Austin Cindric utilized a late pit strategy call to reign supreme amid the draft and beat Ryan Preece in a photo finish to win the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, April 27.
The 2022 Daytona 500 champion from Mooresville, North Carolina, led five times for seven of 188 scheduled laps. He started in seventh place and endured an intensity-packed event that involved drafting, shoving and battling with his fellow competitors and Ford teammates to race towards the front amid the draft.
After racking up seven stage points after the second stage period and keeping his No. 2 Team Penske Ford entry intact through two early multi-car wrecks, Cindric’s pivotal move of the event occurred during a cycle of green flag pit stops under the final 20 laps as he received a short, but fast pit service that enabled him to exit pit road first ahead of a group of competitors that he pitted with.
Following the completion of the pit stops, Cindric cycled into the lead with 16 laps remaining. Despite being challenged by William Byron, Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece for the remainder of the event, He persevered. He capitalized on a shove by Larson to edge Preece at the finish line by 0.022 seconds. This led to him scoring his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2025 season and his first at Talladega.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, April 26, Zane Smith sped to his first Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 182.174 mph in 52.565 seconds. Joining Smith on the front row was Kyle Busch, the latter of whom clocked in his best qualifying lap at 181.718 mph in 52.697 seconds.
Prior to the event, JJ Yeley dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to his No. 44 NY Racing Chevrolet entry.
Green Flag
When the green flag waved and the race started, pole-sitter Zane Smith muscled ahead of Kyle Busch from the inside lane and he quickly darted his No. 38 TitleMax Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to the right to keep a hard-charging Joey Logano drafting him through the first two turns. Smith would lead a small pack of cars that included Logano, Busch and Ryan Preece through Turns 3 and 4 as the field fanned out through Turns 3 and 4. With the field still fanned out through the frontstretch, Smith proceeded to lead the first lap.
Shortly after, Logano, who was drafting Smith, darted his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to the right to move in front of a strong drafting lane led by Josh Berry. This enabled Logano to muscle ahead through the first two turns and the backstretch while Smith tried to fight back from the middle lane. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon led a draft from the inside lane that included Austin Cindric. With Logano, Smith and Dillon all dueling in front of three tight-packed lanes, Smith led the second lap over Dillon.
Just shy of the first five-scheduled laps, the field fanned out to four tight-packed lanes and a series of shuffles in the lead pack ensued as Michael McDowell made his way to the front in between Berry, Logano and Austin Dillon while Zane Smith was shuffled from the lead pack and ended up drafting up behind Logano. McDowell, who was being drafted by Brad Keselowski, would then try to move in front of Berry to pick up the latter’s momentum as both he and Logano dueled for the lead. Logano, however, would receive a draft from Smith to muscle ahead and lead the fifth lap before McDowell and Berry each swapped the lead through the 10th lap.
Through the first 15-scheduled laps, all 39 starters, all of whom continued to battle in four tight-packed lanes, were racing within one second of one another as Ryan Preece was scored the leader over McDowell, Berry, Chris Buescher, Zane Smith, Cole Custer, Logano, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Brad Keselowski, respectively. Behind, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Justin Haley, rookie Riley Herbst and Alex Bowman occupied the top-20 spots while Austin Cindric, Anthony Alfredo, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Elliott, Todd Gilliland, Ty Dillon and Erik Jones rounded out the top-30 spots ahead of Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, BJ McLeod, Noah Gragson, Ty Gibbs, JJ Yeley, Cody Ware, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger, respectively.
Ten laps later, Kyle Busch, who made his way to the front three laps earlier, was leading over Smith, McDowell, Berry, Preece, Logano, Buescher, Stenhouse, Cindric and Austin Dillon, respectively. By then, the 39-car field raced within one-and-a-half seconds of one another. Another lap later, however, Briscoe was drafted to the front amid his side-by-side battle with McDowell. Briscoe would then muscle ahead of McDowell and the field as he had his Toyota teammates Bell, Hamlin, Wallace, Herbst and Reddick all lined up behind him. With the six Toyota competitors transitioning from the outside to the inside lane, they would proceed to lead at the Lap 30 mark.
At the Lap 35 mark, the top-six Toyota competitors were ahead of the rest of the field by nine-tenths of a second as Briscoe led both the group and the overall event over Bell, Hamlin, Wallace, Herbst and Reddick, respectively. By then, a majority of the field were filed in line behind the Toyota competitors towards the inside lane as Preece, Logano, Custer and McDowell trailed in the top 10, respectively. With the separation between the 39-car field being recorded by more than three seconds and less than two seconds of the top 28, Briscoe continued to lead by Lap 40.
