After fuel conservation made for a tame opening stage, the intensity picked up and an overtime restart set the stage for a wild ending on Sunday. That is when Kyle Larson responded to last week’s adversity and went from eighth to first off the final turn to win at Talladega Superspeedway.
Here are four takeaways from the eighth of 10 Chase races.
Kyle Larson finally wins a superspeedway race, regains control of championship battle
Larson pocketed 16 stage points and did what he needed to do to bounce back from the disaster at Phoenix and survive the chaos of Talladega. He even took it a step further on a thrilling OT restart.
Despite losing the lead on the final lap and falling outside the top 10, Larson built up a huge run through Turns 3-4 and surged ahead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. through the tri-oval before holding off William Byron by 0.041 seconds for his first superspeedway win in his 59th start and the 35th win of his career.
