TALLADEGA, Ala. — Michael McDowell made a daring block on Brad Keselowski coming to the finish of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega, causing him to spin out and allowing Tyler Reddick to take the victory.
Reddick led at the white flag outside of McDowell, but seemingly lost his chance at the win when Keselowski gave McDowell a huge push from behind to leave them as the ones to sort it out for the win. McDowell was a straightaway from victory on the final lap before he swerved from the top lane to the bottom and got clipped by Keselowski. McDowell was sent into the wall and collected over a dozen cars as the field took the checkered flag.
"That was chaos... that's Talladega for you," Reddick said to the media after the win. "I gotta give a lot of credit to Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex. It was just us Toyotas left. They pushed me with everything they had."
Keselowski was positioned to end a 107-race winless streak at the end of the race but had to settle for second. It's the fifth runner-up finish for the 2012 Cup Series champion since his last win in 2021.
Noah Gragson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Alex Bowman rounded out the top five.
McDowell started on the pole and led early but was soon passed for the top spot by usual backmarker drivers Daniel Hemric and BJ McLeod. Austin Cindric beat Chase Elliott at the line to win stage two after a flurry of lead changes.
Kyle Larson started in last place and had to serve a pass-through penalty under green for a car infraction found before qualifying. Larson spent most of the first stage battling to stay on the lead lap but was granted the lucky dog for the start of stage two and ultimately finished 21st.
The second stage featured much of the same lead-changing action but the field slowed the pace later on to save fuel. With no cautions in the first two stages, other than stage breaks, fuel mileage uncharacteristically became a factor in the superspeedway race.
The first crash came on lap 134 when Christopher Bell smashed the wall after contact with Justin Haley. The only other wreck involved Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, and John Hunter Nemechek getting out of line and colliding, collecting Denny Hamlin.
Sunday's race featured 73 lead changes, the most in a race with NASCAR's Next-Gen car and the most at Talladega since the record-setting April 2011 race that featured 88 lead changes.
It's the first win for Reddick in 2024 and the sixth win of his career.
The NASCAR Cup Series is next in action at Dover Motor Speedway on April 28.
