Takeaways at Talladega: Kyle Busch steals thrilling NASCAR Cup Series win

A gamble on fuel paying off.

A wreck from the lead missing him by the closest of margins.

And some general late-race “luck.”

Those three things — with a bunch of strategy and guts mixed in the previous 500-plus miles — ultimately delivered all-time great Kyle Busch his second win of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.

“Sometimes you gotta be lucky,” Busch told the Fox broadcast. “So many of these races come down to that, and you gotta take them when they come your way.”

Sunday marked only the second win at Talladega that Busch has captured in his career. It also marked the 13th win for Richard Childress Racing at the racetrack.

Ryan Blaney finished second. Chris Buescher finished third, and Chase Briscoe ended up fourth.

There wasn’t nearly as much damage Sunday as there was during the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, but there was substantial carnage nonetheless. The most consequential wreck — The Big One, so to speak — came on the race’s last lap.

After finding himself in the top 5 before a double-overtime restart, Busch took the inside line and bullied his way forward. He was passed for the lead with one lap to go (white flag) by Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney on the outside — but then Wallace, trying to block Blaney as the No. 12 car made moves for the win, got loose and spun out.

The No. 23 car then collected cars through the field.

But one of the drivers who avoided Wallace’s wreck? Busch.

And the No. 8 car ended up being in the lead when the caution came out — solidifying his trip down Victory Lane.

“The seas kind of parted there when they went up the racetrack,” Busch said. “(Wallace and Blaney) were trying to push draft, and these cars are just not stable enough to do that. I saw the 23 just turn a little bit sideways, and I was like, ‘Just get out of the way, just miss it, and try to see if I was ahead of the 12 by the time it was called.’”

Busch added that his win at Fontana earlier this year was top of mind down the stretch on Sunday. It’s what told him to stay on track while his crew chief told him he didn’t have enough fuel to finish the race.

“We were sweating (fuel) being close, but I thought back to California, at Fontana, earlier this year where we have a win,” Busch said. “I was like, ‘We gotta gamble. We’re up here, you gotta take the track position when you have it and go get what you can at the restart and see what happens.’ And lo and behold, it worked out.”

Other notable performances at Talladega

Chase Elliott: The driver of the No. 9 car was so close to making some interesting history on Sunday. Elliott finished second in Stage 2 after winning Stage 1 — one spot short of becoming the first driver in the Cup Series to sweep the first two stages at Talladega. (Aric Almirola stole it from him right on the final lap for the green-white checkered.) Elliott saw a great run punctuated by a P12 finish.

Bubba Wallace: With his boss (Michael Jordan) in the pit box, the driver of the No. 23 car put together a complete race. He ran in the top 5 virtually all day. His coolest move? Wallace created a third lane late in Stage 2, and enough people followed him to launch him to the front. Moves like that showed that Wallace was primed for a good day. The driver was in it until the end, too — until a block-turned-awry caused him to spin from the lead and prompt the race-deciding caution after the white flag had already flown. That ultimately gave Busch the trip to Victory Lane. Wallace ultimately finished 28th on Sunday.

Joey Logano: The two-time Cup Series champion made one of the riskiest moves of the day at the end of Stage 2. And it worked. Logano was about to get lapped and elected to stay in the middle lane when the field caught him — and that kept him as the leader of the non-lead-lap cars. All of that to say: That move essentially delivered him the free pass ahead of Stage 3 and gave one of the best superspeedway drivers in the sport a chance to contend in the end. (It ultimately didn’t work — a wreck with five laps left sealed Logano’s 30th-place fate on Sunday — but that middle-lane move was undeniably cool.)

Michael McDowell: One of the best superspeedway drivers on the circuit got in a single-car spin two laps in. That was the beginning of a tough day for the No. 34 car. McDowell ran a few laps down for most of the race. He wasn’t the only one with early-race cautions: Chase Briscoe (who finished third) and Tyler Reddick (who finished 13th) each had issues entering pit road in Stage 1.

Find unofficial results from Sunday’s race at NASCAR.com.