NASCAR's Talladega thriller marred by another wreck-filled finish

Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was setting up to be everything a NASCAR Cup Series drafting race should be. Hard, aggressive, three- and four-wide racing all day long, and yet clean racing, with only a couple of caution flags for small incidents.

It looked as if that was the way it would stay until the final lap. Then, with only a handful of circuits to go, this happened:

The threat of "The Big One" is always looming at NASCAR's superspeedway tracks, and — at least by car count — this was the biggest ever . It's a noteworthy moment for the history books, but it doesn't make the taste any less sour after the latest in a long line of 2024 Cup Series races that have devolved into demolition derbies in the closing stages.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended up winning in a photo finish over Brad Keselowski following the overtime restart, the 13th different Cup Series event in 2024 that has required extra laps. Stenhouse, Keselowski, and Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson were the only four drivers running among the leaders who escaped from the wreckage.

Those four finished in the top four positions, respectively. Nearly everyone else who ended up in the top 10 was a non-factor before the wreck, their results coming much more as a product of luck rather than skill. Of all the drivers who finished between fifth and 12th, Bubba Wallace in ninth was the only one who recorded a driver rating above 75 per NASCAR's Loop Data .

These random name generator-like results sheets can be entertaining when they happen every once in a blue moon. In 2024, though, it feels like they've happened every other week. Even at non-superspeedway tracks, such as at Nashville in June and Indianapolis in July, late-race cautions have turned the field upside down and rendered the majority of drivers' performances up to that point next to meaningless.

With only five weeks remaining before a champion is crowned, it's infuriating to still see such a lack of a pecking order at the front of the field. Larson has been unequivocally the most dominant driver in 2024, but he also has accumulated 10 finishes outside the top 20, many of which have come due to chaotic circumstances beyond his control. That creates a visual eyesore when evaluating his season as championship-worthy, even though Larson is a threat to contend every single week.

Yet nobody else's case looks any better. Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell are tied for the most top-10 finishes, with only 19. Chase Elliott's average finish leads all drivers at an uninspiring 11.9. Larson has the most top-fives, with 12 in 31 races. Simply put, very few drivers have been able to string together long stretches of great finishes this year, in large part because their performances have gone to waste due to the recklessness of their competitors.

Wrecks are an undeniable and unavoidable part of NASCAR racing, especially at tracks like Talladega that feature close-quarters pack racing. However, too much randomness devalues the sport's core objective of rewarding the drivers who perform the best, and it's disappointing to see this trend continue.