NASCAR: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. not the big winner at Talladega

Talladega Superspeedway produced yet another crazy NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon, with the "Big One" featuring an all-time record 28 cars and the race featuring a total of 66 lead changes, third highest in any Talladega race since 2011.

JTG Daugherty Racing's Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who earned his first career victory at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval in 2017, found victory lane again on Sunday. The win was the fourth of his career and his first since he won the Daytona 500 to open up the 2023 season.

But the driver of the No. 47 Chevrolet wasn't the biggest winner of the YellaWood 500.

That would have to be William Byron.

The round of 12 of the Cup Series playoffs is considered a bit of a "wild card" round, with not only Talladega but the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on the schedule, in addition to a race at Kansas Speedway to open things up.

With a runner-up finish at Kansas and a third place finish at Talladega, Byron didn't even need to win to clinch a spot in the round of 8.

As a result, the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet does not have to worry about the chaos that could be produced in this coming Sunday afternoon's 109-lap Bank of America Roval 400 at the 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) Concord, North Carolina track.

Byron has a 74-point lead over the ninth place driver, Team Penske's Joey Logano, in the playoff standings. In the event that a winner emerges from below the cut line, the important gap is his gap to the driver in eighth. Byron leads teammate Chase Elliott by 61 points, but without winning, a driver can only score up to 55 points in any given race.

Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell, who sits in second place in the standings behind Byron, is 57 points above the cut line, but because he is only 44 points ahead of Elliott, he hasn't yet mathematically clinched a spot in the semifinal round for the third year in a row.

Byron's round of 8 berth is his second in a row. He also qualified for last year's Championship 4 for the first time in his career. Bell is the only driver who qualified for the Championship 4 in both 2022 and 2023.

Byron's 23 playoff points are fourth highest in the series, trailing Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson with 47, Bell with 32, and 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick with 28. There are still seven playoff points up for grabs in Sunday's race, one for each stage win and five for the overall race win.

Full playoff standings can be found here.

The Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is scheduled to host the Bank of America Roval 400 this Sunday, October 13 to close out the quarterfinal round of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. NBC is set to provide live coverage starting at 2:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss it!