Race Results

NASCAR Cup Series

GEICO 500

Talladega Superspeedway

April 24th, 2022

Race #10 of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Season

Laps Scheduled: 188
Miles Raced : 500.1
Time of Race : 03 Hours 21 minutes 52 seconds
Average Speed: 148.637 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.105 seconds
Cautions: 6
Caution Laps: 28
Lead Changes: 41
Cars in Race : 39
Finished On Lead Lap: 21 (54%)

Ross Chastain celebrates in victory lane — Talladega, Alabama - April 24th, 2022: Ross Chastain, driver of the #1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Photo by Sean Gardner | Getty Images

FIN	ST	Car #	Driver	Make	TOT PTS	F PTS	B PTS	PO PTS	Laps	Led	x Led	S1	S2	STUS
1	19	1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	42	40	2	5	188	1	1	0	9	Running
2	14	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	35	35	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
3	12	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	39	34	5	0	188	3	2	0	6	Running
4	5	5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	50	33	17	0	188	32	9	2	3	Running
5	2	19	Martin Truex Jr	Toyota	45	32	13	0	188	0	0	5	4	Running
6	16	43	Erik Jones	Chevrolet	37	31	6	0	188	25	10	8	8	Running
7	28	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	44	30	14	0	188	0	0	6	2	Running
8	21	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	29	29	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
9	27	48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	36	28	8	0	188	0	0	9	5	Running
10	24	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	27	27	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
11	22	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	26	26	0	0	188	23	1	0	0	Running
12	11	31	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	25	25	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
13	23	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	28	24	4	0	188	0	0	0	7	Running
14	33	7	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	23	23	0	0	188	1	1	0	0	Running
15	8	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	39	22	17	1	188	38	1	4	1	Running
16	6	45	Kurt Busch	Toyota	26	21	5	0	188	1	1	7	10	Running
17	9	23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	30	20	10	1	188	15	6	1	0	Running
18	7	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	19	19	0	0	188	9	1	0	0	Running
19	39	77	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
20	31	62	Noah Gragson	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
21	18	2	Austin Cindric	Ford	16	16	0	0	188	0	0	0	0	Running
22	1	20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	23	15	8	0	187	7	2	3	0	Running
23	15	6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	14	14	0	0	187	0	0	0	0	Running
24	36	15	David Ragan	Ford	13	13	0	0	186	0	0	0	0	Running
25	38	55	JJ Yeley	Ford	0	0	0	0	185	1	1	0	0	Running
26	37	78	BJ McLeod	Ford	11	11	0	0	172	2	2	0	0	Running
27	32	38	Todd Gilliland	Ford	10	10	0	0	121	0	0	0	0	Accident
28	34	51	Cody Ware	Ford	9	9	0	0	105	0	0	0	0	DVP
29	29	41	Cole Custer	Ford	8	8	0	0	98	1	1	0	0	Engine
30	26	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Chevrolet	8	7	1	0	95	0	0	10	0	Accident
31	4	99	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	6	6	0	0	92	28	2	0	0	DVP
32	13	22	Joey Logano	Ford	5	5	0	0	89	1	1	0	0	Accident
33	20	42	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	4	4	0	0	89	0	0	0	0	Accident
34	25	21	Harrison Burton	Ford	3	3	0	0	89	0	0	0	0	Accident
35	35	44	Greg Biffle	Chevrolet	2	2	0	0	79	0	0	0	0	Fuel Pump
36	3	16	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	0	0	0	0	56	0	0	0	0	Accident
37	17	14	Chase Briscoe	Ford	1	1	0	0	56	0	0	0	0	Accident
38	30	17	Chris Buescher	Ford	1	1	0	0	56	0	0	0	0	Accident
39	10	8	Tyler Reddick	Chevrolet	1	1	0	0	31	0	0	0	0	Engine

Race Infractions

GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway

Driver	Infraction	Penalty	Lap	Lap Assessed	Flag
Landon Cassill	Unspecified 3 inspection failures	Pass Thru	0	1	Green
Noah Gragson	Pre-Race to the Rear Unapproved adjustment	Tail End	0	0	White
Brad Keselowski	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	33	37	Green
Ross Chastain	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	35	38	Green
Daniel Hemric	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	57	0	Yellow
Greg Biffle	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	60	64	Yellow
Kyle Busch	Removing equipment from assigned pit area	Tail End	60	64	Yellow
Landon Cassill	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	61	64	Yellow
BJ McLeod	Tire violation	Tail End	61	64	Yellow
Cole Custer	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	89	97	Yellow
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	90	97	Yellow
Daniel Suarez	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	90	0	Yellow
Harrison Burton	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	91	0	Yellow
Todd Gilliland	Pitting before pit road is open Garage	Tail End	91	0	Yellow
Christopher Bell	Speeding on pit road	Tail End	106	110	Yellow
Todd Gilliland	Pitting before pit road is open	Tail End	106	110	Yellow
Brad Keselowski	Speeding on pit road	Pass Thru	158	163	Green