Then prior to Lap 41, a total of 14 competitors, including the six Toyota competitors led by Briscoe, peeled off the track to pit for fuel. Amid the pit stops, Briscoe stalled his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE entry while trying to exit his pit stall, which resulted with him exiting at the rear of the group. With the field being scattered amid the pit stops, Custer inherited the lead.
Cautions
On Lap 43, trouble ensued entering the frontstretch when Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski made contact as they were approaching a checkup of competitors led by Custer that were preparing to pit under green. The contact between Busch and Keselowski resulted in both going back across the track and hitting the left side of Bowman’s No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry before Keselowski swerved back down the track and clipped Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry, which damaged Blaney’s right-rear suspension and took him along with Keselowski out from further contention. By then, Logano, who was among many who opted to remain on the track, inherited the lead as he was followed by Elliott, Cindric, Larson and Smith, respectively, while Buescher, Austin Dillon, Preece, Cody Ware, Custer and McLeod pitted.
During the caution period, some led by Logano, including those who had not yet pitted, pitted, primarily for fuel, while the rest led by Daniel Suarez remained on the track. Suarez would then pit during the following lap, which cycled Chris Buescher into the lead.
The start of the following restart on Lap 51 only last two turns after Hamlin, who was drafting teammate Bell from the outside lane, gave Bell a misaligned push entering the backstretch that resulted with the latter getting sideways and coming across the front of Buescher as both spun to the bottom of the track. In the ensuing chaos, Bell hit the inside wall head-on while Buescher hit the wall at driver’s left side. Amid the contact, where both Bell and Buescher emerged uninjured but were knocked out from further contention, Hamlin cycled into the lead while Preece, Wallace, Cody Ware and Herbst were scored in the top five, respectively.
During the second caution period, a trio of competitors that included Briscoe, Gragson and Todd Gilliland pitted while the rest led by Hamlin remained on the track.
When the event restarted under green on Lap 56, Hamlin and Wallace dueled in front of two-stacked lanes through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Wallace being drafted by Ware, Hamlin gained the advantage from the outside lane led by Preece as he led the following lap. Herbst and Custer would follow suit behind Hamlin and Preece while Elliott was shoved out of the draft. Meanwhile, Wallace continued to lead the inside lane as Hamlin led the next lap.
With two laps remaining in the first stage period, the field fanned out to three-stacked lanes as Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pinned Hamlin in the middle. Wallace would rocket ahead to lead Lap 59, but he received no additional drafting help and not block Larson in time as the latter made his way into the lead.
As a bevy of competitors jostled for spots amid the draft while fanning out to multiple lanes, Larson, who maintained his ground from the outside lane, would fend off the field to claim his fifth Cup stage victory of the 2025 season and his first at Talladega. Teammate William Byron made his way into second place while Stenhouse, Elliott, Wallace, Hamlin, AJ Allmendinger, Ware, Herbst and Ty Dillon were scored in the top 10, respectively.
At the time of the first stage’s conclusion, the event featured 22 lead changes while 13 different competitors led at least one lap.
Under the stage break, nearly the entire field led by Larson returned to pit road for service while the rest that included Carson Hocevar, JJ Yeley, Kyle Busch, Anthony Alfredo and BJ McLeod remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first and he was followed by Byron, John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Dillon, Suarez, Chastain, Cindric, Gilliland, Bowman and Logano, respectively. Soon after, more names that included Yeley, Justin Haley, Allmendinger, Larson, Stenhouse, Herbst, McDowell and Hocevar pitted, with the latter taking the opportunity to change his helmet.
The second stage period started on Lap 66 as Alfredo and Byron occupied the front row. At the start, Alfredo, who did not pit during the first stage break period, muscled his No. 62 Fortify Building Solutions Chevrolet entry ahead from the inside lane before Byron used the outside lane to muscle his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet entry back ahead through the backstretch. As the field fanned out entering the frontstretch, Alfredo went on defensive mode, but Byron used a push from Nemechek to lead the following lap. Amid the three-wide action, Chastain led the outside lane that while being pushed by Logano, Alfredo led the inside lane as he had Suarez pushing him and Byron led the middle lane as he was being pushed by Nemechek.
On Lap 70, the field continued to race in three-wide formation as Alfredo, who reassumed the lead from Byron, led over Chastain, Byron, Suarez, Nemechek, Logano, Cindric, Austin Dillon, Berry and Bowman, respectively. Alfredo would then lose the lead to Chastain on Lap 73 as Chastain received a push from Logano from the outside lane to get the lead. Nemechek, who had been challenging Alfredo for the lead earlier, would then be drafted to the lead by on Lap 75 as the field started to fan out to four-stacked lanes.
