By David Morgan, Associate Editor
TALLADEGA, Ala. – After a chaotic day on the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway, the picture has become clear in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with one race remaining in the Round of 8.
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe have punched their ticket to the championship finale, with wins at Las Vegas and Talladega, respectively, with the six remaining drivers now separated into the haves and have nots.
Christopher Bell leaves Talladega as the best of the drivers not yet locked in, with a 37-point advantage over the cut-off line after an eighth-place result on Sunday, still trying to process everything that transpired on the 2.66-mile superspeedway to get him into the position he’s at in the standings.
“Oh my gosh. I don’t know. That was one of the most stressful races that I’ve been a part of,” said Bell.
“I’m just trying to process it right now. Obviously, I’m super happy for Chase (Briscoe) to get another JGR car into the Championship 4. Really cool for him. I’m just trying to soak it all in right now – I don’t know what to think.”
Kyle Larson was in the hunt for the win late in the going on Sunday, putting himself in position to strike in overtime before his fuel tank ran dry on the final lap, dropping him to a 26th place finish on the day.
It will now be a dogfight between himself and Bell next weekend at Martinsville to keep from getting bumped out should one of the four drivers on the outside looking in win their way in on the half-mile bullring.
“It was flashing at me through (turns) one and two. I was just hoping that maybe we could make it, but midway down the back, it started stumbling and I just got out of the way,” said Larson of his fuel tank running dry.
“It’s unfortunate. I’d rather have a bigger points cushion heading into next weekend, but we’ll regroup and focus on Martinsville (Speedway).”
The #Championship4 picture is coming into focus. pic.twitter.com/D3FKITRvUH
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 19, 2025
Win or Go Home
All four drivers below Larson in the standings are now in must-win territory given the vast points deficits that they all accumulated Sunday at Talladega.
Regular season champion William Byron is the first of those needing a win at Martinsville, still trying to climb out of the points hole that he found himself at after crashing out in the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas last weekend.
Byron was in position to fight for the win in overtime before getting spun on the final lap as the field stormed through the tri-oval, thanks to a bump from fellow Chevrolet driver Carson Hocevar. As a result, he would finish the race in 25th place.
“Certainly, a finish would have helped us be a little bit closer on the points side of things,” said Byron.
“We just lost control of the race. We just couldn’t get the pushes going the way we needed to on the bottom lane. We got the outside lane clear down in front of us, and then the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) ran out of fuel there on the backstretch and that kind of broke up the energy a little bit more. We just couldn’t get it linked back together.
“It was just wrong place, wrong time. I felt like we were in a good spot where I was on the bottom, but we just couldn’t get linked up.”
Defending series champion Joey Logano likewise was strong toward the end of the race, but the run he and Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney were putting together fell apart as the laps wound down.
Both Team Penske Fords would duck onto pit road before the overtime restart, with Logano finishing the day exactly where he started it – in 16th place.
“It’s pretty apparent the second we lost control of the race,” said Blaney. “I’m only driving one car, so I couldn’t really control the race. The car behind me was saving gas, that didn’t help us and killed the whole bottom lane. Cars were pulling in front of us and we were just getting demoted from the first two cars in line to the back of the line.
“We just can’t be saving gas at the end of the race. Ryan was not, but I was frustrated. You just get demoted in the lane as cars move to the front. You’re helpless. You’re sitting there just driving in circles knowing the right thing to do and just can’t do it. I drive one car.”
Despite the odds stacked against him and the rest of those in the same must-win position , Logano remained confident that they could go and challenge next weekend.
“Martinsville’s not a bad track for us. We just have a simple point of view at this point, it’s all or nothing. Stage points aren’t going to matter. Nothing else is going to matter but winning,” Logano said.
Likewise for Blaney, who finished the day in 23rd place, as he expressed his disappointment in how Talladega played out for him, but will look to win at Martinsville for the third year in a row to punch his ticket to the championship race.
“Not the finish we wanted. We didn’t do what we needed to do and we didn’t get help when we needed it. Now we have to go win next week.”
Last, but not least in the standings is Chase Elliott, who was knocked out of Sunday’s race in a crash in Stage 1, dropping him to a deficit of 62 points heading to Martinsville.
