TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. blew past Kyle Busch in overtime at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday for his first NASCAR Cup victory.
It was the first victory for Roush Fenway Racing since Carl Edwards at Sonoma in 2014. Stenhouse, who has led a resurgent Roush team, won in his 158th Cup start.
He was greeted in Victory Lane first by car owner Jack Roush, then girlfriend Danica Patrick, who was in street clothes because she wrecked out of the race earlier.
“We’ve been terrible for a long time, but we’ve been getting better and better every race,” said Stenhouse.
“It’s good to have Jack Roush back in Victory Lane. It’s been a long time since I’ve pulled into a Victory Lane. I had to ask Brad Keselowski how to start a race from the pole because it’s been so long.”
The first two stages of the race were calm, but the final stretch to the checkered flag got heated.
The race was stopped for nearly 27 minutes because of an accident with 19 laps remaining in which AJ Allmendinger’s car flipped on its roof.
The damage was just as bad for Chase Elliott, who got turned by Allmendinger into the wall. Elliott was then hit by Joey Logano, and that contact caused Elliott’s car to lift onto Logano’s hood.
Much of the delay was so workers could turn Allmendinger’s car back on to its wheels so Allmendinger could exit.
NASCAR listed 18 cars as sustaining damage in the accident.
When the red flag was lifted, many of those cars darted to pit road for frantic repairs under NASCAR’s new five-minute rule. If a team can’t fix its damage on pit road in five minutes, the car is ruled out of the race.
The race restarted with 15 laps remaining and Busch as the leader. Any shot Dale Earnhardt Jr. had at winning evaporated moments later when he was forced to pit because of a loose wheel.
A caution was called with 10 laps remaining because Landon Cassill couldn’t get his disabled car off the track, and that allowed Earnhardt to get back onto the lead lap. He was 23rd with seven laps to go when the race resumed.
But no one had enough to catch Busch as the field was setting itself up for a frantic dash to the finish. Then Ryan Newman spun with three laps remaining to send the race into overtime.
Stenhouse got a push from Jamie McMurray to get around Busch and made it stick for the win.
McMurray finished second and was followed by Busch and Aric Almirola, the winner of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. Kasey Kahne was fifth.
Stenhouse led 13 laps – the first time he’d led laps all season, but Keselowski won the first stage. Denny Hamlin won the second stage – his first stage win of the season.
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