Through Lap 80, Chastain and Alfredo dueled and swapped the lead as the former managed to lead the previous four laps. By then, Alfredo, Berry, Suarez, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, Logano, Cindric and Byron followed suit in the top 10 while Ty Gibbs, Nemechek, Erik Jones, Bowman, Herbst, Gilliland, Wallace, Gragson, Briscoe and Larson trailed in the top 20, respectively.
At the halfway mark on Lap 94, the remaining 34 competitors racing on the track were separated by two seconds of one another as Chastain was scored the leader over Berry, Alfredo, Gragson, Logano, Elliott, Preece, van Gisbergen, Ware and Ty Gibbs, respectively. By then, Alfredo, Chastain and Suarez led at least a lap for themselves from Lap 81 to 94 as the field was stacked in three-tight drafted lanes.
Then on Lap 99, Kyle Busch peeled off the track to make an unscheduled pit stop under green to address a flat left-front tire to his No. 8 Nicokick Chevrolet entry. Another lap later, Alfredo, who was battling for the lead amid the draft, pitted under green for fuel, which resulted with Chastain and Gragson battling for the lead in front of three-stacked lanes. Logano, who initially drafted Gragson, would then dart to the right through the frontstretch and lead Lap 101.
Then on Lap 108 and with Logano having led since Lap 101, a handful of competitors, primarily Chevrolet competitors that included Elliott, Larson, Bowman, Byron, van Gisbergen and Chastain, including Ford competitor Cody Ware pitted. By then, Austin Dillon pitted by himself a lap earlier while van Gisbergen, who missed his pit stall, was penalized for speeding while entering pit road. Elliott would also be penalized for speeding while exiting pit road as Logano continued to lead by Lap 110.
Then on Lap 111, a host of competitors led by Logano and including Preece, Gragson, Suarez, Berry, Custer and Cindric pitted, with Suarez being penalized for entering pit road too fast. Another wave of competitors led by 23XI Racing’s Wallace, Herbst and Reddick pitted on Lap 112 while select names that included McDowell and Hamlin remained on the track. During the pit stops, Nemechek spun while exiting pit road, but he managed to keep his No. 42 Jack Link’s Toyota Camry XSE entry below the apron and continue without drawing a caution.
Once McDowell and Hamlin pitted their respective entries on Lap 113, Hocevar cycled into the lead as he was pursued by Wallace, Reddick, Gilliland, Logano and a bevy of competitors. Logano would then get drafted into the lead on Lap 115 as Wallace, Hocevar, Cindric, Reddick, Berry and a host of competitors trailed behind in the draft. As Logano proceeded to lead by Lap 118, a host of Toyota competitors that included Hamlin, Briscoe, Herbst and Ty Gibbs made strategic pit stops under green.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 120, Wallace, who had been trailing Logano, received a draft from Cindric from the outside lane from the backstretch to muscle ahead and fend off the field to capture his second Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Logano, who was left fuming at teammate Cindric for drafting Toyota competitor Wallace to the stage victory, followed suit in second ahead of Larson, Cindric and Hocevar while Preece, Reddick, Gilliland, Berry and Zane Smith were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, the event featured 48 lead changes for 19 different leaders.
During the stage break, Byron pitted while pit road was closed to have a steering issue addressed. Once pit road became accessible to the field, nearly the entire field led by Wallace pitted for service while the rest led by Yeley and including Elliott and Alfredo remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Briscoe exited pit road first and he was followed by Herbst, Ty Gibbs, Hamlin, Larson, Wallace, Logano, Reddick, Zane Smith and Cindric, respectively. Yeley and Alfredo would then pit during the following lap and Elliott would pit the next lap after, which allowed Briscoe to cycle into the lead. By then, even more names that included Haley, Allmendinger, Chastain, McDowell, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Hocevar, Byron, Yeley and Kyle Busch pitted their respective entries to top off on fuel.
With 62 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as teammates Briscoe and Ty Gibbs occupied the front row. At the start, Briscoe managed to fend off the field for a full lap to lead the following lap. With Toyota teammates Gibbs, Herbst and Hamlin following suit, Logano would aggressively charge his way to the front as Gibbs led with 60 laps remaining. By then, six Toyota competitors led by the leader Gibbs were racing in the top-10 mark and Logano was the lead Ford competitor in the top-three mark while Larson was the highest-running Chevrolet competitor towards the top-five mark.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Gibbs, who dueled with teammate Briscoe earlier and led nine of the previous 10 laps, was leading ahead of Hamlin, Herbst, Gilliland and Wallace while Logano, Briscoe, Zane Smith, Larson and Stenhouse trailed in the top 10, respectively. By then, 31 of 34 competitors remaining on the track were separated by more than one second while the field had fanned out to two-stacked lanes.
