Ross Chastain makes last-lap pass to win Cup race at Talladega

In a last-lap shuffle, Ross Chastain snuck through to win the Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon.

Exiting Turn 4 on the final lap, Erik Jones led the field in the inside lane but found himself too far out front as the drafting pack behind him neared. Kyle Larson moved high to dart around Jones but Jones went to block. As cars crashed behind them, Chastain stayed low and charged past both to score his second career win, both coming in the past five races.

Chastain, who won at Circuit of the Americas on March 27, joins William Byron (Atlanta, Martinsville) as the only drivers to win multiple races this season.

The crash behind the leaders was first triggered when Byron was blocked high by Bubba Wallace. Byron had to check up and was turned into the outside wall by teammate Alex Bowman. Moments later, Wallace’s teammate Kurt Busch was walled when Larson moved right to pass Jones. Busch bounced off the wall and clipped Wallace, sending him head-on into the SAFER barrier. Corey LaJoie was also sent for a slide when Michael McDowell contacted his left rear exiting the tri-oval.

On Lap 56, Daniel Hemric‘s engine lost a cylinder while running mid-pack in the bottom lane. The pack stacked up and Hemric’s No. 16 Chevrolet was sent spinning to the apron before catching and sliding back into traffic. Hemric was clobbered by Chase Briscoe, who was subsequently smashed by Chris Buescher, ending all three drivers’ days.

On a Lap 90 restart, Bubba Wallace was fourth in the outside lane trying to shove the line forward. But contact to Joey Logano‘s bumper shot the No. 22 Ford to the right and into the wall. Logano bounced back into traffic, contacted hard by Ty Dillon and others in a nine-car accident, the