behind the picture, saying, “Until u realize they were fuel saving.”
Superspeedway races over the past few years often saw the entire pack deliberately slowing down to conserve fuel. The tactical move was likely at play toward the end of Stage 1, leading to the four-wide racing.
What has been the most electrifying Talladega NASCAR race to date?
It could be a debatable topic, but according to Darrell Waltrip, the 2010 GEICO 500 takes the crown as the greatest Talladega race ever. The race set a record with 88 lead changes among 29 different drivers, shattering the previous record of 75 set in the 1984 Winston 500.
87 of these changes occurred during the regulation period, and it wasn’t due to tire wear like in this year’s Bristol race but was fueled by the sheer number of overtakes executed in the Gen-6 cars. Kevin Harvick won the race by a margin of .012 seconds over Jamie McMurray.
The following year, in 2011, the GEICO 500 race matched the 88 lead changes but this time it was Jimmie Johnson who narrowly beat Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon by just 0.002 seconds. The most lead changes in a YellaWood 500 occurred in 2011, with the number reaching 72.
This year’s YellaWood 500 featured 66 lead changes among 24 drivers, while the GEICO 500 during the regular season saw 73 lead changes across 23 drivers.