Ten laps later, the five-car Toyota breakaway, which returned into single-line formation earlier, continued as Gibbs retained the lead in his No. 54 SAIA LTL Freight Toyota Camry XSE entry over Hamlin, Herbst, Wallace and Briscoe. With the top-24 competitors racing within more than one second of another and the top eight separated by less than a second, Gilliland, Gragson, Ware, Logano and Kyle Busch occupied the top-10 spots.
Another 10 laps later, Gibbs, who has led the previous 28 laps, continued to lead ahead of Hamlin, Herbst, Logano and Wallace while Gilliland, Briscoe, Stenhouse, Custer and Gilliland pursued in the top 10 amid the draft and the field that continued to race in two-wide formation. Shortly after, a majority of the field would migrate to a long single-file line behind the leader Gibbs while Logano, who was racing just outside of the top-five mark, led a group racing on the outside lane. Logano would then receive a strong push from Zane Smith to assume the lead from Gibbs through the backstretch with 27 laps remaining. Logano would proceed to lead the next lap as Smith proceeded to draw alongside Logano and challenge for the lead.
Then with 25 laps remaining, all of the Toyota competitors that included Gibbs, Hamlin, Herbst, Wallace, Briscoe, Reddick, Erik Jones and Nemechek, along with Chevrolet competitors Alfredo, Hocevar, McDowell and Haley peeled off the track to pit for fuel. As a result, the rest of the field led by Logano remained on the track. With Hocevar managing to exit pit road ahead of his Spire Motorsports’ teammates and the Toyota competitors, Logano would then be overtaken by Berry and Ty Dillon as Berry led with 20 laps remaining.
During the final 18-lap stretch, a wave of competitors that included Ty Dillon, Preece, Logano, Zane Smith, Gragson, Custer, Allmendinger, Gilliland, Chastain and Cody Ware pitted before another wave led by the leader Berry and including Kyle Busch, Cindric, Byron, Bowman, Larson, Elliott, Suarez, Stenhouse and Austin Dillon pitted with 17 laps remaining.
At the conclusion of the pit stops and with the field scrambling and jostling amongst one another for late spots to the front, Cindric, whose No. 2 Menards/Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse team registered the fastest service, cycled into the lead as he had Hendrick Motorsports’ four competitors that included Byron, Larson, Bowman and Elliott following suit with 16 laps remaining. Soon after, Berry and Kyle Busch were both penalized with pass-through penalties for speeding on pit road while Hamlin nearly avoided making contact with Chastain while approaching him at a faster pace within the draft. This resulted with the Toyota competitors losing ground of a bevy of competitors that cycled to the front amid the pit stops and mired within the top-20 mark.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Byron, who was dueling with Cindric for the lead in front of two-stacked lanes, was leading, with Byron having teammate Bowman drafting him while Cindric was being drafted by Larson. Meanwhile, Preece, Gilliland, Logano, Hocevar and Ty Dillon were racing in the top 10 while Stenhouse, Elliott, Austin Dillon, Suarez, Chastain, Custer, McDowell, Erik Jones, Briscoe and Gilliland trailed in the top 20, respectively.
Five laps later, Preece, who muscled his No. 60 Celsius Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to the front, challenged Cindric for the lead in front of Larson, Byron, Logano, Bowman and a bevy of competitors. By then, Preece, who was racing on the outside lane, had Byron behind him while Cindric, who was racing on the inside lane, had drafting help from Larson on the inside lane, as both Cindric and Preece dueled for the lead in front of two-stacked lanes over the next three laps.
Final Lap
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Preece was leading by a narrow margin over Cindric as the field started to fan out to three lanes and the intensity of the bump-drafting increased. As the field navigated through the first two turns, Cindric and Preece would remain dead even against one another through the backstretch as both had Larson and Byron, respectively, tucked in behind both. Then as the field fanned out while the leaders started to gain ground on lapping both Berry and Kyle Busch, Cindric, who was being pushed by Larson, managed to muscle ahead as he also started to gain slight ground on both Busch and Berry. At the finish line, Cindric edged Preece by 0.022 seconds to claim the victory in dramatic fashion.
