Chase Elliott wins after massive last-lap crash at Talladega

Elliott was working furiously to protect his lead on the last of 188 laps, when a wreck involving Kyle Larson, Jeffrey Earnhardt, David Ragan and others brought out a caution.

The caution froze the field and ensured Elliott’s victory – his first of the season and fourth of his career.

"What a day. A huge thanks to all my partners, my team, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet  - there was a lot of teamwork done today," Elliott said. "You guys up there (Elliott pointed to the crowd), you're the ones that really make it happen.

"We just had a plan and we executed really well. Obviously, it could have gone either way but fortunately everybody stayed together and stayed the course and we got a little help on the last lap with the caution.

"I appreciate all the support, man. This is special. This is close to home for me and sort of feels like a home race."

Elliott’s HMS teammate, Alex Bowman, was second, Ryan Preece third, Daniel Hemric fourth and Joey Logano completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 were Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Brendan Gaughan.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Elliott the first off pit road.

On the restart on Lap 117, Elliott led the way followed by Bowman, Larson, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon.

Austin Dillon reported he may have a tire going down on Lap 125 while he was running in the sixth position.

With 60 laps remaining in the race, Elliott continued to remain out front followed by Bowman, Larson, William Byron and Kurt Busch.

A caution for debris was displayed on Lap 132 for debris on the backstretch. All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit for tires and fuel with Erik Jones the first off pit road.

With 47 laps to go, Logano, with a push from Ricky Stenhouse Jr., got around Jones to retake the lead with a pair of Toyotas behind him.

On Lap 144, Martin Truex Jr., with some help from David Ragan, powered to the front.  

With 40 to go, Truex continued to lead the way followed by Ragan and Daniel Suarez.

On Lap 152, Logano moved back into the lead as Earnhardt powered into the top-10.

A final round of green-flag pit stops began on Lap 155 as a large group of Chevrolets elected to make their final stop for fuel in the race.

Brad Keselowski spun on pit road while the Fords made their group stop the following lap. His team completed his pit stop with his No. 2 Ford pointed in the wrong direction.

With 30 laps remaining, Ross Chastain led the way but still had to make a final pit stop in the race. Logano was second and Stenhouse third.

Chastain finally pit on Lap 165, which put Stenhouse back into the top spot followed by Logano and Kyle Busch.

With 21 laps to go, Logano drove around Stenhouse and reclaimed the lead.

With 15 to go, Logano worked feverishly to block and protect his position out front. One lap later, Kyle Busch powered to the point.

Logano returned to the point with 13 laps to go as Ryan Blaney moved into second.

On Lap 182, Matt DiBenedetto, Chris Buescher, Martin Truex Jr. and Justin Haley were involved in a violent wreck on the backstretch, started with Almirola got into Buescher. Buescher’s car briefly got airborne.

A red flag was displayed to clean the track of debris. When the race returned to caution, several cars from 10th on back elected to pit.

The race returned to green with four laps remaining and Logano in the lead, followed by Kyle Busch, Stenhouse, Kurt Busch and Elliott.

With three laps to go, Elliott moved into the lead.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	188		44
2	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	188	0.035	8
3	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	188	0.307
4	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	188	0.422
5	22	Joey Logano		Ford	188	0.422	37
6	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	188	0.791
7	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	188	0.827
8	62	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	188	0.828	5
9	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	188	1.118	27
10	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	188	1.118	4
11	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	188	1.483
12	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	188	1.681
13	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	188	1.682	10
14	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	188	1.683
15	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	188	1.684	4
16	21	Paul Menard		Ford	188	3.121
17	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	188	3.122	7
18	27	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	188	31.853
19	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	188	33.620	4
20	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	188		11
21	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	188
22	81	Jeffrey Earnhardt		Toyota	187	0.783
23	38	David Ragan		Ford	187	0.833
24	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	187	0.980	1
25	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	187	2.787	16
26	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	187	1 lap	9
27	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	186	2 laps
28	51	Cody Ware		Ford	184	4 laps
29	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	182	6 laps
30	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	181	6 laps
31	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	181	6 laps	1
32	77	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	180	7 laps
33	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	178	10 laps
34	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	154	34 laps
35	52	Stanton Barrett		Chevrolet	132	55 laps
36	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	80	107 laps
37	36	Matt Tifft		Ford	11	176 laps
38	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	11	176 laps
39	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	10	177 laps
40	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	10	177 laps