Kyle Busch scored his second win of the season on Sunday winning the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Aric Almirola in the outside lane would seize the lead from pole sitter Denny Hamlin on the opening lap. It would be on lap two that the first caution would fly when Michael McDowell would spin around for what appeared to be a broken toe link.
The second caution of the race would come out on lap 44 when Chase Briscoe spun entering pit road during green flag pit stops. Chase Elliott would go onto win the first stage, his first of 2023.
Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney would establish themselves as threats to win in the second stage but it would be Aric Almirola scoring the stage win. It would not be until the third stage that the first car would retire from the race when Austin Dillon and Zane Smith retired after being involved in an incident which started when Harrison Burton spun off the nose of Noah Gragson.
With five laps to go Joey Logano was hit by Corey Lajoie collecting Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Harrison Burton in the resulting crash. On the first green-white-checkered attempt Kyle Larson would get into the back of Ross Chastian causing Noah Gragson to spin. Gragson, Larson, and Ryan Preece all suffered heavy damage as a result.
Fuel became a concern with some cars pitting under the caution while the 17 cars stayed out. Ty Gibbs would run out of gas on the restart. Ryan Blaney would make contact with leader Bubba Wallace spinning him allowing Kyle Busch to score the victory as he coasted around on fuel.
CONTACT AT THE FRONT! @KyleBusch gets to the lead and wins at @TALLADEGA! pic.twitter.com/gGeuVMfqoP
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 23, 2023
Making his 800th career start, Kevin Harvick finished 21st.
Results below are unofficial and still being altered by NASCAR
Talladega Geico 500 Results
- Kyle Busch
- Ryan Blaney
- Chris Buescher
- Chase Briscoe
- Brad Keselowski
- Erik Jones
- William Byron
- Christopher Bell
- Daniel Suarez
- Todd Gilliland
- JJ Yeley
- Chase Elliott
- Tyler Reddick
- Alex Bowman
- Denny Hamlin
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Ty Dillon
- Justin Haley
- BJ McLeod
- Aric Almirola
- Kevin Harvick
- Ross Chastain
- Austin Hill
- Corey LaJoie
- Riley Herbst
- Austin Cindric
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Bubba Wallace
- AJ Allmendinger
- Joey Logano
- Ty Gibbs
- Noah Gragson
- Kyle Larson
- Ryan Preece
- Michael McDowell
- Harrison Burton
- Zane Smith
- Austin Dillon
