NASCAR: Chase Elliott wins at Talladega with last-lap pass

A playoff driver has a postseason victory in the Cup Series.

Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass of Ryan Blaney to beat Blaney to the finish line in Sunday's NASCAR race at Talladega. The win means Elliott automatically advances to the third round of the playoffs and he's the first driver qualified for NASCAR's Cup Series postseason to get a win in the first five playoff races.

Blaney was the leader when a caution came out on lap 181 for Daniel Hemric’s stalled car on pit road. The race restarted on lap 187 for a two-lap sprint to the finish and Blaney held the lead on the low line with help from Michael McDowell and Elliott. But Elliott made his move to the top side of the track and got a push from Erik Jones to clear Blaney at the start of the trioval on the final lap.

McDowell finished third while Ross Chastain was fourth and Denny Hamlin was fifth. Playoff drivers grabbed seven of the top 10 spots.

"It was a wild last couple laps," Elliott told NBC after the race. "I wasn't super crazy about being on the bottom and fortunately got just clear enough off of two and was able to slide up in front of Erik."

The race was relatively clean by the chaotic standards of Talladega. It could have gone caution-free for over 60 laps to the finish if it wasn’t for Hemric’s stalled car and the only big crash of the day came in the first stage when a push from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sent Harrison Burton spinning and collected eight cars that were running near the back of the pack at the time.

That crash came on lap 23 of the 188-lap race. The only other incident happened when Corey LaJoie slapped the wall because of a cut tire.

The 12 combined cautions over the two Talladega races in 2022 are the fewest at Talladega over a NASCAR season since 2015. The spring race at Talladega won by Ross Chastain went green for the final 63 laps.

Elliott the title favorite?

Elliott is the only driver with more than two wins in 2022. Sunday’s win was his fifth of the season and it's easy to see how he’s the favorite to win a second title in three seasons. He’ll be the favorite to win next week’s race at the Charlotte Roval and doesn’t have to worry about scoring points there to move on to the third round.

Blaney is now in a good position to advance to the third round too. He enters the final race of the second round 32 points ahead of ninth place — the top eight drivers move on — after winning the first stage and scoring 45 total points. Joey Logano was the points leader entering Talladega but he was caught up in that early crash and scored only 16 points on Sunday. He’s now fifth in the standings.

2022 is the first season where a playoff driver had failed to win any of the first four races of the postseason. Elliott became the first driver to guarantee advancement in the playoffs with his win on Sunday.

Points standings

1. Chase Elliott (Talladega win)

2. Ryan Blaney, 3,101 points

3. Ross Chastain, 3,097

4. Denny Hamlin, 3,090

5. Joey Logano, 3,087

6. Kyle Larson, 3,087

7. Daniel Suarez, 3,081

8. Chase Briscoe, 3,069

9. Austin Cindric, 3,069

10. William Byron, 3,058

11. Christopher Bell, 3,036

12. Alex Bowman, 3,015

Race results

1. Chase Elliott

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Michael McDowell

4. Ross Chastain

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Erik Jones

7. Todd Gilliland

8. Daniel Suarez

9. Austin Cindric

10. Chase Briscoe

11. Landon Cassia

12. William Byron

13. Austin Dillon

14. Aric Almirola

15. Justin Haley

16. Bubba Wallace

17. Christopher Bell

18. Kyle Larson

19. Noah Gragson

20. Kyle Busch

21. Cole Custer

22. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

23. Ty Dillon

24. Brad Keselowski

25. Chris Buescher

26. Martin Truex Jr.

27. Joey Logano

28. Tyler Reddick

29. Kevin Harvick

30. Justin Allgaier

31. JJ Yeley

32. Cody Ware

33. BJ McLeod

34. Daniel Hemric

35. Corey LaJoie

36. Harrison Burton

37. Ty Gibbs