In what turned out to be one of the most pivotal moments of the race, a seemingly minor incident deep in the field reshaped the entire complexion of the final laps. The closing stages were already tense, but a yellow flag triggered by Kyle Larson’s spin set off a domino effect that opened the door for Denny Hamlin to surge to victory — and left Ryan Blaney wondering what could have been.
To truly understand how it all unfolded, we need to rewind to the lap just before the caution. Ryan Blaney and Tyler Reddick were locked in a tight battle for position just behind the race leaders. With the laps winding down and every spot mattering, Blaney made a bold move to get by Reddick. Using every inch of the racetrack, Blaney forced his way underneath Reddick and completed the pass exiting Turn 2. However, the aggressive maneuver unsettled Reddick’s car. As a result, Reddick drifted high and slammed the outside wall at the exit of the corner — a hard hit that would inadvertently lead to the chaos that followed.
Just a few seconds later, Kyle Larson, who was over 160 laps down and simply logging laps after earlier issues, came upon the scene. He had just overtaken Bubba Wallace, who was still a lap down, and was approaching the site where Reddick had pancaked the wall. Larson clearly saw the No. 45 Toyota make contact with the barrier and, in a split-second reaction, decided to slow down to avoid potential debris or further danger.
Unfortunately, Wallace — tucked right behind Larson and with a limited field of vision due to the tight configuration of Turn 2 and Larson’s No. 5 car obstructing his view — didn’t have time to react. With Larson slowing abruptly and Wallace accelerating through the turn, there was little time to avoid contact. The result was Wallace’s car tagging the rear of Larson, sending the Hendrick Motorsports driver spinning hard into the inside wall.
While the initial contact might not have seemed major in real-time, in-car cameras and replays painted a clearer picture of how this split-second incident had enormous implications for the race. The spin brought out a late-race caution just before the leaders were set to take the white flag. That set the stage for pit stops and an overtime restart — a situation that dramatically altered the competitive landscape.
Denny Hamlin, who had been running third at the time, capitalized on the caution to gain track position through pit strategy and the ensuing restart chaos. When the green flag dropped again, Hamlin executed a perfect jump, seizing the lead and never looking back. Meanwhile, Blaney, who had done everything right up until then, was shuffled back to fifth in the two-lap sprint to the finish.
What made this caution so impactful wasn’t just the spin itself — it was how it came to be. From Blaney’s aggressive pass, to Reddick’s brush with the wall, to Larson’s split-second decision to slow down, and Wallace’s unavoidable contact — it was a series of actions that, individually, might not have mattered, but together created a ripple effect that shook up the entire race.
As the dust settles, fans and analysts alike will debate the what-ifs and could-have-beens. But one thing is clear: racing is unpredictable, and sometimes, the most decisive moments don’t happen at the front — they unfold in the shadows, where every driver is fighting for inches and doing their best to stay out of trouble. In this case, trouble found them, and the race was never the same.