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Race Fast Facts

Talladega Superspeedway
53rd Annual GEICO 500
Race Winner: Ross Chastain
Age: 29
Team: No. 1 - Moose Fraternity Chevrolet
Owner: Trackhouse Racing
Crew Chief: Philip Surgen
Ross Chastain won the 53rd Annual GEICO 500, his second victory in 125 Cup Series races.
This is his second victory and sixth top-10 finish in 2022.
This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in seven races at Talladega Superspeedway.
Austin Dillon (second) posted his fifth top-10 finish in 18 races at Talladega Superspeedway. It is his fifth top-10 finish in 2022.
Kyle Busch (third) posted his ninth top-10 finish in 34 races at Talladega Superspeedway.
Austin Cindric (21st) was the highest finishing rookie.

Race Recap

Ross Chastain captures checkered flag at Talladega on thrilling final lap

April 24th, 2022

By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service

One lap. That’s all it took for Ross Chastain to drop a watermelon and raise a trophy in celebration. The 29-year old Floridian led only the last - typically frantic - lap in the GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Sunday to take his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Chastain was running third behind Erik Jones and Kyle Larson with one lap remaining. Larson pulled out of line to the outside poised to make a pass for the lead. But, Jones pulled in front of Larson to block the momentum while Chastain kept his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet steady below them maintaining pace ultimately pulling away to the win as the other two cars lost momentum battling each other.

“Holy cow, we didn’t do anything,’’ Chastain yelled on his team radio after taking the checkered flag by a mere .105-second. “We just stayed down there.’’

And it worked.

“I’m always the one going to the top too early and making the mistake and there at the end, with like eight to go I was like “I’m not going up there again, I did that a couple times today,’ said Chastain, who earned his first career series victory at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas on March 27.

“I was like, I’ll just drive the bottom, I’m not going to lose the race for us. They just kept going up and moving out of the way.”

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon crossed the line in second, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch while the Hendrick Motorsports driver Larson was able to finish fourth for his first top-5 finish in a restrictor plate race in 31 tries.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was fifth followed by Jones, who came less than one lap away from giving GMS Petty Motorsports and team owner Richard Petty its first win since 2014.

“Just the last lap, it’s typical here,’’ said a disappointed Jones, who finished sixth. “I’ve been close here so many times in this race and the fall race.’’

“Looking back,’’ he continued. “I wish I’d stayed in the bottom but didn’t realize they were coming with that much speed. Tried to defend the 5 (Larson), but was too far ahead already and obviously it opened the door for the 1 (Chastain).

He did take solace in the showing, however.

“Happy to run up front and lead laps, just would really love to get that 43 to victory lane and thought today might be the day,’’ Jones said. “We were fast all day long, had speed and especially being out front there at the end I know we had a shot, just couldn’t quite close it out.’’

Larson was equally as disappointed hoping to turn his best race performance at Talladega into a trophy.

“I felt like I did a pretty near perfect job for me at a superspeedway until the last lap there,’’ said Larson, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion. “I should have faked going high and gone back low. I had that run there.’

“Just that little inexperience there, probably,’’ he added.

Larson’s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott, a former Talladega winner, finished seventh, followed by former DAYTONA 500 winner Michael McDowell, Hendrick’s Alex Bowman and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick.

The race ending capped off a typically dramatic day featuring 41 lead changes among 16 drivers. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron led a race best 38 of the 188 laps and won Stage 2, but finished 15th unable to make up ground after his final pit stop in the dicey closing laps.

Bubba Wallace, who won last fall at Talladega and led 15 laps on Sunday, won Stage 1 – his first stage win of the season – but as with Byron, lost positions in the final laps. He was involved in a wreck coming to the checkered flag and finished 17th in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota.

Elliott’s top-10 was good enough for him to extend the championship lead over 11th place finisher, Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney. He’s now 21 points up on the field heading to Dover (Del.) International Speedway next weekend where the NASCAR Cup Series will race Sunday in the DuraMAX Drydene 400 presented by ReLaDyne (3 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Bowman is the defending race winner.