With the victory, Cindric, who became the sixth different winner through the first 10-scheduled Cup Series events in 2025, became the 10th different competitor to win at Talladega over the track’s previous 10 Cup events. He also recorded his third career win in NASCAR’s premier series and his first since he won at World Wide Technology Raceway in June 2023.
Cindric’s spring Talladega victory was also the second of the 2025 campaign for the Ford nameplate and the first for Team Penske.
“I’m just so proud of this team, from the cycles to the fast cars to the fuel-only stops, Doug [Campbell], my spotter, everybody,” Cindric said on the frontstretch on FOX. “I’ve been trying for, probably, three or four years now to get a Cup win for John Menard and Menards. That bright yellow [No. 2] car looks great upfront. I’m just so thankful for everyone’s support. The Ford Performance, Roush Yates Engines package at these types of racetracks are second to none. We talk about it in every single one of those meetings why we haven’t won one of these races. Just really proud of the effort. Very thankful for Discount Tire, Snap-On, AutoTrader, [owner] Roger Penske, everybody that makes this possible for me.”
“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Cindric added. “I give a lot of credit to [Kyle Larson]. Kyle did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval. As mad as I was at him after Atlanta [in February], I feel like we’re good now. That was great. To have a photo finish at Talladega, to be able to do it, get in the Playoffs in front of this amazing crowd on a beautiful day in Alabama.”
Meanwhile, Preece settled in a career-best runner-up result in his 197th Cup Series career start and his 10th of the year driving the No. 60 Ford entry for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing. The runner-up result, however, left Preece disappointed as he came 0.022 seconds shy of winning for the first time in the Cup division.
“I’m happy, but as a racer, you want to win, right?” Preece said. “I felt like coming through the tri-oval, I’m like, ‘Alright, we’re all sticking together.’ Nobody was really leaving me. I wish I didn’t have to shade up so much and side-draft Austin to pull him back. I felt like this was the most aggressive I’ve raced on a superspeedway and really pushing the issues because you got to figure out who’s gonna have that fast car and obviously, it was all Fords today. The right hole’s opened at the right times, but ultimately, [0.022 seconds] short.”
Following the post-race inspection process, however, Preece was disqualified from his runner-up result due to three shims instead of two that were discovered on his entry’s spoiler. Fifth-place Joey Logano would also be disqualified due to his entry missing a spoiler bolt. As a result of the disqualifications, Preece and Logano were demoted to 38th and 39th, respectively, in the final running order.
Teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron were promoted up to second and third, respectively, while Noah Gragson and Chase Elliott were awarded top-five spots in fourth and fifth.
Carson Hocevar, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, the following names that included Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Erik Jones, pole-sitter Zane Smith, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, rookie Riley Herbst, AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Kyle Busch, Anthony Alfredo rookie Shane van Gisbergen and John Hunter Nemechek finished 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th, respectively.
There were 67 lead changes for 23 different leaders. The race featured four cautions for 22 laps. In addition, 30 of 39 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 10th event of the 2025 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 31 points over teammate Kyle Larson, 52 over Denny Hamlin, 72 over teammate Chase Elliott and 82 over Christopher Bell.
Results:
1. Austin Cindric, seven laps led
2. Ryan Preece, six laps led
3. Kyle Larson, three laps led, Stage 1 winner
4. William Byron, 10 laps led
5. Joey Logano, 24 laps led
6. Noah Gragson
7. Chase Elliott, one lap led
8. Carson Hocevar, three laps led
9. Alex Bowman
10. Bubba Wallace, five laps led Stage 2 winner
11. Daniel Suarez, two laps led
12. Austin Dillon
13. Michael McDowell, 10 laps led
14. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
15. Cole Custer, two laps led
16. Tyler Reddick
17. Chase Briscoe, 20 laps led
18. Todd Gilliland
19. Ty Gibbs, 32 laps led
20. Erik Jones
21. Zane Smith, five laps led
22. Ross Chastain, 11 laps led
23. Denny Hamlin, seven laps led
24. Riley Herbst
25. Ty Dillon, one lap led
26. AJ Allmendinger
27. Justin Haley
28. Josh Berry, 12 laps led
29. Kyle Busch, three laps led
30. Anthony Alfredo, 19 laps led
31. Shane van Gisbergen, one lap down
32. John Hunter Nemechek, one lap down, one lap led
33. Cody Ware, two laps down
34. JJ Yeley, two laps down, two laps led
35. BJ McLeod – OUT, Overheating
36. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident, two laps led
37. Christopher Bell – OUT, Accident
38. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident
39. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Würth 400 next Sunday, May 4, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
