Isn’t Talladega supposed to be this week?
Seriously, what just happened?
What a weekend, huh?
You probably already knew this, but there’s a lot of crossover between fans of NASCAR and college football. This past Saturday-Sunday rocked their worlds.
On the heels of that crazy day of college ball, where the top-10 rankings were tossed into a bingo hopper, we saw the Cup Series standings go full tilt. With three weeks remaining, we have ourselves quite a Chase, don’t we?
As mentioned above, that type of crazy was expected this weekend at Talladega. Lord knows what ’Dega can cook up to top all of the reshuffling at Phoenix.
In fact, don’t ask. One thing we don’t need to do is issue a dare to the Talladega racing gods.
How crazy was Sunday? Just look who won — Tyler Reddick!
Remember Tyler? Many of us assumed he’d retired to his native California and opened an avocado stand. Then, all of a sudden, there he was again, back in Victory Lane, probably thinking, “Man, this place looks just like it did when I was younger.”
Let’s try to make sense of all this, and maybe more …
TYLER REDDICK WINS IN PHOENIX! pic.twitter.com/oT5Wbu19Hn
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 18, 2026
First Gear: Kyle Larson was overdue for crappy day
Kyle Larson was due and you were warned. Or promised, depending on your rooting interests.
In the 26-race regular season, Kyle had nine finishes of 30th or worse, due to a variety of reasons. That’s over a third of the races, by my math, and maybe yours too.
But while you might find Kyle deep in the finishing order due to mechanical failure or wreck, you just don’t find him buried in the field with inept equipment.
Until Sunday, when he just couldn’t negotiate any speed out of his No. 5 Chevy. We thought it was just a freak occurrence when he qualified 22nd Saturday, but nope, it was a signal. He was headed to a finish in the 20s, most likely, before a tire blew and sent him home early, with a 34th-place result and three lousy points to show for it.
On the bright side for Kyle, he still leads the points standings. Now the downer: His 49-point lead is now just five. Worse yet: There are now more drivers within potential range of the points lead, and that range has narrowed some.
Second Gear: NASCAR Chase gap is now a sliver
A week ago, after the Bank of America 400 at Charlotte, the top seven in the championship standings were separated by 114 points. The smart people (ahem) were saying we probably shouldn’t look beyond the top four, who were separated by 65 points, to consider the next champ.
Well, don’t look now, but that 65-point gap has been cut to 56, and what’s more, it includes seven drivers, not four. New among the true Chasers: Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and, of course, Tyler Reddick, who has moved from 114 back to just 56, though six drivers sit between him and a championship.
#NASCAR out of context pic.twitter.com/sxHgiG9pCq
— Braking Bob (@BrakingBob) October 18, 2026
Let’s give a tip of the officially licensed cap to those two Penske drivers — Blaney and Logano, who did some heavy (and needed) points-lifting at Phoenix. Blaney got 35 for finishing second, plus another 12 for decent stage finishes (fourth and sixth) and one more for the race’s fastest lap.
But it was Logano who took full advantage of those stage points. He won both Stage 1 and 2, before settling for a good-not-great sixth and bankrolled 51 points, second only to Reddick on the day.
Finally, there’s Denny Hamlin, who also got news both bad and good. His own tire problems sacked him with a finish of 28th, but he grabbed 12 stage points before things went south, and while he slipped from second to fourth in the standings, he trimmed his deficit from 49 to 31.
It’s said a lot in sports, but it’s never more true than here: It’s a numbers game. And those numbers are likely to be tossed back into the hopper in a few days.
Third Gear: What will Talladega bring? Big One or calm?
Back in Talladega’s spring race, the Big One struck just past halfway and got all or part of 26 cars. Yep, 26. Most of them continued and, in fact, one of them — the No. 77 of Carson Hocevar — went to Victory Lane.
But of the handful who didn’t turn laps after the big crash, four were perennial Talladega contenders: Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and, guess who, Kyle Larson.
THE (very) BIG ONE. Talladega is currently a parking lot. 👀 https://t.co/rOucy6A4kPpic.twitter.com/uvDIwrLGVl
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 26, 2026
Two years ago this month, Talladega’s Big One claimed 23 participants. But last year, both races there were relatively calm.
So you really never know for sure. But if we’re being honest, we’re actually more surprised when mayhem takes a day off at Talladega.
Fourth Gear: NASCAR fully in Dodge Ball mode
Shortly after we gathered here last week, more news arrived about Dodge. Or at least from those with an ear to the ground.
After re-entering the Truck Series this year, Dodge is more and more strongly rumored to be diving back into the Cup Series ASAP — as in 2027. That’s a highly aggressive timeline, considering all the puzzle pieces that must fall into place.
Dodge is "very close" to finalizing return to NASCAR Cup Series in 2027, sources tell @TheAthletic. https://t.co/nYHZngJys7
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) October 13, 2026
But then again, we don’t know what we don’t know, and they might’ve started working on that puzzle a long time ago. Probably did, in fact.
Anyway, a couple of weeks back, Brad Keselowski didn’t seem all too worried about his Cup Series driving future once he boxes up his things at RFK next month. His Cup championship, in 2012, came at the end of Dodge’s most recent involvement in Cup, which last 12 seasons.
A Kez-Dodge reunion seems more likely than anyone could've imagined a month ago.
Meanwhile, charter arrangements and an engine supplier are tops on the “to do” list, even before they start on cars, which still don’t grow on trees.
Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR goes tumble mode at Phoenix and Talladega says 'hold my beer'