Cindric's last-lap pass nets wild Talladega win over Preece

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emailBy Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service | April 27, 2025 8:08 PM ET

Austin Cindric’s dramatic last-lap pass provided exactly the sort of Talladega Superspeedway thrill that NASCAR fans have come to expect at the sport’s biggest track, earning the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Cindric – and Team Penske – their first trophy of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford pulled ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Preece’s No. 60 Ford by the length of a front hood to claim a 0.022s victory in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 – the two Ford Mustangs exchanged the lead five times in the final six laps and ultimately finished side-by-side.


However, the Fords driven by Preece and the fifth-place finisher, Cindric’s Penske teammate Joey Logano, were subsequently disqualified following post-race inspection for technical violations. NASCAR officials found an illegal spoiler on Preece’s Mustang and a spoiler violation on Logano’s No. 22 Mustang that also violated Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules.

The disqualifications moved Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron into second and third place in the race’s final standings.

“I’m just so proud of this team from the [pit] cycles to the fast cars to the fuel-only stops,’’ said the 26-year old Cindric, whose team – with 17 laps remaining – turned in the fastest final pit stop putting him back out front and able to contend for the win in a race that featured 67 lead changes among 23 drivers.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,’’ Cindric said of holding off the Hendrick teammates for the checkered flag. “I give a lot of credit, Kyle [Larson] did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval and as mad as I was at him after Atlanta [race], I feel like we’re good now. That was great and having a photo-finish at Talladega and get in the Playoffs in front of this amazing crowd, beautiful day in Alabama.’’

The Hendrick teammates Larson and Byron acknowledged lapped traffic in front of the lead pack, looming just beyond the finish line, certainly created an extra consideration. Yet the runner-up showing for Larson, who won Stage 1 and led three laps on the day, was a career best effort at Talladega. It was a major move forward for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion drafting tracks such as Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta – all venues where the 31-race winner has yet to earn a trophy.

“I wanted to take it, but just felt like the gap was too big,’’ said Larson, who ran directly behind Cindric in the closing laps, adding. “I was just second row inside and just going to do everything I could to try and advance our lane and maybe open it up so maybe then I could get to the outside, but we were all pushing so equally that it kept the lanes kind of jammed up.

“I needed something else to kinda happen, maybe them to get blocking each other or something, but still a great day. A stage win, P3 in the second stage and P3 in the final, so great points day and best career finish on a superspeedway so happy with the performance in the Hendricks.com Chevy.”

Cindric is the 10th different winner in the last 10 Talladega races – a record streak at the iconic 2.66-mile high-banked track. Yet Sunday’s race was relatively calm compared to some previous editions at the high-action drafting track. It marked the fourth time a Tallladega race had only four caution flags – two of which were scheduled stage caution breaks.

With the two disqualifications, Front Row Motorsports’ Noah Gragson and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott round out the top five.

Chevrolet drivers, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Hendrick’s Alex Bowman finished sixth and seventh with former Talladega winner, and Sunday’s Stage 2 winner Bubba Wallace eighth in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suárez and Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon completed the updated top-10.

Although their teammates ran well and earned stage points, it was a frustrating afternoon for Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Brad Keselowski.

The two former champions and past multi-time Talladega winners were collected in an accident on lap 43 during a pit stop cycle before the first Stage break. Keselowski and Chevy’s Kyle Busch collided on track as Keselowski was moving to pit road for a stop – their contact collected Blaney spinning him out as well.

The owner-driver of the No. 6 Ford, Keselowski, who was already mired in a disappointing early season, finished 36th and is now ranked 32nd in the championship standings.

“It was just a stack of guys trying to come to pit road as fast as they could and we were kind of the ham in the sandwich that got squeezed.’’ said Keselowski, who leads all active drivers with six Talladega wins. “I waved down the backstretch to let everybody know I was gonna pit and I came off of four and everybody was so tight behind me that I got butt banged by those mothers and didn’t even have a chance to turn left. I hate that it ruined not just our day, but several other people’s day. I don’t think I could do anything different....... except put 'em the weeds next time, .those dirty bastards. except that i'm not allowed to call those mother F'ers” dirty bastards.

Blaney, who drives the No. 12 Team Penske Ford was scored as 37th – ahead of the two disqualified drivers. It marked his fourth DNF in the 10-race season, but the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion has led 198 laps on the season and is still ranked eighth in the standings.

“Another DNF — it just sucks,’’ Blaney said. Just when we were kind of getting our momentum and didn’t even get to race today. We’ll just move on to Texas.”

With his third-place finish, Byron continues to lead the championship standings, now 31 points ahead of his teammate Larson. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had been second in points going into Talladega is now ranked third, 52 points behind Byron.

The NASCAR Cup Series now heads West to Texas Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s Wurth 400 presented by Liqui Moly (3:30pm ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Elliott is the defending race winner.

 

Larson and Byron left as mere pushers to the Talladega line....

How did the 22 get on the other side of the track at the last second?

