Pole worth nothing: How the YellaWood 500 turned from qualifying into Larson’s coup

Bobby Travis · NASCAR/IndyCar Correspondent

Whoever was at the front on Saturday at Talladega often ended up in the wreckage on Sunday, while positions shifted by dozens of spots both at the front and at the back of the field.

The YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was made up of two almost opposite stories. On Saturday, Oct. 24, Chase Briscoe took the pole with a lap of 51.466 seconds, just 0.032 seconds ahead of Austin Hill, while the rest of the top ten was tightly bunched. By Sunday, Oct. 25, almost none of that mattered: Kyle Larson, only tenth in qualifying, won the race after a Big One, a flip and overtime, while several drivers from the very front of the grid never even saw the checkered flag.

From the pole straight to the sidelines

No race weekend shows the gap between starting spot and finishing order as clearly as this one. Polesitter Chase Briscoe, who had come through Saturday's qualifying so cleanly, got caught up in the chaos of the closing laps on Sunday and ended up six laps down in 33rd. Right behind him on the grid, Connor Zilisch (Q3) and Shane van Gisbergen (Q4) of Trackhouse Racing also looked to be on a promising course before both were knocked out and classified six laps down.

Chris Buescher, who missed the pole by only 0.127 seconds as fifth in qualifying, met the same fate on Sunday. Of the top six qualifiers, only Austin Hill made it through, albeit only in 14th, twelve spots behind his starting position. Kyle Larson, on the other hand, who had just squeezed into the top 10 in qualifying, 0.346 seconds off the pace, turned the order completely on its head and finished on top. He had dropped back to 11th on the final lap of overtime before diving to the bottom lane, passing seven cars in the last quarter-mile and crossing the line 0.041 seconds ahead of teammate William Byron. It was his first win on a true superspeedway, after years of trying on exactly this kind of track.

The quiet winners: Gilliland, Hocevar and Stenhouse turn the field upside down

While favorites fell one after another at the front, others used the chaos for strong results. Todd Gilliland started 35th and finished seventh, a gain of 28 positions and the biggest climb in the entire field. Hardly less impressive was Carson Hocevar, who worked his way up from 26th to sixth. According to NASCAR's account, it was Hocevar of all people who triggered the second big wreck five laps before the scheduled finish when he hit Joey Logano from behind, sending Logano's Ford onto its roof. Together with Michael McDowell, who went from 23rd to 10th, Hocevar still delivered a strong result for Spire Motorsports.

Cole Custer (Q20 to P5) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Q24 to P3) were also among the big winners of the day. William Byron fit right into that list with his climb from 17th on the grid to second, giving Hendrick Motorsports a one-two at the front together with Larson. Even further back there were big gains: Noah Gragson went from 39th to 20th, Joey Gase from 38th to 21st and Gray Gaulding from 40th to 23rd, although all three finished laps down.

The back of the field, a wave of retirements and what it means for the Chase

The back of Sunday's field tells, above all, a story of torn sheet metal. Christopher Bell, sixth in qualifying, spun entering pit road for his first stop on Lap 56 and hit the barrier. He was then handed a pass-through penalty for too many crew members over the wall and eventually went out twelve laps down, classified 35th. Chase Elliott (42 laps down, 36th) and Tyler Reddick (52 laps down, 37th) fared even worse after the Big One in Stage 2, while Ryan Blaney, John Hunter Nemechek and Casey Mears, each 58 laps down, rounded out the field. Add to that high-profile retirements such as Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Riley Herbst, Erik Jones, A. J. Allmendinger and the entire Trackhouse duo of Zilisch and van Gisbergen, all of whom went out and were classified six laps down, plus Brad Keselowski, five laps down.

For the Chase, this race brought real clarity. Kyle Larson now leads the standings with 2,441 points, 73 ahead of Denny Hamlin and 74 ahead of Christopher Bell, whose crash on pit entry set him straight back in the table. Chase Briscoe is fourth, already 79 points behind, after his pole counted for nothing on Sunday. With only two races left until the end of the season, Martinsville and then Homestead, where this year's title is decided purely on points without elimination rounds, Larson heads into the decisive final stretch with a comfortable cushion, while his pursuers have almost no room left for further setbacks.