NASCAR at Talladega 2022 Results: Chase Elliott Wins, Advances to Round of 8

Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott won the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on Sunday and earned an automatic berth in the Round of 8 in what was NASCAR's fifth playoff race of the season.

It marks the second time that a playoff driver has won a playoff race this year. Prior to Sunday, Tyler Reddick was the only other playoff driver to win one of the first four races, with Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher winning the other three.

Elliott entered Sunday's race ranked seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings with 3,045 points. Team Penske driver Joey Logano, who entered ranked No. 1 with 3,071 points, finished 27th.

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YellaWood 500 Leaderboard

1. Chase Elliott
2. Ryan Blaney 
3. Michael McDowell
4. Ross Chastain
5. Denny Hamlin
6. Erik Jones
7. Todd Gilliland 
8. Daniel Suárez
9. Austin Cindric
10. Chase Briscoe

Full results available at NASCAR.com.

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NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings

1. Chase Elliott: 3,103 points
2. Ryan Blaney: 3,101 points
3. Ross Chastain: 3,097 points
4. Denny Hamlin: 3,090 points
5. Joey Logano: 3,087 points
6. Kyle Larson: 3,087 points
7. Daniel Suárez: 3,081 points
8. Chase Briscoe: 3,069 points
9. Austin Cindric: 3,069 points
10. William Byron: 3,058 points
11. Christopher Bell: 3,036 points
12. Alex Bowman: 3,015 points

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Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 with a strong push from fourth place to pass Denny Hamlin and secure 10 stage points.

Blaney entered Sunday's race ranked No. 4 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings with 3,056 points.

Elliott earned the Stage 2 victory, passing Kyle Larson on the outside to claim 10 stage points. It was a similar move to the one he made on the final lap to win the race.

The race saw a number of lead changes and just six cautions, but it was Blaney and Elliott dueling for the crown on the final lap.

Blaney was the race leader when the caution flag came out on Lap 181 as Daniel Hemric's car stalled on pit road. When the race restarted on Lap 187, Blaney held the lead until Elliott made a move to the outside of the track for the victory.

"It was a wild last couple laps," Elliott told NBC after the race (h/t Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports). "I wasn't super crazy about being on the bottom and fortunately got just clear enough off of two and was able to slide up in front of Erik."

Had Blaney won, it would have been his first victory of the season.

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs will move to Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course next weekend for the Bank of America Roval 400.