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | April 27, 2025 8:19 PM ET

Kyle Larson and William Byron played the role of best supporting actors in the finish of Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The two made up the second row behind Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece. Larson was the pusher for Cindric as Byron was the pusher for Preece. All they could do was push and hope for the best because both understood there was nowhere for them to go because of the package underneath them.

“There wasn’t really much I could do in the final five laps,” Larson said after finishing third. “I wanted to go to the outside lane when we got clear of William, but I felt like the gap was too big to move up and [Preece] was able to fill it. I was still happy to be second row on the inside lane, obviously [would have been happier] to be front row, but I just didn’t know how it was going to play out from there.

“At the end, you’re just trying to give the right pushes to get clear, and then maybe he starts blocking lanes, and something would open up for me. I was just kind of jammed up there.”

Cindric and Preece crossed the finish line side-by-side, and Cindric prevailed by 0.022s. Larson, Byron and the pack were close behind.

Byron was credited with fourth.

“We had [Alex Bowman] behind us, and he was doing a good job pushing,” Byron said. “It just seemed like we couldn’t get enough help from the third guy in line, and that’s what it takes. For whatever reason, the top lane just couldn’t get the runs off the corner at the right time to get connected. We’d get connected too late and then get a little bit squirrely and lose our momentum.

“I wish just that one time we could have connected a little better to stay even with the bottom lane, but we were working really hard to do that with [Cindric]. It just seemed like it took a lot of effort for us to maintain the track position on the front row. Live and learn.”

Sunday was a career-best finish for Larson at Talladega Superspeedway and his second consecutive top-five finish at the facility. He also won the first stage.

“I will take a third-place finish,” Larson said. “We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage, from where we were on the final restart, was also unexpected. Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy.”

Byron rebounded from a steering issue with his Chevrolet, with the team under the hood after the second stage working on it. Byron remains the Cup Series point leader.

“The No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a good job today,” he said. “We had some issues and had to work on it. We got it better and then we were able to race there in the final stage, so really happy with that. We always want a little bit more. I feel like we were in the perfect position there with 10 laps to go.”

 

'We tried ... it just didn't work out' Hamlin laments at Talladega

Meg Oliphant/Getty Images Now that i shaved my head, do i look like John Travolta?
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emailBy Kelly Crandall | April 27, 2025 8:45 PM ET

There’s no telling where Denny Hamlin could have cycled out Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, but he would have liked to have found out had it not been for Ross Chastain.

Going into the final pit cycle, Hamlin was second behind Toyota teammate Ty Gibbs, with more Toyota teammates behind him. The group was the first to hit pit road under green flag conditions, doing so with 25 laps to go. Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell and Justin Haley also pitted with the group.

Hocevar ended up the first one off pit road with Hamlin behind him. It then became a race to slice through slower traffic as the cycle continued, and things were going well until they ran upon Chastain.

In Turn 3, Hocevar was able to squeeze between Chastain and Cody Ware. Hamlin, however, had nowhere to go. The move completely halted the momentum Hamlin and his group had, ending their chances to catch the Ford and Chevrolet drivers ahead of them to blend in and fight for the win.

Hamlin finished 23rd, one spot behind Chastain. Riley Herbst, in a Toyota, finished 24th. The highest finishing Toyota was Bubba Wallace, who made it to 10th place. Tyler Reddick finished 16th, Chase Briscoe was 17th, and Ty Gibbs was 19th, while Erik Jones was 20th in the final running order.

“I didn’t know how far up we were actually going to be able to get, but certainly [Chastain] making a move there to kind of wreck us was not ideal,” Hamlin said. “He’s trying to do everything he can to stop the run. The variance of speed there was crazy.

“Man, we tried. The Toyota group tried to give the fans a show at least. We were the only ones willing to just race this thing out, run wide open, and see what happens, and tried to make a show of it. At the end there, it seems like we didn’t do a good enough job on the cycling — everything worked out fine, but whether it be the pace that we had after we came out, the cycle itself, the amount of fuel we had to put in, whatever it was, we’re about a second off from being at the front. Ultimately, it just didn’t work out.”

Once stuck in the pack, the field becomes gridlocked. The package in the Cup Series in recent years does not allow for many runs to develop or for a driver to pick their way through the field easily — something that Hamlin once excelled at in the Cup Series for multiple victories at Daytona and Talladega.

Hamlin knew his race was over when the momentum was taken away. Hocevar made it the highest in the finishing order of the group that pitted together by finishing eighth.

“There is nowhere you can go,” Hamlin said. “Once you work yourself out of the pit cycle and you’re behind the two-by-two, there is nowhere to go.

There’s nowhere to race except to shove that slowpoke sideways and wreck the rest of the guys behind that punk........and then get my butt beat afterwards..”

Hocevar made an aggressive style work for him. Hamlin had a front row seat and was trying to go along for the ride.

“It was hard to see, but I was just committed to his back bumper and trying to make the best lap time I could for our group, and he was a part of our group at that time,” Hamlin said. “My job was just try to go with him with every run he had, but the runs just got stopped by some blocks. That was it.”