TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. didn’t just survive the big one, he survived the biggest one and came through smiling on the other side.

The Mississippi native managed to avoid a 28-car wreck with five laps to go and outran Brad Keselowski and William Byron to the finish line Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway to win the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500.

Stenhouse won by .006 seconds over Keselowski — about half a hood length — and .027 seconds over Byron. It was his first Cup Series victory since the 2023 Daytona 500, and fourth overall.

“It felt really good. This team has put a lot of hard work in and obviously we haven’t won since the Daytona 500 in ’23,” Stenhouse said. “It’s been an up-and-down season, a lot of hard work this season trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew this track is one of ours to come get it.”

THE FULL FINAL LAP AT TALLADEGA!

ANOTHER WILD FINISH. ANOTHER PHOTO FINISH! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/lvJVbhj3ST

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 6, 2024

The dramatic overtime finish was set up by the massive wreck on Lap 184. Race leader Austin Cindric was bumped from behind by a line of charging cars, bounced hard off of Stenhouse’s driver side door, and spun in front of the pack to set it off.

The 28 cars involved were the most ever involved in a Cup Series wreck. The race was red-flagged for about 10 minutes while debris was cleared and cars towed to the garage.

“I don’t think we could have done anything much different,” said Joey Logano, the two-time series champion who was running near the front and got caught up in the wreck. He wound up in 33rd place. “We had the bottom working fairly well and by the time we got off (turn) two, the push from (Harrison Burton) that transferred to (Keselowski) that transferred to (Cindric) just at a bad angle. And off he went.”

All of the angles of the Big One at Talladega.

Nearly the WHOLE FIELD involved in this crash. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/zmnsbaqCAR

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 6, 2024

Stenhouse was not unscathed. The contact with Cindric left a large circle of torn-up sheet metal on his door. Stenhouse managed to keep his car driving straight and in control despite the big hit at 190 mph, and got clear of the crumpled pack behind him.

On the overtime restart, Stenhouse led the new pack of 22 cars — many of them damaged — that were still on the lead lap. He took the outside line and raced Keselowski hard for two laps, each briefly taking turns in the lead.

Finally, Stenhouse got a big push from behind by Byron to surge past Keselowski. Byron pulled out just before the finish line to make his own try for the win, but couldn’t get there. Stenhouse held on in the three-wide drag race to win.

“It’s so tough to win these races. It’s so tough to miss the wrecks,” Stenhouse said. “These races are just chaos when it comes down to the end.”

Stenhouse was not in the Cup Series playoffs, so the late chaos and finish shook up the standings.

Byron’s finish locked him in as the only driver to secure a spot in the Round of 8 that will begin at Las Vegas in two weeks. Christopher Bell is next in the standings, holding a 57-point advantage on the provisional elimination line, followed by Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott.

Elliott is 13 points ahead of Logano going into next week’s race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course where the playoff field will shrink from 12 to eight drivers.

Daniel Suárez is 20 points behind Elliott for the final transfer position. Cindric and Chase Briscoe are 29 and 32 points back, respectively.